Blücher pit
| Blücher pit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| other names | Stone wall | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Start of operation | 1850 | ||
| End of operation | 1893 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Zinc cover / lead gloss | ||
| Degradation of | Galena | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 58 '44.4 " N , 7 ° 10' 21.9" E | ||
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| Location | Herkenrath | ||
| local community | Bergisch Gladbach | ||
| District ( NUTS3 ) | Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis | ||
| country | State of North Rhine-Westphalia | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | Bensberg ore district | ||
The Blücher mine is a former non-ferrous metal ore mine in the Bensberg ore district in Bergisch Gladbach . The site is a place in the Herkenrath district of Bergisch Gladbach. The main operating point was in the area of the present-day village of Grube Blücher in the vicinity of the Naturfreundehaus Hardt.
history
At the beginning of the 19th century it became technically possible to turn zinc ore into high-quality metal. Then a real zinc rush broke out in the Bensberg ore district. A C. de Buhsy unsuspected for a Henri Obert on 28 July 1847 Grubenfeld Blucher on mountains Hardt on the so-called Stone Wall and west of Forsthaus Hardt in Bensberg . This explains why the Blücher mine was popularly known as the “stone wall”. The award took place on June 28, 1850 with the name Blücher. Under almost identical circumstances, the immediately neighboring Mutung and later Pit Napoleon was awarded with the same dates. The awards were made for lead , zinc and copper ores . For both mines, on January 24, 1855, a joint award certificate was issued under the name Blücher for lead and zinc ores, which was extended to copper ores and pyrites on July 27, 1855 . The extraction of copper ore and pyrites remained economically insignificant.
One was always careful to acquire additional mining fields in the vicinity in order to ensure permanent operation. It consolidated for this reason, on 18 November 1862, the east adjacent pits Katz Bach and Wahlstatt I. The pit Katz Bach was on January 5, 1858 lead, copper and zinc ores have been awarded the pit Wahlstatt I July 30, 1861 Zinc, lead, copper and iron ores as well as pyrites.
A further consolidation took place under the common name Blücher on February 5, 1869 with the mines:
- Blücher II, date of award unknown, on lead, zinc and copper ores,
- Blücher III, awarded on January 14, 1867 for lead, copper ore and pyrites,
- Blücher IV, awarded on August 21, 1868 to lead and zinc ores,
- Caesar, awarded on July 6, 1860 on lead and zinc ores,
- Gérard, awarded on March 10, 1853 to lead and zinc ores,
- Galvani, awarded on July 17, 1859 for lead and zinc ores,
- Madonna, awarded on January 24, 1855 to lead and zinc ores,
- Norma, formerly Mutung Eduard, awarded on April 20, 1854 to lead and zinc ores,
- Norma II, awarded on September 1, 1868 on lead and zinc ores.
Operation and facilities
Civil engineering
Traces of old mining, possibly dating back to the Middle Ages or even earlier, gave prospectors in search of metal ore deposits an indication of ore deposits. To prove the building worthiness, the first mining activities began in the Blücher and Katzbach mine fields as early as 1847. Since the year 1850, after the granting of mountain property, one can assume that there has been real mining. However, details are not known about it.
After operations began at the various operating points of the Blücher mine in the 1950s, good results were achieved in civil engineering in the period that followed . The most important finishing and fixture work was carried out mainly on the 40 m and 70 m level . The good operating results continued, so that the Blücher mine became one of the most profitable mines in the Bensberg ore district. In 1864 the machine shaft , known as the Ludwigschacht, was sunk further and a new bottom was set at a depth of 100 m . At the same time, the Bartholdschacht was deepened in the formerly independent Katzbach field in order to make it penetrable with the 40 m bottom of the Blücher pit. The 100 m level was followed by the 140 m level in 1870, but it was soon discovered that production was steadily declining.
This negative development had understandable causes. As a mine operator, the Rheinische Bergwerks Actien-Verein Saturn was obviously very interested in extracting as large a quantity of ore as possible at the lowest possible cost. A solid management of the pit with alignment and fixture work that would have made a sufficient ore reserve possible was a minor matter. They ran overexploitation by concentrating on the powerful and good ore deposits with only a small workforce. The looted pit field became the property of the Rheinisch-Nassauische Bergwerks- und Hütten-Aktiengesellschaft in Stolberg in 1884 . Mining was now carried out more carefully, but as early as 1888 it had to be recognized that the ore channel was roughened below the 160 m level that had meanwhile been set up .
The processing plant
In the joint mining book for the Blücher and Napoleon mines there is a copy of a concession document from March 6, 1855 about the construction of an ore processing facility for the Blücher and Napoleon mines near Bensberg on the slope of the Hölzerbach (this later flows into the Lerbach). Processing soon had to be expanded. In this context, they are shifted uphill in the vicinity of the Ludwigschacht (see photo).
The end of the Blücher pit
For the year 1892, the statistical evidence says that the safety pillars and ore remnants were mined. One would not have had to expect any more new information. The once important Blücher mine was then closed in 1893.
Attempts have been made again and again to continue mining. In 1897 and 1904 there were experimental work in the Norma mine field, but this did not lead to any results. In the 1930s and 1940s until almost the end of the war, the sludge residues were removed from the clarification ponds with tipping ponds and transported by truck to the Weiß mine to extract the ores that were still in them , where they were processed in the flotation. This was repeated in the same way at the beginning of the 1950s with the washing heaps for ore processing west of the Ludwigshaft.
Ground monument of the Blücher pit
According to the information provided by the Office for the Preservation of Land Monuments , the miners came across old tunnels and structures that had been worked into the mountain with mallets and iron without powder in the Middle Ages when they were working through the Deep Napoleon Gallery . They reached down to a depth of 45 meters.
All of the mining relics of the Blücher mine preserved on the surface were entered on October 1, 1997 under No. 14 in the list of soil monuments in Bergisch Gladbach .
See also
Friends of Nature House
After the closure of the Blücher mine, the residential buildings continued to be used. Since then, the Blücher mine has been part of Herkenrath . The Friends of Nature were banned and expropriated as an association in 1933. After the association was re-established in 1946, they fought for years for reparations and in 1958 they were awarded a plot of land with an upright house in the forest near Bensberg-Herkenrath . It was the former Steigerhaus of the Blücher mine. After renovations and restorations, the Naturfreundehaus Haus Hardt was opened in 1960 .
literature
- Emil Buff: Description of the Deutz mountain district. Bonn 1882.
- H. Jakob Schmitz: The millennial Herkenrath , Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1950
- Herbert Stahl : Blücher mine near Herkenrath, from the ore mine to the local recreation area. with a contribution to the Naturfreundehaus by Hans Peter Schmitz, Cologne 2001.
- Herbert Stahl (editor), Gerhard Geurts , Herbert Ommer : The legacy of ore. Volume 2, The pits on the Gangerz deposits in the Bensberg ore district. Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-00-014668-7 .
- Gerhard Geurts, Herbert Ommer, Herbert Stahl: The mining in the Hardt and the area around Herkenrath. In: 50 Years NaturFreundehaus Hardt 1960–2010. Bergisch Gladbach 2010.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Herbert Stahl (editors), Gerhard Geurts and Herbert Ommer: Das Erbe des Erzes , Volume 2, The pits on the Gangerz deposits in the ore district of Bensberg , Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-00-014668-7 , p. 60 ff .
- ↑ List of monuments of the city of Bergisch Gladbach, permanent ground monument No. 14
- ^ Andree Schulte: Bergisch Gladbach, city history in street names , Bergisch Gladbach 1995, p. 199 ISBN 3-9804448-0-5
- ↑ Hans Peter Schmitz in: Grube Blücher near Herkenrath, from the ore mine to the local recreation area. Cologne 2001, p. 23 f.