Frohnauer Hammer

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Technical Museum Frohnauer Hammer - Exterior view of the forge
The Hammerherrenhaus (2010)
Hammerlinde (2015), felled in 2018 due to fungal attack
The Hammerherrenhaus (1965)

The Frohnauer Hammer is a historic hammer mill in Frohnau , today a district of Annaberg-Buchholz . The hammer is an important witness to the proto-industrial development in the Ore Mountains . Of the numerous hammer mills in Saxony, only the iron hammer Dorfchemnitz , the " old hammer " of the Saigerhütte Grünthal and the Freibergsdorf hammer mill remained functional.

The Frohnauer Hammer, located on the Sehma , became the first technical monument in Saxony in 1907. In addition to the hammer mill and the mansion, the museum complex includes an exhibition on forged products, a free-form hammer , a mechanical mountain as well as a lace-making room and restaurant in the mansion.

history

The Frohnauer Hammer goes back to a flour mill with four grinding courses mentioned in the 15th century . On October 28, 1491, Caspar Nietzel discovered the Annaberg silver on the Schreckenberg not far from the mill . From that year mountain court was held in the garden of the mill . On September 21, 1496, the decision to found the "Neustadt am Schreckenberg", later St. Annaberg, was passed in the mill . The most well-known representative of the founding commission meeting in Frohnau was Ulrich Rülein von Calw , Annaberg's master builder.

In 1498 the young mining town received the right to mint . Around 1590 the mill came to a standstill and fell into disrepair. From 1611 it was used as an oil mill (recycling of flax ) with an attached scissors grinding shop. As early as 1616 there were plans to convert the mill into an iron hammer. The renovation began in 1621. Because of the deterioration in coins as a result of the Thirty Years' War , Elector Johann Georg I took over the mill and had it converted into a silver hammer. Silver fence was made here. However, Frohnau only worked for two years and then stood still. The dismantling of the mill was too unprofitable, so that the elector sold the hammer to a shearsmith in 1629. The new owner was not lucky either. The turmoil of the war forced him to give up the business in 1631. From 1632 the hammer worked as a copper hammer until its new owner left the plant in 1642, probably because of the hardships of the still ongoing Thirty Years War. This means that the hammer stood still only twenty years after its renovation. It was not revived until 1657 when the new owner Gottfried Rubner, an Annaberg merchant, had it converted into a hammer, gear and shovel hammer for 740 guilders by 1660 in order to meet the growing need for iron in the course of the economic boom after the Thirty Years' War .

The iron hammer experienced its heyday in the second half of the 17th century. He developed into an important mining supplier in the Annaberg area and supplied the miners a . a. with mallets and irons and other tack . Agricultural tools and ironwork were also made. In contrast to numerous other hammer mills in the Ore Mountains, there was no blast furnace in Frohnau , the pig iron was delivered. On February 6, 1692, the hammer burned to the ground. The owner at the time, the blacksmith Johann Klauss, was able to rebuild the system immediately, which indicates that business is doing well. During the reconstruction, u. a. the representative baroque hammer mansion in half-timbered style from the former small house . In 1904 the hammer was shut down because of the outdated equipment.

After the shutdown, local friends and museums tried to preserve the hammer, as it was one of the few systems in Germany with largely original technology from the 17th century. In 1907, the district administration Annaberg secured a right of first refusal on the hammer. At the same time, the Hammerbund (eV) was founded, which, headed by the governor von Welck, aimed to acquire the facility. In 1908, the association acquired the plant and in the following years established it as the first technical monument in Saxony. On October 1, 1909, the museum and the inn opened. In 1925 the three tail hammers could be demonstrated again in operation. In 1935, Max Günther presented the designs he had suggested for an Ore Mountains festival and Sunday costume in the Frohnauer Hammer.

In 1938, the hammer became the property of Heimatwerk Sachsen . After the end of the Second World War, it became the property of the Saxon state government. The continuation of monument protection measures was not possible due to a lack of financial resources. The Wismut confiscated the building and used it as a storage and refreshment station for the immediately adjacent exploration shaft no. 132 .

After the Bismut activities stopped, the owners changed very often: Dresden University of Technology, State Government of Saxony, Council of the District of Karl-Marx-Stadt. The Department of Culture of the Annaberg District Council was entrusted with the administration by the District Council. In 1952 the government of the GDR made 100,000 marks available as security and in the following years almost 20,000 marks annually for the maintenance of the hammer. In 1951 the museum started operating again. Within the next seven years, the facility was visited by a million guests. For more than 35 years , Johannes Schönherr , who became known as Hammerhansel , guided visitors through the facility. In 1985 the five millionth visitor was welcomed, to date there have been over 8 million.

technology

Wrought
The hammers

The Frohnau hammer has an authentic hammer mechanism from the second half of the 17th century. The centerpiece are the three tail hammers, whose shaft is driven by an overshot water wheel. The hammers themselves have weights of 100, 200 and 250 kg. They develop an impact force of up to 12 tons. Today “only” the little hammer is put into operation during demonstrations. The bellows , which are driven by another overshot water wheel, have also been preserved. In an adjoining building, a waterwheel-powered free-hand lathe and a drilling spindle can be viewed .

A total of three waterwheels are installed in the hammer mill, which are supplied with impact water by a common Gefluder .

Drop hammer

A free-form hammer has been set up in the outdoor area. These steam hammers replaced the water-powered hammers from 1860.

Technical specifications:

  • Year of construction 1918
  • Manufacturer: Richard Hartmann, Chemnitz
  • Total weight without bulkhead: 7 t
  • Falling weight of the hammer bear: 600 kp (= 5884 N)
  • Biggest stroke of the hammer bear: 80 cm
  • Number of strokes per minute: up to 105

The hammer was in operation in the VEB pressing and forging plant "Einheit" in Brand-Erbisdorf until 1983 .

literature

  • Waldemar Berger: The Frohnauer Hammer. A cultural monument of the Upper Ore Mountains . Buchholz 1925, DNB  572763417 .
  • Jörg Bräuer: Technical monument and museum Frohnauer Hammer (=  Saxon museums small series . No. 5 ). Chemnitz 2002, DNB  966301870 .
  • Siegfried Sieber : The Frohnauer Hammer as a monument to the Erzgebirge iron industry (=  messages from the State Association of Saxon Homeland Security . Volume XXVII , no. 1-4 ). 1938, p. 1-29 .
  • Technical Museum Frohnauer Hammer and Hammerbund Frohnau eV (Hrsg.): Documents on the history of the Frohnau hammer . Issue series, part 1–10. 2007, DNB  99167507X .
  • Bernd Schreiter : 100 years of the Hammerbund 1907–2007, ceremony for the anniversary . Ed .: Hammerbund Frohnau eV 2007, DNB  987221809 .
  • Bernd Schreiter: The home book of Frohnauer Hammer - once a grain mill, hammer mill from 1621, inn and museum since 1909 . Bernd Schreiter, Arnsfeld 2016, DNB  1097214079 .

Web links

Commons : Frohnauer Hammer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 54 ″  N , 12 ° 59 ′ 44 ″  E