Lime mine on Koenigsberg
The Kalkbergwerk am Königsberg is a visitor mine in Wolfstein in Rhineland-Palatinate . It was the longest operated lime mine on Königsberg , until 1967 limestone was mined here . All facilities, both underground and above ground , are still in their original form, which is why it is considered an industrial monument of special importance.
history
The Königsberg is criss-crossed by old tunnels , especially since the 17th and 18th centuries digging for barite , iron ore , mercury and hard coal was carried out here . There were also a number of lime mines around the Königsberg, which offered a corresponding number of jobs. The mines were gradually shut down when the mineral resources could be extracted more economically (over the day and in higher concentration) in other places. The Kappel lime mine lasted the longest, until 1967.
It is not known when the company that is now used as a visitor mine opened. Since 1857, lime was mined first by the brothers Jakob and Peter Kappel, and then by Peter Kappel's descendants. At that time, the Kappel family's lime mining concentrated on the lime mine in the Selbach. In 1911 Heinrich Kappel expanded the business by purchasing the exploitation rights of today's visitor mine (Hauptstrasse) for 5,000 gold marks at the time . The lime mine remained in the possession of the Otto Kappel family until 1980. In the 1950s, six to seven people were employed in the mine on Hauptstrasse, three of them underground. At that time, 40 tons of quicklime were being produced weekly . In the end only Otto Kappel worked alone in his company (both underground and above ground) and managed a weekly production of 8 tons.
During the Second World War, the tunnels served many people from Wolfstein as a safe shelter in the event of an air raid alarm due to the lack of bunker rooms.
Visitor mine
Today's good condition and the preservation of all facilities is thanks to Otto Kappel's long-term commitment, who already had the vision of a visitor lime mine in the early 1960s and at that time took important mining measures to secure the facilities in the long term at his own expense. Kappel's vision of an industrial monument as a magnet for tourism was realized at the beginning of the 1980s when the lime mine was expanded into a visitor mine.
The mine train takes visitors through the tunnel into the mountain. There, 50 meters underground, begins a circular route that leads to the old mining sites. The work method and historical working conditions of the miners are illustrated, and the visitor gets an insight into the geology of the Königsberg, whose special features were the subject of a scientific doctoral thesis in geology even before the opening to general visitors. The facilities above ground, such as the kilns and lime mills, are still completely intact and are shown as part of the mine tour.
The mine is open on Sundays and public holidays from March to the beginning of November, and also on working days for groups by prior arrangement.
swell
- Günter Hög: The lime mine on Königsberg, a technical cultural monument. Tourist office of the Verbandsgemeinde Wolfstein, 1981
- Archive of the Otto Kappel lime mine.
literature
- Hans Schmitt: The geological basis of mining on the Königsberg. In: Westricher Heimatblätter. New episode, Vol. 19, 1988, ZDB -ID 224192-4 , pp. 59-80.
- Hans Schmitt: The former mining in Königsberg near Wolfstein and its geological basis. In: Westricher Heimatblätter. Neue Episode, Vol. 19, 1988, pp. 155-203.
- Georg Wieber: Ground Water in Abandoned Mercury Mines: A Study from the Saar-Nahe Basin in Southwestern Germany. In: Mine Water and the Environment. Vol. 21, No. 2, 2002, pp. 73-80, doi : 10.1007 / s102300200022 .
- Ansgar Wehinger: The rhyolite from Königsberg in the Palatinate: mineralization and historical mining, investigation of the mineral raw material rhyolite, examination of the extraction possibilities. In: Mainz geoscientific communications. Vol. 33, 2005, ISSN 0340-4404 , pp. 219-244.
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 34 ′ 53.4 " N , 7 ° 36 ′ 42.9" E