Friedrich Wernicke (mining engineer)

Friedrich Alfred Otto Wernicke (born May 6, 1902 in Böhrigen ; † February 27, 1982 in Baden-Baden ) was a German mining engineer and from 1940 to 1945 mining captain in Saxony.

Life

Wernicke was a son of the postmaster and chief officer Friedrich August Wernicke (1866–1939) and his wife Maria geb. Straube. After the end of the First World War , Wernicke, like his future wife, saw his political home in the national movement . After passing his school leaving examination in Chemnitz , he took up an internship in mining and on March 18, 1921, was enrolled to study at the Bergakademie Freiberg . As a result of an accident at work suffered on June 21, 1921 on the trust shaft of the Erzgebirgischer Steinkohlen-Actien-Verein in Schedewitz , he had to interrupt his studies several times. In 1925/26 he created his prize work on the relationships between ore distribution and other geological conditions in ore deposits. On August 27, 1928, Wernicke finished his studies as a qualified mining engineer. He subsequently gained an important reputation as a mineral explorer. On behalf of the mining company Georg von Giesches Erben , Wernicke examined deposits in Bosnia , Old Serbia , North Macedonia and Bulgaria in 1929 . In the process, he contracted an inflammation of the left knee, which had been damaged since the accident in 1921. In 1930 Wernicke had to give up his practical mining activities because of a knee stiffening.

On March 1, 1931, Wernicke received a temporary job as a technical and scientific assistant at the Saxon Geological State Office. Since then he has been enrolled as a guest student at the University of Leipzig for four semesters in the subjects of geology, mineralogy and petrography. In the same year he joined the NSDAP . Also in 1931 Wernicke published the results of his research work on the ores of the Deutsch-Bleischarley-Mine near Beuthen in Upper Silesia . Furthermore, he investigated the hard coal deposits in West Saxony, deposits of stones and earth and dealt with the reclamation of the ore deposits in the Ore Mountains . On May 8, 1933, Wernicke received his doctorate with the thesis The primary distribution of ore depending on the formation processes and the geological conditions of the mountain range . In 1933 he attended the International Geological Congress in Washington. On November 1, 1933, Wernicke became a section geologist at the Saxon Geological State Office. Later he took over the management of the department for deposit geology created according to his plans. After the National Socialists came to power, Wernicke held the functions of Gau Hauptstelleleiter at the Gau leadership of Saxony and a Gauffachgruppe leader in the National Socialist Federation of German Technology , department of mining and metallurgy. His residence was Markkleeberg- Großstädteln .

On April 28, 1935, Wernicke married Hildegard Ernst, a daughter of the Oberregierungs- und Baurat Ernst from Kassel. In the same year the family built a house in Langebrück . In 1936 the first daughter Uta Margarete was born. On February 23, 1935, Wernicke passed the assessor examination. On May 20, 1935, he got a job as a clerk in the mining and metallurgy department at the Saxon Ministry of Economics and Labor and took over the management of the department on November 1, 1936. On November 9, 1936, he received the title of Government Bergrat and on January 28, 1939 he was appointed Oberregierungsbergrat. According to Wernicke's plans, ore mining was resumed in Saxony during this time and a mining school was set up again in Freiberg . At the same time he promoted the investigation of the lignite deposits and the construction of lignite power plants as well as the construction of a tin smelter in Freiberg.

The affiliation of the Sudeten German mining authority districts of Karlsbad, Komotau, Brüx and Teplitz as well as the Thuringian mining authority Altenburg to the Oberbergamt Freiberg also goes back to Wernicke after the Munich Agreement of 1938 . He spun off the Saxon Geological State Office from the state administration and joined it as a branch of the Reich Office for Soil Research . At the same time, he placed the Bergakademie directly under the Ministry of Public Education . The deposit research center set up by him, together with the mining management office under the umbrella of the Oberbergamt, formed the most important basis for the development and promotion of all mining branches.

After the retirement of Mining Captain Hermann Niess , Wernicke was also appointed acting head of the Freiberg Mining Authority on October 4, 1939, where he was given an official apartment. As successor to Nieß, Wernicke was appointed mining captain in Freiberg on December 2, 1940. At the same time, he acted as chairman of the supervisory board of all state-owned mining companies, including Sachsenz Bergwerks AG .

At the beginning of May 1945, Wernicke fled Freiberg from the Red Army . Before he went on to Kassel with his wife , he hid the personal and official documents he had taken with him in the premises of the Evangelical parish in Großstädteln. In West Germany he worked as a freelancer because he was denied a position in the civil service because of his active membership in the NSDAP. He then worked in Aachen as a publicly appointed and sworn expert for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry . He was also a consultant for mining and smelting operations at Stolberger Zink AG . During this time, Wernicke created, among other things, expert reports on the United Bastenberg and Dörnberg mine in Ramsbeck / Westf. as well as the Maubacher Bleiberg opencast mine near Düren.

As Otto Wolff von Amerongens' personal expert , Wernicke examined ore deposits in South West Africa , South Africa and Southern Rhodesia between 1952 and 1955 . Among other things, he led the preparatory work for the acquisition of a large chrome deposit in the Transvaal by a successor company of IG Farben . The government of the Union of Burma appointed him in 1958 as General Mining Adviser, at the same time he worked there as a UN expert. The Kalewa hard coal works and the Bawdwin mine including processing and smelter were renovated.

Wernicke later worked as a sworn expert, after moving to Ebersteinburg mainly for the IHK Baden-Baden.

From 1922 Wernicke belonged to the Society of German Metallurgists and Miners (GDMB), where he mainly worked as a member of the deposit committee.

Works (selection)

Wernicke is the author of twelve technical and scientific treatises on German ore deposits.

• The primary ore minerals of the Deutsch-Bleischarley-Grube near Beuthen OS In: Preußische Geologische Landesanstalt (Hrsg.): Archive for deposit research of the Prussian Geological State Institute . No. 53 . Sales office of the Prussian Geological State Institute, Berlin 1931, ISBN 3-510-96588-4 (124 pages).
• The primary ore distribution on the deposits depending on the formation processes and the geological conditions of the deposit range. Wuerzburg 1933
• as editor: 400 years of the Freiberg Mining Authority . In: Journal for Berg-, Hütten- u. Saltworks in the German Reich, Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1942

literature

• Carl Schiffner: From the life of old Freiberg mountain students , Volume 3, Mauckisch, Freiberg 1940.
• Untitled : From the life of old Freiberg mountain students , Volume 4, Essen 1971.
• Erzmetall, Vol. 25 (1972) No. 6; Volume 35 (1982) No. 4; Volume 36 (1983) No. 1.
• Saxon engineering magazine, issue 2/1941.

Web links

• Literature by and about Friedrich Wernicke in the catalog of the German National Library
• Wernicke's estate in the Saxony mountain archive