Overview
- Local officials, churches and the mining association will ring church bells at 10 a.m. and lead a memorial march to lay flowers at the grave monument in Zwickau’s main cemetery.
- An underground explosion during the early shift on February 22, 1960, at roughly 1,000–1,100 meters depth killed 123 people at the VEB Steinkohlewerk "Karl Marx."
- Rescue attempts were hindered by fire, smoke and oxygen loss; after six days authorities sealed the shaft, with 17 bodies recovered, 55 men rescued or escaped, and 106 listed as missing at that time.
- DDR authorities declined offers of Western mine-rescue assistance, while Czechoslovak miners took part in the rescue effort.
- A joint city–mining association review, including Stasi files and eyewitness interviews, reported in 2010 that the blast’s origin point differed from earlier assumptions but the precise cause remains unproven and no credible evidence supported a suicide theory.