Deurag-Nerag
The Deurag-Nerag was a large oil refinery in Misburg in Hanover (since the incorporation 1974 Hanover Misburg). The double name is made up of two symbiotic refinery branches : Deurag stands for Deutsche Raffinerie AG, Nerag for Neue Erdölraffinerie AG, which was added later and produced aero engine oil. A street on the former factory site is named after the company.
The Deurag-Nerag GmbH oil refinery , which owns the former premises, still exists today . The shareholders of the GmbH are BEB Erdgas und Erdöl (80%), Shell Erdgasbeteiligungsgesellschaft (10%) and Esso Deutschland (10%). The technical management of Deurag-Nerag was transferred to ExxonMobil Production Germany in 2002 .
history
The beginnings
The idea of founding the refinery went back to the difficult processing situation of the crude oils available in northwest Germany. Since these crude oils were very heavy and not suitable for normal plants, a refinery had to be built that was able to do this. In April 1931, Preussag and Elwerath merged to form "Deutsche Raffinerie AG". Elwerath held 34% of Deurag, Preussag 33% and Ossag and Rhenania-Ossag 16.5% each.
Gustav Bratke , the Mayor of Misburg at the time , succeeded in locating the "Union of Petroleum Refinery Deurag-Nerag" at the convenient location near Hanover in terms of transport. The site had good transport links: there was a connection to the Mittelland Canal via the Misburg canal , and the Misburg freight station was connected to the Hanover freight bypass .
In 1931 construction of the Deurag began. The refinery started operations in 1932. In 1935, the sister company Nerag was opened in the area adjacent to the west and south. Both companies worked closely together from the start and had a common administration. The two plants merged to form Deurag-Nerag in 1955.
Deurag initially comprised a top distillation unit, a Dubbs cracking plant, two coking chambers and downstream redistillation and refining stages. As early as 1933, 110,000 t of crude oil were processed using the American Dubbs process with an internal consumption of 6.5%. The products consisted of 43% gasoline, 19% petroleum coke, 16.5% diesel and 7.5% petroleum and gas.
Air strikes
Deurag-Nerag was one of the most important suppliers of specialty lubricating oils during the Second World War . In 1944, the Nerag division supplied around 40% of the aircraft engine oils required by Germany. In addition to the oil refineries, plants for the production of synthetic gasoline were also maintained. This made Deurag-Nerag an important military target for the Allies. In addition, these were also the economically equally important Misburg cement factories . As part of the Allied air offensive against the German mineral oil industry, Misburg was therefore hit by around 40,000 explosive and incendiary bombs in around 45 Allied air raids on Hanover , 60% of the residential buildings were destroyed or damaged. Only 4% of the bombs hit the refinery. An underground relocation that had begun near Porta Westfalica ( Dachs I project ) was not completed by the end of the war.
The writer Ernst Jünger , who lived in nearby Kirchhorst from September 1944 , noted in his diary "Kirchhorster Blätter" about the air raids on Misburg:
- "16. September 1944. Numerous overflights. Misburg, the main target in the vicinity, was hit again, and large oil reserves burned down on the other side of the moor under lead-gray clouds of smoke ... "
On March 15, 1945, the day of the heaviest air raid on Misburg, he noted:
- “In the evening, during these entries, one of the heaviest attacks on Misburg. Scout planes first sowed a veritable avenue of orange-yellow illuminated signs, then the drops followed. "
To protect the workforce and residents (most of the workers also lived with their families in the immediate vicinity of Deurag-Nerag), four bunkers were built on the company premises during the war, two of which still exist today.
Concentration camp subcamps
From June 1944 to April 1945, the subcamp Hannover-Misburg of the Neuengamme concentration camp was located near the site of the oil refinery and the hydrogenation plant . The majority of the 1,000 to 1,200 prisoners who were always present in the camp came from the Soviet Union, Poland and France. There were also smaller nationality groups from the Netherlands and Belgium. The number of German prisoners was low at around 30. The SS preferably assigned function posts to so-called BV'ers . The concentration camp prisoners were used to clean up the Deurag-Nerag refinery site, which had been damaged by bombing. 55 have demonstrably died; there were probably a lot more. A few weeks before the surrender, the prisoners who were able to march were forced on a death march towards Neuengamme main camp. It ended on April 8, 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . Prisoners who were no longer able to march were transported there by truck.
Since 1979 a plaque in the forest cemetery has been commemorating the injustice suffered nearby.
In 1989, a sculpture by Eugène Dodeigne was erected as a memorial on the former camp site on Hannoversche Strasse at the level of the Mittelland Canal .
closure
In 1986 Deurag-Nerag closed due to overcapacities in German crude oil processing, price increases on the oil market and alleged obsolescence of the refinery. The factory facilities were dismantled in the following years.
In 2001 the Deurag-Nerag-Straße in Misburg was named after the oil company.
In 2003 there were political efforts to use the site for the International Horticultural Exhibition (IGA) 2017. However, Hanover did not apply.
In 2007 the unused tank farm was demolished on the site south of the Misburg branch canal . A tank farm is operated by VTG-Lehnkering on part of the southern site . The north area has been completely cleared (except for the administration building) and is now heavily overgrown. Due to the insufficiently clarified pollution of the soil, a subsequent use is still unclear.
In spring 2014, the administration building on the north site was demolished. In the meantime, detached single-family houses have been built on the former gas station area in front of it.
literature
- Anonymous: About the construction of the new oil refinery in Misburg. In: Petroleum. Journal for the entire interests of the petroleum industry and the mineral oil trade, No. 13, 1932, special issue Germany VII, p. 17 f.
- Anonymous: Commissioning of the mineral oil refinery in Misburg. In: Petroleum. Journal for the entire interests of the petroleum industry and the mineral oil trade, No. 18, special issue Germany VIII, pp. 21–24.
- Union of Erdöl-Raffinerie Deurag-Nerag (Ed.): History of the industrial company in Hanover Misburg , Hanover-Misburg 1986.
- A. Scholand , V. Bialecki: Misburgs soil and population in the course of the times , 3rd edition, 1992, pp. 209-214
- Albert Lefèvre: The contribution of the Hanoverian industry to technical progress. In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter , New Series 24 (1970), pp. 182-186
- R. Frobe et al. a .: Concentration camp in Hanover , Vol. I, 1985, pp. 131–229
- Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Deurag-Nerag. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 125.
Web links
- Aerial photo 1945: Deurag-Nerag as a bomb crater field
- Misburg subcamp of Deurag-Nerag with an old aerial photo
Individual evidence
- ↑ German Oil Policy 1928-1938 by Titus Kockel, p. 59
- ↑ German Oil Policy 1928-1938 by Titus Kockel, p. 240
- ^ Factor oil: the mineral oil industry in Germany 1859-1974, p. 164
- ↑ Factor Oil: The Mineral Oil Industry in Germany 1859-1974, p. 179
- ^ Plant air raid shelter in Hanover
- ^ Klaus Mlynek : Concentration Camp, d) Misburg. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 364
- ^ Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Deurag-Nerag. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 125
Coordinates: 52 ° 23 ′ 9 ″ N , 9 ° 50 ′ 52 ″ E