A monster lived atop the hill revered by all round,
and every day men fed it well with minerals from the ground.
Each man worked hard and in return the monster would disgorge
the contents of its bowels which men could sell or use to forge.
For many years the beast and man shared bounty from the ground,
and families grew, and young men knew, their future here was sound.
and even though the monster caused a stain upon the land,
the stains would pass unnoticed when it meant cash in your hand.
And on and on o’er many years the monster shared its life,
until one day a message came which caused the men great strife.
Some faceless fools from lands afar decreed the monster’s death,
“he’ll feed no more for monsters overseas will eat far less.”
So men in tears, whom through the years, had tended to the beast
must watch in awe, the monsters fall, and imports from the East.
And now it’s gone except a few sad objects sat in grime,
like trophies from a monster slain, long dead before its time.
The sun was just rising while we were already entering a forbidden area somewhere in Eastern Germany.
This mining mega machine was already visible from many miles away
since it’s towering above everything in the proximity.
To call this bucket-wheel excavator “giant” would be an understatement.
The dimensions are just overwhelming.
It seems like a whole factory on wheels.
Speaking of: This beast has six caterpillars in total.
Thereby it was able to achieve a maximum driving speed of roughly six meters per minute.
In total this colossus weighs over 3.800 tons.
That’s an unimaginably big number!
It looked like this thing originated directly from a Mad Max movie.
The wheel has a series of buckets attached.
Every single one of these buckets has a capacity of 1,5 cubic meters.
That’s 1.500 liters!
But we have been looking upwards for long enough now.
After all we were here to enjoy the view.
This bucket-wheel excavator was used at several brown coal mines in the region.
While the massive wheel would be rotating the buckets would pick up earth and dump it onto a conveyor belt.
These conveyor belts transported the earth to other vehicles for removal to the dumping site.
Despite the size only a small crew was needed to control the monster.
To be honest, climbing around on a totally rusted rotary excavator wasn’t the brightest idea we had that day.
These broken grids were the only thing between us and a death drop.
But the amazing view was totally worth it!
From the top of the vehicle you were able to see everything.
And everyone was able to see you…
“Just now we were on the top...“
“...and wanted to start the drone. But now we receive visitors. There's a man and his dog.”
“Let's see what he wants...”
Fortunately neither the guy nor his dogs spotted us.
But the surrounding villages slowly came alive.
So there were more and more people and we felt exposed to everyone.
“What's happening now? There are so many people!”
“Where‘s the other dog? Over there!“
“Gosh! Every one of them could see us. I mean we're on the highest point...”
After some time we discovered a banner that was took down a while ago.
“Thanks to the VEB BFG for this masterpiece”
The banner expresses thanks directed towards the company that had once built this steel monster.
Also this huge plaque is reminiscent of that.
In 1964, this bucket excavator was constructed.
The vehicle has a total length of 110 meters and it’s over 50 meters high.
Today its former color can only barely be recognized
but the whole excavator was painted blue a long time ago.
After that it was called “Blaues Wunder”. Or in English: “Blue Wonder”.
It’s said that the person in charge was even threatened with an administrative penalty as a consequence.
Because authorities didn’t like that this excavator
stood out from all the other mining vehicles which presented themselves in a uniform grey.
It was even possible to get in the belly of the beast.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much left to see.
Metal thieves had helped themselves already plenty of times.
After 35 years of mining activity this bucket-wheel excavator began its last voyage.
The reason: There was nothing left to excavate.
In 2003, the vehicle drove eight kilometers to its final resting place.
The surrounding cities had decided to preserve the colossus.
But it doesn’t look preserved at all.
Vandalism, graffiti and theft are getting out of control.
In addition wind and weather are giving the mining machine a hard time.
Within sight of renewable energy sources
this bucket excavator testifies the former brown coal mining in the region.
But that era is over.
And one of the largest land vehicles on Earth has now served its time.
For more photos of our explorations visit us on Facebook and Instagram.
This episode was made possible by our supporters on Patreon.
As a thank-you we will upload our next video already in a week.
It’s a bonus episode for all our viewers.
See you next Sunday, guys!