Falun mine

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The mine of Falun (formerly Fahlun, Swedish Falu gruva ) was a Swedish mine of historical importance near the town of Falun , which was closed in 1992 by the company Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags AB.

history

Share certificate in the large Falun copper mine from 1288 (original in the Imperial Archives in Stockholm)

The mining of copper on Tiskasjöberg ( Stora Kopparberget ) probably began in the 9th century and has been documented since the 13th century . The heyday of the mine was in the 17th century when the Falun mine accounted for two-thirds of the world's copper production. But not only copper was extracted, the mine was also the largest gold producer at the time - and the second largest silver producer in Sweden.

Since the mining was carried out quite haphazardly, collapses occurred again and again , and in 1687 a large part of the mine collapsed. Fortunately, it happened on midsummer , one of the biggest Swedish festivals, so nobody was killed. The Pinge Stora Stöten is now 95 m deep and 350 m wide.

In the course of time, numerous serious incidents of damage occurred: in 1760, 1761, 1768-74, 1799 and 1847 there were fires, water ingresses were recorded in 1666, 1764, 1860 and 1899 and mine collapses destroyed in 1677, on June 25, 1687 and 1892 parts of the mine.

The mine has developed into an attractive travel destination for which numerous travel reports are available:

  • Charles Orgier (1595–1654), French Ambassador to Stockholm: Ephemerides, sive Iter Danicum, Suecicum, Polonicum, 1634
  • Johann Friedrich Leopold (1676–1711): Relatio epistolica de itenere suo Suecico, 1707
  • Carl von Linné : Iter Dalecartium, 1734
  • Johann Beckmann : Swedish Journey, 1765
  • Gabriel Jars : Metallurgical Journeys, 1766
  • Hans Christian Andersen : Travel Pictures, 1849

Carl von Linne's account of his journey in a horse-drawn carriage from July 3 to August 13, 1734 is impressive. He describes the air pollution from copper mining, shaken. At certain times of the week the rock in the pit was made brittle by setting fire to make it easier to mine . Toxic gases like sulfur dioxide rose in the pit. Therefore, it had to be temporarily closed to miners. Outside the pit, the recovered copper ore, mostly copper pebbles , was converted into fusible copper in around 200 places by roasting in a wood fire . Here, too, particularly sulphurous vapors rose, which in the long term almost completely destroyed the vegetation .

Swedish engineers were employed in connection with copper production, including Jöns Jacob Berzelius , Johan Gottlieb Gahn , Christoph Klem, Gustav de Laval and Christopher Polhem .

The mine lost its importance in the 18th century , but remained an important copper producer well into the 19th century . Mining continued in the 20th century, but the ore extracted now consisted of sulfur (30%), zinc (5.5%), lead (2%) and only 0.4% copper and a small amount of gold and silver .

Today the mine is a museum and since 2001 part of the world cultural heritage of Falun- Kopparbergslagen .

There is now a 400 km long road from Falun to the Norwegian copper mine in Röros . It is called Kopparleden (German: Kupferweg). A section from Falun to Röttvik is called Linne-vägen.

By-products of mining are the red pigment Falun red , which became Sweden's national color and is still being produced, and the sausage falukorv .

  • Pit in wide angle

  • Former administration building

  • Falun Mine - Stora Stöten

  • Falun Mine - Visit Mine

Literary reception

Gravestone at the Stora Kopparbergs kyrka: "In memory of the miner Mats Israelsson, who died while working in the mine in Falun, 1677."

The mine of Falun has also found its way into German-language literature:

The background to the texts is the disappearance of the miner Fet Mats Israelsson in Falun in 1677 shortly before his wedding. He was only found in 1719 and could be identified by his bride. The copper vitriol in the pit had almost completely preserved his body. However, exposed to air, it decomposed more and more over time. Finally he was buried in 1930 in the churchyard of the Stora Kopparbergs kyrka in Falun.

In 1808 , Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert reported on the youthful, but rigid and cold bridegroom and the old, gray bride full of warm love at her “fifty-year silver wedding” in his views from the night side of natural science, without, however, the names of those involved or the time of Report Israelsson's disappearance or the recovery of his body. In 1809, Karl Christian Ernst von Bentzel-Sternau presented Schubert's report in his magazine Jason under the heading of the poet's task as "a source of enthusiasm" for the "master hand" of the successor to the ballad poet Friedrich Schiller, who died in 1805 .

literature

  • Georg Friedmann: The adaptations of the story of the miner from Fahlun. Univ. Dissertation, Berlin 1887 ( online )
  • Karl Reuschel: About adaptations of the story of the miner of Falun. In: Studies on the comparative history of literature. Vol. 1, Berlin 1903, pp. 1-28 ( online ).
  • Sven Rydberg: The great copper mountain - the stora story. Hedemora Sweden, 1988
  • Helmut Gold : Findings underground. Mining Motifs in Romantic Literature. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1990 (= cultural studies studies on German literature ), ISBN 3-531-12133-2 .
  • Thomas Eicher (ed.): The mine of Falun. Variants of a literary material. Münster 1996 ( online ).
  • Thomas Eicher (ed.): The mine of Falun. Texts by Johann Peter Hebel, ETA Hoffmann, Georg Trakl and Franz Fühmann. Athena, Oberhausen 2003 (= bridging. Forum Literatures, Vol. 3), ISBN 3-89896-150-8 .

Web links

Commons : Falun Mine  - Album containing pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Available online: zeno.org .
  2. ↑ In: Poems. Berlin 1848, p. 81 (available online on Google books ).
  3. ↑ Sebastian Hollstein: Tragic love: The romantic undead . Spectrum of Science , December 22, 2019, accessed December 29, 2019.
  4. ^ Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert: Views from the night side of natural science. 4th edition, Dresden and Leipzig 1840, chapter eighth lecture. The organic pre-world, p. 113–127, p. 121 f .
  5. ↑ Jason. Edited by the author of the golden calf. Fourth piece. April 1809. Gotha in the Becker bookstore. IV. Poet's task, p. 394 ff.

Coordinates: 60 ° 35 ′ 56.3 "  N , 15 ° 36 ′ 43.9"  E