The escalator to the museum from above, overlooking the colliery grounds.

The Zollverein World Heritage Site is the only facility in the world where the complexity of this branch of industry can still be seen today. The Zollverein colliery and coking plant are therefore a symbol of industrial culture in the Ruhr area, the German region that has been shaped like no other by the social, economic, aesthetic and industrial history of the coal and steel age to this day. 

The "black gold", the large coal reserves on the Ruhr, which had been proven by drilling, were considered the energy source of the future in the 19th century. Even in today's north of Essen, rich fatty coal reserves were suspected. The Duisburg industrialist Franz Haniel (1779-1868) and his Ruhrort drilling company had secured these reserves in 14 fields and reached them with drilling. In 1847, these 14 fields were consolidated by Franz Haniel into a large pit field under the name "Zollverein". In the following years, two shafts were sunk and the corresponding colliery buildings built, so that the Zeche Zollverein officially began operation in 1851.

(Quelle: http://www.zollverein.de/#/welterbe/geschichte_zollverein)