As of: February 15, 2024, 3:02 p.m
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Hans Zapf and his group of visitors visit the adventure tunnel in the Peißenberg mine.
© Ralf Ruder
Over 50 years ago, the era of black gold in Peißenberg came to a rapid end.
Only a few contemporary witnesses can report what happened underground.
Hans Zapf is one of them.
Peißenberg - It's getting dark, but unusually the lights are still on in the mining museum.
Even the old deep tunnel makes a busy impression.
As if it was just longing to do its duty, the “Bockerl” with numerous wagons is even waiting at the brightly lit entrance portal.
More and more people disappear inside the museum - among them a man in a miner's costume.
A light will soon dawn on the knowledgeable person: Hans Zapf will once again do the honors and lead the way through his holy halls.
The entrance area is swarming with people.
Young and old are crowded together waiting for the two museum guides.
He is already 85 years old, “Zapf Hans”, and is still not tired of telling future generations about his former job.
When he enters the building with his helmet already on his head, it almost seems as if he wants to enter the time-honored Zieglmeierschacht again just in time for the start of his shift.
Just like in old times.
Hans Zapf can still talk about his experiences underground
He is pleased that the museum tours are still taking place, even though he is now the last person who can still talk about the experiences underground up close and “not just from books,” says Zapf.
Incidentally, he also took part in the work to transform the deep tunnel into an “experience mine” and thus, in a sense, contributed to bringing modernity into the old tunnel.
According to Zapf, for example, the Bockerl “now runs on electricity and no longer on diesel”.
The 85-year-old worked in the Peißenberg mine from 1952 to 1971.
Quite often “at the bottom”.
In the Zieglmeierschacht in Peißenberg, the path there initially involved a kilometer-long journey through the different eras of earth's history.
The first 1000 meters had to be overcome in the conveyor cage.
Then we had to get out and change to an inclined shaft.
There we went down another 250 meters until we finally reached the deepest level - the basement of the Peißenberg mine, so to speak.
To this day, Hans Zapf maintains friendships with the still living comrades from back then
In the branched tunnel systems, a good kilometer below the market town, Hans Zapf had a lot of responsibility and, above all, a lot to do.
He was the route and demolitions master.
Anyone who was able to witness the staged “Schiass'n” during a tour of the deep tunnel knows that he still masters the job to a certain extent today.
“You won’t get cold down there,” said Zapf, laughing.
No wonder – at almost 40 degrees.
Covered in sweat and soot, the men worked there for hours every day.
A dangerous backbreaking job.
“Comradeship was very important,” he emphasized.
You could always rely on each other.
To this day, Hans Zapf maintains friendships with the still living comrades from back then.
“We’ll meet at the post office and talk about the old times,” he said.
You can tell how much the mine still means to him, even half a century after it was closed.
One or two attentive museum visitors can certainly report on the countless stories that “Zapf Hans” has in store.
There is great interest in the tours in the Peißenberg mine.
© Ralf Ruder
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That evening, Zapf divides those present and marches with a good dozen towards the tunnel portal.
The rest, with Leonhard Alt, board member of the Friends of the Museum, staying in the warm for the time being.
Alt – just like Zapf, who has now disappeared into the mountains with his followers – knows how to make a museum tour lively and is keen to infect the little ones in particular with the mining virus.
The entire mine site, which he describes as the “Ruhr area of Bavaria” with the mines in Peißenberg, Hohenpeißenberg and Peiting, had “more kilometers of track underground than the subway in Munich,” explains Alt, and this raises concerns shortly after the tour begins for amazed faces.
The local mining industry claimed 259 lives.
“Relatively few for a long time and still too much,” laments Leonhard Alt. “No one should die in their work,” he notes, looking reverently at the large memorial plaque.
Mining Museum in Peißenberg is a “storytelling museum”
“We are a storytelling museum,” explains Alt.
As such, it lives, so to speak, from people like Hans Zapf, who have personally experienced the backbreaking work underground.
However, there are not many left and even fewer are mentally and physically fit to lead an entertaining tour through the packed museum rooms.
The fact that Leonhard Alt himself did not work in the Peißenberg colliery is not at all noticeable given his specialist knowledge.
According to Alt, almost the same amount of pitch coal that was unearthed from the underground world up to 1971 is still down there.
“So we could start again on Monday,” he jokes.
Most of the equipment was also left behind after the closure.
A real “El Dorado for scrap dealers” if you could still go down there today.
People are particularly fascinated by the geological space packed with fossils.
Alt is proud that they have put together “one of the best-equipped geology museums in Upper Bavaria”.
But the other exhibition rooms also demonstrate passion and great attention to detail.
By the way: Everything from the region is also available in our regular Schongau newsletter. And in our Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter.
Almost an hour and a half later and enriched with countless insights into the local history, the museum finally spits its guests out again at the entrance gate.
However, the highlight is still to come with a visit to the deep tunnel.
Like Hans Zapf before him - who is meanwhile vividly explaining to his group how mining equipment works somewhere in the museum - Alt steers the small locomotive into the maw of the almost 155-year-old mining relic.
At the end of the expanded tunnel you have to dismount and take a look at the “Old Man”.
By this he doesn't mean an old miner, but rather the closed, undeveloped section of the old tunnel.
A strong smell of sulfur comes through the open flap.
Even the fire brigade would stop by here at times for training purposes, explains Alt. A narrow and wet corridor ultimately leads to one of the museum guides' favorite places.
Visibly amused, Alt presses a button and a loud bang echoes through the tunnel.
Even smoke comes out.
A simulated explosion - “Schiass'n, says the miner,” which, by the way, has its own expression for almost everything.
“None of the mine workers were forgotten” in the 1970s
The two groups finally meet outdoors.
Hans Zapf also finished his tour and took off his helmet again.
“Are you blocking it then?” he calls to Leonhard Alt.
He nods.
Routine.
After his active time in the mine, Zapf found work at MTU.
Leonhard Alt had already emphasized during his tour that in the 1970s there had been a clear effort to provide the miners with jobs following the coal-pitch era.
“No one was forgotten” back then.
It is important to Hans Zapf that the memory of the mine and the many “wild dogs” from back then are preserved and that the stories continue to be told for a long time.
People like “Hans” are walking non-fiction and history books that you enjoy listening to for a long time - especially when it comes to the history of your own hometown.
By Florian Zerhoch
The local newspapers in the Weilheim-Schongau district are represented on Instagram under “merkur_wm_sog”.