Dark ground

Finstergrund pit
	General information about the mine
	Information about the mining company
Start of operation	13th century
End of operation	1974
Successor use	Visitor mine
	Funded raw materials
Degradation of	Lead / silver / fluorspar
Greatest depth	250 m
	Geographical location
Coordinates	47 ° 49 '58.4 " N , 7 ° 54' 11.5" E Coordinates: 47 ° 49 '58.4 " N , 7 ° 54' 11.5" E
	Location Finstergrund pit
local community	Wieden
District ( NUTS3 )	Loerrach
country	State of Baden-Württemberg
Country	Germany

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The Finstergrund mine near Wieden in the Black Forest is an abandoned medieval silver and lead mine with modern river and barite mining . It has been used as a visitor mine since 1982.

geology

The most important veins in the region around Wieden are the fluorite - barite veins Tannenboden , Anton , Werner II , Hoffnung and Finstergrund , all of which run in a north-south direction. With a length of 3.5 km, the latter is the most important hydrothermal tunnel in the region. The visitor mine (tunnel 5) opens up this passage over a length of 430 m. The thickness fluctuates between a few centimeters and 4 m, mining was carried out from a thickness of 1 m. The type of deposit is a hydrothermal fluorspar - barite vein, partly with rich sulphide ores . Paragneiss and metatexite occur as secondary rocks .

history

The beginnings of lead and silver mining near Wieden date back to the 13th century. Coming from Todtnau , mining in the Wieden valley began around 1280 at the latest, the first heyday were the years 1320 to 1340, a smelter near Wieden is documented for the years 1352 to 1374, and mining took place throughout the 14th century. New evidence of mining activity comes from the 16th century, until 1560 the 280 m long Barbarastollen was extended by a further 220 m. After that, mining lay idle for over 200 years and did not resume until 1780. In the early 19th century, mining was temporarily shut down again.

At the beginning of the 20th century, due to the increased demand for industrial minerals such as fluorite (fluorspar) and barite (barite), the existing mineral deposits were again worth mining , so that around 1920 the mining of fluorspar, which was used as a flux in steel production, began. Until 1925, the mining was operated by Wiesenthaler Bergbau AG (daughter of Hugo Stinnes AG ). The Burger company took over the dismantling until 1927 and then withdrew temporarily.

From 1930 Theodor Burger founded the "Finstergrund Union". Russian slave laborers were also used during the Second World War . Despite changing ownership, the mine was systematically expanded in the following decades and in the peak year 1967 delivered 4600 t of pure fluorite per month, which corresponds to an annual production of 110,000 t of raw fluorspar. Due to the increasing competition for cheaper fluorites from the world market and the increasing costs of extraction, the mine had to be closed in 1974, the Finstergrund union was dissolved in 1978.

Visitor mine

In 1975, one year after the cessation of operations, the Finstergrund Wieden miners' association was founded by nineteen miners previously employed at the Finstergrund mine with the aim of preserving the mining tradition and expanding it into a visitor mine . In 1982 the Finstergrund visitor mine was opened to the public. From 2007, visitors will take the mine train to enter the mine. It is the only visitor mine in the Black Forest that visitors can enter with a mine train.

particularities

Due to the relatively extensive modern mining industry, a 2 km long, wide tunnel including a roadworthy mine train can be visited. This mine train is used to transport visitors.

literature

Wolfgang Werner, Volker Dennert: Deposits and mining in the Black Forest. Published by the State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining, Baden-Württemberg, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2004, ISBN 3-00-014636-9 .

Individual evidence

↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 275.
↑ A. Schlageter in: X. Schwäbl, S. Klingele: Wieden - history of a Black Forest village - for the 650th anniversary of the place. Wieden municipality, 1992.
↑ Tin books of the St. Blasien monastery from 1352 and 1374, see: A. Schlageter: On the history of mining in the vicinity of the Belchen. In: The Belchen. Historical and natural history monograph of the most beautiful Black Forest mountain. Nature and landscape protection areas of Baden-Württemberg, Volume 13, Karlsruhe, 1989
↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 278 ff.
↑ Hansjörg Noe: How important was the Finstergrund mine for the National Socialists? in: Badische Zeitung of February 10, 2020; accessed on February 11, 2020
↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 279 f.