Johannesstollen

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Johannesstollen
General information about the mine
Information about the mining company
Start of operation circa 1554
End of operation after 1628
Funded raw materials
Degradation of
Geographical location
Coordinates 51 ° 48 '51 "  N , 10 ° 20' 20.3"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 48 '51 "  N , 10 ° 20' 20.3"  E
Johannesstollen (Lower Saxony)
Johannesstollen
Location Johannesstollen
Location The mining town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld
District ( NUTS3 ) Goslar
country State of Lower Saxony
Country Germany

The Johannesstollen (historically also called St. Johannes Stollen or St. Johannis Stollen ) is an earlier water solution gallery of the Upper Harz Mining in Clausthal-Zellerfeld . Little is known about its exact course, as the historical drawings of the mining facilities are incomplete and the tunnel lost its importance due to its comparatively high location at the beginning of the 17th century. The tunnel , which has an average height of 1.40 meters and a width of 50 cm , was rediscovered in 2020 when a historic mining shaft was being renovated .

history

After an earlier period, mining on the Burgstätter Gangzug had come to a standstill due to the Black Death and technical challenges. At the beginning of the 16th century began Duke Henry the Younger , the mining revive in the region. After a short time it was realized that new ways had to be found to discharge the accumulating pit water .

For this purpose, from 1554 or 1563, the Johannes tunnel was excavated , which, together with the upper Jesus-start tunnel, was supposed to ensure the water solution for the pits on the Burgstätter gangway. As was the Franken Scharrn cleats that from Zellerfelder lode in the Burgstätter lode propelled was one used hammer and chisel , so you could only reach a propulsion of a few centimeters per day in hard rock.

The mouth of the Johannes tunnel led into the Zellbach at the level of the Eulenspiegler pond. This location was chosen because the lower Kerbtal section of the Zellbach was too far away. As a result, the Johannes adit was comparatively high and only penetrated to a shallow depth in the connected pits , which is why deeper water solution tunnels were necessary after a few years of operation. At the beginning of the 17th century, this was initially the Frankenscharrn tunnel, which itself became less important due to the even deeper water solution tunnel.

In 1592 the Johannesstollen reached a length of 830  Lachter (about 1.6 km). However, it was very dilapidated up to the Fortuna shaft (started in 1588) and then broken. A later planned extension in the 1620s to the Grüne Birke shaft (started in 1591) was not implemented. The operation of the Johannes tunnel was stopped after a resolution of July 4, 1628. At this point his mouth hole could no longer be found.

Historical description

The Clausthal mining scholar Henning Calvör described the Johannes tunnel in his book "Acta Historico-Chronologico-Mechanica circa metallurgiam in Hercynia superiori" from 1763 as follows:

On the Burgstätter train there was still a tunnel called the Sanct Johannes tunnel, but it is no longer known in which year it was started. He had his mouth hole on the Zellbach, in the area where the Eulenspiegel pond is now. It was driven in order to divert the upper surface water and groundwater on this course, which then led the Zellerfelder to their mines, as from the first tunnel recesse sub dato Goslar on December 14th. 1582 to be seen; and although the Clausthalers continue to build this tunnel after such receipts, and thus have to supply the water to the Zellerfeld; So in the settlement of July 4, 1628, its cessation and that the Clausthal mines should be spared with expenses on the same, approved, just as the same was almost broken and its mouth was devoured so that no one can find it.

Rediscovery in 2020

Construction site for the safekeeping of the “Silberkrone” shaft in August 2020. During this work, the Johannes tunnel was rediscovered.

The trigger for the rediscovery of the Johannes tunnel was a subsidence in the mountain , which became apparent at the beginning of 2019 after a period of heavy rain and thaw on a street within a residential area on the Brauhausberg. It was in the area of ​​the former Silberkrone shaft. It belonged to the Silberkrone mine, which mined lead ores containing silver in the Zellerfeld corridor from around 1668 to 1701 and whose shaft was later filled. In 2020, the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG) , which is responsible for mining damage , had the shaft taken into custody by a specialist company. The historically handed down Johannes tunnel was discovered within the shaft at a depth of 20 meters. Its course was not known to the LBEG until then, but it was suspected in the vicinity of the shaft. According to the current state of knowledge, it ran at least from the site of discovery in the Silberkrone shaft over 500 to 700 meters to the former mouth hole on the Zellbach at the level of the Eulenspiegler pond.

Investigations

When it was discovered, the Johannes tunnel was clogged with sediments and mud, but it was in good condition. The State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology had the tunnel excavated over a length of 65 meters . In this way, experts can get to the Kron-Kahlenberg shaft, which is also to be rehabilitated. It belonged to the Kron-Kahlenberg mine, which was operated until 1744. The clearance work is carried out in cooperation with the Goslar- based mining archeology department of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation , for which the archaeologist Katharina Malek carries out the monument preservation investigations. They apply to the traces of work and legacies of the miners in the mine, which has remained unchanged for centuries. So far, holes in the beams of the working platforms, mallet marks and wooden treadmills have been discovered . Dating the old timbers should provide information about the time miners were in the mine. By the historic preservation is a in the mining archeology photo proven methods based on thousands of 3D model made of the tunnel, so that it remains virtually obtained. After the renovation work and scientific investigations, the tunnel is to be backfilled.

See also

Web links

Commons : Johannesstollen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Fessner: Thorough illustration of the ancient mine. 2002, p. 92
  2. ^ A b Dennert, Sperling, Stoppel: Burgstätter Gangzug. In: Monographs of the German lead-zinc ore deposits. Series D, Issue 34, 1979, p. 137.
  3. ↑ a b Jäger: Development and transformation of the Upper Harz mountain towns: A settlement-geographic comparison. 1972, p. 52
  4. ^ Ließmann: Historical mining in the Harz. 2010, p. 167 f.
  5. ^ Jäger: Development and transformation of the Upper Harz mountain towns: A settlement-geographic comparison. 1972, p. 52
  6. ^ A b Henning Calvör: Acta Historico-Chronologico-Mechanica circa metallurgiam in Hercynia superiori , Verlag der Fürstlichen Waysenhaus-Buchhandlung, Braunschweig 1763, pp. 24-25.
  7. ↑ Medieval mine tunnel discovered on Wissenschaft.de on August 4, 2020
  8. ↑ Lowering over the Silberkrone shaft: LBEG initiates measurements at LBEG on January 29, 2019
  9. ↑ Harz: Miners renovate shaft - and make an incredible discovery in news 38 on July 22, 2020
  10. ↑ Harz: This find is considered a sensation! Researchers present their discovery at news 38 on July 29, 2020