Memorial stone fulling mill

Memorial near the site of a former fulling mill, where Friedrich Krupp his first Reckhammer built

The memorial stone on the fulling mill in the Vogelheim district of Essen has been a reminder since 1926 of the first hammer mill built by the company's founder, Friedrich Krupp , and thus of the origins of the Krupp company. His son Alfred Krupp later expanded the Krupp cast steel factory at the new location in the Westviertel to become Europe's largest industrial company, Friedrich Krupp AG , which was merged into today's ThyssenKrupp AG in 1999 .

history

The fulling mill

The fulling mill , which was driven by the Berne , was mentioned in a document as early as 1446 by the wool weavers' guild. The mill could also have already been used for forging, because in a document from the Borbeck parish archive from 1687 a master Johan Kappert is named, who led an iron anchor through the chimney for the purpose of repairs. In 1797 the mill with the approximately one hectare property came into the possession of Friedrich Krupp's grandmother Helene Amalie, née. Ashfield . When she died in 1810, she bequeathed it to her grandson Friedrich and his sister Helene.

First Krupp factory

On this area north of the Essen city wall , in the marshy Emscher lowlands on the Berne, Friedrich Krupp built a hammer building for a barring and blacksmith hammer and a factory building from 1812 with the inherited assets of his grandmother Helene Amalie . On November 20, 1811, he founded the Friedrich Krupp company with two partners, from whom Krupp separated again in 1813 due to inability to manufacture English cast steel and all of the resulting products .

The two-story production building, which had a melting room with six melting furnaces, a crucible chamber and storage rooms, housed living rooms on the upper floor, as well as the hammer building. At first only cement steel could be produced with the help of the cement furnace , which could be sold from the end of 1812. In 1818 the horizontal hammer was installed for larger forged products. Ten workers were employed here this year. The original goal was to produce English cast steel that had not made it to mainland Europe since 1806 due to Napoleon's continental barrier. The first production attempts did not take place until 1818, when the continental barrier had long since been lifted, so that first wire, then tools as well as coin dies and rollers could be sold.

Transition to a new location

The location on the Berne turned out to be unfavorable as it was poorly developed. For example, the required coal from the Röttgersbank seam of the Sälzer and Neuack collieries had to be transported by horse-drawn cart from the small town of Essen to the factory, over partly muddy donkey paths. In addition, there was the fluctuating and often too low water level of the Berne, which was not suitable for a constant drive of the forging hammers.

In 1819, for example, a melting building was built on the property of Friedrich Krupp's mother west of Essen. Since there was no watercourse there, the hammer mill on the Berne had to remain in place for the time being. In 1823 Krupp finally succeeded in producing the then high-quality crucible steel for the first time , but important metallurgical relationships could not yet be explained. After Friedrich Krupp died in 1826 at the age of 39, heavily in debt due to high investments, his only 14-year-old son Alfred continued to use the factory at the fulling mill. In 1830 he was able to sell good quality steel rollers with a lathe and grinding machine installed himself.

End of the factory division into two parts

Finally, in 1834, three tail hammers and one horizontal hammer, now powered by a steam engine, were installed at the new location in the west of Essen. This made the forging hammers superfluous on the Berne and the factory there, which was initially leased, was sold in 1839. The forging business had been closed since 1836. The Reckhammer went to a blacksmith from Hagen .

Current condition

The only reminder near the site of the former fulling mill is the memorial stone erected on September 24, 1926. No remains of the former workshops are visible.

In 1908 the property at the former fulling mill fell to the Anna colliery . Around 1910, most of the relics of the previous factory were probably lost when the Berne canalized and the entire area was redesigned. After 1960, the former factory site was built over with new workshops and the memorial stone was moved to its present location a little apart.

Today's street An der Walkmühle got its name in 1915, just like its extension, Walkmühlenstraße . This had previously been called Grenzstrasse since 1891 .

literature

• Detlef Hopp : 200 years of Krupp. The fulling mill in Essen-Vogelheim: The "Friedrich Krupp cast steel factory for the production of English cast steel and all products resulting from it" (= reports from the Essen monument preservation department. Volume 4). City of Essen, Institute for Monument Protection and Preservation / Urban Archeology, Essen 2011 ( PDF ).

Web links

Description of this sight on the route of industrial culturehttp: //vorlage.rik.test/~05~105281

• Archaeological Ruhr times: The fulling mill - the cradle of the Krupp company in Essen Vogelheim ; Retrieved June 29, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ Erwin Dickhoff: Essener streets . Ed .: City of Essen - Historical Association for City and Monastery of Essen. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-1231-1 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 12.2 "  N , 6 ° 59 ′ 19.3"  E