German hard coal mining has ended, but some of its costs will never end. German calls them Ewigkeitslasten, eternity burdens. Water must be pumped out of the old mines permanently. Land that has sunk must be kept from flooding, and groundwater at former mine sites must be cleaned. The RAG Foundation was set up in 2007 to pay for these tasks from 2019 onward. A paper on its tasks put the expected spending from 2019 at about 220 million euros. If its assets are not enough, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland guarantee the financing permanently. A paper on the foundation’s tasks carries the title Ewigkeit ist eine Menge Zukunft, eternity is a lot of future.