On Carl-Duisberg-Straße in Marl once stood the mighty steel structures of Shaft 3 and Shaft 7. Together they formed the industrial heart of the Auguste Victoria colliery, one of the last great coal mines of the Ruhr area.

Shaft 3, completed in the 1930s and reaching nearly 1,200 meters deep, was for decades the main lifeline of the mine. Day after day, miners descended into the darkness here to bring up the black gold. Its towering headframe, with massive steel and twin wheels, became a landmark of Marl and a symbol of hard labor and progress.

In the 1960s, Shaft 7 was added to expand production. Together they became known as the AV 3/7 complex, a place where thousands of miners earned their living and where generations of families depended on coal. The hum of engines, the clatter of cages, and the smell of coal defined the atmosphere of the area for decades.

When the mine finally closed in 2015, the sounds fell silent and only the stillness around the shafts remained. Shaft 7 was gradually dismantled, while Shaft 3 still stood as a silent giant. Where once danger and toil filled every day, only memory remains: the AV 3/7 headframes, monuments of steel telling the story of a vanished era.