Pit reserve

Pit reserve
	General information about the mine
Mining technology	Underground mining
	Information about the mining company
Operating company	Eschweiler Mining Association
Employees	2,400
Start of operation	1856
End of operation	1944
	Funded raw materials
Degradation of	Hard coal
Greatest depth	600 m
	Geographical location
Coordinates	50 ° 48 ′ 41 " N , 6 ° 16 ′ 34" E Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 41 " N , 6 ° 16 ′ 34" E
	Location pit reserve
Location	Nothberg
local community	Eschweiler
City region ( NUTS3 )	Aachen
country	State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Country	Germany
District	Aachen coal mining area

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The Grube Reserve was a coal mine between the Eschweiler districts of Bergrath and Nothberg operated by the Eschweiler Bergwerksverein (EBV) from 1856 to 1944 . It was the last mine of the Eschweiler mining and in the Inderevier .

history

EBV lorries set up as a souvenir near Nothberg

The Black Mountain, the dump of the former mine reserve that was created between 1888 and 1944

1833 acquired Christine Englerth a 2,500 hectare concession to the coal deposits of places Eschweiler, Frenz , Inden , Lamersdorf , Lucherberg , Nothberg and Weisweiler under the name "Eschweiler reserve pit."

In 1856 the first shaft named "Wilhelm" (also known as shaft I) was sunk in Nothberg . From 1862 "Reserve" was operated as an independent pit with two shafts. The "Heinrichsschacht" sunk from 1847 near Weisweiler, from which coal was also extracted independently for a short time, was also assigned to the mine. Due to repeated water inrushes, the mine got going with difficulty; from 1875 to 1880 almost no coal was extracted. Only with new, more powerful pumps did the EBV get its water problems under control from the 1880s onwards. In 1888 a cable car from the pit to the Eschweiler Stadtwald was completed and the excavation work began next to the existing “ Kitzberg ” dump to the so-called Black Mountain .

In 1864 the mine was given a direct siding to the Aachen-Cologne railway line of the Rheinische Eisenbahn and its own train station on the mine site. The siding branched off from the main line at the level of the pedestrian underpass “Auf dem Höfchen”. At the beginning of the 1890s the mine had around 700 employees. When the Centrum pit was closed , most of the miners there came to the Reserve Pit. In 1894 a coking plant was built on the mine site, which was soon expanded to include a benzene factory and a tar distillation facility. A year later, in addition to the overburden cable car to the Black Mountain, other cable cars were built to transport coal and coke, including one for transporting coke to the Concordia works in Pump-Stich . The coal washing plant that was used in the Centrum mine was also supplied in this way.

From 1903 the mine was gradually operated electrically, including an electric mine railway from 1907 . The hoisting machines remained steam-powered until the end. In the years from 1905 onwards, shaft II was sunk further down to the 600 m level and the coking plant was modernized. During the First World War , the conscription of many miners and the heavy load on the Cologne-Aachen railway line caused by military transports caused considerable hindrances and a decline in funding.

In the 1920s, the EBV modernized the pit to a considerable extent, and shaft I was also sunk up to 600 m. The coking plant was also completely renovated in 1926. In 1927 the “Aachener Bergmanns-Siedlungsgesellschaft” built the “Colony Weather Shaft” next to the weather shaft sunk there in 1903 on the lower “Dürener Strasse” in Eschweiler-Ost for the miners recruited by the EBV for the “Reserve” mine. These came from Poland , Westphalia , Lorraine , Saarland , the Palatinate and Slovenian Styria , among others . Since then, the weather shaft has also been used for personnel travel to ensure short distances. In 1932 a total of around 2,400 people worked in the mine. The cable car to the Black Mountain was renewed in May 1938 as one of the last measures before the Second World War.

As in 1914, many miners were drafted at the beginning of World War II. Forced laborers and prisoners of war were used as replacements . After the mine came within range of the American artillery towards the end of the war , the pumps failed due to a power failure on September 28, 1944. The pit filled to the surface within a few days.

After the war, the EBV decided not to swamp the mine because of the small amount of coal still remaining . In 1950 the winding towers and the chimneys on the mine site were demolished. One of the winding towers was used in the newly created Emil Mayrisch mine in Siersdorf until it was closed in 1992, as was the winding machine. The factory locomotives used above ground end their service in Mariadorf on the Maria mine . In the remaining buildings, the EBV moved Deutsche Fibercast , a subsidiary that manufactured plastic pipes. The last buildings in the old coking plant, including the striking high-rise coal bunker, were demolished in 1970. In 1996, Deutsche Fibercast moved to the industrial park that was being created on the site of the Emil Mayrisch mine. The last buildings unused since then were demolished in 2005.

Misfortunes

The reserve mine was always endangered due to its difficult water flow, the thin seams with faults and the heavily gaseous fatty coal . Striking weather occurred repeatedly . Two miners died in firedamp explosions in 1905; in 1927 one was killed and four injured. The worst accident, however, was caused by exploding explosives in a cracked box . On February 21, 1931, the resulting coal dust explosion claimed 32 dead, the youngest 16, the oldest 42 years old. 35 miners were injured, some seriously. In addition, a number of pit horses died . The funeral service for this most serious accident at the Reserve mine took place on February 24th in the Eschweiler “Schützenhalle” on Marienstraße.

At the request of social democratic and communist members of parliament, the disaster was debated in the Reichstag , with particular criticism of the working conditions and the lack of safety measures. All in all, contributions from the Reich, Prussia, the EBV and donations raised around 144,000 Reichsmarks to support the bereaved.

Trivia

The Eschweiler carnival company "KG Funny Reserve", founded in 1931 in the Röthgen district, has no relation to the reserve pit, contrary to what is often assumed.