Mining in Saarland

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The mining in the Saar since the Celtic also on record time by excavations and since 1429th Scheduled hard coal mining was only operated from the middle of the 18th century . Saarland mining developed a major role in the period of industrialization from 1850 onwards. The establishment of the German Empire in 1871 brought a renewed upswing in Germany with high industrialization . From this time on, the population in the Saar area increased sharply. The promotion of the energy resource coal also favored the establishment of the steel industry on site. In the first half of the 20th century, more than 60,000 people worked in the Saarland mines at peak times. In the post-war period , the coal and steel industry began to gradually decline. In 2008 there was only one active hard coal mine, the Saar mine , in which around 3,600 people worked. Another 7000 employees worked in the supply industry for the Saarland mining industry. After more than 200 years, when the Saar mine closed at the end of June 2012, hard coal mining in Saarland ended.

Hard coal mining

prehistory

The mining of coal in the Saar region has been documented since the time of the Celtic settlement: In 1982, when a burial mound from the 7th century BC was excavated. A carved coal bead was found in Rubenheim as a grave goods, which through a palynological investigation could be assigned to a Kännel seam near Heinitz . Even in Roman times near-surface coal mining was apparently practiced on the Saar: In the grave of a woman (called "Ursula von Roden" by archaeologists) from the 3rd century AD, "Gagat rings" (jewelry rings made from cut coal) were found. The mining has been documented in writing since the late Middle Ages: In 1371, Emperor Charles IV granted Count Johann von Nassau-Saarbrücken the mining rights. In 1429 the lay judges of Ottweiler confirmed mining work near Ottweiler. For centuries, however, this mining took place only near the surface and on a small scale. That changed under Prince Wilhelm Heinrich von Nassau-Saarbrücken (1718–1768).

The princely administration 1750–1793

Wilhelm Heinrich von Nassau-Saarbrücken bought all of the mines in 1750/51. From then on, the private mining and sale of coal was prohibited. Land sales and waterways were developed as transport routes. The coal became a commodity and covered far more than local needs. The originally rich wood supplies were running out; Coal became a popular commodity as fuel for industry and households. In 1766 there were 12 mines in the Saar area in Schwalbach , Stangenmühle , Klarenthal , Gersweiler , Rußhütte , Jägersfreude , Friedrichsthal (Saar) , Schiffweiler , Wellesweiler , Dudweiler , Sulzbach and Burbach . In 1773 there were 45 tunnels with 143 miners. The most important were Dudweiler and Wellesweiler. Total production in 1790 was just over 50,000 tons of coal; The Ensdorf mine lasts about 5 days for this amount of coal . In 1769 the first so-called “brother box” was founded for the county's miners, a social fund from which the Saarknappschaft later emerged.

French administration 1793–1815

In the First Coalition War , which a coalition formed by Austria, Prussia and other German states waged against France from 1792, the left bank of the Rhine - and with it the later Saarland - was conquered by French troops. In 1798 the area around the Saar was incorporated into the French administration as the Département de la Sarre .

During the 20 years of French administration, the mines were leased to the French company Equer & Co., Paris , for ten years . The French tax authorities later had the idea of ​​selling the Saarland mines to private entrepreneurs. There are several indications for this: First, the imperial decree of August 13, 1808, which was supposed to regulate the sale of the mines, but was not implemented due to the outbreak of the Russian War . On the other hand, the administration was always referred to as provisional; and finally, the entire authorization field of the Saarbrücken coal mines was already divided into 60 mine fields (concessions). Corresponding map material , the Saargruben- , also called Duhamel-Atlas , was made by the French engineers Louis-Antoine Beaunier (1779-1835), Michel-François Calmelet (1782-1817) and largely by Jean Baptist Duhamel (1767-1847) .

The Prussian Mountain Treasury 1815-1919

Mining Directorate Saarbrücken ( Martin Gropius , 1880)

After the Allies' victory over Napoleon in 1814, the recaptured areas on the left bank of the Rhine were divided up among the German states. The majority of the Saar area was incorporated into the Prussian Rhine Province as a result of the territorial reorganization in 1822 . From the 1820s, steam engines were introduced into the Saarland mines. In 1822 the first vertical been shaft in Hostenbach geteuft - previously the coal via lugs and has obliquely been exaggerated in the depth shafts promoted . By founding more pits, the production tripled to almost 700,000 m³. The number of employees also rose: from 1383 to 4580. The mining industry experienced a powerful boom when the Saarbrücken railway opened at the beginning of the 1850s. Coking plants have now also been built. In 1860 the production amounted to 2 million tons and 11,000 miners were now working in the Saarland mines. In 1861 the previous mining office was closed because it was overwhelmed with the management of the mines, and the Royal Prussian Mining Directorate was founded in Saarbrücken, which moved into the new administration building from Martin Gropius in 1880 . The Saar Canal was opened in 1866, making the Saarland coal mining area accessible by water. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 there was a boom. The need for miners was great, which is why miners from the Hunsrück , the Eifel and the Palatinate were recruited. The population almost exploded in numerous towns. The boom in hard coal production also enabled the steel industry to expand further, and Völklinger Hütte was founded in 1873 . Further development stagnated from 1880 to 1895. Around 1900, the existing mines were expanded, the number of miners increased to 41,210, whereupon the production figures also rose: 9.4 million tons of coal. In 1900, 783 steam engines were in use. In the last pre-war year 1913, the production amounted to around 14 million tons and the workforce 56,903 miners.

After the First World War

After the First World War, France was given ownership of the Saar mines; France increasingly relied on engine power for mining. The production volume rose between 1920 and 1929 from nine to over 13 million tons. In 1934, 82 horses were still doing their service underground. On March 1, 1935, the Saar area was incorporated into the German Reich. The Second World War put an end to the upward trend in 1939. During the Second World War , production fell from a peak of 15.3 million tons in 1942 to 12.4 million tons in 1945. The workforce decreased from almost 54,000 to around 34,000 miners and employees during the same period.

After the Second World War - the "Mission Française des Mines de la Sarre"

Miner on a 9 Franc 1948 stamp
Headframe over the Göttelborn IV shaft , built 1990–1992

After the war, control of the mines passed into the hands of the "Mission Française des Mines de la Sarre". In the course of the next few years it was initially a matter of replacing the war damage in order to achieve the highest possible funding and to create secure jobs. Subsequently, the Saarbergwerke company was founded on January 1st, 1954 . After the reorganization of the Saarland, the Federal Republic of Germany was the main shareholder with 74% of the shares from 1957, the rest of the shares were held by the state.

The era of mine closures since the 1960s

In the 1960s the number of pits was reduced from 18 to six; During the coal crisis, annual production fell from 17 to 10 million tons. The structural change continued in the following decades, in 1987 a further, drastic reduction in the production rates was decided. At the beginning of the 1990s there were still 18,000 employees in mining. The annual production was around 9 million tons. In November 1990, coal production at the Camphausen site was stopped, and the Luisenthal mine was closed at the end of 1994 . According to an agreement of March 1997, the number of miners was to drop from 14,400 to 8,200 within the next eight years. In the same year the Saarland government sold its share in the Saar mines to RAG for the symbolic price of one mark. RAG - which was renamed Ruhrkohle AG - spun off its loss-making mining activities to Deutsche Steinkohle AG and henceforth dedicated itself to the fields of chemistry, energy and real estate. The Göttelborn / Reden mine was closed on September 1, 2000 as the third last mine. At the end of 2006, Ensdorf was still a mine in operation; With around 4,000 employees, 3.7 million tons of coal were mined each year.

The last coal mined in Saarland

Mining stopped due to mountain damage in 2008

Since there was property damage to houses in the Saarland due to mining-related rockfalls (" mountain damage "), citizens in the mining areas formed interest groups and demanded an exit from mining. As early as 2001, a homeowner who saw his property endangered by the vibrations caused by the mining industry had obtained a temporary break in mining before the administrative court. On February 23, 2008, there was the strongest mining-related rockfall in Saarland. The earthquake reached a strength of 4.5 on the Richter scale with a maximum vibration speed of 93.5 mm / s, according to other information a value of 4.0 on the Richter scale. The Saarland state government thereupon ordered a provisional, unlimited mining freeze on the same day.

The cause of the massive tremors was the hard coal mining . The coal was removed from under a layer of sandstone. By the progressive dismantling of the cavity (was Old Man ) getting bigger, in 2008 he set out over a large area - possibly over the entire field - together . In other mining areas, the layers of the earth are so unstable that the cavities collapse shortly after mining. The energy is distributed there over many smaller vibrations, the resulting mountain subsidence is distributed upwards in a "funnel-shaped" manner over a larger area. However, such funnels cannot form in layers of sandstone.

After the earthquake on February 23, 2008, the RAG offered to blast the sandstone layers in a controlled manner after the coal had been extracted so that excessive fractures could not occur. However, this method would increase the cost of coal mining considerably. The longer the mining stop, the greater the likelihood that the rock pressure will damage the conveyor technology.

Final shutdown

The Bundestag decided to phase out hard coal production in 2018 (see Hard Coal Financing Act ). On June 30, 2012, hard coal mining in Saarland was finally stopped.

The end of the Saar mine was "socially acceptable" without layoffs. Older miners from Saarland were able to take advantage of early retirement schemes , while younger ones were transferred to other RAG Deutsche Steinkohle AG locations (mines in the Ruhr area or in Ibbenbüren ). The “middle generation” took over the dismantling and safety work in the Saar mine. The same also applied to the day-to-day employees.

The drainage after closure takes place at five locations, namely speeches to shafts of the former mines, Duhamel (Ensdorf), Camphausen, Victoria (Püttlingen) and Luisenthal. Around 120 employees maintain the pumps and the infrastructure required for their underground operation.

A pilot project " mine flooding ", you can now to the flooding of abandoned coal mines.

Copper mining

From the 18th to the 20th century, copper was mined in the Düppenweiler mine.

Lime mining

The Auersmacher limestone mine is the last mine in operation in the Saarland. Lime is mined there, which is used as an additive in pig iron production in the Rogesa blast furnace in Dillingen.

Mining museum / visitor mines and visitor caves

In addition to the Saarland Mining Museum in Bexbach, the Velsen adventure mine and the St. Ingberter Rischbachstollen there are some underground visitor facilities outside of the coal mining industry:

List of mines

Individual evidence

  1. Number of employees according to “Die Welt” of February 25, 2008
  2. Ceremony on June 30, 2012: tagesschau.de: Ceremony ends the era of hard coal mining in Saarland (Adobe Flashplayer required)
  3. Herbert Müller: The coal carver of the Celts . In: Saar stories. Magazine on regional culture and history . Edition Schaumberg, Saarbrücken, vol. 2008, volume 1: Farewell to coal - The history of mining on the Saar , p. 12.
  4. Herbert Müller: The coal carver of the Celts . In: Saar stories. Magazine on regional culture and history . Edition Schaumberg, Saarbrücken, year 2008, issue 1, p. 14f.
  5. ^ A b Klaus Brill : Why there is the Saarland - Farewell to coal . In: Saar stories. Magazine on regional culture and history . Edition Schaumberg, Saarbrücken, vol. 2008, issue 1: Farewell to coal - The history of mining on the Saar , p. 8.
  6. a b for the history of mining since 1954 see: A long tradition. The chronology of mining on the Saar. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 48/2008 (February 26, 2008), p. 17.
  7. ^ GFZ Potsdam
  8. University of Freiburg ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lgrb.uni-freiburg.de
  9. a b Deutschlandradio March 14, 2008
  10. Gregor Zewe: Guardian of the water. Even after the end of active mining, the mine water needs a lot of attention. In: coal. The RAG Aktiengesellschaft employee magazine, year 2017, issue 3, pp. 12–13.
  11. The Walhausen copper and lead mine

literature

  • Regional association of the historical-cultural associations of Saarland e. V., Historical Association for the Saar Region e. V .: Farewell to coal - the history of mining on the Saar. In: Saar stories. Magazine on regional culture and history. Saarbrücken-Scheidt 2008.1. ISSN  1866-573X
  • Franz Rauber: 250 years of state mining on the Saar. (2 volumes), Pirrot, Saarbrücken 2007. ISBN 3-937436-16-2 (volume 1), ISBN 3-937436-15-4 (volume 2)
  • Klaus-Michael Mallmann : The beginnings of the miners' movement on the Saar 1848–1904. Minerva-Verlag Thinnes and Nolte, Saarbrücken 1981. ISBN 3-477-00065-X
  • Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Horst Steffens: Reward for the effort. History of the miners on the Saar. Beck, Munich 1989. ISBN 3-406-33988-3
  • Delf Slotta The Saarland coal mining publisher Krüger Druck und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (Dillingen / Saar 2011), publisher: RAG Aktiengesellschaft (Herne) and Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland e. V. (Schiffweiler), ISBN 978-3-00-035206-5

Web links