Saalburg marble

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Saalburg marble, type old red pattern approx. 24 × 14 cm

Saalburg marble is a collective term for a group of Thuringian-Vogtland natural stone . In the petrographic sense, most of them are not marbles , but Devonian limestones from the area in and around the municipality of Saalburg-Ebersdorf and the district of Greiz in Thuringia. Individual rock deposits have been known since 1743, the technical extraction and processing of natural stones in the Saalburg region began in 1886. These stones are available in different colors. The natural stone was used in numerous buildings around the world.

history

Saalburg marble works

Berlin Cathedral, chancel: pillars and pilasters from Saalburg Königsrot

In 1740, "marble" in the area around Saalburg was first mentioned by Johann Gottfried Büchner (1695–1749), when he noted the occurrence of polishable limestone in the regions around Schleiz and Burgk . The work of the sculptor Johann Gottlieb Herget, who made 7 table tops from “local marble” for Burgk Castle, was recorded in writing and thus the oldest proof of application to date .

In 1886 the building contractor Magnus Rödel and the builder Christian Heidecke leased the Franzenberg slate quarry near Grumbach . Heidecke became aware of the limestone quarry on the so-called Schafbrücke below the Bärenmühle near Wurzbach and leased it on January 1, 1887. Both bought the so-called Herrenmühle in 1888 and expanded it into the Saalburg marble works. There were gang saws , stone grinders and stone saws bought and 1890, the machine shop was completed. In these workshops, for example, the one meter thick columns of the Berlin Cathedral were created . In 1889 the factory had 70 workers and a year later 80.

In 1909, the marble works with 100 employees was the second largest company in this sector in Germany. By the outbreak of the First World War , their number rose to 140.

Before the First World War , the people of Saalburg were commissioned to build columns for the Imperial Palace in Beijing. The stone cargo to Beijing was lost by sea after the start of the war and ten tall pillars remained in the workshops. After the war, the builders Heidecke and the Ministerialrat Johannes Grube and Fritz Kaye from Bremen continued to run the company, from 1925 Heidecke alone. In the spring of 1931, Heidecke jointly ran the Saalburg marble works with Josef Hauser. The city of Saalburg received a railway connection and the plant relocated to Saalburg, as the city provided the company with a free building site with a railway connection.

After Georg Heidecke's death by drowning in 1932, Josef Hauser took over the shares of Heideck's heirs in the Bleilochtalsperre and continued to run the business alone. This fateful turn was of great importance for the Saalburg marble works, because Hauser was a staunch National Socialist and wanted to be close to leading Nazis such as Adolf Hitler and Fritz Sauckel . Hauser founded a so-called factory group in his company, which presented itself in uniform on the occasion of the 50th anniversary in the Festschrift under a standard with a swastika. He made the staff at that time a follower or a member of the followers and the party comrade Hauser became the manager . In 1937 the workforce consisted of 155 employees.

New Reich Chancellery

The fixtures of Saalburg marble in the dining room and in the other extensions of the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin were particularly well known:

“For these 12 massive columns, over six meters high, 16 wall pilaster strips and 4 corner pilaster strips, which were intended for the dining room of the Reich Chancellery, the Fuehrer himself selected bright pink calm in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The work began in the Gottschall break. [...] The work was delivered on the set deadline and was recognized by the Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Josef Hauser stood in front of the guide in the dining room and was allowed to receive this recognition. "

The whereabouts of the columns and the massive fixtures of the New Reich Chancellery remained unclear after the war. After 1945, Saalburg marble continued to be used for representative buildings in the GDR because its decorative types had been used extensively in architecture for decades. Nevertheless, there were numerous rumors about the reuse of the material from the New Reich Chancellery. These assumptions concern the foyer of the Humboldt University , the Mohrenstrasse underground station and the Soviet memorials ( Treptower Park , Tiergarten and Schönholzer Heide ) in Berlin. After a detailed petrographic examination of the stone materials processed there, these rumors have no real basis.

After 1945

Different types of flooring, around 1960–61

After the Second World War , the company continued to operate as VEB Saalburger Marmorwerke. After the fall of the Wall, Saalburger Marmorwerke GmbH was founded in November 1991 as a processor of natural stone and TNW Natursteinwerke GmbH and Co. KG as a raw material supplier. Limestone is mined near Tegau by Hartsteinwerke Burgk GmbH & Co. OHG.

Selected used rock deposits

The limestone was available with several trade names and from different quarries in the Thuringian Slate Mountains and adjacent parts of the Thuringian Vogtland :

  • near Tegau in the Gottschall quarry (from 1897) and in the Vogelsberg quarry (from 1907): Saalburg Altrot (color deep dark red). Saalburg Buntrosa-calm (Gottschall-Steinbruch) and Saalburg Buntrosa lively , furthermore Saalburg Edelgrau-Trout
  • in the Kapfenberg quarry near Pahren : Kapfenberg (dark to black-gray), at the beginning of the 20th century also known under the trade name Colombriso .
  • In the quarry near Tanna : Saalburg Königsrot (color dark red to violet red with white or reddish colored calcite veins .)
  • in the quarry near Rothenacker : Saalburg purple , lively structure
  • in the quarry of the Pößnigsbach valley (today in the Bleilochtalsperre ): Saalburg Meergrün and Saalburg Schwarz

Today, material is only extracted in individual quarries.

Buildings and stone work

The facade elements of the Hotel Elephant in Weimar are made of Saalburg marble

See also

literature

  • 50 years of work, Saalburg marble works, 1888 - 1938. On the day of the 50th anniversary, Kupp, Reichenstein & Helmrich, Schleiz o. J. (1938).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard Weise: Natural stone of the Saale-Orla-Kreis (part 2) . In: Contributions to the geology of Thuringia, New Series, Issue 21, pp. 147–196, here p. 165.
  2. ^ A b Otmar Hartenstein: Jobs for the region. On the history of the Saalburg marble works . In: Gudrun Braune (ed.): From life in the Oberland. Everyday life in the Thuringian Slate Mountains / Upper Saale region . State capital Erfurt, City Administration, Erfurt 2013, pp. 84–97
  3. ↑ Saalburger Marmorwerke, p. 4, see Lit.
  4. ↑ Saalburger Marmorwerke, p. 22, see lit.
  5. ↑ Hans-Ernst Mittig : ' Marble of the Reich Chancellery . In: Dieter Bingen, Hans-Martin Hinz (eds.): The razing, destruction and reconstruction of historical buildings in Germany and Poland. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-447-05096-9 , online at www.zeitgeschichte-online.de