Constanze pit
| Constanze | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| Mining technology | Civil engineering , open pit mining | ||
| Funding / total | 1.4 million t | ||
| Rare minerals | Azurite , hematite , chamosite , goethite , malachite , pyrite , chrysocolla | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Employees | 120 | ||
| Start of operation | August 24, 1836 | ||
| End of operation | 1st February 1963 | ||
| Successor use | Building materials industry | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Iron ore , black shale , lime | ||
| Greatest depth | 350 m | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 42 '54.9 " N , 8 ° 11' 41.4" E | ||
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| Location | Langenaubach | ||
| local community | Haiger | ||
| country | State of Hesse | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | Dillenburg mountain area | ||
The Constanze mine (also United Constanze ) was an iron ore mine near Langenaubach ( Haiger municipality ) in the Lahn-Dill district . The pit lay between Langenaubach, Haiger, Donsbach and Breitscheid and was one of the more important pits in the Haiger area. Devonian river stone or red iron stone was mined . This was often penetrated by copper veins .
history
The history of mining in the Lahn-Dill district goes back a long way, but the Constanze mine was not one of the oldest in the region. The first mining activities in the Constanze area probably date back to around 1700–1750. The Nassau mountain ridge Johann Philipp Becher wrote in his work Mineralogical Description of the Orange-Nassau Lands in 1789 : along with a history of Siegen's smelting and hammering industry : Hirzberg, which adjoins the chalky area of the barge, supplies clay-like iron stone, whose bearings are covered in limestone. In 1836 the "Constanze" (= consistency) was first mentioned. On August 24, 1836, Duke Wilhelm zu Nassau enfeoffed Johann Peter Ordenheimer, a Dillenburg hut tenant, with the iron stone warehouse in the Koweg district near Breitscheider Strasse. At the same time, the Hirzberg mine was merged with the Constanze mine . Than in the open pit , the Koweg, upcoming ore was mined, was a first tunnel from Adoal , from the southwestern edge of Haintals, the ore down into the mountain driven . After the minable ore in this tunnel was exhausted, a second, deeper tunnel was driven, presumably from the northeastern edge of the Haintal valley. In this way one got further and further down into the Aubach valley, to the basic tunnel or deep tunnel at 369 m above sea level near the Aubach (directly below the sports field), with which the so-called Clara camp was dismantled. Over time, a further 12 mine fields and tunnels were bought (see box on the right), so that on March 22, 1898, the "United Constanze" was formed from them. It was further expanded over the following decades.
In 1883 a tunnel several kilometers long was driven into the mountain to drain the pit of God's grace . In 1944 the tunnel system was expanded to include the Constanze mine. The pit water , which is now used as drinking water, got into the dill via the so-called dill tunnel, which was completed in 1884 .
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The first shaft was sunk underground in 1910. The owners of the mine changed relatively frequently.
List of owners in chronological order:
- Germania union
- Hessen Nassau Hüttenverein
- Constanze union
- Mannesmannröhren-Werke AG (1917)
In 1911, three years after the village was connected to the electricity, the mine followed. The electricity was obtained from the overland control center at the Oberschelder blast furnace . The current made it easier to work in the mountain. In 1917 the Constanze mine was acquired by Mannesmann. Mannesmann also acquired the pit bar scale near Donsbach and God's grace in the Hachelbach near Haiger , thus expanding the Constanze union to over 50 pit fields . In 1924 the pit drained. The promotion could only be continued again in 1926. In 1932 the production stopped again and the mine filled up again. In 1937 the shaft was knocked through 47 m upwards and in the course of this the suspension bench , machine house, processing and headframe were rebuilt. The dry processing meant that the Aubach no longer streamed reddish color down the valley towards Haiger. In 1944 breakthroughs were made in the pits, bar scales and God's grace , in order to divert most of the pit water to the dill. The pit served as a refuge from Allied air raids on the village during World War II . In the last months of the war in 1945, a girl was born in the pit during an attack. Her middle name was Constanze . In 1945 the pit sank due to a lack of electricity and was not put back into operation until December 1948. From 1951 an underground drilling rig was used. In 1954 an electric shaft signal system was installed. In 1955 the shaft was sunk to 230 m, which opened up further ore deposits. An energy-saving compensation system was installed and amortized within 1.5 years. In 1956 the conveyor system was modernized and a device for moving conveyor cages alone was installed. In 1957 the black slate extraction was given up and the shaft sunk to 270 m. Around 25,000 German marks were paid out to miners from Langenaubach and Donsbach every month . Some apprentices from the Dillenburg mountain school found accommodation with families in the village and brought the residents additional income. On September 26, 1962 was Bergamt Dillenburg by Mannesmann AG informed that the mine would be closed by the end of the year. Even a written submission from the Langenaubach municipal administration to reconsider the decision could not prevent the closure. On January 31, 1963, the mine was closed and in September of the same year the headframe and other facilities were dismantled.
Delivery rates
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From 1917 until the mine was closed, 993,000 tons of iron ore were mined. The production volume from the preceding decades is estimated at 400,000 tons, which corresponds to a total production volume of almost 1.4 million tons of ore. Limestone and black shale are not included in these figures. In 1949 the amount of ore extracted per man and per shift was 0.75 tons on average, 1.3 tons in 1957 and 2.35 tons in 1961. This is a decent achievement considering the small pit size and the rather difficult mining conditions. The annual output in 1961 was 38,660 tons, the highest in its history. On average, while the mine was owned by Mannesmann, 21,650 tons were extracted annually. There were bigger drops in the promotion in the course of the collapse in 1920 after the First World War , as well as in 1924, 1932-1934 (economic crisis) and 1945-1948 (lack of electricity due to the destruction of the overland power line) when the pit drowned .
Workforce
In 1872 54 miners were working in the mine. In 1908 the workforce at the mine was 44 men. In the following decades this continued to grow and by the end of the 1950s the number averaged 100 to 120 was reached. During the Second World War, prisoners of war also worked in the mine.
Deposits
There were five different deposits in the Constanze mine, some of which are named after earlier small pits. The bag store got its name because of its shape. Below is a list of the camps:
- Clara
- Constanze
- bags
- Theodore
- Wilhelms-Eisenzeche
Industrialization and rail connection
On December 17, 1898, a narrow-gauge railway (gauge 1.00 meters), which ran along the eastern slope of the Aubach Valley, was put into operation between the mining site in Langenaubach and the loading station at Haiger train station. At the beginning two Borsig steam locomotives were used: at the end of 1896 the FNr. 4472 as the first narrow-gauge factory locomotive, 1900 the FNr. 4816 and later from 1934 a Deutz OMZ 122 R (FNr. 10703). This was replaced in 1954 by an O&K diesel locomotive (FNr. 21388), which was used until the end of operation in 1963. In 1959 a Bartz electric locomotive (FNr. 1512) was added. The Borsigs usually pulled four to six full ore wagons the 4.3 kilometer route along the Aubach to Haiger. The ore was then transferred to large railway wagons and most of it was transported to the Mannesmann ironworks in Duisburg-Huckingen. A smaller part came to the Sophienhütte in Wetzlar and the Friedrichshütte in Herdorf . Today the picturesque Haiger-Langenaubach cycle path is located on the route of the former railway line, which was completely dismantled.
Open pit
A hole about 30–50 m deep and 200 m wide can be found a bit east of the district road 41 between Langenaubach and Breitscheid. Along with other, mostly overgrown open- cast mining remains near the Langenaubach log cabin, it is a relic of the stone quarrying process. Today the limestone quarry and the surrounding old rubble heaps are located in the Constanze limestone quarry nature reserve . The owner has been the Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) since 1987. The quarry is an important refuge for animals. There are entrances to the old tunnels. Bats , including the great and small whiskered bat , the great mouse-eared bat , the water bat , the fringed bat and the Bechstein's bat , retreat here to hibernate. Forest and sand lizards as well as grass snakes , fire salamanders and common toads settle in the crater walls of the quarry.
closure
Despite the very favorable composition of the iron ore extracted (34–35% iron, 18–22% lime, 1% water and only 8–10% silica), which makes it above average for smelting, the mine was stopped on January 31, 1963 set by the last mine owner, Mannesmann AG (Düsseldorf). With the end of subsidies in the 1950s and the worldwide fall in the price of iron in the 1960s, the mine had become unprofitable.
The headframe was demolished in September and the site sold. Most of the daytime facilities were canceled. Almost all the mine buildings near the main tunnel entrance have been preserved to this day . Today (2017) is on the former mine site in the old colliery buildings u. a. the civil engineering company Egon Funk and the construction company Kläs . The pit was a port of the pit rod Wage in Donsbach and grace of God incorporated in the Hachelbach into the water supply of the city Haiger and provides very good quality water, which is even pumped to the upper Dilltal. The tunnel for draining the Constanze measures 7 km ( 4,250 m (other source) ).
geology
In the southeast and east of the Rhenish Slate Mountains lies the so-called "Hessian Synklinorium", which also includes the Lahn-Dill area . The Hessian Synclinorium , which was formed by thrusting and folding in the Paleozoic ( Devonian ), has a complicated geological structure. It is characterized by fault lines, uplifts and faults. There are no large contiguous deposits in the Lahn-Dill area. The existing Roteisenstein from the Constanze mine therefore does not have regular storage , instead the bearings are torn and linear. Rolf Georg, Rainer Haus and Karsten Porezag comment on the geological peculiarities of the Constanze mine as follows: Due to thrusts and faults, it was geologically the most interesting, but also the most difficult red iron mine in Germany.
Mining accidents
As in most mines, mining accidents and accidents happened again and again. Since 1836, 20 miners have died in the mine and many more have been seriously injured.
Below is a list of the fatally injured miners:
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Mining friends Glückauf - Constanze
On April 9, 1988, the association Bergbaufreunde Glückauf - Constanze - Langenaubach / Donsbach was founded by former miners and the first board was elected. Its primary goal is to preserve the memory of the mining times. For this purpose, a park-like facility with an exhibition tunnel and a cart was created near the cemetery on Lindenberg. In 2001 the association had 140 members.
See also
literature
- Geschichtlicher Arbeitskreis Haiger und seine Raum eV (Ed.): Haigerer Geschichtsblätter No. 61/2013 : Mining work and life in the United Constanze Langenaubach mine , Haiger, February 2013
- Ernst Frohwein: Description of the Dillenburg mountain area , Bonn 1885
- Karl Löber: Langenaubach: a home book , Langenaubach, Weidenbach 1961
- Rolf Georg: Iron ore mining in Hessen - historical photo documents with explanations 1870–1983 , Ed .: Förderverein Visitor Mine Fortuna eV Wetzlar, Wetzlar 1986, ISBN 3-925619-01-1
- Wilhelm-Erich Schmidt: The tectonics of the United Constanze mine near Langenaubach, an example of the practical application of spatial representations to illustrate complex tectonic conditions , 1926
- Wolfgang Krebs: The construction of the Upper Devonian Langenaubach-Breitschneider Reef and its further development in the Lower Carboniferous (Rheinisches Schiefergebirge) , Frankfurt am Main, Kramer, 1966, 104 pp.
Movie
- Children underground . Documentary by Joachim Faulstich, Hessischer Rundfunk 1987 (about child labor in the Constanze mine in 1847)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Historical working group Haiger and his space registered association: Haigerer Geschichtsblätter: Mining work and life at the mine United Constanze Langenaubach . Haiger February 2013.
- ↑ a b Mineralienatlas : Type locality Grube Constanze, Langenaubach, Hessen
- ↑ Geopark Westerwald-Lahn-Taunus: 50 years of closure of the Constanze iron ore mine ( memento of the original from April 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Ernst Frohwein: Description of the Dillenburg mountain area . Bonn 1885.
- ^ Johann Philipp Becher: Mineralogical description of the Oranien-Nassauische Lande: together with a history of Siegen's smelting and hammering . 1789.
- ↑ a b Constanze - Born in the pit. Retrieved May 9, 2017 .
- ^ A b Rolf Georg, Rainer Haus, Karsten Porezag: Iron ore mining in Hessen. Historical photo documents with explanations. 1870 - 1983. Ed .: Fortuna Visitor Mine Association. Self-published by the Fortuna Visitor Mine , Wetzlar 1985, ISBN 3-925619-00-3 .
- ↑ a b Annual reports of the chambers of commerce and commercial corporations of the Prussian state: 1872. Berlin, 1873 edition.
- ↑ Journal for the mining, smelting and salt works in the Prussian state. Berlin, Edition 1874, Vol. 22., Ed .: Ministry for Trade, Industry and Public Works, Publisher: Ernst & Korn.
- ^ Bahn-Express, Mannesmann AG, Haiger-Grube Constanze mine railway, 35708 Haiger
- ↑ a b Hubert Georg Quarta: Langenaubach in old views . 6th edition. Zaltbommel (Netherlands), Langenaubach 1985, ISBN 90-288-2978-4 , pp. 80 .
- ↑ High walls, deep tunnels - the Constanze limestone quarry. Retrieved May 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Langenaubach on the website of the city of Haiger ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2018 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. , accessed May 2017.
