Isselburger Hut

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Board on the administration building of today's successor company, Minervastraße in Isselburg
The hand molding of the Isselburger Hütte; Photo taken in 1905

The Isselburger Hütte (initially: Minerva-Hütte ) was an ironworks that existed from 1794 to 1998 (until 1864) and a metalworking company in Isselburg (North Rhine-Westphalia). In the course of its existence, in addition to iron smelting, everyday objects, machines, letter boxes, lighthouses, motors and other cast works were produced. The successor today is Isselburg Guss und Processing GmbH .

history

Beginnings: Minerva Hut

Around 1770, the Mayor of Isselburg, Böhme, tried to set up an ironworks, like the one that had arisen in 1729 with the St. Michaelis ironworks in Liedern near Bocholt , because “the common inhabitants lacked a branch of food” . In the 1790s, an investor was finally found : Leopold Wilhelm Schmölder from Neuenrade had carried out investigations into the iron ore deposits on the course of the Issel and, on the basis of his report , received permission from King Friedrich Wilhelm II on July 24, 1794 to build what was then Minerva -Hut .

In 1797 the company already employed 10 foremen and 66 workers. Pots, ovens and window frames were made. A first fiscal balance was written in 1801: to work and driving wages were 10,202 dollars and 10,440 dollars charcoal has been spent, the net profit amounted to only 538 dollars. Thus the Minerva hut brought the population good income opportunities, but it was hardly worthwhile for Schmölder. He sold his establishment in 1804 to the cavalry master and entrepreneur Johann Friedrich Nering Bögel from the neighboring Dutch town of Ulft . He gave rise to new orders for the plant. From 1808 the Minerva-Hütte produced grape balls for the Prussian army . In 1815 the Rittmeister , as the workforce briefly called the new owner , leased the St. Michaelis hut in Bocholt and thus eliminated direct competition. When Bögel died in 1817, the Minerva-Hütte was a well-known and respected company.

19th century: turn to mechanical engineering

His son Johann Nering Bögel took over as managing director . After the introduction of border tariffs in the Netherlands, the 21-year-old factory owner tried to replace the lost markets with new ones and therefore made a trip to Denmark , Poland and the province of Pomerania . At the same time, his colleague Heinrich Jörris advertised in Sweden and Norway . The new clients showed no interest in the previous product range, which is why the company switched completely to mechanical engineering in 1830 . Together with the designer Johann Dinnendahl , Bögel therefore founded a machine factory on the site of the Minerva hut, in which twenty steam engines were manufactured from 1831 to 1838 alone . A 70-inch steam engine built in 1839 is the oldest surviving German steam hoisting machine. It is exhibited in the German Mining Museum in Bochum .

In 1837 Johann Nering Bögel set up a hospital for the employees of the hut, which also gave their relatives free medicine and treatment. A workers' health insurance scheme followed a little later. Ten years later, a particularly bad harvest made food more expensive. For this case, Nering Bögel had made provisions and built up large stocks of grain, which he now sold cheaply to his workers. To this day, an iron plate can be seen on his grave in Isselburg, which the workers of the Isselburger Hütte had erected out of gratitude.

Since during this time the companies in the Ruhr area began to expand strongly, and the remote location of the Minerva hut had a negative impact, the company switched to manufacturing high-quality special machines. In 1864, the actual smelting activity was stopped with the demolition of the blast furnace . The engineering department of the company has developed under its innovative products: in 1871 the engineer Fernis received a patent on a new type of pump valve , the construction of water control machine allows up to 700 m depth.

Production of mailboxes, lighthouses; Renaming to Isselburger Hütte

Received mailbox at the main post office in Frankfurt (Oder)
Shares of the AG Isselburger Hütte for 1000 marks from June 7, 1921

In 1865 the long-time director Johann Nering Bögel died, who passed the management of the company on to his son Gustav Nering Bögel. With the establishment of the Imperial Post after the unification of the empire in 1870, the factory received a major order for the manufacture of letterboxes in the German Reich , in which it had a monopoly until 1918 . In 1878 the Minerva Hut was renamed Isselburger Hut . The company now employed over 300 workers.

Gustav Nering Bögel was just as active as his father as a benefactor of the community: The founding of a training school for engineers in 1893 was just as much a result of his initiative as the construction of the “Wilhelmstadt” workers' estate, which offered workers cheap accommodation. He died in 1901. In the following years the Isselburger Hütte became famous for the construction of lighthouses . a. the Westerheversand lighthouse and the Hörnum lighthouse on the Issel.

First and Second World War, post-war period

When the First World War broke out in 1914 , 750 workers and employees were working at the Isselburger Hütte. As a result of the global economic crisis of 1929/30, the number of employees fell for some time to 193. The situation improved again through Klöckner-Werke , with which there was close ties from 1932, and all workers were able to be hired again. From the bond with the large corporation, an interest group with Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG emerged in 1938 , which was tantamount to a takeover. The Isselburger Hütte then mainly produced engines for half-track vehicles of the German Wehrmacht . In addition, the radiators of other Deutz engines were manufactured.

In the last weeks of the Second World War , the factory halls, office buildings and the engine factory were badly damaged. During the reconstruction in 1946, the management loosened the association with the Klöckner Group, which, however, retained the majority of shares in the Isselburger Hütte. In the post-war period there were close ties between the city administration and the hut management. The chief engineer of the works Heinrich Michelbrink was a council member and until 1958 chairman of the Isselburg CDU.

1970s to 1998

In 1969 the Isselburger Hütte had 700 employees. The company health insurance fund, which had existed since 1837, was closed during this time. The main shareholder of Isselburger Hütte AG, the Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz Group, ended the long-standing independence of the traditional company on July 30, 1972. From 1975 the Isselburger Hütte supplied the truck manufacturers of the "Vierer-Club" - DAF , Magirus-Deutz , Saviem and Volvo - with brake drums . In 1988 the plant was sold to the Dutch foundry group Verenigde gieterijen Nederland BV , which reduced the number of employees to 316.

Today's Isselburg Guss und edit GmbH

The company, now called Isselburg Guss und edit GmbH , has around 270 employees. It produces castings from gray cast iron , nodular cast iron and vermicular graphite cast iron , some of which are also mechanically processed. The production volume is around 22,000 tons per year.

literature

  • The history of the Isselburger Hütte . Published by Isselburger Hütte AG, March 1964.
  • Isselburg and his hut. Chronicle of an iron foundry and machine factory on the Lower Rhine , Isselburg 1972.

Web links

Commons : Isselburger Hütte  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 50 ′ 8.4 "  N , 6 ° 27 ′ 36"  E