German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has donated the final piece of coal mined in Germany to the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn, closing a symbolic chapter in the country's industrial history. The seven-kilogram lump is now part of the museum's permanent exhibition on Germany since 1945.
The coal was extracted from the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop on Dec. 21, 2018, and handed to Steinmeier by miner Jürgen Jakubeit at a ceremony marking the end of German hard coal mining. The piece had been kept in Steinmeier's Bellevue Palace office since then.
Germany's political leaders, business representatives and unions agreed in 2007 to phase out hard coal mining, ending an era that had defined the Ruhr region and shaped the country's postwar industrial identity.