Blue color works Oberschlema
The Blue Color Works Oberschlema was with 42 buildings once the largest Blue Color Works in the world. It was demolished in 1964. Today a cast iron plaque reminds of the location of the plant in Bad Schlema in the Ore Mountains .
history
Around 1520 Peter Weidenhammer introduced the well-known process for the production of safflower in the Ore Mountains. The cobalt blue known today was developed around 1540 by the owner of the Eulenhütte near Neuhammer , Christoph Schürer . In the following decades, apart from two attempts in Saxony, only safflower was produced and sold. It was only on 5 September 1641 Schneeberger municipal judge and trades Hans Burkhardt received by Elector Johann Georg I the privilege to build a color mill at Aue . The city of Aue opposed the construction of the plant. Burkhardt then chose Oberschlema as the location . Here, however, the Council of Schneeberg spoke out against it. Only through the mediation of an electoral commission did the Council of Schneeberg give in on condition that Schneeberg paid 12 guilders a year. On July 28, 1642, Burkhardt received the privilege of building a paint mill from the Elector. The first paint mill in the Electorate of Saxony was then built in 1644. The main product of this work was no longer the safflower, but the end product of the paint production, the smalt . On July 28, 1649, a cobalt contract was concluded in which, among other things, it was decreed that only four blue-color plants would be permitted in the Electorate of Saxony. After Burkhardt's death on March 14, 1651, the Oberschlema work was transferred to the Elector of Saxony by will. In 1665, Elector Johann Georg II granted the glassworks in Jugel the privilege to build a paint mill. After an objection by the owners of the other three blue paint works, the elector revoked the privilege again in 1666. In 1668 he bought the glassworks, which was in dire financial straits, and used this opportunity to "double" his blue color factory in Oberschlema. The distribution of the cobalt ore to the four plants of a quarter each, as stipulated in the contract of 1649, has now been changed so that the Oberschlema plant received two fifths and the other three plants each received one fifth of the cobalt ore. As a result, the elector's interest in the work waned. Lease was considered as early as 1676. In 1686 a contract was signed with the three private blue paint factories in which they undertook to buy the entire production of the plant in Oberschlema. In 1692 the plant was then leased to the three private blue paint works for 13,000 guilders a year for 10 years. In 1702 the lease was extended for another 10 years at the same price. In 1712 the lease was extended by 12 years for an annual lease sum of 20,000 guilders. In 1719 the current Elector Friedrich August the Strong aroused the interest in the work. The lease was now considered to be too low and compensation of 1,404,000 thalers was demanded . In 1722 an agreement was reached on a sum of 150,000 thalers if further claims were waived. After the lease expired in 1724, the plant was returned to fiscal management. Since 1806, the plant has been operating under the name of the Royal Saxon Blue Color Works in Oberschlema . From the middle of the 19th century, the production range was expanded to include bismuth and nickel products. When the Schlematalbahn was built, the location of the blue paint factory was decisive for the location of the Oberschlema station. After the opening of the railway line in 1859, the plant opposite the station was given a siding with a turntable.
From 1917, the plant traded under the name Staatliches Blaufarbenwerk Oberschlema . In 1923, the company built its own rolling mill with a drawing shop in the blue paint mill. On April 1, 1924, the Freiberg Oberhüttenamt took over the management of the plant under the new name, General Directorate of the State Metallurgical Works and Blue Paint Works.
With the start of uranium mining in Oberschlema in 1946, the area of the blue paint factory was also used by the Soviet occupying forces. Until September 1, 1946, the Soviet motor department was housed in one part of the plant. In the summer of 1948, the uranium processing plants were installed in the hall of the sheet metal rolling mill and put into operation on September 1, 1948 as Object 99 of Wismut AG . By February 1957, around 2,720,000 t of uranium ore had been processed using wet mechanical and chemical methods. The factory initially employed 1,200 people. Wismut AG had a total of approx. 12,500 m 2 of operational buildings and 13,600 m 2 of operational space , that is approx. 50 percent of the company, in the realm.
With the order No. 240 of the SMAD of July 7, 1948, the plant owned by the State of Saxony was placed under the industrial administration 5 of the State of Saxony. On January 1, 1949, it was incorporated into the VVB Buntmetalle based in Freiberg , as VEB Hütten- und Blaufarbenwerk Oberschlema. In 1951 it was merged with the VEB Hütten- und Blaufarbenwerk Aue to form VEB Nickelhütte Aue / Sa. In 1957, the premises used by SDAG Wismut were returned to VEB Nickelhütte Aue / Sa. As a result, production was concentrated in Aue and, from 1960, the entire production was relocated from Oberschlema to Aue. In 1964 the demolition of the company building began. A cast iron plaque at the end of the newly created spa park opposite the Bad Schlema volunteer fire brigade reminds of the location of the blue paint factory.
Use of Schlemaer cobalt blue
The cobalt blue produced in the Oberschlema blue color factory was used, among other things, in Delft tiles , Meissen porcelain and Bohemian glass .
Transport links
The buildings of the blue color factory were at the lower end of Oberschlema in the direction of Niederschlema and were on the road connecting the two places. Since 1859 the plant had a railway connection from the Schlematalbahn to the Oberschlema station opposite. A track led into the plant at a right angle via a turntable, which was initially operated by horses and later by a rope hoist. The excessive uranium mining in the post-war period resulted in soil deformations in the area between the spa and the blue paint works, which led to the partial closure of the railway line from Oberschlema to Schneeberg in 1952 and ultimately to the demolition of the plant in 1964.
Personalities
- Richard Franz Friedrich (1848–1916), master builder, co-founder of the Oberschlema radium bath. From 1872 to 1913 he worked in the Oberschlema blue color factory.
literature
- Oliver Titzmann: A historical walk along the Niederschlema - Schneeberg-Neustädtel railway line ; Bad Schlema 2009
- Albrecht Kirsche: Cistercian, glassmaker and turner. Waxmann Verlag GmbH, Münster 2005
- Yearbook for mining and metallurgy in the Kingdom of Saxony, Freiberg 1901 pp. 9–16
- Cobalt mining and blue paint works in Saxony, Bruchmüller, Crossen 1897
- Oliver Titzmann: Uranium mining versus radium bath . Self-published, Schlema 2003.
- Till, Schuster, Wehland, Schnädelbach: Industrial history in the Auer Valley 1945–1990 . Ed .: Stadtverwaltung Aue. City administration Aue, Aue 1999, DNB 1017792712 , p. 16-18 .
Web links
- Holdings 40136 State Blue Color Works Oberschlema in the Freiberg mountain archive
- Homepage about the Western Ore Mountains
- Homepage of the Bad Schlema community
credentials
Coordinates: 50 ° 36 ′ 13.4 ″ N , 12 ° 40 ′ 3.7 ″ E