Topping-out ceremony

Not every mine employee was able to finance a private home, even though loans and property allocations for miners were subject to very favourable conditions. In many places, miners came together to form so-called "BIGs" in many places, a "Bauinteressensgemeinschaft" and jointly organized their building projects as part of this association. In this picture, the "Bauinteressensgemeinschaft Hühnerfeld" celebrates a topping-out ceremony for a new miner's house with the Altenwald pit in the background.