Relevant: "German Hard-Coal Production to Cease by 2018" (2007) https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/29/AR2007072901078.html https://ww

Relevant: "German Hard-Coal Production to Cease by 2018" (2007) https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/29/AR2007072901078.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/0... I like the monument they built over the final active Saarland coal mine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saar_Polygon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saar_Polygon This is a very interesting topic to me in a historical sense, because German chemists invented the first processes for turning coal into synthetic liquid/gaseous fuels, and the Nazi war effort ran on synthetic coal-derived fuels: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_proces... - "Coal liquefaction was an important part of Adolf Hitler's four-year plan of 1936, and became an integral part of German industry during World War II." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_liquefaction#Historical_background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_liquefaction#Historical_b... France considered it a big enough deal that they occupied the coal-rich western area of Germany after both world wars: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territory_of_the_Saar_Basin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territory_of_the_Saar_Basin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1935_Saar_status_referendum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1935_Saar_status_referendum - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saar_Protectorate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saar_Protectorate Even USA thought this technology was interesting enough to import the relevant Nazi scientists as part of Operation Paperclip, experimenting with it until the program was shut down in 1985: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_Liquid_Fuels_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_Liquid_Fuels_Program