Germany's natural resources
Wanderausstellung seit Oktober 2021
Sand und Gips, Salz und Kaolin, Kohle und Erdöl, Rheingold und Lithium ...
Die Wanderausstellung des Carl Bosch Museums macht Rohstoffe im wörtlichen Sinne begreifbar. Schon mal die Hände mit echter Steinkohle schmutzig gemacht? Interaktive Hands-on Stationen und digitale Exponate mit Filmen und Quizzen laden die Besuchenden zum Ausprobieren, Entdecken, Diskutieren und Mitmachen ein.
Die Vielfalt an heimischen Bodenschätzen steht im Mittelpunkt dieser Ausstellung. Sie bringt uns die geologischen Rohstoffe vor unserer Haustür nahe und gibt Einblicke in die alltägliche wie auch allgegenwärtige Verwendung.
Welche Bodenschätze werden aktuell in Deutschland gewonnen? Kommen in Zukunft womöglich weitere dazu? Wann und wie sind sie im Laufe der Erdgeschichte entstanden? Und in welchen Regionen Deutschlands werden sie abgebaut?
Themeninseln beantworten weitere übergreifende große Fragen: Wie gehen wir mit unseren Rohstoffen um? Gehen uns die Rohstoffe aus? Und wo kommen die Rohstoffe her, wenn sie nicht in Deutschland abgebaut werden? Ein vierminütiger Animationsfilm mit Objekt-Lichtinstallation erzählt die Geschichte der Nutzung von Bodenschätzen.
Kern der Ausstellung bilden die vier Gruppen: Steine und Erden, Industrieminerale, Metalle und Energierohstoffe. Jedem Bodenschatz ist eine Geschichte gewidmet. Dabei blickt die Ausstellung auch in die Vergangenheit und zeigt Ausblicke in die Zukunft.
Gesamtleitung: Sabine König, CBM
Projektleitung: Julian Schumann und A. Glanz vom CBM und Knut Völzke von LEISE Design
Idee, Konzept, Texte: Julian Schumann, CBM
Gestaltung und Planung LEISE Design:
Knut Völzke, Vicky Corakas, Hans Hess, Leonie Ogroske, Tobias Mendoza, Nick Hoffmann, David Blumberg, Leonie Morbach, Julia Andalaft
Fotos: Annette Mueck und LEISE Design
Auftraggeber: Carl Bosch Museum (CBM), Heidelberg
Entstehungsjahr: 2018-2021
From the Stone Age to the present day, mineral resources have shaped the history of humanity. Most of our everyday objects are made of materials that are extracted from mineral resources - even if we cannot see it. Whether natural stone, clay, copper, salt, iron, coal, petroleum or sand - as raw materials they are one of the most important foundations of our modern economy and way of life.
Germany is richer in mineral resources than is often assumed. This diversity is the focus of the exhibition. Domestic mineral resources cover around two thirds of domestic demand. These are mainly construction raw materials such as sand or natural stone. However, Germany is almost completely dependent on imports for the majority of the important metals and energy raw materials. In the past, numerous mines were closed down because mining abroad is cheaper. Nevertheless, Germany remains an important mining country with a long tradition and a promising future.
Let’s look around: What natural resources are incorporated into the things around us and what stories can they tell?
The global consumption of mineral resources is enormous. In Germany, the equivalent is around 1.35 kg per person per hour. Nevertheless, compared to other natural resources such as soil and water, there are currently no existential supply problems. Scientists do not see the current challenge in the limited nature of mineral resources, but in the implementation of a "raw materials turnaround" in which the focus is on socially acceptable, environmentally friendly and energy-efficient extraction and the economical use of mineral resources, from mining to recycling.
Stones and earths are Germany's most important economic factor in the area of raw materials. This group includes solid rocks such as granite and limestone and loose rocks such as clay and sand. The construction and building materials industry uses around 90% of the stones and earths mined. They are mined in large quantities in Germany and are also known as construction or bulk raw materials.
Their mining and use have a long tradition in Germany, dating back to Roman times. The importance of these raw materials is often underestimated today. Yet we use huge quantities every day for the construction and maintenance of buildings, roads, tunnels and bridges. Almost all of the building raw materials needed in Germany are mined here. They are used to produce important building materials such as building bricks, concrete, mortar, insulation materials and binding agents such as cement.
Stones and earths are of mineral origin and cannot be regenerated, so research into alternative building materials and recycling is becoming increasingly important. One example of this is so-called urban mining, in which cities are viewed as valuable raw material deposits.
While construction waste used to often end up in landfills, today people are trying to give it a second life. As a secondary raw material, it has great potential to supply us with raw materials in a sustainable way.
As an export nation and one of the world's leading technology locations, Germany depends on a secure supply of raw materials. Industry's need for raw materials is high, and our high standard of living is also based on raw materials.
With the "Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development" adopted by the United Nations, Germany has committed itself to a sustainable supply of raw materials through its signature. This means a raw materials policy that aims at environmentally friendly and responsible extraction as well as a circular economy-based and sustainable use of raw materials.
Industrial minerals are an indispensable part of many areas of our lives. They are contained in numerous products: from frying pans to cat litter, from pizza to solar cells, and from pencils to rubber seals.
Industrial minerals are non-metallic raw materials which, due to their chemical composition and material properties, are used directly for industrial purposes or further processed into a variety of products.
In Germany, mining includes industrial minerals such as rock, potash and magnesium salts, quartz, kaolin, graphite, bentonite, fluorite and barite. Some, such as the above-mentioned salts, quartz sand and kaolin, are even exported. Certain industrial minerals have to be imported in small quantities.
Shine the flashlight into one side of the fiber optic cable and see what happens on the other side of the cable!
Glass fibers are long and very thin strands that are used as optical fibers or data transmitters in communication networks and thus provide, for example, fast internet. They are also used to produce, among other things, glass fiber reinforced plastic for the blades of wind turbines.
Scan the barcodes of packaged foods and give your opinion on the salt content they contain. Does the salami or the cooked ham contain more salt?
We do not consume most of our salt by seasoning our food. Salt is used in many foods for preservation and as a flavor enhancer.
Es ist für die Herstellung von Lebensmitteln wie Brot und anderen Backwaren, Milch-, Fisch- und Fleischprodukten sowie Konserven und Fertiggerichten unentbehrlich. Der Verbraucherschutz kritisiert, dass in vielen Produkten mehr Salz als nötig steckt.
Formation of salt: The "bar theory" explains the formation of large salt deposits in dry, hot climates in sea basins protected by bars (barriers). Evaporation causes the sea water to become oversaturated with dissolved salts, so that, depending on the solubility, first rock salt, then potash salt and finally magnesium salt crystallize out - if this evaporation process is interrupted, neither potash nor magnesium salt is formed. This cycle repeated itself over the course of the earth's history, so that between 240 and 100 million years ago, salt deposits up to 1,500 m thick formed in Europe.
In the 19th century, scientists Carl Sprengel and Justus von Liebig recognized the importance of mineral nutrients for plant growth.
The so-called "law of the minimum" is illustrated using a barrel with staves of different lengths. The barrel can only be filled to the height of the shortest stave, which illustrates the limitation of plant growth by the scarcest resource. In 1861, the mining of potash salts for the production of fertilizers began.
A bentonite-water mixture is relatively solid when at rest. Vibrations cause it to liquefy. This special property (thixotropy) is familiar from the everyday use of ketchup. It is used in construction technology for drilling fluids.
For the hands-on exhibit, a transparent synthetic layered mineral with the same properties was chosen, since the marble would not be visible in the cloudy drilling fluid of the bentonite.
The spring miracle of bentonite: Scientists are discussing two theories about the formation of Bavarian bentonite. One assumes that the ash from a volcanic eruption around 14 million years ago was blown from the Romanian Carpathians to Bavaria and deposited there. The sandy and clayey river deposits of the Isar covered and protected the volcanic material from erosion. The lens-shaped bentonite deposits in the subsoil were formed over millions of years by geological processes.
Metals : No other material represents the technological progress of mankind so much. But the supply of metals is one of the greatest challenges in the raw materials sector for Germany. Metals are extracted from metal-containing rocks or minerals, which are called ores. The name of the valuable material they contain is often given first, such as "copper ore". The last German metal ore mine was closed in 1992 in the Harz Mountains for economic reasons. Since then, all ores and metals have had to be imported or recycled as secondary raw materials.
Only copper, silver and gold are still produced as by-products from German deposits. The metallic raw materials in Germany are far from exhausted, but importing them is cheaper than domestic mining. In contrast to many mining countries, the mining of mineral resources in Germany is subject to very high safety and environmental standards. This is also one reason why mining abroad is often more cost-effective.
As the world population continues to grow, so does the demand for raw materials. Our high-tech devices in particular are based on numerous special mineral resources. The increased demand for ores leads to higher world market prices - and could make the resumption of mining in former German ore mining areas such as the Ore Mountains lucrative again in the future.
The conductivity of copper, especially of electricity and heat, makes copper an important and highly sought-after raw material today. A single car alone contains around 1.5 kilometers of copper wire.
Copper is the first metal that humans use. The Copper Age represents the transition between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Europe. It marks the beginning of the metal age. Copper is valuable and is often used for jewelry and decorations.
It is too soft for many other applications. This changed with the first deliberately produced alloy: bronze. An alloy is a metallic material made of several chemical elements, including at least one metal. Bronze contains copper as its main component and also tin. It is harder and more robust than copper. Bronze prevails in the manufacture of tools and weapons and replaces flint. Archaeologists call the era following the Copper Age around 2,200 BC the Bronze Age.
"Gold Panning at Carlsruhe" by Johann Michael Volz (1820)
The heyday of gold panning on the Rhine was during the straightening of the Rhine by Johann Gottfried Tulla in the 19th century. The gold panners washed the Rhine sand on large wooden washstands covered with rough cloths. The cloths on which the gold concentrate collected were rinsed out in buckets. The gold was then washed out of the concentrate using washing pans.
According to historical sources, 306 kg of gold were reported in Baden between 1800 and 1869. Historians assume a high rate of smuggling and estimate that only about a third of the finds are reported and officially sold.
Gold panning is the oldest method of gold extraction. River mud is put into a special gold pan with water. The material in the pan is sorted according to its density by rotating and swiveling. Heavy gold collects at the bottom in the middle, and sand and clay at the edge. This type of gold extraction is no longer economical, but gold panning courses are becoming increasingly popular - including on the Rhine.
Germany's only oil drilling and production island is located in the North German Wadden Sea, just 7 km from Friedrichskoog and the Schleswig-Holstein coast. Over 20 wells are developing the Mittelplate oil field, which is located at a depth of up to 3 km under the Wadden Sea National Park. Since 2000, the deposit has also been developed via diverted wells from the mainland of Friedrichskoog. One of these is the longest oil well in Europe at 9,275 m.
Energy resources provide us with heat, electricity and fuel. A reliable supply of energy is a basic requirement for our modern society.
A distinction is made between non-renewable and renewable energies. Non-renewable energy sources include fossil raw materials such as coal, natural gas and petroleum - but also uranium, which occurs as a mineral raw material in rocks. Renewable energy sources include water, sun, wind, geothermal energy and biomass.
As a highly developed industrial country, Germany is one of the largest energy consumers in the world. To implement the energy transition, energy generation is being promoted using renewable energy sources. But more than 80 percent of the total energy used in the areas of electricity, heat and transport still comes from non-renewable energy sources. Only electricity has been generated more than half from renewable energies since 2019.
Hard coal mining was stopped in 2018. Domestic oil and natural gas production is also decreasing, making Germany more dependent on imports of these raw materials. In the future, fossil fuels will only be used as a "bridging energy source" to ensure the transition to a supply based on renewable energies.
Rohöl vom Oberrhein aus der Bohrung »Schwarzbach 1« in Riedstadt-Goddelau, westlich von Darmstadt
Aus wirtschaftlicher Sicht ist Erdöl der wichtigste Rohstoff weltweit. Erdöl ist ein gelbbraunes bis schwarzes Stoffgemisch, das hauptsächlich aus Kohlenwasserstoffen besteht. Dies sind chemische Verbindungen, die ausschließlich aus Kohlenstoff- und Wasserstoffatomen aufgebaut sind. Noch nicht aufbereitetes Erdöl wird Rohöl genannt.
The majority of the oil produced worldwide is used as an energy raw material. Only 6 to 7 percent goes into the petrochemical industry, which uses it to produce basic chemicals. These are then used in countless products such as medicines, cosmetics, cleaning agents, paints and, above all, plastics of all kinds.
"Hydraulic fracturing", or "fracking" for short, is very controversial due to possible negative environmental impacts. However, without this process, gas cannot be extracted from unconventional deposits. In Germany, fracking in unconventional deposits is only permitted for research purposes and under strict conditions. Due to the "gas crisis" in 2022, the possibilities of fracking technology for extracting natural gas from unconventional deposits are being discussed and examined again.
"Carboniferous Moor Forest" (painting by Jiří Svoboda)
Germany might have looked like this painting at that time. Since such swamp forests led to the formation of the massive coal deposits in Europe, they are also referred to as "coal forests".
Around 320 to 300 million years ago, the area of what is now Central Europe had a warm, humid climate. The reason for this was the geographical location near the equator. Swamps and dense jungle with ferns, horsetails and clubmosses up to 30 meters high characterized the landscape at that time. These plants formed the raw material for the coal deposits. The Carboniferous geological period, which spans the period from 360 to 290 million years ago, is named after coal (Latin carbo, "coal").
Steinkohle prägt die Geschichte von Europa wie kein anderer Rohstoff in den letzten 200 Jahren. Sie macht die Bergbauindustrie groß und beschäftigt zu Hochzeiten rund drei Millionen Berg-arbeiter. Kohle und ihre Nebenprodukte bilden die Grundlage für die Industrielle Revolution und die Anfänge der modernen chemischen Industrie, die zuerst Farbstoffe, dann Medikamente und Kunststoffe produziert. Doch ist die Steinkohle auch ein entscheidender Faktor für die zerstöreri-sche Kraft beider Weltkriege. Sie wird für die Stahl- und Treibstoffherstellung sowie als Brenn-stoff benötigt.
Ihre Geschichte macht die Steinkohle in Europa zu einem Symbol für Fortschritt und Zerstörung zugleich. Im Jahr 2018 endet mit der Schließung der letzten zwei Bergwerke im Ruhrgebiet das Zeitalter der Steinkohle in Deutschland.
anthracite coal from the Ibbenbüren mine
Anthracite coal is the highest quality and most energy-rich coal. It has the lowest gas content of less than 10 percent and the highest carbon content of over 90 percent. This is why anthracite coal is particularly valued as a fuel.
Barmen (today district of Wuppertal) around 1870, detail of painting by August von Will
Industrial Revolution : From the 18th to the 19th century, coal mining was the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution that began in Great Britain. Steam-powered machines changed people's everyday working lives. With their help, it was possible, among other things, to pump groundwater out of the mines and to reach ever deeper layers of coal. Coal enabled a greater energy yield than wood, which was already becoming scarce in Europe, and more iron could be produced from it. Coal and iron were essential raw materials for the expansion of the railway network, which further drove the "industrialization spiral."
brown coal briquettes from Lusatian brown coal
Lignite briquettes : In Germany, only 10 percent of the lignite mined is processed into fuels such as briquettes. 90 percent is used to generate electricity in coal-fired power plants.
Bucket wheel excavator, in front »Bagger 288«, in the Garzweiler opencast mine, North Rhine-Westphalia
Dirty energy - lignite : In 2019, Germany was replaced by China as the world's largest lignite producer, as domestic production was reduced from 166 to 131 million tons. In 2021, 126 million tons of lignite were mined. Over 90 percent is used to generate electricity in power plants. Until 2018, lignite still had the largest share of the domestic electricity mix at 25 percent, but wind energy has now pushed lignite out of first place.
Lignite is mined in huge opencast mines, which have a particularly serious impact on the environment. It is not uncommon for important natural landscapes such as forests and even entire towns to have to make way for lignite mining. Across Germany, more than 300 villages with around 100,000 people have already been relocated. After lignite mining, huge barren landscapes remain. According to the Federal Mining Act (BbergG), companies are obliged to make this so-called post-mining landscape usable again. Lignite is the dirtiest of all energy sources. No other energy resource emits as much climate-damaging carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned. Despite the energy transition, lignite is still one of the most economically valuable and most mined raw materials for Germany. In 2022, the federal government decided to phase out lignite by 2030.
Satellite image of the Hambach opencast mine and Hambach Forest
The Hambach Forest is a forest between Aachen and Cologne that has been cleared for lignite mining since the 1970s. Now the remaining part of the forest is also to be cleared to make room for "Hambach" - the largest open-cast lignite mine in Central Europe. The clearing is controversial and was temporarily stopped in 2019. In the past, there have often been clashes between the police and environmental activists who occupy the forest with tree houses.
In the "History of Mining" theme area, an entertaining animated film (approx. 4 minutes) is shown in a small cinema room, which tells the story of the use of mineral resources. Spotlights illuminate exhibits on the walls, which are described in the course of the film.
Mineral resources are continually being created throughout the earth's history. Natural accumulations of solid, liquid or gaseous mineral resources are called "deposits". Deposits that are economically mineable or that are already being mined are called "deposits".
Most mineral and fossil raw materials are created over millions of years. They are therefore considered finite, non-renewable or non-renewable. The terms "reserves" and "resources" are used to estimate the range of a raw material, i.e. how long a raw material will be available to us in the future. Reserves refer to deposits that can be profitably extracted using current technical means. Resources include all deposits that cannot be extracted technically or for which economic reasons speak against mining. Deposits that are not currently proven but are suspected by geologists are also considered resources. These so-called potential resources or geopotentials make up the largest amount of all raw material reserves (total resources) available on earth.
The further into the future the estimates of reserves extend, the more uncertain they are. This is because they are based on the current state of knowledge, which usually only reflects the mining companies' planning horizon of a few decades.
In the digital exhibit “Reserve or Resource?”, exhibition visitors are shown the difference between these two technical distinctions of raw material reserves using an animation.
Im Anschluss an die Aniamtion kann man Quizfragen zu Fallbeispielen zum Thema „Reserve oder Ressource?“ lösen.
Bisherige Ausstellungsstationen:
Carl Bosch Museum, Heidelberg (2021/22)
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe (2023/24)
LWL Freilichtmuseum Hagen (Mai bis Oktober 2024)
Wilhelm Ostwald Park, Grimma-Großbothen (2024/25)
Kommende Ausstellungsstation:
Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz
(Oktober 2025 bis Februar 2026)