The former Zollern II/IV colliery lies west of Dortmund in a suburb called Bövinghausen. In 1981 it was integrated into the Westphalian Industrial Museum.
Rapid structural change and town planning schemes have often swept away disused colllieries, their related buildings and the works settlements built closeby from the urban environment. Zollern, however, the hardly changed "model mine" of the early 20th century, is still embedded in an environment unaffected by this transformation process and typical of collieries on the Ruhr. The colliery's settlement with gardens and stables lies right at the colliery gates, just a short walk to the spoil heap, which is now the centre of a nature reserve. Here the influence of the mining industry on urban development is still visible.
The Zollern II/IV colliery is now a museum for the social and cultural history of coal mining in the 20th century in the Ruhr area and one of the finest and most impressive witnesses to the industrial past in this region.
The museum offers facilities for meetings, for conferences, for creative workshops of all kinds and weddings, in its historical listed buildings.
It also houses the central management and administration of the Westphalian Industrial Museum, the restorers' workshops, the stores, the archives and the library.
