Strike poster

The year 1997 was a fateful year for German mining. As part of the so-called "Kohlekompromiss" (literally: "coal compromise"), resolutions were passed by the states in which coal was being mined, the IGBE and the different mining companies that meant heavy limitations for the entire industry once again. Miners fought side by side with their companies to secure their future and went on strike. For this time, they had a common enemy: the federal government, which aimed to liquidate an entire branch of industry. The large protests of 1997 were the climax of many strike actions that had begun in the first half of the 1990s.