Not just anyone can do this job. You have to be tough and not worry about the future. On the road with Berlin’s last coal miners. Ralf is a coal merchant and has worked for Dirk Kögler’s company for more than 30 years. Kögler is one of the last coal traders in Berlin. In the cold season the heavy smell of soot and sulphur used to be all over the city. Now the Kreuzberger supplies only a few households.
Today he can only live from coal trading in autumn and winter. Over the summer he comes by taking other jobs. “You have to find a way to get through that. The season is too short. It used to be a month with little work – now it’s six.” He does clearing out, helps out when houses are torn down, drives his truck out to deliver goods for a wholesale plant business.
On the walls of the Kögler office hang photos of the great-grandfather and his coal wagon with horse and cart. The great-grandfather drove out the coal with this one. Next to it is the company’s first Unimog truck with which the coal is still driven out today.
