Lahn-Dill area
The Lahn-Dill area is an economic area that was shaped by mining and industry . This space can only be delimited geographically in a vague manner. The name originated when the region on the Dill and the upper and middle Lahn was still one of the most important ore districts and one of the most important locations for the iron producing and processing industry in the German Empire. In the 1870s, the largest industrial density was found in the Lahn-Dill area. The Lahn-Dill area, with its rich iron ore deposits that can be developed cheaply, was rightly called the "Hessian Iron Country". The period of iron production extends from the Latène period through the early Middle Ages to the second half of the 20th century.
The former iron foundry region on Lahn and Dill has developed into an important European location for mold and tool construction, technical model and special machine construction, and plastics processing.
location
The Lahn-Dill area extends over the entire upper and middle course of the Lahn and far into its side and side valleys. The area inside and just outside an imaginary polygon with the following corner points can be used as an orientation for the delimitation of the Lahn-Dill area : Dillquelle, upper Dietzhölzetal, Bad Laasphe , Biedenkopf , Buchenau , Gladenbach , Lollar , Gießen , Wetzlar , Braunfels , Weilburg , Breitscheid and Haiger .
Politically, since 1867, after the annexation by the Kingdom of Prussia , the area belonged to the Prussian province of Hessen-Nassau , administrative district of Wiesbaden and remained in this administrative district even after the re-establishment of Hesse in 1945. Since 1981 the Lahn-Dill area has belonged to the administrative district of Gießen ( Central Hesse ), which was established in that year .
Historical review
The upper Dill valley, the side valleys of the Dill, the area west of the Dill estuary, the Wetzlar area, the Dünsberg and the neighboring Siegerland to the northwest were already centers of iron extraction and processing in the Latène period. Both red and brown iron stone were smelted. Archaeological finds have handed down that the Celts mined iron, copper and silver ores in this area and smelted them on site.
At Wetzlar-Dalheim , a complete proof of production from 4th / 5th century, documented by excavations, was achieved. Century BC Through the Roman period and the early Middle Ages to the High Middle Ages . The site is shown to be the "largest and best-preserved iron production facility from this time in Germany". The iron area around Wetzlar can therefore look back on 2500 years of tradition.
A racing furnace from this period was excavated near Rittershausen (Dietzhölztal) . The associated Celtic settlement is now subject to the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict .
In Wallau and Oberndorf (municipality of Siegbach ) remains of racing ovens from the 6th to 8th centuries were discovered. Further kilns were found near Fellerdilln , Roth , Lixfeld , Ballersbach ( Mittenaar ), Niederweidbach , Roßbach ( Bischoffen ) and on the Dünsberg . In Hesselbach , lead ore was mined in 802 according to a document from the Lorsch Abbey. In 870 the "Juno" iron ore mine near Wetzlar / Nauborn is mentioned in the Lorsch Codex . An iron melt, presumably for fermenting and refining the carburized pig iron, existed around 900 in Frohnhausen near Dillenburg. By 1277 Wetzlar was already a center for iron processing and iron trading.
Iron ore mining in the Schelderwald was once very important and can be traced back to the 12th century. But it must have been much bigger than the documents seem to prove. In addition to iron, copper and, to a lesser extent, silver were mined. Important old long-distance trade routes such as the old “Cologne-Leipziger Messestrasse”, Eisenstrasse , also known as Brabanter Strasse , the “Hohe Strasse” and the Westfalenweg , led through and crossed at the Angelburg . It is therefore assumed that the long-distance trade in pig iron and iron products (weapons) from the production areas of Siegerland and Upper Dietzhölze Valley was carried out via these roads. The fierce disputes in this area (100-year-old Dernbach feud ) in the 13th and 14th centuries between the up-and-coming Counts of Nassau and the Landgraves of Hesse focused primarily on the rich iron ore deposits in the Schelder Forest.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, the forest smiths, as producers of ingots, utensils and weapons such as helmets, armor and horseshoes, increasingly relocated their production facilities, which are dependent on slope winds, to the valleys. Here they could power their hammer mills and the bellows of their racing fires / fresh stoves and hearth fires with water mills and better serve the increasing needs of the knights in their feuds and trades.
Miners and smelters were in great demand, especially in the high and late Middle Ages, who were highly sought after by the sovereigns and who were given privileges. The best people were recruited from one another. In 1450, the Counts of Wittgenstein brought forest smiths and other specialists from Weidenhausen (Gladenbach) . Hessian miners even ended up in the Ore Mountains and the Harz Mountains. The Frankenberg Church , the church of the Hessian and Nassau miners and their descendants , still stands in Goslar today .
geology
From a geological point of view, the Lahn-Dill area belongs to the so-called “Hessian Synklinorium ”, which has a geologically complex structure. The Hessian Synklinorium lies in the east and southeast of the Rhenish Slate Mountains and is geologically subdivided into the Dillmulde , the Lahnmulde and the distinctive structure of the Hörre zone , which separates the Dillmulde and the Lahnmulde . In the east, the Gießen blanket is part of the Lahn-Dill area. The Synclinorium was created by folding and thrusting in the Paleozoic Era with the various subdivisions caused by uplifts , fault lines and faults . Volcanism in Tertiary impressed with the emergence of Westerwald today's landscape.
Due to the geological history and the occurrence of numerous fault zones , the Lahn-Dill area has an unusual variety of ores and mineral raw materials to offer. Not only iron ore was found and mined, but also copper , silver , lead , zinc - manganese , nickel ore and mercury as well as the mineral raw materials barite , lime , diabase and roofing slate . South of Katzenbach (east of Biedenkopf) they were looking for gold .
Mining
In the course of time, well over 2000 mining law concessions (ore mining and minerals) were granted in the Lahn-Dill area, but not all of them were used.
For example, in the course of time alone in the Hessian hinterland :
- 41 lead ore pits
- 1 lignite mine
- 297 iron stone pits
- 88 copper ore mines
- 55 manganese ore mines
- 47 nickel ore mines
- 1 mercury pit
- 6 silver pits
- 18 sulfur ore mines
- 2 zinc pits
Thus a total of 556 ore mines.
Despite all the efforts of the state, mining in this sub-region, in the hinterland, declined more and more from the middle of the 19th century for various reasons. Iron ores from Spain, Sweden, and Alsace-Lorraine (after 1871) were preferred because of their high iron content; the domestic ores were only used as aggregates. In addition, the ores of the hinterland were only found in relatively small nests that did not allow sustainable exploitation. The unfavorable traffic conditions (transport of the ore by carts of cows and oxen, bad roads, no railways) caused high transport costs. The prime costs for the mining and ore extraction were high. Therefore, the blast furnaces of the new steelworks in the hinterland were shut down again after a few years (25 to 35 years).
Ores
iron
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The iron ore in the Lahn-Dill area appears mainly in deposits of red iron stones, in contrast to the Siegerland, where it mostly occurs as a spate iron stone. Red iron stones are not as easy to smelt as the brown iron stones or the roasted late ore of the Siegerland, but they are ideal for the production of cast goods and result in a particularly soft pig iron.
In the Lahn-Dill area there are no larger contiguous deposits due to geological changes. The Roteisenstein present here has an irregular storage . Since the camps are very torn and linear, mining operations as large as those in neighboring Siegerland could not develop here.
Iron ore mining near Wetzlar has been documented since the 8th century . More recent excavations near Wetzlar-Dalheim show iron processing since the 4th / 5th. Century BC In 1316 the “Calsmunt” mine and in 1344 the “Isinberg” mine (later “Philippswonne”) are mentioned. It was not until 1454 that the "Laufende Stein" above the Dillenburg train station was mentioned as the first iron ore mine. From 1484–1571 the “Bieberstein” mine near Nanzenbach was documented, and in 1588 it was called “Unexpected happiness”. In the years 1601–1697, mines were added in Eibach , Sechshelden and Donsbach . From 1608 to 1664 the Carolus and Einigkeit pits in Lixfeld supplied the blast furnace at Ludwigshütte (Biedenkopf) . In 1547 iron stones were delivered from the county of Nassau-Dillenburg to the "Ludwigshütte" near Biedenkopf. It can therefore be concluded that there was no smelting in the county at the time. From 1664 to 1858 and 1900 the Wiederhoffnung and Ritschtal mines near Rachelshausen (Gladenbach) were also in operation. The Roteisenstein was smelted on the "Ludwigshütte". The rich ore deposits near the Dünsberg , in the districts of Bieber , Hof Haina and Königsberg , were initially smelted in the "Bieberhütte" from 1659 to 1749, after which the ore had to be transported to the Ludwigshütte .
For the transport of the iron stones, the individual localities were initially obliged by the sovereign to carry out a precisely defined number of loads per week for each community. Later this service had to be carried out against “cheap remuneration”. The means of transport were carts of cows or carts of oxen with wooden farm wagons. An outward journey with a loaded car took about 10 to 12 hours, assuming a distance of approx. 22 km (around the middle of today's Bad Endbach community to Ludwigshütte ). This includes approx. 8 to 10 hours of pure driving time and 2.5 to 3 hours for resting, ruminating, eating and watering the draft animals. That meant about 20 to 24 hours of driving time without sleep until the return home. During the harvest and cultivation of fields, the "Eisenstein drives" were therefore carried out only reluctantly, although the meager payment as additional income was most welcome.
In the Dillenburg region, iron ore mining remained insignificant compared to the Wetzlar / Weilburg area until the beginning of the 18th century. Production increased rapidly in the middle of the 19th century. The annual production at Eisenstein in Nassau in 1850 was approx. 88,000 tons and increased eight times to 650,000 tons by 1865. At that time Nassau became the most important German iron ore district. In the 1830s and 1840s, systems with machines and deep tunnels were built because the introduction of the steam engine made it easier to keep water flowing.
Most of the mines did not start operating until the middle of the 18th century and experienced their heyday in the second half of the 19th century, especially when the ores could be transported by rail. The previously preferred transport of ore from the pits on the Lahn via the Lahn, which had been canalized to Gießen since 1851, became less important. The large iron works, which were flourishing in the Ruhr area, acquired pits in the Lahn-Dill area and thus secured their own raw material bases. Mining in the Lahn-Dill area went far beyond the needs of the domestic iron industry. It was called z. For example: "The Lahn area is the most prestigious ore base for the metallurgical industry on the Ruhr". With the beginning of the "founding years", after 1871, the number of pits and iron processing plants rose rapidly. The mining in the dill area was concentrated on the significant deposits in the Oberscheld-Eisemroth-Hirzenhain area . The mines Beilstein , Königszug , Friedrichszug , Amalie , Handstein and Falkenstein should be mentioned here . With the commissioning of the power station in Oberscheld in 1906, electric dewatering pumps , inclined elevators and hoisting machines could be used. The generators were driven by large gas engines with the furnace gas as fuel. This made it possible for the new, financially strong companies to open up the very rich deeper ore deposits with shafts.
In the iron district of Wetzlar / Weilburg, the development was similar. This is where the Wetzlar blast furnaces in particular obtained their ore. In the Biebertal area and the surrounding area there were 6 iron ore mines (including the Morgenstern mine near Waldgirmes), 15 in the vicinity of Wetzlar, 14 in the Braunfels area and 13 in the vicinity of Weilburg. The Krupp company from Essen acquired several mines towards the end of the 19th century and relocated their mine management to Weilburg from 1890 onwards. Between 1906 and 1908, the Prince of Solms-Braunfels sold 13 mining mines for six million Reichsmarks to the Krupp company. The mines were not all in operation at the same time and, with a few significant exceptions (e.g. Rießenburg , Schottenbach , preservation , Friedberg , Juno , Anna , Heinrichssegen , Fortuna ), their extraction capacity was very different and in some places not particularly large and therefore fast exploited.
In 1919 the Lahn and Dill mines produced 21% of iron ore production in Germany when the mines in Lorraine were closed as a result of the outcome of the war . The years from 1875 to 1920, from 1936 to 1944 and from 1950 to 1962 are considered the heyday of iron ore mining in the Lahn-Dill area. In 1917, production reached a unique high of over two million tons. In 1900 nearly 4,000 miners were working in the mines on Lahn and Dill.
Since 1850, high-quality ores were imported from Spain, after 1870 rich Swedish magnetic iron stones and after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 Minette ores from Lorraine . In order to be able to withstand this foreign competition, the railroad transports, both for the ores from the Lahn-Dill area and for coke from the Ruhr area, have been subsidized since the end of the 19th century.
The last ore mine in the Dill area ("Falkenstein" near Oberscheld) was shut down on August 31, 1973 due to the drop in prices on the world market, the Fortuna mine near Oberbiel not until March 4, 1983. The iron and steel works on the Rhine and Ruhr already moved in 1963 Lahnerzen a. The local mines had no chance against foreign ores with iron contents of up to over 60%; they had become unprofitable.
Today a single ore freighter transports the same amount (150,000 to 200,000 tons) of iron ore (extracted in open-cast mining) from Brazil to Germany, which once corresponded to the total annual production of the Fortuna mine.
Silver, copper, nickel, lead and mercury
The search and mining for silver in the Middle Ages was not insignificant . The first "Silberkaute" was written down in 1467 from Gladenbach . Mining was activated again around 1563 and operated until 1766. The deposits were so rich that in 1588 the “Gladenbacher silver thalers” that are sought today were minted there, as the first German exploitation thalers . Another silver smelter, a so-called Saigerhütte , existed from 1562 to 1577 near Gladenbach-Mornshausen, which later became the Hüttenmühle . Silver was found in Achenbach , Breitenstein , Frechenhausen , Rachelshausen , Runzhausen , Erdhausen , Eibach , Oberroßbach , Engelbach and Ewersbach . In 1696, Landgrave Ernst Ludwig in Gießen had the famous "Rother exploitation thalers" minted from Rother silver ore.
The mining of copper and nickel ores also had a certain importance. Copper ore was mined in Erdhausen from 1562/67 and in Hartenrod from 1674. The ores were processed in special copper smelters. In the county of Nassau, copper from Nanzenbach has been smelted in the smelter between Wissenbach and Eibelshausen since 1573 . In 1723, Count Johann near Dillenburg built the Isabellenhütte to smelt the copper ore from the pits near Oberroßbach, Donsbach, Langenaubach, Oberscheld, Eisemroth, Sechshelden, Eibach and Nanzenbach . Around 1650, a copper works near Dautphetal-Mornshausen aD is mentioned. The Landgrave of Hesse had a new copper smelter built in Breidenbach in 1725/29 , in which ores from pits near Achenbach, Dexbach, Engelbach, Breitenstein, Frechenhausen, Gönnern, Lixfeld, Erdhausen, Eisemroth, Rachelshausen, Hartenrod and in particular from the pits in Silberg ( Ludwig mine) and Kleingladenbach were smelted. Between 1780 and 1830 there was another copper smelter between Holzhausen and Mornshausen, which processed ores from Holzhausen, Amelose and Hommertshausen. When smelting copper ores, which also contained other metals, zinc and lead were produced in small quantities . The “Breidenbacher Kupferhütte” was closed in 1842 due to a lack of profitability. The copper smelter near Holzhausen a. Hünstein on the way to Amelose was shut down and broken up after a few years. Around 1850, the copper smelter "Alexanderhütte" (later Erlenmühle) stood near Biedenkopf . Also around 1850 there is a mercury hut near Roth at the God's gift pit .
In Erdhausen and Bellnhausen were from 1840 to 1887 Nickel -Erze mined in the "nickel factory Aurora", the later Aurorahütte at Erdhausen (former location: Urban Mill ) knocked and were smelted. In 1887 the nickel works was converted into an iron foundry .
A document from the Lorsch monastery from the year 802 reports that lead was found near Hesselbach . Lead was mined in Rodenbach and in Steinbach (north of Haiger ) and found as a "supplement" in ore mines near Amelose, Roth, Hommertshausen, Frechenhausen, Hartenrod, Rachelshausen and Weidenhausen .
The mining of mercury near Buchenau was reported as early as 1790. It came as Beifund in pits near Gladenbach and Roth ago.
A curiosity was the private lead mine Teutsch in Gönnern ( Angelburg community ), which Heinrich Teutsch operated on his own property from 1926 to 1960. The shaft depth was max. 40 m. Initially he employed up to 10 people. After the Second World War , Teutsch worked alone in his mine.
manganese
In and around Wetzlar, manganese ore was mined in opencast mines . B. in the "Neu-Tiefenbach" pits in Dalheim or in the Hermannstein quarry. In the Gießener Bergwerkswald and the adjoining Lindener district, brown stone was mined in shafts and in a large open-cast mine (now flooded) between large and small linden trees from 1843 onwards. Brownstone (manganese ore) is a high-manganese lump ore. The brown stone deposits of the "Gießener brown stone mines", also known under the name Fernie , were one of the largest in the world. The ore was transported with a cable car from the mine forest via Frankfurter Straße to the freight yard. The dismantling was stopped in 1967 and the dispatch from the Wascherzhalde in 1976.
Smaller manganese deposits were mined after 1845 from Wallau, Weifenbach, Eifa, Laisa, Biedenkopf and Hörbach (near Herborn), Hirzenhain and Oberscheld.
Minerals and rocks
Barite
In the “Dill-Mulde”, on the border to the “Hörre”, significant deposits of heavy spar were mined for decades . 1838 had been in mines in Hartenrod barite discovered, but initially could begin anything. It was not until 1884 that the “Bismarck” mine near Hartenrod started the targeted extraction of copper and barite. The mine remained in operation until 1957. The spar from the neighboring “Koppe” pit (in the Schelder Forest ), which was connected to the plant by a cable car, was also processed in the attached spar mill . The deposit in Hartenrod was once one of the most important in Germany and at times employed up to 180 people. Barite was also mined in pits near Dernbach , Bottenhorn , Silberg , Oberndorf and Herborn-Burg .
lime
Lime is a basic aggregate for iron making. Lime is also the main ingredient in cement . Sufficiently large lime deposits were in the immediate vicinity of the blast furnaces, e.g. B. the Sophienhütte (Wetzlar) in the neighboring districts Hermannstein , Niedergirmes and Dalheim as well as in Albshausen , Burgsolms and Rodheim-Bieber . The occurrence near Hermannstein is characterized by the very high purity (98% CaCO 3 ) of the mass limestone there. With the waste product blast furnace slag and the abundant lime, the production of Eisenportland / blast furnace cement was started on August 28, 1899 in the Sophienhütte plant in Wetzlar . From 17,000 t / a in 1900 the production could be increased to approx. 1 million t / a.
Limestone was also extracted from Medenbach , Erdbach and Buchenau as a contract for blast furnaces, steelworks and iron foundries. There were other smaller limestone deposits in the course of the "Hörre" near Bicken (Knotenkalk), Ballersbach , Bischoffen , Oberweidbach , Rüchenbach and Weitershausen .
The limestone of the small deposits was mostly burned on site and mainly used as building lime by the building trade in the area.
Roofing slate
Roofing slate mining has a tradition of over 600 years . A slate chew in Gladenbach is reported for the first time in 1317 . In this way, primarily landgrave buildings, such as the castle in Marburg, and town houses were initially considered. Until 1926, Gladenbacher roofing slate was mined in opencast and civil engineering. From 1617 to 1870, slate was mined in a mine near Sinn and from 1767 to 1987 near Wissenbach . Other slate mines in the Dill district were located near Langenaubach , Haiger , Sechshelden , Bicken and Frohnhausen . In the former Krs. Biedenkopf there were slate pits near Kleingladenbach , south of Oberweidbach , between Günterod and Hartenrod , Oberhörlen , Simmersbach , Oberdieten and Wallau .
Diabase
At the beginning of the 20th century, quarries were opened in many places to mine diabase . The variety palaeopicrit, which occurs here and was called “green stone” because of its dark green color, was particularly popular. Green stone consists mainly of the minerals olivine and augite .
The focus of mining was or is between Oberdieten and Achenbach , Kleingladenbach , Buchenau , near Hirzenhain and Lixfeld , Hommertshausen , Bottenhorn / Frechenhausen , Steinperf , Holzhausen , Rachelshausen , Dernbach , Wommelshausen , Hartenrod , Oberscheld and Herborn . In 1952 there were around 650 employees in 50 companies. Ashes, gravestones, paving stones, chippings (for concrete), gravel (for railways and road construction) as well as floor slabs and facade cladding (in stone sawmills) were produced. The quarries in Hirzenhain , Steinperf , Obereisenhausen and the quarry between Hartenrod and Wommelshausen are still in operation .
The quarries have left deep scars in the landscape and have partially changed it significantly.
Ironmaking
Racing furnaces and forest smiths
Iron production began with the construction of racing furnaces and forest smithies. In addition to human strength, charcoal was needed, which was produced in the immediate vicinity in Meilern. Iron ores were initially so abundant in the region that they could be extracted near the processing sites in open-cast mines or by collecting so-called molter stones .
Production began by layering crushed ore alternating with thick layers of charcoal in small hearth furnaces - racing fire / racing furnace - (approx. 0.5 to 0.8 m in diameter and approx. 1.5 to 2 m high) and igniting them. The ovens were made of stones with mud / clay. If the necessary chimney effect in the stove was not sufficient, additional combustion air could be blown in through nozzles made of fired clay in the lower area, distributed over the circumference, through hand / foot-operated bellows made of goat or calf skin. At temperatures between 1100 and 1300 ° C, the ore was gradually deprived of oxygen, which then attached to the carbon in the charcoal and burned it. After a few days, iron lumps remained in the stove, these were lumps of iron weighing 5–20 kg (also known as “ oven pig ”), which were removed by breaking open the oven on the front of the oven. While the furnace temperature was insufficient to melt the iron (min. 1540 ° C), but to the mineral components to liquefy the ore, which then as floating slag from a small opening at the bottom of the race furnace from run was (eponymous), run . With long-handled wooden hammers, made of particularly hard root wood, the slag still adhering to the rag ( sponge iron ) was removed .
Then the real blacksmithing began. Fresh fire, a kind of forge fire with additional air supply to the forged part, was used for repeated heating in order to reduce the excess carbon absorbed in the racing furnace. The rags, heated to red heat, were worked and kneaded several times with iron hammers on an anvil , becoming softer and more malleable; they reduced their carbon content.
The end products of the forest smiths were semi-finished goods such as ingots, strips, sheet metal, but also utensils such as sickles, forks, spades, plowshares, hatchets, axes, hammers, horseshoes, nails, pans, as well as weapons of all kinds, swords, skewers, daggers, knives, simple ones Helmets and tanks. Sales markets for such products have been demonstrable in Wetzlar and Frankfurt since 1250.
In the district of Dalheim near Wetzlar, archaeological evidence was discovered that proves that iron was extracted in the 6th century AD. The most valuable excavation find was a well-preserved racing furnace.
Metallurgical works, hammer mills
Due to the increasing demand for iron products, larger workshops were built on streams, which could better meet the demand with their bellows and forge hammers driven by water power. The rulers who wanted to benefit from the emerging industry were also often behind it. From the racing furnaces, piece furnaces, small shaft furnaces, developed. In addition, there were special hammer mills that produced bar irons and processed them with forging hammers, stretching hammers, sheet metal hammers and Zain hammers . Zain hammers forged z. B. Input material for wire and nail production.
In the 15th century there were already such works in the county of Nassau-Dillenburg , for example 1404 to 1487 in Löhnberg , in Dillenburg , Haiger , Wissenbach , Eisemroth , Steinbrücken (Dietzhölztal) and Rittershausen (Dietzhölztal) . Also in the directly neighboring Hessian office Blankenstein were in the upper Salzbödetal , z. B. 1450 in Weidenhausen (Gladenbach) and 1496/1499 in Wommelshausen district hut (see: Bad Endbach , section. Deposits and mining ) such forges are called.
To z. For example, to produce 1 ton of forged iron in 1845, you needed 27 quintals of pig iron and 1.5 wagons of charcoal. 100 wagons of charcoal a year were needed to fire an iron hammer; the smelters annually 800 to 1000 cars. This heavy consumption led to a shortage of fuel, which had an impact on the iron industry in the Lahn-Dill area.
Partly in the 15th, but increasingly from the beginning of the 16th century, the first higher shaft furnaces, the blast furnaces, were built. With these charcoal blast furnaces, a fundamental new period of iron mining began. The furnace temperature reached over 1500 ° C, so that the flakes melted and the furnace provided molten iron. This pig iron could not only be decarburized and forged in fresh stoves, but also poured into molds. That was the hour of birth of the iron foundries, which now developed parallel to the forges as a separate department in the smelters. Stove plates, pots, brew kettles, tubes, gun barrels and cannon balls were produced.
From the old forest smithies, ironworks developed via hammer forges, which produced their pig iron in their own blast furnaces.
Blast furnaces
The first smelting works that can be documented were built in Feudingen (from 1408), Neuhütte near Steinbrücken (1420), Eisemroth (1434/49), Wissenbach (1444), Oberscheld (1444), Ewersbach (1444, 1559), Rittershausen (1440 ), Dillenburg (1444–1513), Friedrichshütte b. Laasphe (1450–1463), Haiger (1444.1513), Ludwigshütte near Biedenkopf (1521, 1531, 1558, the Ludwigshütte was expanded to include a hammer mill), "Laaspherhütte (hut in front of the Breidenbach)", (1532 occupied), Steinbach (1575 ), Eibelshausen (1585), Dillhausen ("Blashütte" 1585), Hirzenhain (around 1600), Dillenburg- Adolfshütte (from 1607), Niederscheld (1607), Lixfeld (1613), Löhnberg (from 1618) and Rodheim -Bieberhütte (1658 -1749). Then followed the first charcoal blast furnaces in Ewersbach (1586), Oberscheld (1589, 1605–1745), Ludwigshütte (1608, 1737 a second charcoal furnace was added), Breidenbach (1601/1626), Eibelshausen (1613), Oberndorfer- Hut with hammer mill (near Braunfels) (1666–1861), Burgerhütte near Burg (1727), Friedrichshütte near Laasphe (1799), on the Kilianshütte - later called Wilhelmshütte (approx. 1832/34, closed in 1885), Justushütte near Weidenhausen (ab 1840, closed in 1883), Main-Weser-Hütte near Lollar (charcoal blast furnace closed in 1861), Georgshütte near Burgsolms (closed in 1891) and on the Karlshütte near Buchenau (1844, new blast furnace 1874). A rolling mill with a puddle furnace was built in Wetzlar in 1841 . A new charcoal furnace was put into operation in 1850 at the water-powered iron hammer of the Amalienhütte near Niederlaasphe. The pig iron from these works was processed in hammer mills and later in foundries.
In the county of Nassau-Dillenburg, the Burger ironworks were built in 1817 , the Neuhoffnungshütte near Sinn in 1818 , the Schelder ironworks in Niederscheld in 1829 , the Adolfshütte near Dillenburg in 1840 and the Leopoldshütte in Haiger in 1856 into blast furnace works. Statistics from 1860 show that 500 kg of pig iron were produced per inhabitant in Nassau, compared to only 23 kg in Prussia. Cast iron production in the Lahn-Dill area rose from around 5,800 t in 1850 to around 63,000 t in 1899.
Around the middle of the 19th century, in 1860, 22 blast furnace plants with 28 blast furnaces were in operation in the Lahn-Dill area.
The need for charcoal had become so great that it led to a noticeable shortage of fuel and slowed the growth of the iron industry. The population also increasingly suffered from the lack of wood. To produce one ton of pig iron you needed four tons of charcoal, for which about 40 tons of wood had to be charred. That corresponded to a coppice area of around 8000 square meters. A blast furnace consumed around 1000 wagons of charcoal per year. In order to counteract the lack of wood, the Nassau sovereigns had issued Haubergs and forest regulations very early in the Siegerland and the adjacent upper Dill valley (e.g. Eibelshausen 1553 and 1562) .
The last charcoal blast furnace still in operation in the entire district in "Eibelshausen" ceased production in April 1898. The charcoal blast furnace on the "Ludwigshütte" had already been given up in 1886. Both plants went into cupola operation. From around 1850 the forests were completely looted because of the charcoal industry; the charcoal became scarce and expensive. Coke soon replaced charcoal. Only then did the forests recover.
The pig iron produced in the charcoal blast furnace was of high quality because it was very pure.
The blast furnace "Ludwigshütte" first produced pig iron, which was then reworked into bar iron in fresh fires in the iron hammers -Battenberg, Hatzfeld, Niederlaasphe, Reddinghausen and Breidenstein-. Later, cast goods were made from the iron that was melted directly from the ore.
A smelting result of the wood blast furnace operation of Ludwigshütte near Biedenkopf from the year 1849 shows which amounts of ores and coal were required for a blast furnace filling; it says there:
"The Möllerung (filling with iron stones and aggregates) consists of:
- 24 carts Königsberger (heere = small) -
- 8 carts Königsbreger (growe = large) -
- 8 carts Lixfelder-
- 6 carts Dernbacher
- 16 Nassauer iron stones carts
- 8 carts of limestones
which - according to Traudt and Fleischauer's information - deliver 35 per cent iron. Of this, a gout of 5 baskets of coal, which, according to the above information, was called 1. Form measure, thrown 520 pfennigs and such gouts are blown 21 in 24 hours, so in week 147: This shows that a gout was 1. Measure coal 182 pfennigs supplies iron, after which the weekly production 267 ctr. is. "
The limestone for the blast furnace came from the Buchenau district .
The time of modern iron smelting came in the second half of the 19th century, when the cheaper hard coal coke could be transported as the new fuel through the construction of the railway lines to the Rhine and Ruhr. Then the era of modern blast furnaces began, with the construction of the first two hard coal coke blast furnaces on the "Hedwigshütte" in Lollar in 1864 and 1866. The blast furnace plant in Lollar was shut down in 1907. This meant that pig iron production in Upper Hesse in the Hesse-Darmstadt region became extinct .
In the Dill area, too, the Leopoldshütte in Haiger was equipped with a Kockshochofen (closed in 1927) in 1864/65 and the Charlottenhütte in Niederschelden in 1864 . This smelter was the first large plant in the region that was solely dependent on coke. On August 1, 1872, the first of the two new blast furnaces was blown on the Sophienhütte in Wetzlar, which was built after 1870 . In 1875 further blast furnaces were founded in Gießen on the "Margarethenhütte", in 1873 as "Lahnhütte" (closed in 1898) and put into operation in Burgsolms (closed in 1891). In Oberscheld the new blast furnace was blown on July 11, 1905. The furnace gas from this blast furnace served as fuel for large gas engines , which in turn drove generators to generate electricity. Oberscheld thus became the intercity center for the electrification of the surrounding area before and during the First World War . Gas engines, which were operated with the furnace gas of the two blast furnaces of the Sophienhütte , generated electricity via generators, which supplied Wetzlar with electrical energy from 1911 and in the following years.
The end of iron production in the Lahn-Dill area
The blast furnace in Oberscheld was shut down in April 1968 and the last of the three blast furnaces in the Sophienhütte in Wetzlar, in the last blast furnace plant in Hesse, was closed on October 31, 1981. That was the end of iron production in the Lahn-Dill area.
Iron foundries
Towards the end of the 18th century, coming from England, the shaft furnace became common again in foundries. It was heated with coke and is now called a cupola furnace . With this furnace one could produce cast iron of a certain composition by “charging” and thus compensate for differences in quality of the pig iron supplied by the blast furnace works, as well as of old castings and scrap.
The local red and brown iron stones, in contrast to the spade iron stones of the Siegerland, were not suitable for steel production, but due to their peculiarity they were an excellent starting material for foundry pig iron. This enabled an iron industry to develop in the Lahn-Dill area, the specialty of which was the casting of thin-walled hardware (ovens, stoves, frying pans, saucepans, tubs, etc.).
Many of the younger blast furnaces were shut down again after a relatively short time. Too often it was found that the underlying ore deposits were not as productive as assumed, which led to high transport costs for foreign ores. In addition, the new coke blast furnaces, which were all located on the new railway lines, were a great competition, as they could produce much more pig iron and cheaper. Converting the old blast furnace to coke operation was not worthwhile. The smelters increasingly turned into foundries that specialized in the further processing of pig iron with cupola furnaces . Everything that could be cast in iron was produced, such as: railings, fences, grilles, gates, grave crosses, complete balconies and winter gardens, windows, pillars for buildings, candelabra, gas street lamps, sinks, bathtubs, water pumps (handle pumps), liquid manure pumps , Sanitary and sewer casting, pots, pans, machine castings of all kinds and above all stoves, ovens and washing kettles . This resulted in completely new professions such as: modeller, model maker, model fitter, former, core maker, smelter, emptier, cleaner / grinder, enameller, stove builder and stove bricklayer .
Before the First World War, three quarters of all stoves and ovens manufactured in the German Reich came from the Lahn-Dill area. In the middle of the last century it was still around 60% of all heating and cooking appliances . Cast iron of particularly high quality has been produced in Buderus Main-Weser-Hütte in Lollar since 1878 . From 1881 the "Löhnholdt Oven" was produced there, a long-burning stove that was recognized worldwide, and from 1895 the series production of sectional boilers for central heating systems began here in Germany. In the past, more than 20 steelworks (without suppliers) were involved in the production of heating and cooking appliances . The center of these foundries was along the Dill in the former Dillkreis , in the upper Lahn valley, in the Salzbödetal in the former Biedenkopf district and in Lollar an der Lahn.
In the early days of this rapidly growing industry, especially during the founding years after 1871, the need for workers increased. Initially, only specially selected workers were hired as there was a lack of skilled workers. The previous migrant and seasonal workers and day laborers gradually became ironworkers. A report from Ballersbach , formerly Dillkreis, clearly shows how the work at the ironworks in Burg near Herborn , the "Burgerhütte", founded in 1727 with a charcoal blast furnace with a casting house and cinder block, looked like at the end of the 19th century Year 1870.
“Work started at six in the morning and lasted until seven in the evening and on Saturdays until 6.00 pm. With half an hour break for breakfast and half an hour in the afternoon and one hour at noon, this resulted in eleven hours of working time. In addition, the walk there and back took a good two hours. There was no vacation, protection against dismissal and other perks or even Christmas bonuses. The daily wage was 6 to 7 groschen. You could buy 1 ¼ pounds of jerky meat or 1 ¼ quintals of potatoes for this. You had to pay 60 to 70 day wages for a stove. "
Cast iron pipes
In addition to the stove and oven industry, the production of cast iron pipes and sewer castings has a long tradition in the region. In addition to cannon pipes, cast iron pipes for the water supply of castles, palaces and pleasure gardens (so-called water arts ) were manufactured in medieval ironworks and foundries . The oldest surviving cast-iron pipe made in the Lahn-Dill area comes from the water pipeline laid in 1455 for the Dillenburg castle. A cast iron pressure water pipe was also laid in 1661 for the water supply to Braunfels Castle.
With the start of the foundry in Wetzlar at the beginning of the 20th century, cast iron pipes for the water supply were manufactured there, initially using the sand casting process. Today more than 33% of the cast iron pipes produced in Germany for the water supply and waste water disposal come from Wetzlar, manufactured using the centrifugal casting process or the centrifugal pipe process according to "de Lavaud", since 1926.
Living conditions of the inhabitants
In the greater part of the Lahn-Dill area, the widespread inheritance custom of real division existed in the country , with the result that the agricultural areas per farm became smaller and smaller. The landowners' holdings were therefore mostly too small and the yields, given the barren soil conditions in the rough climate and extensive cultivation, were too low to feed a large family sufficiently. In general, the property per farm was 0.5 to 2.5 hectares of land (fields and meadows). With it you could keep one or two cows and one or two pigs. Those who had even less land kept at least one or two goats next to a pig. They were the "goat farmers". Only a few were allowed to live on their own farm alone.
Promoted by industrialization , the type of part-time farmer, disparagingly called “cow farmer”, arose in the places in the near and far vicinity of the smelting works and mines. A needless and humble life was only possible with additional work in the smelter or mine. The difficult work in agriculture had to be done on the side after work. Immediately after the small farmer came home from work, the harder work in the fields and on the farm awaited him, which his wife and children could not do during the day. There was no such thing as simply resting after their work in the ironworks or mine. Annual leave was taken when the hay and grain harvest was due or when the potatoes (potato harvest) and the rootwort , also known as rummel , had to be identified in autumn . It was a matter of course that the children had to help with all agricultural work from the age of 10 at the latest. The school holidays were called “Ernteferien” (summer holidays) and “Potato holidays” (autumn holidays). The children were urgently needed for the harvest, which was the original reason for the introduction of this school holiday. Holidays were unknown to these families. Townspeople went on vacation.
Until the 1950s and 60s in the villages of this region were from the after-agriculture or subsistence farming dominated.
traffic
Railways
The Lahn-Dill region experienced its heyday with the construction of the railways. Now coke from the Ruhr area could be brought in for the blast furnaces and cupolas of the steelworks and iron foundries and the products of the industry could be quickly transported in large quantities to the sales markets. The Main-Weser Railway via Gießen was the first railway line to go into operation in 1852. In 1862 the Dill route (Gießen – Dillenburg – Cologne) was finished; one year later in 1863 the Lahntalbahn (Wetzlar – Koblenz). From 1883 the branch lines of the Upper Lahn Valley Railway (Marburg – Biedenkopf – Laasphe – Kreuztal) followed, in 1892 the Dillenburg – Ewersbach line and 1902 the Aar – Salzböde Railway ( Niederwalgern – Herborn ). The Kleinbahn Gießen – Bieber, the Biebertalbahn , popularly known as “Bieberlieschen”, was built in 1897/98 primarily because of the important iron ore deposits and the lime deposits in the Biebertal northwest of Gießen. Due to difficult terrain, the Schelden Valley Railway could not be completed until 1911 from Dillenburg via Hirzenhain through the Gansbach Valley to Biedenkopf. The steep stretch from the “Herrnberg” mine station to the “Lahn-Dill-Wasserscheide” ( Hirzenhain station ) could only be overcome with a cogwheel drive ( rack railway ). From Dillenburg to the Königszug iron ore mine , it had been in operation as a branch line since 1872.
As the last branch line in the Lahn-Dill area, the Haiger – Breitscheid line went into operation in 1939 .
See also
- List of mines in the Lahn-Dill area
- Siegerland ore district
- Mining in Siegerland
- Mining in the Sauerland
- Friedberg mine
- metallurgy
literature
- G. Einecke: The mining and smelting operations in the Lahn and Dill area and in Upper Hesse. An economic story . Mining and Hüttenmännischer Verein Wetzlar e. V. on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, Wetzlar 1932.
- Buderus Post, anniversary edition 1731–1981 . Buderus Aktiengesellschaft, Werkzeitung, Wetzlar 1981.
- K. Grethe: Mining and iron industry in Nassauer Land and Siegerland . In: VDI magazine , Vol. 92, No. 25, September 1, 1950.
- Karl Nebe: The iron industry in the upper Dietzhölztal , new edition of a publication from the beginning of the 20th century, Dietzhölztal-Ewersbach 1983.
- Albrecht Jockenhövel, Christoph Willms: The Dietzhölzetal project. Archaeometallurgical studies on the history and structure of medieval iron extraction in the Lahn-Dill area (Hesse) . In: Münster's contributions to prehistoric and early historical archeology , vol. 1., Verlag M. Leidorf, Rahden / Westfalen 2005, ISBN 3-89646-279-2 , ISSN 1861-3942
- Rolf Georg, Rainer Haus, Karsten Porezag: Iron ore mining in Hesse . Edited by the Fortuna Visitor Mine , Wetzlar 1986, ISBN 3-925619-01-1 .
- Karl Huth: Economic and social history of the Biedenkopf district, 1800–1866 . Published by the district committee of the Biedenkopf district, Wetzlarer Verlagsdruckerei, Wetzlar 1962.
- Manfred Kohl: The dynamics of the cultural landscape in the upper Lahn-Dill district - changes from Hauberg economy and arable farming to new forms of land use in modern regional development . In: Giessener Geographische Schriften , issue 45, Giessen 1978.
- Karl Scheld: Forgetting again . In: Local history reports from the Office Blankenstein , special print, Verlag Kempkes, Gladenbach 2005, ISBN 3-88343-039-0 .
- Dieter Stoppel: Looking for ore. On the history of silver, copper and barite mining in the Biedenkopf-Dillenburg area . D. Bode Verlag, Haltern 1988, ISBN 3-925094-19-9 .
- Association for Nassau Antiquity and Historical Research e. V, Eisenland, on the roots of the Nassau iron industry , Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-922027-88-1 .
- Rainer Haus, Hans Sarkowicz: Fire and Iron. 275 years of warmth from Buderus. Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-492-04947-4 , ISBN 3-492-04947-8 .
- Hans Schubert, Josef Ferfer, Georg Schache: From the origin and development of the Buderus'schen Eisenwerke Wetzlar , 2 volumes. Munich 1938.
- Klaus Künzler: The historical mining of the Lahn area . Lahnbrueck-Verlag, Weilburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-9812777-1-5 .
- Rainer Haus: Lahn ore melted in Wetzlar until 1981 . In: Heimat an Lahn und Dill , supplement Hinterländer Anzeiger , January 13, 2013.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lahn-Dill Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in the 2016 yearbook of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district, published by the district committee of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district, Wetzlar 2016, p. 43, ISBN 978-3-9811350-8-4 .
- ^ Andreas Schäfer: Archeology in Germany . Friedrich Schiller University Jena, No. 1/2007, pp. 7-11.
- ^ Dill-Zeitung , June 8, 2011.
- ^ Gustav Einecke: The iron ore mining and the ironworks on the Lahn, Dill and in the neighboring areas. A description of their economic development and current situation . Jena 1907, p. 67 .
- ^ Testimony of a former grader of the Fortuna mine.
- ↑ Stefan Debus: Der Steinbruch Kuhwald Rachelshausen , ed. Festival Committee 675 Years Rachelshausen, Bad Endbach, October 2017, 301 p., Numerous photos
- ^ Mathias Döring: Eisen und Slber-Wasser and Wald-Gruben, Hütten und Hammerwerke , Verlag Wielandschmiede H. Zimmermann, Kreuztal 1999 (including drawings of medieval smelting furnaces)
- ↑ Main State Archive Wiesbaden, Certificate W 171 C 825
- ↑ Main State Archives Wiesbaden, Certificate W 171 C825,826 f.475 and 478
- ↑ Karsten Porezag: Wood was once more valuable than iron ore, The "Haubergswirtschaft" in the Lahn-Dillkreis / Your Prussian ordinance of June 4, 1887 still exists today ; in DAMALS, supplement to the Hinterländer Anzeiger from December 13, 2019
- ^ Karl Scheld: Against forgetting . In: Local history reports from the Blankenstein office , special edition (including ironworks in the Salzbödetal). Verlag Kempkes, Gladenbach 2005, ISBN 3-88343-039-0 .
- ↑ Hans von Rezori: The cast iron pipe, short historical development . GWF (Wasser), 93rd year, issue 10, May 1952, pp. 295-297.