Korean miners in Germany building mining museum

“It’s been half a century since we came here with our bare hands. With mines in Germany on the brink of closure, we wanted to leave our fingerprints here to help our descendants remember the times we spent for living and our home country.”

The Korean association of Glückauf in Germany will open Friday a mining museum in Essen. The building is built next to the miner memorial center opened in 2009, and the mine itself and worker environments will be built to actual size at the 72-square meter site.

The German word "Glückauf" means “good luck” and is the greeting miners share with each other before climbing down the mine.

Glückauf Association Chairman Goh Chang-won told The Dong-A Ilbo, “A combined 7,983 Korean miners have come to Germany since 1963 and 1,250 remain in the country. Our past has been forgotten and our children are unaware of how their grandfathers worked. I hope many Korean Germans come to visit the museum.”

Glückauf members have devoted themselves to building the museum over the past four months, doing cement work themselves to offset high labor costs. The cost came to 38.5 million won (33,625 U.S. dollars), with the chairman of the Association of Korean Residence in Europe donating 20,175 dollars and the chairman of the Korean Sports Association in Germany investing 4,035 dollars. The remaining funds were gathered by Glückauf members.

Against this backdrop, a 6-meter mine, 8-meter railroad and two trucks to bring coal and workers to and from the coal mine were built to their actual sizes. Worker suits, pickaxes, shovels and wagons will also be exhibited. All items are real and have existed for more than 100 years. The German mining firm Ruhrkohle AG donated them after hearing of the purpose of building the museum.

“For the last four months, 10 or 15 of our members devoted themselves every day to building this museum. The materials and equipment were very heavy and we had a hard time moving and installing them.”

Like the mining memorial center, the museum also represents the sweat, tears and pride of Korean miners in Germany. Accommodating 250 people at 3,190 square meters of land and 754 square meters of floor space, the center was launched on Dec. 19, 2009, 46 years after Korean miners first went to Germany.

The German government’s investment of 1.7 billion won (1.48 million dollars) in funds that failed to find recipients, coupled with a state budget of 300 million won (260,000 dollars), will bring the fund amount to 2 billion won (1.74 million dollars). The opening ceremony on Friday will be joined by Korean miners in Germany, their families, and the mayor of Essen.

taylor55@donga.com