Ironworks culvert

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The company Düker GmbH & Co. KGaA is a medium sized companies in the foundry - and email -Industrie with branches in Laufach ( ) and Karlstad ( ). The company plays an important role in the development of Laufach from a small farming village to today's municipality.

history

Beginnings

The first reports about mining in the Spessart are from the year 1461. In a document dated August 2, 1469 there is a report of a mining near Wyber . This was close to Castle “Weyber”. Mining in Laufach came to a standstill from 1525 with the Peasant Wars. A few years after the uprisings, reports of renewed mining activity in Laufach. The mine "Our dear women" appears in the sources, but the exact location of this mine is not known, it is assumed that it was in the lower "Liebesgrund" in Laufach. With the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War , mining work again came to a standstill. After the war, ores were mined again (until 1718) and also smelted. In 1710 a new slag and ore pounding plant was built. In 1723 the Laufach works were sold and shut down for more than 50 years.

Development into a large, closed company

When the glassworks industry in the Spessart declined in the 18th century, iron hammers experienced an upswing. Such an iron hammer was built in Laufach in the middle of the 18th century. In 1774, Baron von Hornstein took over the Laufach works. Hornstein continued mining in Laufach, had a house built for the workers and built a new smelter. This can be seen as the beginning of today's Düker company. The works are sold to Johann Philipp Kraut in 1784. After his death in 1788, the Frankfurt merchant Johann Jakob Friedrich took over. Under him, further modernizations are carried out, such as the construction of a new hammer and the construction of a blast furnace , which made the production of cast iron possible. In 1801 Heinrich Freiherr von Münch and Ludwig Görger took over the works, which they sold on to Heinrich Gemeiner in 1809. He erects a second hammer and expands the foundry . After his death in 1817, his sons and son-in-law Friedrich Stein took over. In 1848 Johann Christof Müller, from Schweinfurt, bought the works, which continued to grow under him. He built a new foundry hall and a cupola furnace and added a model joinery, a locksmith's shop and a lathe shop . Among other things, the works supplied components for the construction of the Aschaffenburg-Würzburg railway line. When the Bessemer process was invented in the mid-1860s , the iron hammers became unprofitable and gradually closed. So the Laufacher works develop into a pure iron foundry. In 1872 the works are sold to Georg Winter, who gives them a new boost. In 1878 Winter passed the works to his nephew Gustav Winter, who made further innovations in the foundry.

The plant as a stock corporation

On June 15, 1897, Winter founds a stock company . From then on, his company enjoyed great success and more and more modernizations were carried out. In 1900 Carl Schmid took over the chairmanship of the AG. In 1931 Friedrich Wilhelm Düker became chairman of the supervisory board , after having been deputy chairman of the board for over thirty years. Düker brought the knowledge of enamel technology with him to the plant, which is still an important pillar of the company today. In 1947 an enamelling factory is incorporated into the company. In 1959 the company is converted into a partnership . Today the company is called "Düker GmbH & Co. KGaA". The production areas are fittings and fittings, drainage technology, technical enamel and customer casting. According to its own information, the company pays great attention to sustainability .

Personnel development

In 1795, a hammer foreman, four blacksmiths and a foreman were employed in Laufach. Within the next few years, the number of smithmen was increased to ten, and unskilled workers, charcoal burners and carters were hired. Under Heinrich Gemeiner (1809-1817) up to 90 workers were employed. In 1872 - due to the demise of the iron hammers - there were only 20 employees, in 1876 again 60 during winter. In 1983 the Laufach plant had around 700 employees, 10% of whom were trainees. Today the Laufach and Karlstadt branches employ around 650 people with a trainee share of just under 8%. Starting in 2018, the number of employees is to be reduced to approx. 600 employees through optimization of processes (range optimized / production of small orders only for an additional charge) in order to be able to invest for the future.

architectural art

In 2014, students in the 10th grade of the Johann-Schöner-Gymnasium painted the front of the Karlstadt plant on Bundesstrasse 27 as part of an art project.

literature

  • Eisenwerke Friedrich Düker GmbH & Co .: 1469–1969. 500 years of Eisenwerke Laufach. Laufach 1969.
  • Konstantin Reich: 900 years of Laufach. Contributions to the history of the community. Laufach 1984. ISBN 3-9800930-0-X .
  • Paul Schmid: History of the ironworks in Laufach in the Spessart. Aschaffenburg 1925.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Schmid: History of the ironworks in Laufach in the Spessart. P. 5.
  2. ^ André Breitenbach: "The Schmelz is Laufach, and Laufach is the Schmelz" Main-Echo from 24./25./26. December 2019
  3. ^ Eisenwerke Friedrich Düker GmbH & Co 500 years of Eisenwerke Laufach. 1469-1969. P. 23.
  4. ^ Paul Schmid: History of the ironworks in Laufach in the Spessart. P. 12ff.
  5. ^ Paul Schmid: History of the ironworks in Laufach in the Spessart. Pp. 16-20.
  6. ^ Paul Schmid: History of the ironworks in Laufach in the Spessart. P. 20.
  7. ^ Paul Schmid: History of the ironworks in Laufach in the Spessart. P. 22ff.
  8. ^ Eisenwerke Friedrich Düker GmbH & Co 500 years of Eisenwerke Laufach. 1469-1969. P. 31.
  9. ^ Konstantin Reich: 900 years of Laufach. Contributions to the history of the community. P. 470.
  10. ^ Eisenwerke Friedrich Düker GmbH & Co 500 years of Eisenwerke Laufach. 1469-1969. P. 31f.
  11. ^ Paul Schmid: History of the ironworks in Laufach in the Spessart. Pp. 36-41.
  12. ^ Paul Schmid: History of the ironworks in Laufach in the Spessart. P. 41ff.
  13. ^ Eisenwerke Friedrich Düker GmbH & Co 500 years of Eisenwerke Laufach. 1469-1969. P. 48.
  14. ^ Eisenwerke Friedrich Düker GmbH & Co 500 years of Eisenwerke Laufach. 1469-1969. P. 55.
  15. ^ Eisenwerke Friedrich Düker GmbH & Co 500 years of Eisenwerke Laufach. 1469-1969. P. 48.
  16. http://www.dueker.de/
  17. ^ Eisenwerke Friedrich Düker GmbH & Co: 500 years of Eisenwerke Laufach. 1469-1969. P. 31f.
  18. ^ Paul Schmid: History of the ironworks in Laufach in the Spessart. Pp. 36-41.
  19. ^ Konstantin Reich: 900 years of Laufach. Contributions to the history of the community. P. 478.
  20. http://www.dueker.de/unternehmen.html
  21. [1]
  22. Painting in large format. Main Post article dated July 24, 2014, accessed May 27, 2015