In February 2007, the federal government, the coal-mining states, the company RAG and the miners’ union agreed to end subsidized hard coal mining in Germany by the end of 2018, in a socially acceptable way. A law of 2008 put the agreement into effect. On 21 December 2018, the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop closed in an official ceremony. It was the end of hard coal mining in Germany. In the 20 years before, the mining company RAG had cut more than 80,000 jobs. In June 2019, Bärbel Bergerhoff-Wodopia of the RAG Foundation said that every one of them had been cut in a socially acceptable way: Kein Bergmann ist ins Bergfreie gefallen. No miner fell into the unclaimed ground, that is, into nothing. About 200 employees refused every solution offered to them. RAG dismissed them.