Friedrichshütte (Herdorf)
The Friedrichshütte was a steelworks in Herdorf in the Altenkirchen district in Rhineland-Palatinate . In 1968 it stopped producing pig iron, making it the last in Hellertal and one of the last ironworks to be closed in Siegerland .
history
In 1830 Carl Stein founded an iron trading business. In 1839 the concession for the Carl Stein rolling mill in Wehbach followed, which was in the meantime in Kirchen . The Wehbacher Hütte was put into operation in 1841, and in 1847 Stein acquired the Asdorfer Hammer near Freudenberg .
Heinrich Daniel Friedrich Schneider († October 12, 1895 at the age of 83) founded his company in 1837. This was dissolved in 1905. From 1853 Schneider participated in the old Herdorfer Hütte, which was built in 1478 and rebuilt . On March 27, 1855, the San Fernando mine was muted by the miner Wilhelm Hähner, but he died on July 19 of the same year. On August 1, 1855, Schneider acquired the mine field from Hähner's heirs, and a year later numerous mine fields (including Alte Mahlscheid , Ziegenberg ) were consolidated into the entire San Fernando mine .
In 1871 Schneider laid the foundation stone for the Friedrichshütte in Herdorf, three years later the first coke oven could be blown on. The second blast furnace followed in 1883. In 1884 Schneider's youngest son, Ferdinand Schneider, was given the technical management of the Friedrichshütte . He was anxious to develop the metallurgy further. In 1892 he introduced slag granulation . Slag floated on top of the molten pig iron in the blast furnace, which was led outside through a channel and disintegrated into sand in a water bath. This was brought to a dump with a cable car.
In 1896 the smelter was converted into the Bergbau- und Hütten-AG Friedrichshütte, Neunkirchen / Sieg after Schneider's death in 1895. In 1900 the Friedrichshütte took over the steel and rolling mill in Stein , from now on it was possible to produce from iron ore to pig iron and crude steel to Thin sheet everything can be manufactured in one company. The Friedrichshütte was the first mixed hut in the Siegerland. In 1906 the administration was moved from Neunkirchen to Herdorf. In 1914 the Alte Hütte was attached to the Friedrichshütte .
After the First World War , extensive modernization of the facilities and quality improvement resulted in a major boom in the ironworks. Together with the plant in Wehbach, 2000 people were employed. In 1918 and 1919 a cable car was built to transport the slag sand from the Friedrichshütte into a large mountain hollow. This sand dump characterizes the Herdorf townscape to this day. In 1919 the mountain assessor Schneider took over the management of the hut. In 1925 the Eisenhandel Stein GmbH sales company was founded in Wehbach. In 1930, a joint profit agreement was concluded with the major shareholder Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG .
In November 1947, the Friedrichshütte only went back into operation with just one blast furnace. It was the first blast furnace plant in Siegerland and in Rhineland-Palatinate to be put back into operation after the Second World War . Under the smelter's director, Heinz Berndt, the smelter experienced a great boom, as it did after the First World War, through modernization of the smelting facilities and quality improvements in pig iron, steel and sheet metal. In 1952 the Friedrichshütte became a subsidiary of Hüttenwerke Siegerland AG in Siegen . In 1955 this company was dissolved. The plant in Wehbach was shut down in 1967, and the last blast furnace tapping took place on August 30, 1968 in the Friedrichshütte and the Alte Hütte in Herdorf.
present
There are now several shops on the former site of the hut, which is in the center of Herdorf. In addition to a restaurant, the Hüttenhaus also has a hall of the Herdorf Kulturring , where performances and plays are performed.
In addition to the hut house, the sand dump is reminiscent of the hut operation, which has filled a mountain hollow since 1918 and is now visible from afar.
swell
- History of the hut on the website of the "Herdorf Musicians" ( Memento from January 27, 2005 in the web archive archive.today )
- History of the hut on archive.nrw.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Siegerländer Heimatkalender 1990, p. 24, 65th edition, Ed. Siegerländer Heimat- und Geschichtsverein eV, Verlag für Heimatliteratur
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 51.4 ″ N , 7 ° 57 ′ 28 ″ E