Alte Schmelz (St. Ingbert)

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The mechanical workshop of the Alte Schmelz , today an event hall
Renovated "Möller-Halle" on the Alte Schmelz (built 1750)
“Konsum” building with a renovated workers' house in the background

The Alte Schmelz is an ensemble of industrial culture in St. Ingbert . All important parts of the building are now listed ( see list of architectural monuments in St. Ingbert ). It is a clear testimony to entrepreneurial housing care and a historical example of the close proximity of living and working in an ironworks over the past 250 years. The different phases of the development history of the company, which was founded in 1733, can still be clearly read today. In addition, the contemporary, clear internal social structures and hierarchies of the patriarchally run large company become clear: The two director's villas are separated from the factory behind walls in a spacious English landscaped park, right next to the factory is the workers' settlement with the small vegetable gardens, a consumer shop with those from the factory Discounted goods and a sleeping house for 144 men a little further outside.

With innovative manufacturing techniques, the company was able to assert itself on the changing coal and steel market. Through multiple sales during the steel crisis of the 1980s, the number of employees was reduced to just under 200 today. It has been part of Saarstahl AG since 1993 . The city of St. Ingbert is negotiating with the company to buy up the extensive park for historical restoration, half of which belongs to both partners and has not been cultivated for decades.

history

The ironworks was founded by a contract from 1732 between Count Carl-Caspar von der Leyen and a consortium of the smelters Karl Gottbill and Conrad Lehnen, smelter in Nunkirchen and the master blacksmith Josef Loth from Blieskastel . It started operating a year later. It comprised hammer mill and smelter. Products at that time were firebacks, cannon balls, stoves, pots, vases, candelabra and the like. After Josef Loth's death in 1743, his widow Katharina Loth managed the company. The Möllerhalle was built in 1750 (recognizable by a year in the lintel ). Today it is the oldest industrial monument in Saarland .

The Gräfliche Rentkammer (financial administration) terminated the smelter contract for the widow Loth in 1759 and handed the work over to Peter Lauer. Katharina Loth founded the Rentrischer Hammerwerk. In 1771, construction of the first so-called long house with workers' apartments began. The businessman Philipp Heinrich Krämer (1754–1803) took over a share of the lease and management of the plant in 1788. A year later, the workforce consisted of 18 ironworkers with their families as well as 18 ore or coal graves and charcoal burners . In 1791, Krämer became the sole tenant of the plant. Nine years later, Krämer also leased the Rentrischer Hammer. Between 1800 and 1804 four more workers' houses were built.

Former workshop and warehouse with industrial track

Ms. Sophie Krämer (1763–1833), the widow of Philipp Heinrich Krämer, took over the plant in 1804 for a purchase price of 47,000 francs, making it a spatially and economically important company in 30 years. Around 1806 the first houses of the still existing settlement were built. The mansion was built one year later, and the two masters' houses followed around 1810. In the same year the Möllerhalle received a clock and bell. Between 1816 and 1919 St. Ingbert belonged to the Kingdom of Bavaria , Rentrisch to Prussia . The consequence of this was that customs duties had to be paid for internal traffic with the Rentrischer Eisenhammer .

In 1829 St. Ingbert received city rights and had a population of 2,500. Four years later, the coal-fired puddle furnace was put into operation and the first steam engine was installed in the St. Ingbert ironworks in the Saar district. The foundry , which has since been demolished, was built in 1852 . The following year the ironworks set up an aid and health insurance scheme .

St. Ingbert had 6,000 inhabitants in 1858 and was the most important industrial location in the Palatinate. The hut fire brigade was founded six years later. St. Ingbert was connected to the railway in 1865, three years later a new puddling plant with 16 ovens and two steam hammers and an administration building were built. After two more years, the so-called “Krämers Schlößchen”, which was demolished in 1971, was built. In 1873 a company-owned hospital was set up in the Kohlenstrasse. Twelve years later, in 1885, the blast furnaces were shut down and two years later electrical lighting was installed throughout the plant. The hut association and the hut chapel were founded in 1888. A year later, the limited partnership (KG) was converted into "Eisenwerk Krämer AG".

The consumer association was founded in 1890. In 1892, construction began on the first director's villa, and the four staff houses were built a year later. The Thomasstahlwerk started operations in 1894. Now steel could be produced in large quantities. In 1895 St. Ingbert had 12,000 inhabitants. Ten years later the "Eisenwerk Kraemer AG" merged with the "Rümelinger Hochofen AG" to form the "Rümelinger und St. Ingberter Hochöfen und Stahlwerke AG". The area of ​​the plant was now 68 hectares including the park . In the same year the second director's villa was built.

Rail, rolled in the Kraemer ironworks in 1908

In 1907 the workers' home (sleeping quarters with dining establishment) and the consumer building were built, and the expansion and modernization of the plant began. The steelworks and rolling mills were expanded, and wire processing expanded. During this time, the mechanical workshop, the electrical center with converter station, the annealing shop, the pickling shop and fine drawing, the model carpentry and the so-called plastic plant were built. The factory wall was erected and a demarcation to the urban area was created. Three years later, the Rentrische Hammer was shut down and construction of the universal rolling mill and wire galvanizing began. In 1911 the "Rümelinger and St. Ingberter Hohöfen und Stahlwerke AG" formed an interest group with the "German-Luxembourgish Mining and Hütten-AG".

The so-called "French School"

In 1913 the ironworks employed around 2,200 workers. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, steel production was discontinued and switched to armaments. The steel mill was shut down in 1916 due to an insecure supply of raw materials and the block mill was relocated to Differdange in Luxembourg . At the end of the First World War in 1918, women made up around 22 percent of the workforce.

St. Ingbert was incorporated into the Saar area in 1919 , and the internal tariffs were no longer applicable. A year later, the company was acquired by the “Société des Hauts Fourneaux et Aciéries de Differdange-St. Ingbert-Rumelange (HADIR) ”, the company then specialized in wire products and strapping. In 1926, the 200 employees of the wire mill went on strike from August 4th to September 24th for higher wages. The plant management only promised to examine the individual chords .

Around 1,300 workers were employed in the ironworks in 1932. Forced laborers , including both prisoners of war and civilians, kept production going between 1942 and 1944 . They were housed in barracks on the Alte Schmelz. After the Second World War, ironworkers across the Saarland went on strike in February 1955 against the government's forced arbitration in the wage conflict.

In 1962 the workforce was 1,100 manual workers and 136 salaried employees. The company had an annual production of around 200,000 tons of wire and rolled products. Five years later, HADIR merged with the Luxembourg-based ARBED . In 1974, short-time work had to be registered for the first time for 400 employees in strip processing and wire processing. Six years later, the rolling mills were shut down, which was accompanied by a loss of around 300 jobs. Since then, only wire has been processed. In 1981 the plant employed around 860 people. Mainly pit mats and steel mesh, wire mesh and drawn wire for household appliances and the automotive industry were produced. In 1984 the company "Drahtwerk St. Ingbert" was formed, the shareholder was TechnoARBED Germany, from which Saarstahl later emerged.

In 1988 the factory building and settlement - a total of 12 individual buildings, 30 houses under ensemble protection - were placed under monument protection. In 1992, the territorial unity of the "Alte Schmelz" plant and settlement fell apart in terms of ownership and planning law. The sale of the dormitory began. One year later, Saarstahl AG, now the factory owner, filed for bankruptcy. In the same year a street festival was held on the Alte Schmelz and the workers' association was founded. In 1994, a municipal management company temporarily took over the settlement and began the renovation work. The 1995 housing cooperative became the owner of the estate in 1996. Production in the upper plant ( Drahtwerk Nord Areal ) was shut down, where welded wire mesh was last manufactured. The housing cooperative began the fifth phase of renovation in 2000. A year later, in 2001, the St. Ingbert wire plant had 191 employees. The wire is mainly obtained from Saarbrücken-Burbach, partly also from Neunkirchen (both Saarstahl) and processed in St. Ingbert. The production range includes bare, copper-plated and galvanized wire, free-cutting steel, straightened rods, PVC wire, square braids and knotted braids.

literature

  • Nimmesgern, Susanne: The smelters. Entrepreneurial women, hut women, forced laborers at the St. Ingbert ironworks. Ed .: Initiative Alte Schmelz St. Ingbert eV St. Ingbert: Röhrig Universitätsverlag, 2nd, revised and expanded edition, 2012. 220 p., Numerous. Fig.ISBN 978-3-86110-485-8 .
  • Ganster, Anja: "The history of the St. Ingbert ironworks: Die Schmelz". Ed .: Heimat- und Verkehrsverein St. Ingbert, 2000, 108 pp.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “Aufbruch instead of Demolition”, City of St. Ingbert, Initiative Alte Schmelz, image brochure, 2006

Web links

Coordinates: 49 ° 16 '26.83 "  N , 7 ° 5' 59.53"  O