Millstone pit (Waldshut)

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The Waldshut millstone pit was a mine owned by the city of Waldshut for the extraction of mill sandstone for the production of millstones .

history

Sandstone quarries were operated in the Hotzenwald in the deposits of silicified Upper Buntsandstein . The layers of the Waldshut Mühlsandstein lie directly on an iron-bearing gneiss layer of the basement .

In 1393, Claus von Banholz uff dem Schwartzwald was named as the owner of a staingrueb before the Hague, which was his and his heirs . Other mines existed at Oberalpfen , Detzeln , Dogern , Birkingen , Bohland, Remetschwiel , Nöggenschwiel and Berau . A gleytes toboggan from 1415 for the Zurzach trade fair mentions 5 Schilling as an estimate of one mülistein , 1550 shows a Zollrodel from Zurzach of one müllystein 6 krützer . With the new construction of the St. Blasien monastery , further quarries were opened near Unteralpfen to extract building blocks. In addition to millstones, grindstones and furnace base plates as well as stones for sculpting work (for crosses, etc.) were broken. In 1812, Christoph Bernoulli looked at the minerals found here, they were found in Druze . However, rock with such inclusions was not suitable for millstones. In 1889 the mineralogist Franz Friedrich Graeff described the minerals found in crystal morphology .

In addition to the well-preserved, but inaccessible, Kilian millstone pit in the Eschbachtal, the town's own millstone pit in Waldshut in the Schmitzingertal was the largest, reaching a tunnel length of 600 m at the end of the operating period. The white millstones were coveted and traded widely. In addition to Baden, Xaver von Kilian also delivered his millstones to Württemberg and Bavaria, as well as to Switzerland, France and Hungary. In 1856, together with the merchant Frowin Gantert, he also auctioned the city mine for 777 guilders a year. The Hochrheinbahn opened in the same year , which made sales easier. At the 5th state industrial exhibition in Karlsruhe in 1861 he received a silver medal, in 1862 he took part in the World Exhibition in London and again exhibited two millstones, 67 and 70 guilders. In 1863 Frowin Gantert died and von Kilian decided not to extend the lease.

In the heyday between 1889 and 1895, around 200 millstones were broken and prepared in both pits each year. The millstone-capable layer was 7 to 8 feet (2.10 to 2.40 m) thick, giving 2 to 4 millstones each. It was not until the advent of the equally high-quality champagne stone through inexpensive transport by rail that mining came to a standstill in 1896. In addition to the lease costs, according to the Bergordnung of 1553, a guilder had to be paid to the town of Waldshut as interest on every millstone, making the millstone pits an important source of income. In the quartz stone mill, the overburden was ground into fine gravel, which was used, among other things, for grinding terrazzo . The quartz stone mill between Schmitzingen and Waldshut was in operation until after 1910. The pit is filled in and therefore not accessible.

literature

  • Rudolf Metz , geological studies of the Hotzenwald. With excursions, especially in its old mining areas. Schauenburg, Lahr 1980, ISBN 3-7946-0174-2 .
  • Julius Ludwig Wilser , Stratigraphic and tectonic structure of the southwestern Black Forest . In: Volume 11, 37 Advances in Geology and Palaeontology . Borntraeger brothers, 1932
  • Kurt Obenauer , On the knowledge of the triad between Waldshut and the Albtal . In: Reports of the Natural Research Society Freiburg , 1928
  • Adolf Strigel , The South German Buntsandsteinbecken . Communications and work on the geological-paleontological Institute of the University of Heidelberg. New series (since 1915), no.168, Hörning Heidelberg, 1929
  • Norbert Gottschlich , contributions to the geology of the area between Schlücht and Alb , dissertation, Freiburg i. Brsg., 1950
  • Dieter Ortlam , The edge facies of the Germanic red sandstone in the southern Black Forest . In: Geological Yearbook 89; 1970
  • Manfred Lutz , Stratigraphic and tectonic investigations on the southwestern Black Forest border between Wiesenthal and Hochrhein , Oberrheinische Geologische Abhandlungen 13, 1964
  • Julius Schill , Geological description of the surroundings of Waldshut , In: Contributions to the statistics of the internal administration of the Grand Duchy of Baden , Issue 23, 1867

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Metz: Geologische Landeskunde des Hotzenwalds , p. 556 ff.
  2. ^ Franz Falkenstein, The millstone graveyard in the area of ​​Dogern . In: Heimat am Hochrhein, yearbook of the district of Waldshut 1989, p. 127 ff

Coordinates: 47 ° 38 '25.2 "  N , 8 ° 12' 23.1"  E