Last German coal
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is handed the last lump of coal produced in the country in a symbolic gesture at a ceremony in Berlin on 3 April 2019.
In a symbolic gesture at a ceremony marking the end of 200 years of Germany's bituminous coal production, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier received "the last piece of black coal" dug from a German mine.
The lump of coal represented a part of history, "of the economy of scarcity after the war, of the beginnings of Europe, of economic development", Steinmeier said.
The president went on pay tribute to the contribution that German miners had made to the country's post-war economic reconstruction.
Not only was this piece of coal a symbol of the past, but it also stood for "the energy and inventiveness of an entire region", Steinmeier added, making reference to the efforts made in the Ruhr region to create jobs and livelihood prospects in a post-mining era.
The seven-kilo lump of coal, which was mined in the Ruhr area at the Prosper-Haniel mine, had already been presented to the president once, at a closing ceremony last December. It had, however, been taken away again in order to be prepared and preserved for this week's official ceremony.
The government announced in 2007 that all black coal mines in the country would be closed. Cheaper imports meant that Germany could no longer compete. However, despite the country's reputation as being at the vanguard of the green energy movement, there is still a large dependence on coal, which powers over 35% of the nation.
Germany is also by far the EU's biggest producer of lignite, of which it has vast reserves. Lignite provides less heat than black coal, which means it also generates more CO2 for the heat produced. It is, however, much cheaper as it can be sourced from open-cast mines.
Lignite is part of the reason why Germany, despite a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% of 1990 levels by 2020, is still Europe's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.
In order to get its energy transition to renewables, the "Energiewende", on track, Germany announced earlier this year that it will phase out coal power plants by, at the latest, 2038, whilst continuing its policy of closing all nuclear power stations by 2022, which was made in response to the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
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