Mauthausner stone industry

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Mauthausen's market coat of arms : The waves symbolize the Danube , the black rock the Mauthausen granite

Mauthausner Steinindustrie describes the industrial mining, further industrial processing and sales of natural stone of the type and trademark Mauthausner Granit, initially from Mauthausen or the southern Lower Mühlviertel and later also from more distant quarries in the 19th and 20th centuries by several different companies. Mauthausner Granite includes fine to medium-grain biotite - granites that are mined within the Bohemian mass .

Leading companies were undoubtedly the A. Poschacher Granitwerke founded by Anton Poschacher (industrialist, 1812) and, in particular , further expanded by Anton Poschacher (industrialist, 1841) , briefly the stock corporation for road and bridge construction , furthermore the Wiener Städtische Granitwerke of the municipality of Vienna and during the Second World War the Granitwerke Mauthausen . Locations were for example in Langenstein , Mauthausen , Perg , St. Georgen an der Gusen , Sankt Martin im Mühlkreis (Neuhaus), Schlägl , Schrems , Schwertberg etc.

General

The development of the Mauthausen stone industry and the Mauthausen granite is not only important for the economic history of Mauthausen and the lower Mühlviertel , it is especially crucial for the building history of the city of Vienna .

The Danube and the granite are the two essential factors that have determined Mauthausen's history and are therefore also represented in the market coat of arms . The Danube is depicted as a wave pattern from which protrudes the granite rock on which the Pragstein Castle was built. The Danube was the route by which the heavy stones could easily be transported downstream to Vienna. The mining of the fine-grained granite, which is well suited as a building material due to its easy cleavage and high weather resistance, became the most important industry for Mauthausen.

Blasting in 1941 in the granite quarry of Mauthausen concentration camp

Today there is no longer any quarry in Mauthausen. The traces of centuries of stone quarrying are still present. Since the Second World War, the name Mauthausen has primarily been associated with the granite mining by the prisoners of the Mauthausen concentration camp for the Mauthausen granite works of the " Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH ", which was owned by the SS . The forced labor was one of the last stages in the history of Mauthausnerstraße stone industry and often see Chapter KZ quarries blocked today, the view of the long tradition of quarrying in the area, below.

Townscape

The mining and processing of granite shaped the history of the market town of Mauthausen until August 1938, when the construction of the Mauthausen concentration camp began, and still gives the place its unmistakable appearance. The witnesses of history can be seen in the townscape. Small quarries followed one another at short intervals. In every older building, the dominance of the granite door frames is visible. The granite pillory on the market square from 1583 and the works of art from more recent times give an indication of the local history and its connection with the granite from the area. This impression was carried over to many buildings of the Danube monarchy , which were built with Mauthausen granite. The pillars of the Danube bridges, the churches, which were not only built with granite, but also received their architectural ornamentation, are part of the history of the traditional craft and industry that was widespread throughout the Habsburg monarchy.

The industrialization of stone mining and the development of a strong stonework proletariat went hand in hand. It stands to reason that, despite the poor working conditions, the workers at the time identified with their jobs and felt connected to the quarries.

But it was not only Mauthausen that played an important role in the stone industry in this area. The many other quarries in the lower Mühlviertel have had a decisive influence on the development of the region and laid the foundation for social structures that still have an impact here today. In addition to the Mauthausen granite , the sandstone extracted in the lower Mühlviertel also shaped the stone industry and the structures being built in this area for a long time.

Differentiation of varieties, petrography

As Mauthausen Granite many granites were in Vienna and Upper Austria called that corresponded to that type, which (in the region of Mauthausen Altaist , Altenburg , Arbing , Haid , Langenstein , Luftenberg an der Donau , Mauthausen , Mistlberg , Perg , Pregarten , Ried in the Riedmark , Schwertberg ), u. a. was dismantled. This also included rocks from quarries in the area north of Pilsen near Jechnitz - Woratschen , Petersburg -Jechnitz and others. According to Alois Kieslinger , at least half of the natural stone built under the name Mauthausener Granit came from deposits of the Bohemian Massif in Bohemia and Moravia, and the paving stones from deposits in Bavaria . Therefore, in individual cases, a distinction must be made between the petrographically correct designation of origin (e.g. Mauthausen) and the broader trade name.

The granite of the Mauthausen type is medium-grain rocks with a predominantly blue-gray color. In certain occurrences, pyrite occurs as an accessory component. For this reason, the rock can occasionally tend to discolour (yellow, rust tones).

History of use of the Mauthausen granite

The basin and base of the Donnerbrunnen in Vienna are made of Mauthausen granite

The use of workpieces made from Mauthausen granite can be traced back to Roman times . They were used for the production of masonry but also for artistic handicrafts, as various exhibits in the Roman Museum Lauriacum in Enns prove. In the Middle Ages , however, the use of granite was largely avoided (Gaßner Chr., 1998, p. 18).

At that time the "Perger sandstone" was mainly used for building in large parts of the lower Mühlviertel . Traces of this "Perger sandstone" can still be found today in various medieval buildings in Mauthausen. For example, the church building, completed in 1490, still includes masonry from the old parish church, which was destroyed by the Hussites in 1424, which suggests that sandstone was predominantly used at that time. Likewise, various shaped stones that are still preserved in the strut pillars of the church are made of “Perger sandstone”. Further examples can be seen at the so-called Karner (from the first half of the 13th century) right next to the church and at the Heinrichskirche (Mauthausen's oldest church, probably built around 1024) (Heimatbuch Mauthausen, p. 79).

The granite drove the economic development of Mauthausen. While the extraction and use of granite in the end of the Middle Ages was still limited to the processing of boulders and the removal of easily accessible layers, from the 17th / 18th centuries onwards. In the 19th century, its industrial use played an increasingly important role.

Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to determine exactly when the first quarries in Mauthausen started operating, but there are indications that earlier commercial use than the historically documented quarry foundations appear possible. Until May 6, 1652, according to the old law, every citizen of the market was allowed to break or collect the stones necessary for his "domestic use". This right was taken away from them by Abraham Widmer, the administrator of the Mauthausen estate, on May 6, 1652 (Mauthausen Heimatbuch, p. 80). This alone would not allow any conclusions to be drawn about commercial use, but old building bills of the St. Florian monastery show that between the years 1687 and 1715 high invoices were repeatedly paid out to the stonemason Hans Wolfinger zu Langenstein (Gaßner Chr., 1998, P. 18). So it could be that as early as the end of the 17th century, the commercial use of granite in the area in and around Mauthausen was a reality.

The creation of the first quarries in Mauthausen

The first documented quarry founding in Mauthausen dates back to 1781. The master stonemason Johann Gehmacher opened Heinrichsbruch in 1781 in the east of Mauthausen. This quarry would develop into the largest quarry in the area around Mauthausen in the following decades. The Kamptnerbruch began operating towards the end of the 18th century. In the first decades of the 19th century, more and more quarries were built. The Kamptnerbruch in 1828 was followed by the founding of the Bruch on the Bettelberg and the Spitalbruch opposite the Heinrichskirche.

It was the enormous demand for stones for building activity throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire that made the number of quarries grow rapidly. In particular, the paving of streets and paths in today's capitals Vienna, Pressburg and Budapest promoted the establishment of quarries in Mauthausen and the surrounding area. This stone paving in the big cities of the monarchy was only made possible by the development of new tools in stone processing that allowed rational production. It was of great importance that the stones for road construction corresponded to standardized sizes and that is exactly what could be achieved with technical innovations.

But it was not only the paving stones that favored the development of the Mauthausen stone industry. The cobblestones were just the beginning. With the increase in baroque building activity in the capital of the monarchy, Vienna, the Mauthausen granite experienced a renewed surge in demand. Combined with the favorable location on the Danube, which was ideally suited as a transport route, the Mauthausen quarries were able to develop into an important branch of industry.

The development of Granitwerke Anton Poschacher

Maria Theresa monument in Vienna, boundary columns and lowest platform made of Mauthausen granite

The Granitwerke Anton Poschacher were the most important and most important stone producer in Mauthausen. The importance of this company for Mauthausen and the surrounding area should not be underestimated outside of the stone industry. This company, and with it the Poschacher family, shaped the development of Mauthausen like no other. Even today, the descendants of the company's founder Anton Poschacher are the largest landowners in Mauthausen and are among the most influential personalities in the region.

At the beginning there was the so-called Kamptnerbruch. The daughter of the Kamptner quarry owner Leonhard Kamptner took over the father's quarry in 1839 with her young husband Anton Poschacher (industrialist, 1812) . Anton Poschacher, a trained gingerbread man and wax maker and son of the Mayor of Mauthausen at the time, now began with his wife to build up a company that developed rapidly over the next few decades. With a fortune of 12,000 guilders, the young entrepreneur bought several quarries in Mauthausen and the surrounding area and successfully expanded the business. In 1860 the Granitwerke Anton Poschacher already employed several hundred people. In addition to the acquisition of several quarries in other regions of the monarchy, such as in neighboring Bohemia, but also in Bavaria, Anton Poschacher also bought forest, agricultural land and the salt barn in Mauthausen. This salt barn was supposed to serve as a stone carving workshop. It is still there today and operates as a shopping center.

Of course, the location on the Danube also favored the company's development. It was above all the great need for paving and shaped stones in the capital Vienna, which was expanded into a major city on the Danube under Emperor Franz Joseph I , that made Anton Poschacher's granite works grow so quickly. While independent ship masters transported the granite stones on the Danube to Vienna in the early days of the company, Anton Poschacher switched to his own transport barges as the demand for ships increased. He ordered the construction of so-called Siebenerinnen (Großzillen), which could transport up to 200 tons of stone. The stones were brought from the quarries to the landing stages by horse-drawn carts and loaded onto the seven piers. As the stones were now transported by the company itself, the company's workforce grew rapidly.

Favored by the brisk construction activity in the monarchy and its unchecked demand for stones, Granitwerke Anton Poschacher developed into a flourishing industrial company with orders from all parts of the country. Many famous buildings in Austria today contain Mauthausen granite. The Ringstrasse structures such as the Museum of Art and Natural History , the Parliament Building and the Vienna City Hall required the granite, and buildings upstream in the Upper Austrian capital of Linz , such as the neo-Gothic Linz Cathedral, were equipped with these stones. At the end of the sixties of the 19th century, the economic development was characterized by large capitalist foundations of stock corporations .

Mauthausen granite was used for the columns and cornices inside the New Cathedral in Linz

Influenced by the zeitgeist, Anton Poschacher also sold his company in 1870 to the recently founded corporation for road and bridge construction . Anton Poschacher himself became president of this stock corporation, but died three years later. His son, Anton Poschacher (industrialist, 1841) , joined the company and took over the post of director. The great stock market crash in 1873 did not leave the public limited company for road and bridge construction unaffected. The turbulence on the markets and the fact that the company made unprofitable expansions after the death of the company's founder, Anton Poschacher, led to differences between Anton Poschacher jun. and the rest of the management. Anton Poschacher jun. then left the company and went on a study trip to America.

The road and bridge construction company ran into massive difficulties in the years after the stock market crash and worked with heavy losses when Anton Poschacher returned from America in 1876. Anton Poschacher now wanted to buy back the company and he finally succeeded after a lengthy process. He bought the company back with family loans and now owned the largest granite factory in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with over 1000 employees. After the buyback, the company began a long recovery phase. This included the sale of distant quarries in Bavaria, Schärding and Bohemia and the improvement of the connections between the individual quarries.

When the restructuring phase was completed, the company began an expansion phase. Poschacher renewed and expanded its mechanical equipment and from 1875 steam engines were also used. Above all, this progress made the work of the scribers easier, who had the task of cutting the rough blocks into smaller stones. In 1884 the company purchased the first diamond saw and the first steam-powered grinding system in Austria was used. This system roughly corresponded to the performance of 10 hand grinders. There was also an expansion of the transport fleet on the Danube including the purchase of a tugboat. The development and renewal of the processing systems also allowed the Poschacher product range to grow. In addition to paving stones, kerbstones and shaped stones, tombstones and crypt slabs were also produced. The successful development of the company ultimately led to Poschacher employing 1859 people in 1893.

At the turn of the century, with the death of Anton Poschacher jun. In 1904, the Poschacher company owned 400 hectares of land, 62 houses, 20 quarries in operation, 25 quarries that were closed or under construction and around 2000 people were employed.

During the First World War, the company shrank to 290 employees and only slowly recovered from the post-war labor pains. Only in 1928 did the workforce reach 500 to 600 people again, aided by public paving stone campaigns.

The Wiener Städtische Granitbruch

The Wiener Städtische Granitwerke operated the last active quarry in Mauthausen and were given the trade of quarrying and processing until the second half of the 20th century alive. The Wiener Granitwerke built on Anton Poschacher's company, but did not achieve the same importance for the development of the stone industry in Mauthausen.

The Wiener Städtische Granitwerke quarry was located in Bettelberg in the west of Mauthausen. In 1828 this quarry was one of the first to be built in the course of the many foundations at the beginning of the 19th century. This quarry was also owned by the Poschacher family until 1916, but it was leased by a Viennese master paver in 1906 and acquired by the municipality of Vienna 10 years later. The price was 30,000 kroner in cash and a piece of land worth 10,000 kroner.

From this time on, the quarry was owned by the municipality of Vienna or by companies owned by them. The granite stone in the Bettelberg was particularly easy to split, but due to its coarse-grained structure, it was not suitable for high loads and special shapes. This granite was mainly used in road construction.

The life of the stone workers in Mauthausen

Hand in hand with the developments in the quarries in and around Mauthausen naturally also went the development of the social life of the workers and their families. The living conditions during the time of industrialization were very tough for the workers in the quarry. They had to work an average of 60 hours a week and mostly barely managed to earn the money they needed to live. Working hours started at 6:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and ended around 6:00 p.m. in the evening.

A twelve-hour day for a physically very strenuous work and that at a just sufficient salary naturally caused unrest and rioting occurred in various tightening of working conditions. One such incident occurred in February 1876. In a quarry owned by Löwenfels' widow and son, the stone workers were paid by piece, that is, piecework (as in most other quarries). The quarry that the Löwenfels company operated for the municipality of Vienna, however, was of poor quality and the yield was very poor despite the most arduous work. This subsequently led to poor wages for the quarry workers. In order to avoid the dissatisfaction of the local workers, cheaper workers were recruited from Bohemia, but they too soon began to express their dissatisfaction.

Then in February 1876 the situation escalated. A new managing director from Vienna should push through an even worse payment method for the workers. The workers, who were already struggling with the poor living conditions, attacked the man, beat him up and threw him into the stream flowing by. After uncontrolled riots among the quarry workers, the workers in Mauthausen became politically conscious. The first workers 'education associations emerged (workers' education association in 1872, replaced by the national education association in 1891). A lively association system developed in Mauthausen.

As early as the First World War, the Poschacher company had consumed goods. At the end of February 1920, however, this was closed and the workers from Mauthausen, Haid and Gusen built their own consumer organization . The sales outlets were organized by the Linz consumer and savings cooperatives. The sales outlets for company consumption were simply taken over and another sales outlet was opened in Wienergraben.

Concentration camp quarries

Memorial for the victims of the Nazi tyranny on Morzinplatz in Vienna's Inner City by Leopold Grausam, jun. made of Mauthausen granite

Since the National Socialists placed particular emphasis on the use of granite in their urban planning , they chose the Mauthausen / Gusen site for the construction of concentration camps after the annexation of Austria in 1938 , because there were numerous quarries there. In June 1938, the SS signed a lease agreement with the municipality of Vienna for the use of the Wiener Graben and Marbacher Bruch quarries with the Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke (DESt) they founded . The Gusen and Kastenhof quarries were also added . The Wiener Graben quarry, which DESt bought from the municipality of Vienna in 1939 , was put into operation with the Gusen and Katenhof quarries as early as 1938 because building blocks were needed to build the Mauthausen concentration camp . In 1941 a siding was laid to Gusen and a narrow-gauge railway from the Gusen quarry to the Danube.

It was planned to mine 35,000 m³ of granite annually. This Mauthausen granite was supplied to the Reich Building Inspection in Berlin, the stadium construction in Nuremberg and structures for the Reichsautobahn . The concentration camp prisoners had to work and live under inhumane conditions. The death rate in Mauthausen was significantly higher than in other concentration camps, especially in Gusen . In 1941 alone, 18,000 people were sent to the Mauthausen camp. Poor diet, poor hygienic conditions and outbreaks of diseases such as typhus resulted in numerous deaths. Due to this fact, the prisoners only performed 20 percent of the work of civil stonemasons . The prisoners were not only used in the quarries, but later, for example, in the war production of Steyr-Puch AG and at the Hermann-Göring-Werke in Linz.

Application examples

Graz

  • Monument to Kaiser Franz on Freiheitsplatz

Large framing

Linz

  • Savings bank building, pillars
  • Protecting Monument
  • Hessendenkmal
  • Parts of the Nibelungen Bridge
  • Seminary

Villach

  • Central cemetery, 20 memorial stones for those who died in the First World War

Vienna

Memorial against war and fascism on Albertinaplatz

Wiener Neustadt

  • Maria Theresa Monument, erected in 1862 on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the Theresian Military Academy ; The design comes from the sculptor Hanns Gasser , the base made of Mauthausen granite was designed by the Hofsteinmetz Wasserburger.
Memorial for the war of 1866 in Chlum / Czech Republic

Czech Republic

  • Monument to the 1st Austrian Army Corps in Chlum (obelisk on a pedestal)

Nuremberg

literature

  • Christoph Gaßner: The development of the stone industry in the Mühlviertel . Linz 1998
  • Market community Mauthausen: Mauthausen homeland book . Gutenberg printing works, Linz 1985
  • SPÖ-Mauthausen (ed.): The hard way. The history of the Mauthausen labor movement. Edition Geschichte der Heimat, Grünbach 1989
  • Anton Poschacher: 100 years of Anton Poschacher granite works . Linz 1939
  • Poschacher - granite, marble, building materials, 1839 - 1989. 150 years of building with natural stone . Company history, 1989
  • Robert Seemann and Herbert Summesberger: Vienna stone hiking trails . Christian Brandstätter, Vienna and Munich 1998 ISBN 3-85447-787-2

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alois Kieslinger : The stones of the Vienna Ringstrasse . Wiesbaden (Franz Steiner Verlag) 1972, pp. 59-60
  2. ↑ August Hanisch , Heinrich Schmid : Austria's stone quarries . Vienna ( Carl Graeser ) 1901
  3. ^ Alois Kieslinger: Geology for building construction and plastic . Vienna (Österreichischer Gewerbeverlag) 1951, p. 38
  4. ↑ Heimatbuch Mauthausen, p. 79 and Gaßner, 1998, p. 19
  5. ↑ Gaßner, 1998, p. 18 f
  6. ↑ Poschacher company chronicle, 1839 - 1989, p. 2 ff and Poschacher A., ​​1939, p. 6 ff
  7. ↑ a b c Gaßner, 1998, p. 21 f
  8. ↑ Entry on Anton Poschacher in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
  9. ↑ a b Poschacher company chronicle, 1839 - 1989, p. 4 f and A. Poschacher, 1939, p. 10ff
  10. ↑ Gaßner, 1998, p. 26
  11. ↑ Poschacher Firmenchronik, 1839 - 1989, p. 6 ff and A. Poschacher, 1939, p. 13 ff
  12. ^ Mauthausen Heimatbuch, p. 80
  13. ^ Mauthausen Heimatbuch, p. 82
  14. ↑ a b "The Hard Way", 1989, p. 21
  15. ↑ Florian Freund , Bertrand Perz : Mauthausen - main camp. In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 4: Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52964-X available online
  16. ^ Vienna Touristik Guide according to Dehio Wien, Czeike, Historisches Lexikon Wien, Wiener Geschichtsblätter 4/1994 - Elisabeth Winkler web query