Long Heinrich (Magdeburg)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tall Heinrich the day before it was blown up

The Lange Heinrich was under monument protection standing chimney in the district Leipziger Straße in Magdeburg .

history

The chimney was built in 1921/22 on the site of the Friedrich Krupp AG Grusonwerk , later SKET , as the largest of the chimneys there. At 108 meters, it was unusually high for its construction time and even towered over the towers of Magdeburg Cathedral . As a landmark that can be seen from afar, it has been one of the city's landmarks since its construction . It served as a vent for the exhaust gases from the plant's boiler house, which was used to generate electricity for the Gruson plant. The red brick chimney was built by the Magdeburg company Rudolf Hanack . The inside diameter of Tall Heinrich was 2.8 meters at its tip.

Up to 300 tons of lignite were burned there every day before the furnace was gradually converted to natural gas from the Salzwedel area by 1973.

The chimney head, which was damaged by the aggressive smoke gases and the weather, had to be partially removed in the 1970s, which meant that the chimney was about 102.5 m high from then on.

In this role it was in use until the early 1990s. With the cessation of industrial production in the area, it lost its original role. Many of the industrial buildings surrounding it were demolished. Demolition requests were also made for Tall Heinrich, which, however, had been repeatedly rejected as a monument to Magdeburg's industrial history. However, there was no usage concept. The structural condition of the chimney, which was no longer in use, deteriorated. The considerable costs of renovation and preservation were assessed as uneconomical, but without renovation the safety problems increased. The owner of the site and Langen Heinrich, the Mitteldeutsche Sanierungs- und Entsorgungsgesellschaft, also saw problems in marketing the industrial area with the chimney that was not needed. In July 2009, the state administration office of Saxony-Anhalt, as the higher monument protection authority , announced that an application for demolition would now be granted.

Since there was plenty of space around the Lange Heinrich as a result of the demolition of many factory buildings, it could be destroyed with a simple drop explosion (a wedge was only blown out of the base of the chimney, the entire length of the chimney then tilts in the intended direction, like a felled tree) become. For this purpose, 50 holes were drilled in Tall Heinrich's square base and filled with 15 kg of “Supergel 30”. The demolition took place on October 28, 2009 at around 12 noon with great interest from the audience. As planned, the forge fell to the north, towards the former forge.

Many letters to the editor to the regional press complained about the loss of the landmark, which was considered a symbol of Magdeburg's heavy industrial tradition. A street between Dodendorfer and Freier Straße, which leads past the former factory site at the former location of the chimney, now bears its name in memory of the blown industrial monument.

literature

  • Peter Ließmann, Magdeburger Volksstimme from October 15, 2009
  • List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt, Volume 14, State Capital Magdeburg , State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86568-531-5 , page 407

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "The Long Heinrich - Blowing Up a Technical Monument" (10-minute YouTube video from September 5, 2017, viewed on January 29, 2020 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLfXvwcGv1w )
  2. ↑ GeoMedia SmartClient Public Maps. Retrieved January 29, 2020 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 2.7 "  N , 11 ° 37 ′ 40.7"  E