Sibylla's pit

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sibylla's pit
General information about the mine
other names Sybilla [sic!]
Mining technology Open pit
Information about the mining company
Operating company Sibylla union → from 1906 Fortuna AG ( Rheinbraun / RAG , today RWE )
Start of operation 1891
End of operation 1950 (pit) /
1970 (briquette factory)
Successor use Pit field dredged over by Frechen opencast mine , daytime facilities demolished, briquette factory today RWE research laboratory
Funded raw materials
Degradation of Brown coal
Mightiness 24 m
Geographical location
Coordinates 50 ° 54 '3.6 "  N , 6 ° 47' 27.8"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 54 '3.6 "  N , 6 ° 47' 27.8"  E
Sibylla Pit (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Sibylla's pit
Location of the Sibylla pit
local community Cheeky
District ( NUTS3 ) Rhein-Erft district
country State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Country Germany
District Rhenish lignite district

The pit Sibylla (also Sibyllagrube or open pit Sibylla called, often incorrectly spelled Sybilla ) is a former brown coal - pit mine with an attached briquette factory in Frechen in southern Rhenish lignite mining area .

On the grounds of the briquette factory south of the district Benzelrath which was in operation until 1970, now houses a research laboratory for Fuel Technology of RWE . The open-cast mine, which stretched from the briquette factory in a south-westerly direction to the Fürstenberg mine and briquette factory (near today's Fürstenberg-Maar ), was merged with the adjacent pits to form the Frechen central open-cast mine in 1950 . The area was completely charred by 1986 and then recultivated .

history

In the 19th century there were numerous small brown coal mines in the Ville , including several southwest of Frechen. The mines won the coal using simple methods, mainly in Kuhlen- and Tummelbau , for the production of Klütten . From around 1875 the first industrial briquette factories and open-cast mines ( Roddergrube , Grube Brühl , Gruhlwerk , ...) were built in the southern district near Brühl and Hürth .

Historical briquette press (built in 1902), today exhibited on the former site of the Sibylla briquette factory, on the right in the background a preserved factory building

The initiative to found an industrial mine in Frechen based on the example of the southern district came from the entrepreneur Anton Kolping. In addition to a distillery and a mill in Buir , Kolping already owned shares in the Belgisch-Rheinische AG for lignite briquettes with a briquette factory in Horrem and the Maria Theresia briquette factory near Herzogenrath . In 1891 Kolping merged with the building contractor Hans Simons to form the Sibyllagrube union , and as early as 1892 the mine and briquette factory started operations. At that time, the briquette factory was the first and only one in Frechen. However, due to difficulties in raising capital, Simons left the union after three years. A few years later, around the turn of the year 1897/98, Kolping also gave up all Kuxe to the Breslauer Disconto-Bank and the stock corporation for coal and steel industry from Berlin. All shares were later taken over by the Bergisch-Märkische Bank .

Shortly after opening, in 1897, the briquette factory was connected to the new Frechen-Benzelrath line of the Cologne-Frechen-Benzelrath Railway (KFBE), which significantly improved the sales opportunities for the briquettes beyond the borders of the region.

At the end of the 19th century, a fierce price war broke out between the briquette factories in the Rheinische Revier due to overcapacity. In order to contain this, various factories, including the Sibylla mine, increasingly formed cartels , most recently the sales association of the Rheinische lignite briquette works . Subsequently, however, there was ultimately a concentration, especially from the turn of the century . During this phase, the Sibylla union initially bought the neighboring mines and briquette factories Louise and Grefrath in 1904 , but was then taken over in 1906 by Fortuna AG ( Fortuna Aktiengesellschaft für Braunkohlenbergbau und Briketfabrikation zu Grube Giersberg-Fortuna near Quadrath , which later became Rheinbraun / RAG ).

The Wachtberg briquette factory (large, right) and the RWE research center Sybilla (small, left of it)

After the takeover by Fortuna, Sibylla worked increasingly with other Fortuna mines and briquette factories in the Frechen area ( Wachtberg , Clarenberg , Carl , ...). In 1912/13 Fortuna built a switching station on Sibylla to distribute electrical energy from the Fortuna power station to its surrounding pits and briquette factories. Since the capacity of the Sibylla mine was not fully utilized by its own briquette factory, the coal also went via the rail link to the Clarenberg briquette factory from 1928 and to the neighboring Carl briquette factory from 1930 . In 1930 the rail transport of coal and briquettes from the Sibylla mine, together with other mines and factories in the district, was converted to large-capacity freight wagons .

At the end of the 1940s, the recoverable areas of the Sibylla mine field were largely depleted. In order to continue mining, the mine was combined with several neighboring pits to form the Frechen open-cast mine . As part of this summary, the village of Bottenbroich , located between the fields Sibylla North and South , was relocated from 1949 . A few years later the place, like Benzelrath , was excavated.

After the end of the Sibylla mine in 1951, the Sibylla briquette factory continued to operate; it was supplied with coal from the neighboring Wachtberg mine and the new Frechen open-cast mine. The Sibylla briquette factory only stopped production at the beginning of 1970. In 1986/87 most of the old buildings were demolished.

After the briquette factory was demolished, Rheinbraun (now RWE Power ) set up a research laboratory with a technical center and an analysis laboratory for the investigation of fuels and other materials from the mining and energy industries as the successor to Fortuna . A historic briquette press from the former factory stands outside today to commemorate the past .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Volker Schüler , Manfred Coenen: The briquette production in the Rhenish lignite district . (Rhenish briquette factories 1877–2004) . In: 6th Colloquium of Mining History . Magistrate of the City of Borken, Borken (Hessen) 2005, ISBN 3-932739-13-2 , p.  29 ff . ( Excerpt from the online archive of DBH-Verlag Schüler ).
  2. ↑ a b c G. Fischer: Economic Chronicle . tape 10 . G. Fischer, 1908, p. 632 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Königlich Preußische Landesaufnahme (Ed.): Mes table sheet "Frechen" (No. 5006) . Prussian new admission . 1895 (digital collections of the University of Greifswald).
  4. ↑ a b Analysis at a high level for 25 years. Press release. RWE Power AG, August 23, 2010, accessed on January 10, 2011 .
  5. ↑ a b Quality and Competence - More than an analysis laboratory. RWE Power AG, accessed on January 10, 2011 .
  6. ^ Conrad Heusler: Description of the Brühl-Unkel mining area and the lignite basin on the Lower Rhine . Verlag Adolph Marcus, Bonn 1897 ( full text in the library of the seminar for economic and social history of the University of Cologne (project Digitalis) ).
  7. ↑ a b c Anton and Ludwig Kolping. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013 ; accessed on December 14, 2018 .
  8. ^ A b c Diane Dammers: The formation of cartels in the Rhenish lignite industry (1871-1914) . Diploma thesis in economic and social history. Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne, Cologne 2003.
  9. ^ Walter Buschmann: The Cologne-Frechen-Benzelrath Railway. Rheinische Industriekultur e. V., accessed January 10, 2011 .
  10. ↑ Manfred Coenen, Volker HW Schüler : Railway and lignite - the industrial and traffic-related development in the lignite area on the left bank of the Rhine 1877-1913 . In: 5th Colloquium of Mining History . Borken 2002, p. 28 ff . ( Revised full text on dbhverlag.de).
  11. ^ Manfred Coenen, Volker Schüler : Grube Louise between Balkhausen and Brüggen. From the diary of a Rhenish briquette factory 1906–1956. In: dbh - documenta berchemensis historica . Special issue 1/2006. DBH pupils, Bergheim 2006.
  12. ↑ Oberaussem - Fortuna and the brown coal. 6. The development of the Fortuna mine. District forum Oberaussem, archived from the original on June 29, 2013 ; Retrieved January 10, 2011 .
  13. ^ A b c Volker HW pupil : The Clarenberg Actien-Gesellschaft for coal and clay industry in Frechen near Cologne 1893-1971 . DBH pupils ( full text dbhverlag.de [PDF; 1.9  MB ]).
  14. ^ Walter Buschmann : The Carl briquette factory in Frechen. Rheinische Industriekultur e. V., accessed January 10, 2011 .
  15. ↑ Manfred Coenen: Introduction of the standard-gauge large-scale funding at the 'Frechener Werken' of RAG in the 1930s . In: Yearbook Frechener Geschichtsverein . Edition 1/2005. DBH pupil, Frechen 2005 ( full text on dbhverlag.de [PDF]).