Bischofferode potash plant

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Bischofferode potash plant
General information about the mine
Bischofferode Potash Plant Shaft Tower.jpg
other names Bismarckshall union, VEB Kaliwerk "Thomas Müntzer" Bischofferode
Mining technology Civil engineering
Information about the mining company
Start of operation 4th January 1909
End of operation December 22, 1993
Successor use -
Funded raw materials
Degradation of Potash salt
Geographical location
Coordinates 51 ° 29 '23.3 "  N , 10 ° 24' 53.1"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 29 '23.3 "  N , 10 ° 24' 53.1"  E
Bischofferode potash plant (Thuringia)
Bischofferode potash plant
Location of the Bischofferode potash plant
Location Schachtstrasse 1
local community Holungen
country Free State of Thuringia
Country Germany

The Bischofferode potash plant in Bischofferode , Thuringia , extracted and processed potash salts from 1909 to 1993 . The massive protests of the miners in the run-up to the closure made the plant known nationwide in the early 1990s.

prehistory

In the 1890s, the first exploration work for potash deposits south of the Harz Mountains took place. In 1893 the sinking of Shaft I of the then “Glückauf” union near Sondershausen began . The southern Harz potash district soon reached from Bischofferode in the north-west and Volkenroda near Menteroda in the south-west to near Göllingen in the east, and in 1914 had 33 shafts for several potash companies. Parallel to the development in the southern Harz, the Werra potash district was also opened up about one hundred kilometers to the south .

Bismarckshall Union

Construction of the potash works of the Bismarckshall union near Bischofferode began in 1909. Due to the abundance of potash, two shafts were built, shaft 1 Weithmannshall was sunk from January 4, 1909 to June 3, 1910, and shaft 2 Holungen from January 2, 1910 to December 12, 1910. December 1914. Salt mining and processing began in 1911. As early as October 1908, the works ' siding was opened as a connecting line to the Bleicherode – Herzberg railway line.

Wintershall AG

Potash mine and tip at Bischofferode, Holungen on the right (1942)

In 1927 the plant was taken over by Wintershall AG, which at that time operated most of the Thuringian potash plants. Until 1945 the company operated as the Bismarckshall plant of Wintershall AG. In 1939 the potash plant was a supplier for the German war economy and was thus equated with the "armaments industry level SS". At that time it was the only plant that delivered 98 to 99% potassium chloride with the highest degree of purity . With these salts explosives and other materials important for the war could be produced. In 1940 the first of around 200 forced laborers from Poland and France arrived at the plant . In 1944 a camp was set up for the establishment of an external command of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp , in which concentration camp prisoners had to carry out loading and repair work on V2 rockets . The prisoners of the Kommando were taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 .

SAG and state-owned company

After the end of the Second World War, the production was suspended for a short time. Like all plants in the potash industry in the Soviet occupation zone , the Bischofferode plant was initially transferred to Soviet ownership as part of the Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaft (SAG) Kali and Wintershall AG was expropriated. In 1948, the potash works in the Harz potash district were handed over to the states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt , which resulted in the Association of People's Own Enterprises (VVB) Potash and Salts Halle (Saale) a year later . In the SAG Kali itself, only the works on the Werra remained . In 1952, all of the SAGs' plants were handed over to the GDR and combined in the VVB Headquarters Potash and Non-Ore Mining Berlin, from which VVB Kali, based in Erfurt, emerged in 1958 . The Bischofferode plant was nicknamed Thomas Müntzer in 1953 and became the most important employer in the region. From 1955 to 1961 the number of working people rose from 25 to almost 300. In 1970 the plant became part of VEB Kombinat Kali Sondershausen. In 1977 the potash salt received the K1 price surcharge for its constant quality, and two years later it received the “Q” quality mark. Like many companies in the GDR, the Bischofferode potash plant was obliged to manufacture consumer goods that had nothing to do with the original task of potash mining and processing as part of the so-called consumer goods production . From 1985 the factory was the sole manufacturer of backrest adjusters for the Wartburg car . Skylights were also made.

Until 1971, the residue was partially brought back underground by flushing . After that, only an above-ground deposit should take place on the heap. Due to the geographical situation in the upper Bode valley , there was a threat of the valley below Holungen being sealed off with unforeseeable consequences. A citizens' initiative was founded by citizens from the affected localities to prevent a total valley closure.

Mitteldeutsche Kali AG and closure

Demonstration against the closure of the potash works in the southern Harz region (1990)

With the political change in the GDR , the state-owned Kali Kombinat was transferred from the Treuhandanstalt as part of the so-called "Potash Contract" as Kalisüdharz AG to Mitteldeutsche Kali AG , which in the course of the upcoming merger with K + S AG, based in Kassel, was soon included the closure of the potash works began. The potash plant was of great importance for the neighboring villages and at that time provided jobs for over 1,000 people. The imminent closure of the potash plant caused a sensation nationwide at the time, as the potash pals drew attention to themselves with many actions, including hunger strikes and a march to Berlin as well as the slogan “Bischofferode is everywhere”. On April 7, 1993, 500 miners occupied the Bischofferode plant while production was running. Attempts to conclude export agreements with Indian companies failed. After the last production shift was run on December 22, 1993, the “Thomas Müntzer” potash plant was finally closed on December 31, 1993. Since January 1994 the company for the safekeeping and utilization of mining facilities - GVV mbH has been managing the decommissioned potash works.

Economic consequences of closure and aftercare

The miners were fired with severance payments. Of the 700 replacement jobs promised by the Thuringian state government, around 100 were created in the specially developed local industrial park, and almost two dozen Kali miners found new jobs there. Since the mine was closed, Bischofferode has lost 700 residents, and five blocks of flats have been demolished by the community as a result of vacant apartments.

The surface facilities of the potash plant were dismantled from 1993, with a few exceptions, and the shafts were filled. From 1994 to 2012, the Free State of Thuringia invested 181 million euros in this. The potash dump is to be greened. A museum was set up in the former outpatient clinic of the potash works. Critics complain that the measures will make minable reserves, which would last for an estimated half a century of mining, permanently inaccessible.

  • Dump of the former potash mine

  • Mining museum

  • Potash mine dump with location Holungen

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Potash districts Unstrut, Südharz and Werra from bergmannsverein-erfurt.de, accessed on January 31, 2014
  2. ^ Josef Kistner: GDR environmental drama stopped. Fight for a Eichsfelddorf. Edition Winterwork Borsdorf 2014, 198 pages, ISBN 978-3864688058
  3. ↑ mdr.de: Emotional documentary premiere in Bischofferode | MDR.DE. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
  4. ^ The fight of the potash miners from Bischofferode against the trust. August 26, 2019, accessed June 25, 2020 (German).
  5. ↑ Johannes Filter: We publish Helmut Kohl's files on the processing of the potash industry in the former GDR. In: FragDenStaat. Retrieved November 30, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b Only one museum remains from Bischofferode, Thüringer Allgemeine , February 22, 2014, accessed on February 27, 2014.
  7. ^ The tragedy of Bischofferode, Thüringer Allgemeine, February 22, 2014, accessed on February 27, 2014.

literature

  • Thomas Reuter: The shafts of potash mining in Germany . In: Stadtverwaltung Sondershausen (ed.): SONDERSHÄUSER HEFTE on the history of the potash industry . No. 13 . City administration Sondershausen, Department of Culture, Sondershausen 2009, ISBN 978-3-9811062-3-7 , p. 35 .
  • Josef Kistner: GDR environmental drama stopped. Fight for a Eichsfelddorf. Borsdorf, 2014, 200 pages, numerous illustrations, ISBN 978-3-86468-805-8

Web links

Commons : Kalischacht Bischofferode  - Collection of images, videos and audio files