Espenhain Combine
The Kombinat Espenhain (more precisely VEB Kombinat Espenhain ) was a company for the extraction and processing of lignite south of Leipzig . Although numerous restructuring, subordination and associated name changes took place in the course of its history, the old name or often just the Espenhain plant was retained among the population . After 1990, production was stopped and the facilities were dismantled. The maximum number of employees in the company was around 6,000.
location
The processing plants, including the power station, were located southeast of the village of Espenhain and east of what was then trunk road 95 . They took up an area of over 50 hectares. The associated open-cast mine Espenhain began north of the village and west of the F 95, along which it developed to the north, until it interrupted it on its eastward swing.
history
For the development of the opencast mine → Espenhain opencast mine
The Aktiengesellschaft Sächsische Werke (ASW) began near Espenhain in 1937, in addition to the development of an open-cast lignite mine, with the construction of a briquette factory , a smelting plant , facilities for tar processing and sulfur extraction and a large power station . The operation gradually started production under the name of the Espenhain lignite and large power plant from 1940 to 1942.
The briquetted coal was carbonized using the LURGI flushing gas process and completely processed in the downstream systems, including the industrial power station. The main goal was the production of synthetic gasoline to supply the Wehrmacht and Air Force . But there were also numerous other products. Through the combination of a power plant, briquette factory, carbonization facility and other systems for processing the carbonization products, as well as the associated combined heat and power generation , the Espenhain industrial complex worked with cutting-edge technology that was unique in Europe at the time.
In the last months of the Second World War , the production facilities were destroyed by bombing until production came to a standstill. After the reconstruction of the facilities had begun, the plant became the property of the USSR on August 1, 1946 as Germany's reparation . The Soviet power plant company took over the power plant. The Soviet stock corporation of the fuel industry in Germany took over the opencast mine, the briquette factories, the smoldering plants and the gas works ( Kombinat Espenhain ).
In 1954, the Soviet Union transferred all operating facilities to the GDR, which had now been established. The company was now called Volkseigener Betrieb (VEB) Kombinat Espenhain .
In 1955 the power plant was expanded by an output of 100 MW to 670 MW. With an 8% share of total energy production at the end of the 1950s, it was the largest power station in the GDR. In 1959, 17 people died in an accident in Kesselhaus II. Gradual shutdown began in 2000. Power plant II ran until 1996. The company buildings were blown up and removed.
In addition to the production of fuel from lignite, facilities for processing crude oil were added at the end of the 1960s, but these were shut down again due to the oil crisis in 1975. In 1969 the combine was merged with VEB Combine "Otto Grotewohl" Böhlen and VEB Teerververarbeitungwerk Rositz to form VEB Petroleum Processing Combine Otto Grotewohl , but on January 1, 1971, as a result of a fundamental decision by the GDR Council of Ministers on the separation of the processing branches crude oil and coal, Espenhainer Kohlenveredlung again separated and the VEB Braunkohlenkombinat Espenhain (BKK) founded. The task of the new BKK was the "generation of primary and refined energy sources as well as products of thermal coal refinement". On October 1, 1980, VEB Braunkohlenveredlung Espenhain (BVE) was formed as an operation of the Schwarze Pump gas combine .
In the 1960s, in connection with the economic focus on petrochemicals, the plants were subjected to massive wear and tear. Than after the first oil crisis , the coal chemistry became more important again, the production was increased in the worn systems with maximum performance. As a result of this and non-existent investments in the area of environmental protection, the pollutant emissions in the air and water rose sharply. The extreme air and water pollution caused by the plant led to protests in the 1980s and calls for the coal chemical industry to be shut down. For example, the Christian environmental seminar Rötha started the campaign “A mark for Espenhain”; everyone was asked to donate to plant trees for the money and at least symbolically renovate aspen groves.
On February 8, 1990, the GDR Council of Ministers decided to shut down all carbochemical plants by 1991. The last smoldering furnace in Espenhain was shut down on August 27, 1990. The plant's production facilities have now been torn down; Today there is a business park on parts of the site.
Accompanying facilities
- At the same time as the plant, new housing estates with company apartments were built in Magdeborn and Kitzscher .
- At the start of operations, a facility for medical care was created on the factory premises, which was operated as a polyclinic (also for non-employees) during the GDR era and which also had a department for inpatient treatment.
- In 1952, an event building with a large hall was built in the village of Espenhain under the name “Kulturhaus Klara Zetkin”. It was supported by the combine and served as a cultural center for their employees. After 1990 the event business came to a standstill. The building burned down in 1995 and was demolished in 1997.
Historical view
From March 4, 2020, 60 selected photos from everyday life and life in the factory were shown in a special exhibition in the Borna Museum. The total stock of photos is around 70,000 images from the period 1946 to 1989.
literature
- Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbauverwaltungsgesellschaft: Espenhain , No. 2 of the series Changes and Perspectives , 2010
Web links
- Section 9.3. Energy and fuel industry in the Leipzig State Archives
- Espenhain - pictures and texts (private website, accessed on March 27, 2011)
- Ostkohle.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Photo exhibition: Interior views of the VEB Braunkohlenveredlung Espenhain combine. In: LMBV website. Retrieved March 20, 2020 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 0.4 ″ N , 12 ° 29 ′ 18.1 ″ E