Austrian cave fertilizer campaign
The Austrian cave fertilizer campaign was a state-planned enterprise for the extraction of artificial fertilizer during the First World War in Austria .
In Austria, during the First World War, there was an increasing shortage of fertilizers containing phosphoric acid , as the hostile states were in possession of the most important phosphorus deposits and the soil was drained by the blockade. This caused a decline in crop yields, which led to food shortages . Harvest yields in 1917 were 50 to 70% below normal years, and further decline was feared for the next few years. Artificial fertilizers were only available in insufficient quantities. Fertilizers containing nitrogen and potassium could be procured partly through domestic production and through imports from the German Empire, but the situation was different with phosphoric acid.
In 1917 the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Agriculture envisaged the exploitation of local phosphate deposits. In order to enable a monopoly of the extraction and exploration of new deposits on foreign land, a bill with the title "Law on the extraction of phosphoric acid-containing substances that can be used for fertilization purposes" was introduced and dealt with immediately by parliament. On March 15, 1918, under the chairmanship of Section Head Viktor Deutsch in the Ministry of Agriculture, the decision was made to begin the preparatory work for phosphate extraction. In addition to the already known deposit in the Drachenhöhle , approx. 1500 caves were visited and examined and the data were combined in the large cave cadastre. The result of these investigations is no longer known today because the documents have been lost.
Since there was a risk that valuable scientific finds could be lost, the finds were concentrated in the Speleological Institute in Vienna, where they were also processed.
While dismantling began in the Badlhöhle and the Peggau wall caves , the Mixnitz plant was expanded. The Drachenhöhle near Mixnitz was connected to the valley with a telephone line, a high-voltage system and a cable car. The facilities built in Peggau, however, turned out to be unsuitable because of the moisture in the material and failed after a short time. Until the final cessation of operations on July 29, 1919, loading by hand with a shovel had to be converted. In the early summer of 1920, operations in Mixnitz began and the mining of the deposits in the cave began. After the cessation of operations on August 15, 1923 - the production had been stopped months before - the company was closed on March 1, 1924.
Despite all the deficiencies, a total of around 23,218,095 kg of cave manure could be used in agriculture.
| Dismantling site | amount promoted | P 2 O 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Peggau | 60 wagons | 36 tons |
| Badlhöhle | 400 tons | 28 tons |
| Drachenhöhle near Mixnitz | 3000 wagons | 2,500 tons |
| Lettenmayer cave near Kremsmünster | 10 tons | |
| Merkenstein cave near Baden | 6.6 tons | |
| Schwarzgraben Cave in the Hohe Wand | 2.4 tons |
Even after the Second World War , attempts were made to resume phosphate mining. Since the data from the Speleological Institute have been lost or are still stored in Germany, samples were taken in 1946 and 1947 by a group of students from the University and the Technical University of Graz in order to open up new phosphate caves. Only from the Lettenmayer cave near Kremsmünster is known a breakdown of 470,000 kg from 1945 to 1947.
literature
- Rudolf Saar : Activity report of the Federal Cave Commission . In: Speleological Yearbook . tape 6/9 , 1928, ZDB ID 131596-1 .
- Rudolf Saar: History and structure of the Austrian cave fertilizer campaign with special consideration of the Mixnitz plant. In: Othenio Abel : The Dragon Cave near Mixnitz (= Speleological Monographs. Volume 7/8, ZDB -ID 12154-x ). Text tape. Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1931, pp. 3–64.
- Alexander Schouppé: The phosphate deposits in Styria . In: Minutes of the 3rd General Assembly of the Federal Cave Commission . Federal Cave Commission at the Federal Ministry for Land u. Forestry, Vienna 1949, p. 38-54 .
- Rudolf Willner: The extraction of cave manure in Austria . In: Reports of the State Cave Commission . 1st year, no. 1/2 , 1920, ZDB -ID 131594-8 , p. 17-25 .