Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein

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Former cooling towers

The Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein was an ironworks founded in 1856 in Georgsmarienhütte in Lower Saxony . It was taken over by Klöckner-Werke in 1923 and in 1993 by Jürgen Großmann as Georgsmarienhütte GmbH . As a Klöckner subsidiary, the company was the largest employer in the southern district of Osnabrück in the 1960s with 7,000 employees .

history

King George V of Hanover and his wife gave the iron and steel works its name
Queen Marie of Hanover
The Luther Church was built in 1877 for the Protestants who had moved there
The casino served social life
Company apartments were built for the employees in the 19th century , here in Schlossstrasse

Emergence

Iron was already being produced in the southern Osnabrück region in the Middle Ages . The extraction of iron ore on the hill near Hasbergen was documented around 1100 ; Coal came from Borgloh and Oesede Monastery , which has been part of Georgsmarienhütte as a district since 1970. In 1836 an ironworks was built in Hagen- Beckerode; a steam hammer and a mechanical workshop belonged to the Beckeroder Hütte . In 1856 the owner wanted to sell the hut to Westphalia ; this failed because of the objection of the government of the Kingdom of Hanover . In Hanover , the banker Adolf Meyer and officials of the court formed a committee with the aim of founding a stock corporation. She was supposed to buy the Beckeroder Hütte and build a modern iron and steel works to produce iron for railroad construction , which had been imported from other German states and England until then .

The corporation Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein was founded on June 4, 1856 with ideal and material support from King George V of Hanover and Queen Marie . The following day the association bought the Beckeroder Hütte for 350,000 gold coins. The blast furnace was operated until 1863 to keep the workforce; The hut existed as a boiler forge until 1903.

The new iron and steel works were to be built on the 350- acre site of Hof Schulte to Bühne in Malbergen , which belonged to the monastery chamber of Hanover . The Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein bought the Schultenhof on October 28, 1856 for 40,000 thalers. The population of the region, who earned their livelihood from agriculture and handicrafts, offered passive resistance in the face of industrial development and refused to provide housing for the workers brought in for the construction. For them, a residential colony was built on Osterberg under difficult conditions. A further 70 residential houses were built in the half-timbered construction typical of the region on Rehlberg . In order to create appropriate accommodation for the future management of the plant and the administrative employees designated as civil servants, the Monbrillant Castle in Hanover was bought, demolished there and rebuilt near the future plant. It gave way to the expansion of the plant in 1925.

Initially, four blast furnaces were planned. Construction began in January 1857; the first blast furnace was blown on July 14, 1858. The region's poor infrastructure turned out to be a problem for production . It became necessary to build a railway line to the ore mines, which were about seven kilometers away. This building also met with resistance from the population and local administrative authorities. The railway line from the ore mines to the plant was not put into operation until 1865. The supply of coal from the Glückauf shaft in the valley of the Düte , a tributary of the Hase , proved to be insufficient . The shaft was closed in 1866 due to excessive water inflow; Coal now had to be brought in from the Ruhr area . It was transported by rail to Osnabrück , from there with a hundred horse-drawn carts every day to the blast furnace. Transport was made easier after the Hüggelbahn was completed in 1866 and the Georgsmarienhütte – Hasbergen railway was completed in 1870, thus establishing the connection to the railway between Osnabrück and Münster .

In 1871 the factory began producing the world's first commercial mineral fiber , known as slag wool (cottage wool ).

The pig iron made at the factory was good quality and sold well regardless of any problems. Corporate profits rose steadily until 1873. Dividends of up to 33 percent were paid to shareholders.

In 1877 the Evangelical Lutheran Luther Church was built, the patronage of which was taken over by the Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein.

The development of the hut , as the company was called by the population until the end of the 20th century, resulted in great upheavals in the farmers of Malbergen and the surrounding area. Protestants were added to the almost exclusively Catholic population, so that the small Protestant elementary school was expanded to include several classes. The hospital was built in 1872/73. The newly built society house became a meeting point; a gym offered the opportunity to exercise. The long-disrupted relationship between the factory and the population now developed positively, especially since locals also found a job outside of agriculture.

The plant was steadily expanded; Blast furnace slag was processed in a cement and stone factory. The Hüttenstein was used to build houses. In 1896, the company initiated the construction of a small railway between Kirchlengern and Oberlübbe , the Wallücke Railway, to transport iron ore from East Westphalia . A new coking plant was put into operation in 1903. From 1908 onwards, electricity was used instead of steam, as was the case before.

20th century

During the First World War , the number of employees fell due to their military service. The resulting gaps were tried to be filled by employing women and prisoners of war .

From 1919 the plant cooperated with the Lorraine Ironworks Association . In 1923, both plants were merged to form Klöckner Werke AG Georgsmarienhütte under the direction of industrialist Peter Klöckner . The company prospered until 1930. After the crisis, caused by the global economic situation, the company recovered from 1933. In 1935 the fine iron rolling mill was modernized. In 1937 a cable car was put into operation from the Augustaschacht Ohrbeck to the limestone quarry in Holperdorp . In 1939 a new coking plant with 20 ovens went into operation.

The Second World War meant a further decline in the number of employees. To compensate for it, forced laborers and prisoners of war were used. Six bombs hit the plant on August 6, 1941, but only slightly affected production. After the British military marched in, the plant was shut down on April 3, 1945, except for the stone factory and the bridge and container construction.

In May 1946, production gradually started up again. On July 1, 1947, Klöckner Werke AG Georgsmarienhütte was separated from the Klöckner Group by order of the Allies. It was an independent company until 1951, but then returned to Klöckner. In 1953, Steel Mill II, which had been built with funds from the Marshall Plan , went into operation. Crude steel production doubled compared to the pre-war level. The number of employees rose to 7,000 in the 1960s.

In 1964 the new coking plant was shut down. From now on, the coke required for the blast furnace process was no longer produced on site.

The steel crisis of the 1970s also marked the beginning of the decline in Georgsmarienhütte, which led to a decline in the number of employees, for example through early retirement of older workers. Individual parts of the company were shut down or sold, and short-time work was ordered.

In 1984 Klöckner's plans to merge with Krupp-Stahl AG became known. The Lower Saxony state government also opposed the expected closure of the plant in Georgsmarienhütte . The population reacted with a large demonstration on October 23, 1984. However, the decline could not be stopped. In 1993, Jürgen Großmann took over the company for a nominal price and transformed it into Georgsmarienhütte GmbH , which has been operating as Georgsmarienhütte Holding GmbH since 1997 .

literature

  • Werner Beermann, Dieter Görbing: The hut - work and life in the region around the plant in Georgsmarienhütte . Self-published by Dieter Görbing, Georgsmarienhütte 1988, ISBN 3-926131-02-0
  • Oliver Driesen : Black as slag, red as embers. The amazing history of Georgsmarienhütte and its group of companies . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2006, 312 pages, ISBN 3-455-50004-8
  • Susanne Meyer: Heavy industrial island and rural living environment: Georgsmarienhütte 1856-1933. Plant and community, origin, settlement and social structure at a rural industrial location . Series: Contributions to Folk Culture in Northwest Germany, Vol. 70, Coppenrath, Münster 1991, 431 pages, ISBN 978-3885478058
  • Walter Hagemann: Mining and smelting companies in the Osnabrück region in their economic development . Publication of economics Ges. For the study of Lower Saxony, issue 12, Hanover 1930, 94 pp.
  • Hermann Müller: The Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- and Hütten-Verein . Volume 1: The history of the Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hütten-Verein . Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hütten-Verein, Osnabrück 1896, 268 pp.
  • Hermann Müller: The Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- and Hütten-Verein . Volume 2: Description of the properties, the facilities and the facilities of the association . Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hütten-Verein, Osnabrück 1906, 176 pp.
  • Rudolf Schulte: History of the Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hütten-Verein in seven decades: a contribution to the development of the German coal and steel industry. Welzel, Cologne 1928, 157 pp.
  • Erich Sperling: Everything about steel. Economic history about the Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein. Meinders & Elstermann, Osnabrück 1950, 208 pp.
  • Rainer Rottmann: The Beckeroder ironworks: history of one of the first industrial companies in the Osnabrück region 1836-1903 . Steinbacher Druck, Osnabrück 2006, 336 pages, ISBN 978-3939318019
  • Stephan-Lutz Tobatzsch : The history of the Luther Church and its community in Georgsmarienhütte 1873-2003 . Krützkamp, ​​Glandorf 2003, 80 pages, ISBN 3980963314

Web links

Commons : Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Achim Eberhard: Osnabrücker Bergland - overview of the mining and metallurgical industry. Accessed December 31, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Geology and mining of natural resources in Bad Iburg - operation. In: geo-iburg.de. Accessed December 31, 2016 .
  3. ^ Swapna Mukherjee: Applied Mineralogy: Applications in Industry and Environment. Springer, Dordrecht (Netherlands) 2012, ISBN 978-94-007-1161-7
  4. ^ Building "Science" timeline
  5. ↑ Werner Beermann, Dieter Görbing: The hut - work and life in the region around the plant in Georgsmarienhütte . 1988 (p. 23).

Coordinates: 52 ° 12 ′ 29 ″  N , 8 ° 3 ′ 7 ″  E