Kingdom of Beisen

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Colony "Kingdom of Beisen"

The Kingdom of Beisen is a former colliery colony in the Katernberg district of Essen . It is located east of the Zollverein 3/7/10 mine on the city limits of Gelsenkirchen-Rotthausen .

The colony In den Beisen on Kraspothstrasse and Röckenstrasse was created between 1902 and 1903 and is part of theme route 2 - Industrial Cultural Landscape Zollverein of the Route of Industrial Culture .

The colony - a kingdom

Kingdom is the humorous name in the Ruhr area for a workers' settlement or a district in which the entire life takes place. The residents identified with their small, isolated world and often developed a peculiar character. In addition to the Kingdom of Beisen, there is also the Kingdom of Thyssen in the north of Duisburg, the Kingdom of Dümpten in Mülheim and the Kingdom of Stiepel in Bochum.

Origins

Bulrush (Juncus effusus)

Where exactly the borders of the kingdom are is not shown on any map. Beisen is mentioned for the first time in 1668 in the Essen land register as the land of a landowner from Stoppenberg . It was located on the Emscherniederung in the border area of ​​the district of Essen and the province of Westphalia . The name Beisen is derived from rushes , a swamp plant from which baskets, brooms and ropes were made or used as flooring in houses.

Until 1847 the area was sparsely populated and consisted of a few farms and figurines , including the Kraspothhof. Kraspoth means something like toad puddle in Bisen dialect . Muddy billet dams were used as paths , connecting the farms with the villages of Stoppenberg, Hessler , Gelsenkirchen or Rotthausen. Then coal was found in Katernberg and the merchant Franz Haniel had the first shaft of the Zollverein colliery sunk . The jobs created in the mining industry caused immigration to the region. In 1866 the Cologne-Mindener Railway opened the line to what was then the northernmost colliery in the Ruhr area. Thanks to the embankment of the railway line that once connected the Prussian Empire, the water of the Emscher dammed itself into a swamp area and offered the eponymous plants freedom to develop.

Mining moved into Beisen with shaft 3 in 1882. A settlement area was created that consisted of a few houses and a barracks in which the bachelors were housed.

The settlement

Zeche Zollverein shaft 3/7/10

At the turn of the century in 1900, shafts 3/7/10 were among the most profitable mines. Up to 1900, 707,684 tons of hard coal were mined here, which exceeded the output of the old shafts 1 and 2.

Between 1902 and 1903 the Zeche Zollverein built the first workers' settlement in Beisen. Along Röckenstrasse and Kraspothstrasse, four rows of houses were built in a linear fashion, consisting of 50 houses with 200 apartments.

The 1½-storey buildings differ in two types of house: Typical colliery houses made entirely of brick, and which are partly plastered; each with saddle or half hip roofs . Each was assigned a generously dimensioned garden that was used for growing vegetables and keeping animals for self-sufficiency. In addition to the stables, the toilet was also located here. The water was supplied by pumps until the end of 1920. Ten years later it was connected to the sewer system.

The hygienic conditions had their price. In 1903 a sixth of the workforce died of hookworm disease . The parasites from subtropical regions had a good chance of survival in the warm shafts of the mine. The warm summer did the rest. The infestation was only contained through strict hygiene measures, which even applied to pit horses .

The Zeche Zollverein continued to prosper and more living space was needed for the workers. In 1937/1938 the settlement was expanded to the northeast with three-storey apartment buildings. 1951 to 1952 a new settlement with a church and a rectory was built on Liboristraße. At the same time, two to three-story apartment buildings were built between Kraspothstrasse and Röckenstrasse. Some house gardens also had to give way. Further row houses followed to the north and east, so that the old settlement is framed and interspersed with houses from the 1950s.

Life in the shadow of the headframe

Traditional restaurant Beisen-Schänke
Planted trolley in the allotment garden "Im Beisen" - called "The Golan Heights"

With the Zeche Zollverein, life in Beisen was shaped by mining. It mainly consisted of the hard work on the pütt . Sometimes the buddies had to work up to twelve hours. Wife and children took care of the house and garden. The little free time was invested in pigeon breeding , in the civic association founded in 1881 and in football. On the weekends people met for music and dancing in the Beisenschänke.

In the early 1920s, the settlement was a communist stronghold . Selects Thalmann wrote in 1932 a resident with tar color to his house wall. The call for elections for the KPD chairman continued to shape the facade until the year 2000. Until 1934, red-flag burials took place in the Rotthausen cemetery, traditionally used by the people of Beisen .

There was also resistance at the time of National Socialism . Skirmishes were fought, sometimes at gunpoint. In 1933 the SA man Alfred Schröer was shot on Beisenstrasse. As the assassin could not be identified, the street was renamed Alfred-Schröer-Straße. After 1945 it got its old name back.

At the time of the economic miracle , many workers came from Italy, Spain, Romania and Turkey to work at the Zollverein colliery. Many families stayed and still shape the population in the streets today.

For the laying of the Gelsenkirchen tram underground, the excavation at the Beisen border area was poured out. The gravel dump is now a protected landscape area and is commonly referred to as the Golan Heights . It received the name as a highly competitive area of ​​the allotment garden associations, which showed interest in the slopes. At the same time there was the war against Syria in Israel. After long disputes, the allotment garden association im Beisen e. V. his plant.

When the great colliery began to die out in the Ruhr area, many people lost their jobs and their identities. The miners fought to keep their colliery. In 1986 the mining tradition in Essen finally ended with the closure of the Zeche Zollverein. In 1993 the Zollverein coking plant was also closed.

Consequences of mining

Protection against landslide?

Around 140 years of mining resulted in subsidence . Over the years, the ground collapsed up to 30 meters. A high wall was built on the Grundstrasse to protect against further landslides. Their foundations extend to a depth of three meters. Cracks in the facades and the pisaresque orientation of some buildings shows what these security measures have achieved. There was even a pub where the pool table had to be jacked up with planks to stand horizontally. Due to the inclined position, glasses were not filled up to the calibration mark , otherwise the contents would have spilled over the counter. It no longer exists and, like many other buildings, was demolished due to disrepair .

Another problem arises from the original location of the settlement on the Emscherniederung. Without the constantly running pumping stations, the area would change to its original state within a few days.

Beisen today

In the course of the last few decades, the former colliery has changed into a district with a high proportion of migrants from around 30 countries, some of the descendants of the former miners, but mostly of newly arrived citizens from Turkey and Kurdish families from Lebanon. As in the rest of Katernberg, there is also high unemployment here.

The reopening of the Zeche Zollverein as an art, culture and meeting place did not improve the situation significantly. Rather, this conversion aroused resentment and felt that the World Heritage Site was an investment that did not serve the region, as the surrounding residential buildings were falling into disrepair. The colony on Kraspothstrasse and Röckenstrasse, built in 1903, found its way into the route of industrial culture as the Kingdom of Beisen .

Associations and communities in Beisen

St. Albertus Magnus Church - today the parish hall of the Chaldean community

Civic Association Beisen from 1881 - oldest association in Beisen. Founded as a humor and sociability association Schlopmüsche (sleepy head) in Süd-Katernberg, he pursued more and more social tasks over the years. During and after the wars, the association looked after widows and orphans. Councilors and members of political parties were also members and were able to quickly resolve the wishes and problems of those in attendance. Today the focus is again on socializing, he organizes excursions with seniors and participates in a history group.

Sportfreunde Katernberg 1913 e. V. - with the soccer club Schwarz-Weiß Beisen.

RGZV-Katernberg-Beisen - Poultry and especially pigeon breeding have a long tradition in Beisen. In 1925 the Beisen breed poultry association was founded here. In addition to the breeding of rare poultry breeds, competitions such as the great cockerel crowing take place here.

Allotment garden association in Beisen - Allotment garden association founded in 1979 on a dump on Bonnekampstrasse.

Chaldean Congregation - In 2009 the Iraqi Christian community took over the former St. Albertus Magnus Church . Services are held here in the local language.

See also

Information boards about Beisen and Zollverein shaft 3/7/10 on the Mauer Grundstrasse

Web links

Commons : Kingdom of Beisen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Martin: Bergweltpferde: Hybrid creatures underground. In: Traverse 2008/3. ETH-Bibliothek Zuerich, p. 64 , accessed on September 25, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Michael Preis: Lecture: Lighthouses or habitats? (PDF) In: ILS research. P. 9 , accessed September 25, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Walter Wandtke: Irmgard and Ortruds return to Rüttenscheid - symbolic renaming only for half an hour . In: lokalkompass.de . November 18, 2012 ( lokalkompass.de [accessed September 25, 2017]).
  4. ^ Allotment garden association Beisen e. V .: plant. Retrieved September 25, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Citizens' Association Beisen from 1881. Retrieved on September 25, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Lars Kropp: May 27, 2017 - Big cockerel crows - RGZV "Edelzucht" Katernberg-Beisen. In: Website of the Rassegewlügel-Zuchtverein Essen Burgaltendorf and the surrounding area. Retrieved September 25, 2017 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 33.6 "  N , 7 ° 4 ′ 11.1"  E