A labyrinth of corridors and halls runs through the mountain ridge between the Sauerland villages of Nuttlar and Ostwig. “It’s a strange feeling to be out here on your own,” says Gerd Mengelers about his work in the Nuttlar slate quarry. which actually can’t fall over and some sounds like footsteps in otherwise complete silence.” Generations of miners have worked in the tunnels and many have stayed underground.
The old slate pit has been closed since 1985. Together with his brother Rainer, Gerd Mengelers offers something unique there: a visitor mine especially for photographers. Nothing was changed on site, nothing newly expanded. There is no electricity and no light, no concrete or gravel paths and no new railings.
Everything is still underground, just as the workers left it after their last assignment – from the oil-slick machines to old shoes, from fungus-covered wooden ladders to rusty carts. Here on the upper reaches of the Ruhr, which is so closely associated with mining, you can get an idea of what the Sauerland looks like from below in many places. But the slate construction in Nuttlar is not the only exciting photo location under the Sauerland soil.
