Alma coking plant

The Alma coking plant was built in 1927–1928 on the site of the Alma colliery in Gelsenkirchen - Ückendorf . The shafts 1/2/5 there had already been closed and filled at this point in time .

history

As a central coking plant , it was one of the first rationalization measures of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, founded the year before, and replaced the outdated coking plants of the Rheinelbe and Pluto collieries . The connection of the still existing colliery railway to the ore railway line with connection to the Rhine-Herne Canal and the Carolinenglück colliery as well as a cable car for transporting coke to the blast furnaces of the Schalke Verein were important locational advantages.

When operations started in 1928, the coking plant had two batteries, each with 63 Koppers compound ovens.

In 1963, the coking plant , which in the meantime belonged equally to Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG (GBAG) and Rheinische Stahlwerke AG, was shut down. Most recently it had 143 compound furnaces with a daily capacity of 2100 tons and 350 workers.

The operating facilities were completely demolished right after the shutdown, except for the administration building. The Motodrom Gelsenkirchen , built in 1969 on the former company premises, was used for auto speedway races until the 1980s and is now idle.

Administration building

Entrance to the administration building

The administration building designed by Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer in the style of brick expressionism was restored from 1982–1983 with funds from the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association and used as a company location for a few years.

The two-storey, elevated middle section (former wages hall) with the single-storey wing buildings (administration section) adjoining the three-door entrance to the side and the kaue connected at the rear is deliberately kept symmetrical and straight and built in solid brick construction . At the rear, the slightly raised and all-round glazed railway surveillance (with a clock on the roof) with its own staircase connects seamlessly. The crew bridge over the tracks to the coking plant that started there has since been torn down. Today a cycle path runs along the railway tracks.

The facade of the administration building is structured horizontally by projections and recesses in the masonry layers. The four vertical, light wall projections above the entrance area are repeated as a right angle in the wing buildings and were also found as design elements on the company buildings such as the coal tower and the benzene factory.

The Alma coking plant was the first complete system in which Schupp and Kremmer were able to carry out the close collaboration between architects and engineers they wanted in the planning of technical structures. As a result, instead of the usual confusing and chaotic-looking systems, a calm, continuous design of all system parts was achieved. The decorative elements still used here are then completely missing in later buildings such as the Zollverein colliery . Together with the central coking plant built at the same time at the Nordstern colliery , the ensemble therefore represents an important early work by the architects who pioneered industrial buildings in the Ruhr area.

After the conversion in the 1980s, the listed building has been empty for years and is in ruins.

Side view with railway supervision in the left part
Rear view with railway supervisor, clock and the remains of the crew bridge
Hall with main entrance
Well in the pay hall

Individual evidence

↑ Westfälische Rundschau of March 20, 1963
↑ Gelsenkirchen stories, Alma coking plant , with a map quoted from "Baukunst", Munich, 6th year, issue 4, April 1930
^ Erzbahn-Emscherbruch, Regionalverband Ruhr 2005, pp. 50/51.
↑ WAZ series Haunted Houses, Schiet im Schacht , April 15, 2009