Journey to the Edge of the Ruhrgebiet: Cora’s Adventures at the Marché Noir Retro Fair in Dorsten, Part 2: The Con and the Mine

Here is part 2 of my adventures at the Marché Noir Retro Fair in Dorsten. Part 1 about the trip to get there may be found here.

Coalmine Fürst Leopold

As mentioned before, the 2025 Marché Noir retro toy/comic/cool stuff fair in Dorsten took place on the premises of the former coalmine Fürst Leopold (Count Leopold), named after Count Leopold zu Salm-Salm, the nobleman who owned the mining rights for the region. Though Count Leopold himself wasn’t particularly interested in mining, but was a passionate ornithologist and collector of snails and shells as well as a horse breeder.

The Fürst Leopold mine started operation in 1913, five years after the Count’s death. It was combined with two other nearby mines and survived several mining crises, until it was finally closed and decomissioned in 2001.

Naturally, I took the opportunity to wander around the premises of Fürst Leopold mine and take lots of pictures of the interesting industrial architecture to be seen there.

The former gatehouse of the Fürst Leopold mine in Dorsten. RAG stands for Ruhrkohle AG, a mining conglomerate founded in 1968 which operated most of the remaining German coalmines until the end of coalmining in Germany in 2018.

The porter’s lodge of the Fürst Leopold mine in Dorsten. This building probably dates from the 1910s or 1920s.

A closer look at a memorial plaque next to the gatehouse of the former Fürst Leopold mine, commemorating a miners strike in 1996/1997.

I have zero memory of this particular strike – miners seemed to be striking all the time in the 1980s and 1990s – and I could find very little online either and most of what there is is focussed on artist/nun Tisa von der Schulenburg who supported the miners and actually designed the memorial plaque pictured above. According to this page about the history of coal mining in Dorsten, the Fürst Leopold Mine still had 3000 employees in 1997 and reached its all-time annual peak production of 2.4 millions tons of coal. Four years later, the mine was shut down.

It’s not that there is no more coal in the Ruhrgebiet. Some mines have been exhausted, but far from all. However, the market for German coal has been shrinking since the late 1950s – in spite of various attempts to prop up demand such as a so-called “coal pfennig” (which was considerably more than a pfennig) which was added to everybody’s electricity bill to support the German coal industry. The “coal pfennig” existed for twenty years until it was finally struck down by the German Supreme Court in 1995, because customers of German electricity companies could not be expected to support a dying industry. By the 2000s, German coalmining simply was no longer cost-effective and frankly, it probably hasn’t been since well before that time.

I think they should have kept one or two mines operating to test new mining equipment – something for which there is a market abroad – and they definitely should have shut down lignite coal mining, which is extremely harmful for the environment at any stage (lignite coal is strip-mined and generates more harmful substances, when burned) and displaced thousands of people who lost their homes to strip-mining, well before they shut down the subterranean coalmines. But lignite coal is still strip-mined in Germany, while the last subterranean coalmines shut down in 2018.

I do feel sorry for the miners who had their jobs vanish, but the German coalmines have been dying all my life (and longer, though I didn’t know that at the time) and the dying mines got so more attention than industries in trouble. When the coalmines were dying once again in the 1980s, the shipbuilding industry in North Germany was also in trouble, which also affected me, because the shipyard crisis sent my Dad travelling ever further in search of work. But while the coal industry was propped up with the “coal pfennig” and other measures, the political response to the shipyard crisis was basically a shrug and “Well, you can’t expect us to save your jobs. Ships are built in Asia these days, where it’s cheaper.” This left me with a lingering resentment for coal miners, which is unfair, because they no more asked to lose their jobs than the shipyard workers did. Besides, playing workers against each other was a classic divisionary tactic.

When I was younger, I also resented coal mining and mining in general. This is probably because the school curriculum in the 1980s forced coal mining down our throats. At any rate, I was taught about coalmining and mining in general (there was also something about salt mines) several times in school, even though I didn’t live in a coalmining region, had zero interest in mining and besides, the mines were all dying anyway, so why were we learning about this? We were also forced to learn about lignite coal strip-mining, which left me terrified that giant bucket-wheel excavators would destroy my home – honestly, what were the teachers thinking to foist this stuff on ten-year-olds? We even visited the Clausthal-Zellerfeld mining museum and exhibiton mine (which is not in the Ruhrgebiet, but in the Harz), which mostly terrified me, because the guide said that there were bats living in the mine tunnels who liked to attack girls and get entangled in their hair. Yeah, that guide was an arsehole.

As an adult, I do find coalmines and industrial history and heritage in general fascinating. I guess it helps if you don’t have this stuff forced down your throat in school and if you know that there are no monstrous bats waiting to attack you nor giant bucket wheel excavators waiting to destroy your home. In fact, I should probably visit the Clausthal-Zellerfeld museum again some time, because this time around I would actually enjoy it.

Coalmines are big – even above ground, let alone below. If you look at the photos on the sites I linked above, you can see a lot of buildings that are now gone such as the massive coal washing plant. The buildings that remain mostly date from the early years of the mine in the 1910s and 1920s. The rest has been demolished to make way for a business and office park as well as two grocery stores.

Of course, the Fürst Leopold Mine also has a mineshaft elevator tower, which is the iconic symbol of coalmining in general and the Ruhrgebiet in particular. Apparently, this is the original mineshaft elevator tower, built in 1913, when the mine opened. There was a second mineshaft elevator tower as well, but that one has been demolished.

The mineshaft elevator tower of the Fürst Leopold Mine sits on a plot of land next a street on the edge of an office park. This is the oldest mineshaft elevator tower of the Fürst Leopold Mine, built in 1913.

A closer look at the mineshaft elevator tower of the Fürst Leopold mine, complete with sign. In 1970, the Fürst Leopold Mine was combined with the nearby Wulfen Mine and renamed Mine Fürst Leopold/Wulfen.

Another look at the Fürst Leopold mineshaft elevator tower as well as one of the above-ground mine buildings. The rusty components on the lawn are parts of a former mine pump.

Those parts of the Fürst Leopold Mine premises that had been turned into an arts and events center were all buildings that dated from the the early years of the mine in the 1910s and 1920s. There was also a lot of vintage mining equipment – mine cars, pumps, elevator wheels, etc… – installed around the area as exhibits. All in all, the whole place was a great example of how to repurpose older industrial facilities while retaining their original character.

The machinery hall of the former Fürst Leopold Mine in Dorsten.

The machinery hall, the mineshaft elevator tower and another former building of the Fürst Leopold mine, which now houses a restaurant.

The restaurant housed in this former mine building (I don’t know what this building used to be) appears to be part of a chain of mediterranean restaurants active in the northern Ruhrgebiet and southern Münsterland, since I ran across the same chain twice more on the same day, though I’d never heard of it before. Restaurant and bakery chains are still regional in Germany, while most retail chains now operate nationwide.

This interesting fountain sits in front of the restaurant on the premises of the former Fürst Leopold mine. There was still some ice on the water, because the night had been cold.

A metal staircase and walkways connect different buildings of the Fürst Leopold mine in Dorsten. There are artist studios located in one of the buildings. Next to the staircase, you can see the terrace of an ice cream parlour, which was closed for the season, as well as a former mine car.

The former mine cars were scattered all over the premises as decoration. They probably double as flower pots in the summer.

Former mine carts on the premises of the Fürst Leopold mine in Dorsten.

More former mine carts on the premises of the Fürst Leopold mine in Dorsten. These even form a little train.

These former mine carts have been transformed into benches.

A random piece of mining equipment on the premises of the Fürst Leopold mine in Dorsten. Note the “Fck AfD” and anti-Nazi stickers.

In general, the Fürst Leopold premises with all the mining equipment scattered around would have made a great location for some toy photography. And since I was there for a geeky event, I wouldn’t even have drawn weird looks or – worse – overly curious dogs for setting up action figures to take pictures of them. Fisto and Ram-Man would have been great choices, since they’re both former miners in some versions of Masters of the Universe.

But while I have started to take action figures along on my outings and roadtrips, just in case there is an opportunity to take a cool photo, I didn’t take any of my figures along on this outing, because I figured I’d probably buy something I’d want to photograph.

The main building of the Fürst Leopold complex is the so-called Wage Hall, the building where the miners received their wages in cash before bank transfers were common. Wage Halls were often the grandest building on the premises to display the wealth of the mine owners. A remarkable number of them survive and have been turned into hotels or restaurants. This is also what happened to the Wage Hall of the Fürst Leopold mine, which now houses a hotel and restaurant.

The former Wage Hall and administrative building of the Fürst Leopold mine.

A closer look at the former Wage Hall of the Count Leopold mine. Note the sculpture in front of the building which looks like a Christmas tree made from scrap metal.

The Marchè Noir fair was supposed to take place inside the former washing hall of the Fürst Leopold mine. However, so far I hadn’t any signs that pointing to the washing hall. What is more, I also wasn’t entirely sure what the washing hall had originally been for? What precisely did they wash in there? Coal? Equipment? Miners?

As I approached the Wage Hall to take the picture above, I spotted a sign saying “Marché Noir” with an arrow pointing towards the entrance of the Wage Hall. So I followed the sign and promptly found the ticket office/registration desk. I got my armband and walked into what was now the lobby of the hotel housed inside the Wage Hall, which had a bunch of fans and cosplayers milling about.

Some cosplayers have gathered in the lobby of the hotel housed inside the former wage hall of the Marché Noir con. There’s the Swamp Thing  and the fox chatting with a Ghostbuster and a guy carrying a skeleton around.

The Washing Hall or How to Clean a Miner

The washing hall turned out to be adjacent to the former Wage Hall. I walked into an enormous tiled space and was immediately struck by thousand of chains and cages dangling from the ceiling.

A look down the washing hall of the former Fürst Leopold mine in Dorsten. Note the chains and the cages dangling from the ceiling.

Another look at the chains and cages dangling from the ceiling of the washing hall of the Fürst Leopold mine. Also note the food stall offering crepes and baked feta.

Another look at the ceiling of the washing hall of the Fürst Leopold mine with all the chains and cages.

My first reaction – after “Wow” – was “What on Earth is this and what was it for?” The place certainly gives off torture chamber vibes, except that the chains are too flimsy to hold a human being and the cages are too small for humans, though sized just about right for gnomes. So did the miners hold gnomes and dwarves captive here?

The reality is not as dramatic, though just as fascinating. As explained on Wikipedia, the miners would store their civilian clothes in and on those cages and pull them up to the ceiling to keep their clothes and possessions safe from dirt or thieves. Then the naked miners would walk over to the second washing hall, where their work clothes and equipment were stored in and on similar cages. They’re pull down the cage, put on their work clothes and safety gear and go off to the mine. After their shift, they’d do the same thing in reverse – take off work clothes and store them in the cages, then walk over the second washing hall to retrieve their civilian clothes – except that they would shower inbetween, which is the washing part of the washing hall. So basically, this entire complex was a giant changing room for miners.

Now I mentioned that I did not pay much attention when teachers tried to teach me about mining in school, but I’m pretty sure I’d never heard of this system before. Honestly, if someone had told me about naked and sweaty miners walking around giant halls with chains and cages dangling from the ceiling, I might have been more interested.

That said, once you know how it works, the set-up of the washing hall makes a lot more sense. For example, on one end there was a tiled area separated by dividing walls, which now housed the toilets. However, I’m pretty sure that this used to be the showers.  Straight in the middle of the hall, there were also the remnants of some kind of plastic divider curtain, which likely once spearated the clean from the dirty area.

The chains hung in rows that looked a lot like beaded curtains. The chains were also numbered – so the miners could easily find their clothes and gear again – and in front of those curtains there were long plastic covered benches, where the miners could sit down to disrobe.

A closer look at the row of chains in the washing hall of the Fürst Leopold mine. Also note the bench running along the curtain of chains. These benches were now used by exhausted con goers to sit down.

Another closer look at the chains in the washing hall of the Fürst Leopold mine. Note the numbers, which made it easier for miners to locate their clothes and gear. Also note how high the numbers are, indicating how many people used to work here.

One thing I really enjoy about the roadtrips I’ve been taking this past year – whether con-related or not – is learning so many things I never knew about before, such as how exactly miners cleaned themselves and how they stored their clothes and gear. I suspect this will find its way into a story somewhere down the line.

However, I wasn’t just here to admire vintage industrial architecture, but to attend a con. So let’s have some impressions of the con proper.

The Con

For starters, here is an article by Stefan Moutty from the local paper for Dorsten, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, about the 2025 Marché Noir. He also interviews one of the organisers.

Once again, there are several videos about the 2025 Marché Noir con, because German fandom is very active on YouTube. Here is a documentary by the organisers Super Mega Action. Here is another documentary with plenty of interviews by Goreminister. Here is a video with impressions from the con by PogoBär1985. Here is a video of the con by Die Trödelmama. I definitely saw this lady – the Elvira cosplay is quite unmistakable. Here is a video about the con by We Are Ghostbusters Germany. Once again, I saw these folks at the con – some twenty Ghostbusters or so are kind of hard to miss. They also had a stall at the con. Here is a video by RetroRauner, in which he presents his Marché Noir haul. One of the two hosts of the Tales from the Fright Zone podcast also discusses Marché Noir and his haul. Coincidentally, he also didn’t know what the mine washing hall was and how it worked.

A look at the entrance area of the Marché Noir con with the stall of the organisers, a Ruhrgebiet area fan and collector zine. Also note the Stormtrooper, Predator and Imperial officer cosplayers as well as a bunch of Ghostbusters.

As you can see in those videos and also in my photos, there was a lot of cosplay at Marché Noir, more than you usually see at German cons. In addition to the Ghostbusters and Elvira, there were a lot of Star Wars cosplayers, including several Mandalorians, a handful of Jedi and a lot of Stormtroopers. There was an Emperor Palpatine cosplayer who was accompanied by a guard of Stormtroopers and Imperial officers wherever he went. They even held the doors open for him. But then, the Emperor of a Galactic Empire beset by rebellion and civil war cannot be expected to go out in public – even to an otherwise friendly and peaceful con – without a suitable contingent of bodyguards.

A Star Wars cosplayer named Imperathomas, who runs an anti-cancer charity, chats with a Battlestar Galactica centurion, who has removed his helmet.

Other cosplayers included a gleaming Battlestar Galactica centurion, a Ninja Turtle (I think it was Michalangelo), a Gremlin whom I saw sharing a coffee with an elf at one point, a Predator, the Swamp Thing, Deadpool, who was manning a bubble tea stall, and a bunch of elves. At one point, I was sitting in one of the chairs in the lobby that connected the wage hall to the washing hall, when the Predator emerged from the washing hall and yanked off his rubber mask to get a breath of fresh air. “Do you want to sit down?” I asked him, since he was clearly exhausted from walking around the pretty warm washing hall in a heavy costume. “I’d love to”, he replied, “But I can’t sit down with this costume.”

Regarding the con goers, there were obviously a lot of guys ranging in age from their thirties to their fifties. However, there were also a lot of women and not just women who’d been dragged along by their menfolk either, but woman fans. The gender breakdown was roughly 60% male to 40% female, which matches what I’ve observed at other German cons. There were also quite a lot of children ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers, which made me happy.

At one point, I saw a little boy, maybe four or five years old, who’d fished a vintage Panthor out of a bin full of vintage Masters of the Universe toys and cradled the Panthor in his arms and was clearly determined to take him home. The parents were not quite so eager to buy a forty-year-old vintage toy for a four-year-old kid. I still hope he got to take Panthor home, because I’m sure that Panthor would get a lot of love – and probably lose what’s left of his flocking.

In addition to sales and food stalls, there was also an area where you could sit down in a 1980s inspired lounge to play vintage video games. Some arcade games and pinball machines were on display as well. There was also a beer specially brewed for the con. Alas, I couldn’t try it, because I was driving.

A lounge styled like a 1980s teen bedroom where you could play vintage video games at Marché Noir. The slanted posters are spot on.

The wares on offer were a mix of vintage toys and collectibles, comics, games, t-shirts, videotapes and DVDs as well as vinyl records and cassette tapes. In fact, I was surprised how many vinyl records there were.

Comics for sale.

There were also a lot of audio dramas available, both vintage audio dramas on cassette tapes and modern ones on CD. This isn’t overly surprising, because audio dramas, particularly those aimed at kids and teenagers, have a long history in Germany. For pretty much everybody who grew up in West Germany in the 1970s and 1980s and beyond, audio dramas on cassette were an integral part of their childhood. There were dozens of series available for every age range and gender and in every genre, including lots of licensed properties. The production values were amazing – a full cast of excellent voice actors, sound effects, music – all for audio dramas aimed at children.

Every West German kid had at least a few of those audio dramas on cassette (and they also found their way to East Germany in parcels or as gifts) and would pop the tape into the player before falling asleep or as entertainment during long road trips o as background noise while doing homework. The tapes were swapped around and shared and they were ubiquitous to the point that it never even occurred to me that audio dramas on cassette were mainly a West German thing and not nearly as prevalent elsewhere. As an adult, I also learned that a single company – Europa records – was responsible for most of these audio dramas  and that a single woman – Heikedine Körting – directed and produced these dramas. She turns eighty this year and has been awarded more than 180 golden and several platinum records over her lifetime.

A selection of audio dramas on tape for sale at Marché Noir. The series include Gruselserie (The Spooky Series), Jan Tenner (a Flash Gordon style science fiction series), Masters of the Universe, Princess of Power, both Filmation and the Real Ghostbusters, Asterix, James Bond, Knight Rider, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The A-Team and The Simpsons.

Looking at the photo above, I’m struck by how many series there were of which I have zero memory, even though they had lots of installments. I remember Masters of the Universe, of course, and Jan Tenner (which is one of the few audio drama series that were not issued by Europa) and the Knight Rider series as well as popular series like The Three Investigators or TKKG (both teen mystery series) that aren’t pictured here, but I had no idea that the rather obscure Filmation Ghostbusters or even the much better known Real Ghostbusters ever had audio dramas, let alone James Bond or A Nightmare on Elm Street. Reissuing these audio dramas, particularly the licenced ones, is a rights nightmare, so these cassettes are highly collectible, since they are the only way to listen to many of those series (okay, a lot of them are also on YouTube).

Regarding the vintage toys, there were a lot of Star Wars toys on offer from all generations of the franchise. Masters of the Universe was also represented, but not quite as much. I also noticed that most of the Masters of the Universe toys on offer were from the vintage and to a lesser degree New Adventures era as well as some recent Masterverse and Origins figures. The 200X, Classics and vintage Princess of Power lines were much less represented, though there were a few things. Transformers, Marvel Legends and Playmobil were also quite well represented. I also spotted Micro Machines, Starcom, Bravestarr, The Real Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Biker Mice From Mars and lots of other toylines from the 1980s and 1990s. There was also a stall selling vintage wind-up tin toys, which predate the 1980s. As is common with vintage toy shows, at least in Germany, boy-focussed toylines were a lot more common than girl-focussed toylines, though I did spot a couple of Barbies, Monster High dolls, My Little Ponies and even two Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstone fashion sets still in box.

Later, I chatted with a woman who collects vintage dolls and hadn’t really found anything and was now waiting for her ride companions to return. “I only got a pair of socks”, she said.

Some custom Masters of the Universe Lego mini-figures on display at Marché Noir. Mattel owns the Lego rival Mega Construx, so there are no official Masters of the Universe Lego sets, though there were several Mega Construx sets.

A vintage New Adventures of He-Man Terrorclaw/Terrapod vehicle piloted by the evil space mutants Hoove and Karatti. I have a Classics Karatti and he’s awesome. No Hoove, alas, since he was never made in Classics and the vintage New Adventures figures aren’t in scale with anything and no Terrorclaw either. There’s also a collection of Godzillas, an Alien xenomorph and the Infinity Gauntleton display.

A selection of vintage Masters of the Universe vehicles on offer at Marché Noir. You can see the Laserbolt (first one I’ve ever seen in person), two Battle Rams, an Attak Track, a Road Ripper, a Wind Raider, a Roton, Panthor, Stridor, a Land Shark, Spidor, the Monstroid and the totally awesome Bashasaurus and Dragon Walker. Also note the beautiful in box vintage He-Man and Battlecat gift set as well as a Club She-Ra and Sorceress. There also are some vintage alarm clocks and – sigh – a Harry Potter jigsaw puzzle.

Those vehicles were very tempting, especially the Dragon Walker and the Bashasaurus, though my will power was strong enough to resist them. The fact that I’d probably have to deal with peeling stickers, missing pieces and mechanisms that either were broken or would break down in the none too far future also helped. But damn it, those vehicles were awesome.

My Haul

But enough about what I didn’t buy. I guess you want to hear and see what I did buy.

In addition to dealers selling all sorts of merchandise, there were also several small press publishers of comics, books and audio dramas present at Marché Noir. One of those publishers is Retrofabrik, who reprinted many of the West German Masters of the Universe comics of the 1980s and launched a new line of Masters of the Universe audio dramas last year. I already have all of their comic reprints courtesy of my friend local comic shop, but I was still missing the latest audio drama (episode 4), so I took the chance to purchase it at the con and compliment the Retrofabrik guys on their excellent work.

I also wound up purchasing a graphic novel biography of Friedrich Engels from the stall of the publisher and even got it signed by the author. We also chatted about the fact that Engels spent part of his youth in Bremen as an apprentice to a merchant.

The Trash-o-thek podcast, which is dedicated to trashy movies, offered a so-called Wonder Box at their stall. Five bucks got you a cardboard box which includes a trashy movie on DVD or BluRay, an audio dramas on CD and a selection of other goodies like small toys and candies. I think these boxes were also supposed to raise funds for the podcast and the con. At any rate, it’s a good deal and I got one of them.

And here is what’s inside the Wonder Box: A BluRay of the movie “Fortress: Sniper’s Eye”, the audio drama “Bloody Zombies in Bottrop”, a toy dart gun, a few postcards, a sticker, a mini-game and some retro candy.

I’m keeping the BluRay, the audio drama (Come on, who could resist Bloody Zombies in Bottrop?) and the postcards and gave the candy, the mini-game and the dart gun to my neighbour’s kids. The candy filled plastic seashell really brought back memories, because I loved those seashells as a kid, though I never liked the candy. I had no idea they were still making these. Still a good value. If I’d bought the BluRay and the audio drama separately, I’d probably have paid more.

As for toys, I found a 200X Teela, still on card (not sure if you could call it mint, because those 200X blisters are yellowing ferociously some twenty years on). I don’t really collect 200X figures – except that I occasionally pick them up, when I come across one I like – and I do like the 200X Teela. She’s also quite hard to find, because Mattel underproduced her due to some “boys don’t buy girl figures” gender essentialist nonsense. So I’m glad I finally got a Teela to go with my 200X Prince Adam and Man-at-Arms. I also picked up a loose but complete 200X Battle Cat for my 200X He-Man, because He-Man needs Battle Cat and my 200X He-Man doesn’t have one.

Finally, I also snagged a vintage Princess of Power Entrapta. She’s missing her tiara and her shield and has a few scratches, but otherwise she’s in good condition. Entrapta’s hair tends to get really messy, but this one looks nice.

My Marché Noir haul: A Wonder Box, a 200X Battle Cat, 200X Teela, vintage Princess of Power Entrapta, a graphic novel biography of Friedrich Engels and the latest Masters of the Universe audio drama by the Retrofabrik

The various accessories – mostly some kind of projectile launcher thing, because everything in the 200X line had to launch projectiles – that came with the 200X Battle Cat are not pictured, though they were included. I honestly don’t get this fascination of the 200X toyline with projectile launchers and I don’t think anybody else does either.

Once I’d done my round of the con and it started to get quite crowded, I took my haul back to the car and decided what to do next. But that’s a story for part 3.