Courrières mining disaster
| Courrières mine | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
 |
|||
| Mining technology | Underground mining | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Compagnie des mines de Courrières | ||
| Start of operation | 1852 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Hard coal | ||
| Greatest depth | 400 m | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 24 '56 " N , 2 ° 53' 52" E | ||
|
|||
| Location | Billy-Montigny | ||
| local community | Courrières | ||
| ( NUTS3 ) | Pas-de-Calais | ||
| Department | Pas-de-Calais department | ||
| Country | France | ||
| District | Northern French coal field | ||
The Courrières mining disaster occurred on March 10, 1906 in the town of Courrières in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France . With 1,099 deaths - including many children - it was and still is the mining disaster in Europe with the most fatalities. (see also list of mining accidents ). The mine was operated by the Compagnie des mines de Courrières (founded in 1852).
Course of the disaster
Around 1,800 miners were working underground in the Auguste Lavors, Lavaleresse and Sainte-Barbe shafts at a depth of around 300 to 400 m when a massive coal dust explosion rocked the mine at around 6:30 a.m. The exact cause of the explosion remained unclear. Shaft towers and shafts were damaged by the force of the explosion . The scale of the disaster overwhelmed the local aid workers; rescue teams were requested from abroad.
The rescue measures for the miners trapped underground made only slow progress. A total of around 600 miners were rescued. Many of them suffered severe burns and gas poisoning. Most of the miners came from the surrounding settlements of Billy-Montigny , Sallaumines , Méricourt and Noyelles-sous-Lens .
Many miners used open flame pit lamps despite the risk of causing an explosion. Safety miner's lights have been around for decades ; however, these were more expensive than the simple lamps.
At the funerals, protests took place against the operating company, which was accused of deliberately delaying the opening of the blocked shafts in order to limit the deposit losses. 13 survivors ( rescapés ) were rescued 20 days after the explosion on March 30, one last survivor on April 4.
A relief team from the Ruhr area
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On the initiative of the miner Konrad Engel (1862–1912), managing director of the Association for Mining Interests in the Dortmund Upper Mining District , a volunteer German rescue team of 25 miners from the Shamrock and Rheinelbe collieries of the Hibernia mining company, headed by the mine director Georg Albrecht Meyer, broke On the evening of March 11th to France. With the help of breathing apparatus, they penetrated the gas plumes in search of survivors and found the dead there.
The work of the German miners was praised , among others, by the French socialist leader Jean Jaurès and received worldwide attention, also because the relations between the French 3rd Republic and the German Reich were very tense a few years before the outbreak of the First World War (see also revanchism ).
Reception in art
The first film adaptation of Le Feu à la mine took place in 1911. Against the background of the League of Nations idea, Georg Wilhelm Pabst addressed international solidarity with the film comradeship in 1931 .
Women awaiting the rescue of their husbands and sons, March 10, 1906
German rescue team on the way to Courrieres
Burial of the victims on March 13, 1906
The 13 miners who were rescued on March 30th.
Memorial “Path of the Survivors”, 100th anniversary on March 10, 2006
Others
After the end of the Second World War (and before the Franco-German friendship treaty of 1963), Herne tried to find a town twinning with the cities of Lens , Billy-Montigny and Hénin (all located near Courrières). A partnership between Hénin and Herne was signed in 1954. In 1971, Beaumont was added due to the French territorial reform. In recognition of this symbol of Franco-German friendship, the Aristide Briand Medal was presented in 1967.
There is a Courrieresstraße in Herne.
During the occupation of the Ruhr , members of the rescue team who offered passive resistance (taking part in the general strike) were arrested and charged by French troops. Relatives brought them to prison the medals of honor that they had received in France in 1906; the men wore these medals when they appeared before the judge. This did not open the process, but released the men.
See also
literature
- Michael Farrenkopf, Peter Friedemann (ed.): The Courrières Pit Disaster in 1906 , Aspects of transnational history, Bochum 2008.
- Michael Farrenkopf: Courrières 1906 - A catastrophe in Europe. Explosion risk and solidarity in mining. Bochum 2006. ISBN 3-937203-23-0 (Guide and catalog for the exhibition of the German Mining Museum Bochum, the Institute for Urban History Gelsenkirchen and the Herne City Archives)
- Heinz-Otto Sieburg : The Courrières Pit Disaster in 1906: a contribution to the social history of the Third Republic and to Franco-German relations at the turn of the century , Verlag F. Steiner Wiesbaden, 1967
- Bruno Vouters: Courrières 10 mars 1906: la terrible catastrophe. Lille: Editions La Voix du Nord. 2006. ISBN 2-84393-100-2 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert G. Neville: The Courrieres Colliery Disaster . In: Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan. 1978), pp. 33-52
- ↑ Helga Belach and Wolfgang Jacobsen: Limits of Criticism
- ↑ Help was the foundation stone for town twinning (WAZ July 24, 2011)
- ↑ The Courrières mine disaster in 1906 - Aspects of transnational history (PDF, 30 pages; 148 kB)
