Astraea pit
| Astraea pit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
 |
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| other names | Lignite mine and briquet factory Juntersdorf / Asträa / Astrea / "Hamburg" | ||
| Mining technology | Underground mining / open pit mining | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | "Hamburg" union | ||
| Start of operation | 1833 | ||
| End of operation | 1924 | ||
| Successor use | Backfilled as the outer dump of the Zülpich opencast mine | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Brown coal | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 41 '13.3 " N , 6 ° 36' 5.4" E | ||
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| Location | Juntersdorf | ||
| local community | Zülpich | ||
| District ( NUTS3 ) | Euskirchen | ||
| country | State of North Rhine-Westphalia | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | South-western Rhenish lignite district | ||
The pit Astraea (alternative spelling also Astraea or Astrea , official name lignite mine and Briketfabrik Juntersdorf , alternatively, "Hamburg" ) was a brown coal - mine west of today Zülpich related hamlet Juntersdorf in the circle Euskirchen on the southwestern edge of the Rhenish mining area . Coal was extracted here in two phases in the 19th and again in the 20th century, both in opencast and underground mining .
history
Background: The Abelsgrube near Virnich
Since the lignite seams of the Lower Rhine Basin in the region Zülpich / Euskirchen as different in the Ville nowhere to the surface streak , the occurrences were there until the 19th century unknown. In 1820 the mining entrepreneur Albert Abels from Kommern had mutation boreholes drilled in search of minable mineral resources in the surrounding area . Here, surprisingly, lignite was found near Virnich . Abel received 1822 a concession for the mining and closed mid-1820s the Abel pit on. However, since the production of the pit fell short of expectations, Abels had further drilling carried out in search of more productive deposits in the area.
Exploration and first operating phase in the 19th century
In his search for better coal, Abels struck gold on the opposite side of the Rothbach valley from the Virnicher Höhe , under the former communal cattle pasture of Juntersdorf . The deposit conditions were more favorable here than at Virnich: the seam was almost twice as thick (6.3 - 8 m) and the overburden initially less than half as thick (around 12 m).
At the end of 1832 Abels received the concession for the field southwest of Juntersdorf, which he named Astraea , named after the Greek goddess of justice . In 1833 he opened a second mine in addition to the mine near Virnich. In contrast to the Virnich pit, no shafts were sunk at Juntersdorf , but tunnels were dug . In some cases, where the coal was particularly close to the surface , it was even possible to work in opencast mines .
The mine was operated in quarry and pier construction at least until 1867 . After the shutdown - probably around 1870 due to lack of profitability due to growing price pressure [no evidence] - the mining operation in Juntersdorf was idle.
Re-exploration and second operating phase in the 20th century
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At the end of the 19th century, after the price situation had shifted in favor of lignite due to the strike in the Ruhr coal mining industry, the Astraea field was bought by the "Hamburg in Gotha" union . After finding new things in mutation drilling around 1900, the Juntersdorf lignite company was founded, which resumed mining around 1905. A briquette factory was also built and to improve sales, a railway line from Zülpich to Embken with a branch connection to the Astraea mine was even built from the Düren circular railway in 1911 . On a map from 1913, the pit with the rail connection can be clearly seen.
Since the output of the mine and thus the production of the briquette factory fell far short of the target of 100,000 tons per year agreed with the Düren district railway, rail transport was stopped again in 1920. In 1924 the mine was finally closed. The railway connection was dismantled, the daytime facilities of the pit and the briquette factory demolished. The remaining hole of the former opencast mine was filled in the 1950s with overburden from the field in the middle of the Zülpich opencast mine and the Juntersdorf dump was created here , which today covers the former site of the pit and briquette factory.
As a reminder of the mining past, a main street in Juntersdorf bears the name Astreastraße and on the corner of Hovener Straße and Düttling there is a historic dump truck from the pit with the inscription "Pit Astrea 1833-1924" (see picture in the info box).
Individual evidence
- ^ Fritz Wündisch: Brown coal mining near Euskirchen. From the “Abelsgrube” and from the “Clemafin” pit . In: Home calendar of the Euskirchen district . Schiffer, Rheinberg 1966, DNB 015111199 ( full text on wisoveg.de).
- ^ Conrad Heusler: Description of the Brühl-Unkel mining area and the lignite basin on the Lower Rhine . Verlag Adolph Marcus, Bonn 1897, p. 50–51 ( full text in the library of the seminar for economic and social history at the University of Cologne (Digitalis project) ).
- ↑ a b Bernhard Peter Schreiber: The brown coal between the Rhine and the Rur . In: Home calendar of the Euskirchen district . Schiffer, Rheinberg 1968, DNB 015111199 ( full text on wisoveg.de).
- ↑ Carl Friedrich Zincken: The brown coal and its use, Volume 1 . Carl Rümpler, Hanover 1867 ( full text in the Google book search).
- ↑ Royal. Upper Mining Authority for the Lower Rhine Provinces: Authorization certificate for the Astaea lignite mine . In: Official Gazette of the Government of Aachen . 1833, p. 46–48 ( full text in Google Book Search).
- ^ Heinrich von Dechen : Collection of the height measurements in the Rhine province . Henry et Cohen, Bonn 1852 ( full text in the Google book search).
- ^ Heinrich von Dechen : Orographic-geognostic overview of the administrative district of Aachen . Verlag von Benrath & Vogelgesang, Aachen 1866 ( full text in the Google book search).
- ^ The mining operations in the Prussian state in 1867 . In: Journal for the mining, metallurgy and saltworks in the Prussian state . tape 16 , p. 68 ( full text in Google Book Search).
- ↑ Margarethe Muhr: Et hät still jot jejange ... Memoirs of Margarethe Muhr, geb. Siep (1901-1990). Books on Demand, 2003, ISBN 978-3-8334-0486-3 , pp. 48 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ a b c Franz Willems: History of the Düren circular path 1908-1958 . Ed .: Dürener Kreisbahn. Düren 1958 ( full text on wisoveg.de ).
- ↑ Royal. Prussia. Land survey 1893: Zülpich . 1893 ( Online in the GeoGreif system - Geographical Collection of the University of Greifswald - Note: Apparently it is not the first edition from 1895, as wrongly stated by GeoGREIF, but the corrected version from 1913. This can be concluded from the fact that the map shows the railway line the Düren circular path from Zülpich to Embken with the siding to the pit can already be seen, which was only built in 1911.). Online ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ In the blooming fields in the Zülpicher Börde. www.eifelmomente.de, April 29, 2010, accessed on January 7, 2011 .
