Pass This On. Protocols and Fictions for Ruins of Coal Extraction in Germany

In Germany, the energy transition is ending decades of coal extraction. This leaves our generation with obsolete infrastructures, devastated land, and unsolved responsibilities. Pass This On investigates how to communally inherit ruins of extraction and reclaim potential resources. Through Protocols and Fictions, three case studies imagine possible futures for the Rheinisches Revier: Unbuilding the obsolete power plant Frimmersdorf proposes a process of careful dismantling and sorting, offering an alternative to demolition and capitalist redevelopment. The ruin becomes a shared resource, facilitating reuse practices. Reactivating the abandoned village of Bürgewald replaces plot boundaries with public grounds and land trusts. To counter speculation and sprawl, backyard extensions evolve into a systematic renovation tool to densify, expand, and connect the existing. Hijacking the last extraction site at Manheim recodes extraction machinery and ground water pumps to prepare for wetland ecologies. This post-natural landscape follows non-human timescales detached from speculative lake futures.