Mining Monument "Bauer-Kreisel" in Riegelsberg

In the course of the Saarbahn development in 2008, the so-called "Bauer-Kreisel" - the roundabout at the entrance of Riegelsberg - received a makeover. With the lively and, at times, controversial participation of the general public, the town decided to erect a three-membered monument in the shape of a steel skeleton tower to commemorate the coal mining history of Riegelsberg. The idea behind the new monument was to find a new way of dealing with mining relics from a past which had shaped the community for so many years and which needed to be redefined. The relics should neither appear to be randomly scattered across a surface, nor should they be converted into flower pots. Instead they should be viewed in a new artistic context, which neither played down nor trivialised the Saar region’s coal mining past. Reminiscent of a spoil tip, anthracite-coloured basalt was poured onto a large oval surface, sharply contrasting with the grass-green of the surrounding lawn. The monument was designed to display the exhibits like a showcase in a museum. Three cube-shaped scaffolds (four metres in length) were stacked on top of each other, each with a 90 degree turn. The lower cube contains a pulley wheel, the middle one a stake car, and the top one a kibble. The roundabout traffic lends a certain dynamism to the monument. Illuminated at night, the “Bauer-Kreisel” welcomes visitors at the town entrance. In 2011, it was integrated into the Riegelsberg municipal logo.