Attraction

D’r Joep

Markt
Kerkrade
In 1939 Kerkradenaar Jean Hermans (son of a miner who died in an accident) came up with the idea to erect a monument in honor and glory of the miners in the Mining Region.

Because the financial resources were not available and the Second World War broke out, this idea was not yet realized.
In 1954 the committee 'monument to the miner' was founded to realize this idea.

The committee, chaired by alderman H. Hubben, consisted mainly of notables from Kerkrade's political and religious life. According to them, the national mining monument had to be in Kerkrade because that place was the cradle of the mining industry in the Netherlands.

In 1955 a number of artists were invited through a competition to make a model in plaster... 'for the miner, in
a figure on a pedestal, in which the nobility of his labour, his stalwart strength and greatness as a human being is portrayed. The monument is also intended as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the exercise of their profession and to those who were the first to
took up coal mining: the monks of Rolduc'.

The sculptor Wim van Hoorn is the designer of the statue and the bronze monument was unveiled on June 16, 1957. At the unveiling on June 16, 1957 on the Markt, Dr. Houben, Governor of Limburg, the statement: 'Doa shteet d'r Joep, inne real köaler!' (There is our Joep, a real miner).

The unveiling of the image was recorded in the Polygoon news. A dog-like creature is depicted on the front of the statue's pedestal. This creature represents a mining wolf as a visualization of the danger to which the miner was always exposed. On the back of the pedestal is a mine corridor with a lying miner in it.
This text has been automatically translated using an online translation service.

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