Shaft 8 and Schalke 04

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In the Ruhr area, mining and football are one. Really? A visit with Wolfgang Hill, who has worked for decades, and no game, the king missed blue from Gelsenkirchen, removed all doubt.

On the day that the then-Bundesliga Schalke 04 against Bayern Munich is 5.6 in the extension back, unofficially of 78,000 spectators in Gelsenkirchen’s Park stadium are still hoping for a Sensation, so in may 1984, one of the dramatic runs most of the games in the DFB Cup, makes Wolfgang Hill and his buddies in the coal mine Auguste Victoria in Marl, happy. “I put the Radio feature on the phone to the speaker system. So the 200 mate, most of them of course, Schalke were able to cheer the whole game!”

Time is of the essence – in the Park stadium in the final seconds to break, in the colliery of the shift change. Hill is going to disconnect the connection, but the receiver still in his Hand. In this second of the 18-Year-old Olaf Thon bangs with his third hit of the Ball from a tight angle under the crossbar. Hill today has goose bumps: “I must tell you something, I said: 6:6. And ears down there-deafening cheers!”

In the Glückauf-kampfbahn next to the “Emperor”

Wolfgang Hill, of heating, of course – home with coal (“Four tons per year!”) is Second to none in the Ruhr area, the typical connection between mining and football. 25 years he has worked as a qualified electrician underground for the coal mine Auguste Victoria, the last in the pit 8 – “Saturdays, Sundays, I’ve given my whole life for the mining industry,” and for over half a century, he is an ardent supporter of FC Schalke 04.

“Days I only had pneumonia once,” – half his life spent in Hill in the mining

In his first game Hill as it is today: 23, recalls.In October 1965, the Glückauf-kampfbahn, against Bayern Munich, a 1:1. “My father was Schalke through and through and took me back, and suddenly Franz Beckenbauer stood in front of me. And then I remember that I cried terribly, because the folder have torn my card!”

Already with 16 years of first days, in the days

The “Squires” are an integral part of his life. “Saturday with the mother and father to the game, then in the pub to the sports show, then a home gym with fried potatoes and Schnitzel. And on Sundays, of course, to the Training of Schalke,” thinks the 61-Year-old with a Laugh.

To the away matches of Schalke Wolfgang Hill, with its stylishly furnished living mobile

As with the mining of a sudden, the second constant in Hills, appears life, is his father, however, everything other than enthusiastic: “‘Think about it’ You well, Boy,’ he said, ‘Think of grandpa and uncle Gustav, as the days worn.’ But I was 16 and for the first Time in days, since you think so great about everything.”

A symbiosis which is typical for the Ruhr area

Wolfgang Hill has never regretted his decision for the mining industry, never, and neither did his followers for Schalke, which has given him so many a sleep-less weekend. But the question remains: where does the tens of thousands of people in the Ruhr area, the passion for the mining industry, and the football, as it comes to this unique combination?

Three seats from the demolished stadium was able to save Wolfgang Hill to home

Hill, who is also the Chairman of the supporters ‘ clubs “Fantastic Blue Reken” in his state of North Rhine-Westphalia home, you must not think for a long time: “The sense of unity and cohesion. If You are working underground and not paying attention, has a buddy next to you directly to be a Problem. And at Schalke, You have this insane community.”

Schalke holds the myth of mining on the life

The father of two daughters, stresses once again that the heart Association has made for the mountain people strong: “it is Precisely this nostalgia is a wave due to the parting of the coal, of all things, by the politicians, who have spent years on us mate bashing. The only ones that have really always held to us, were the persons in charge of Schalke.”

The winding tower of shaft 8, detail at a scale of 1:20 – in the garden of Hills neighbors, Heinz-Wilhelm Hardes

The game tunnel similar to tunnel a mine, the get song, the sounds just before the kick off, the annual pit the player rides – the club from the Ruhr area and keeps the Image of the “buddy and grafters club”. Of course a lot of staging is because, with a turnover of now 240 million euros, but with the commitment to the mountain people of the club, once founded by miners mean, seriously: Just now during the home match against Bayer Leverkusen, at the 2,000-buddy in full gear to say goodbye to the coal.

18. December, 18.30 Schalke – the big goodbye

Wolfgang Hill will also be in the stadium, as is the case with almost every home or away game in the last 15 years. And together with his wife Uschi, which is just as infected by the Schalke Virus, to take a seat in Block 26, close to the Schalker Nordkurve with the most loyal Fans.

Naturally, one or the other tear will flow in to him: “of Course, this is a sad Moment for me. Particularly, when the riser song is played, be sure to come in a lot of memories. But the time of day that was simply beautiful!”