Central German Brown Coal Road

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The Central German Brown Coal Road is a themed street that deals with the mining of brown coal , recultivation measures and mining technology in the Central German brown coal area. So far, around 200 objects from the subject areas of technology and industrial architecture , nature and landscape , education , settlement , water and recreation have been signposted along the main and secondary routes .

background

Excursus: Lignite mining in Central Germany

The earliest known mining took place in Lieskau in 1382 . In the course of industrialization , mining and processing took off, which was greatly expanded as part of the self-sufficiency policy in the German Reich and later in the GDR . In the GDR, lignite also gained in importance because, since 1945, the hard coal deposits in the Ruhr area and in Silesia, from which ( hard ) coal had previously been obtained, were no longer accessible due to the new borders. The climax of coal extraction was in 1963, when the extraction capacity was 143 million tons. As a reaction to the oil crises , a radical policy of carbonisation was pursued from the 1970s onwards, with opencast mines, briquette factories, power plants ( Thierbach power plant , old power plant Lippendorf ) and smoldering plants shaped the image of the region, especially in the southern Leipzig area . In the course of German reunification , mining was reduced to an ecologically and economically viable level. Of the former 20 opencast mines, 17 were decommissioned, which means that most of the processing plants were shut down or replaced by efficient new buildings ( Lippendorf power plant , Schkopau power plant ). The number of those employed in the lignite industry fell within a few years from approx. 60,000 to currently approx. 3,000. Mining is currently still carried out by MIBRAG in two opencast mines (production 2007: 18.6 million tons) and to a lesser extent by Romonta GmbH in Amsdorf . The legacies of the decommissioned GDR lignite industry have been rehabilitated and recultivated by the LMBV since 1994 .

End of the GDR lignite industry

Cospudener See : Zöbigker Winkel water sports center

In the course of its 300-year history, lignite mining has on the one hand made use of a centuries-old cultural landscape, but on the other hand has made a significant contribution to the development of the cultural landscape through its interventions. The new landscape of human hands (SAUER 2002) left behind several hundred objects from the mining and processing of brown coal for posterity when the GDR lignite industry collapsed. Although there is a broad consensus in society about the obligation to preserve striking historical objects and objects, when dealing with the legacies of the mining and lignite industries in the southern Leipzig area, experiences of loss prevailed in the early 1990s. The problems of acceptance of the lignite and energy industries ( environmental pollution , devastation) as well as the lack of subsequent use and conversion concepts, which emerged in the course of the fall of the Wall, led to the rapid demolition or dismantling of large open-cast mining equipment and factories. In view of the formerly approx. 60,000 employees in the Central German lignite industry, aspects of labor market policy also played a role that should not be underestimated in the promotion of demolition and demolition, as at least part of the workforce could continue to be employed with the extensive demolition measures.

Idea of ​​the road

Within a few years, numerous material witnesses from the world of work and technology that defined the image of the region disappeared from the scene, often by being blown up in seconds. It was not until the mid-1990s that the local stakeholders began to rethink , largely due to the partial demolition of the listed briquette factory in Neukirchen, which began in 1995 . Increasingly, decision-makers and the population realized that the cultural landscape of Central Germany in its present and future appearance can only be understood as a result of the industrial mining age. It was all the more necessary to preserve and process existing evidence of this late epoch on an equal footing with monuments from other epochs . This also makes an important contribution to the revitalization of the regional identity. In addition, cultural and industrial tourism has been a market segment that has been growing for a number of years. In the tourism sector, there is currently a strong demand-side interest in the development of the regional natural and cultural area, especially when it has experienced a very special character. This means that the preservation of the industrial heritage can also result in new tourist perspectives for the southern region.

The search for a concept for conveying and dealing with the history of mining led to the establishment of an association in 1996 to create a central German lignite road, which conceptually fits into the landscape of over 100 tourist roads in Germany. In general, tourist roads are an instrument of regional economic development and regional marketing. About the connection between the attractions of a national interest issue ( German Clock Road , Silver Street , Romanesque Road , Porzellanstraße etc.) target groups are won or tied, the infrastructural capacity utilization improved and economic and infrastructural growth effects are achieved in the area.

The brown coal road sees itself primarily as an educational offer for locals and guests in the region and wants to make the structural change unprecedented in Central Europe with regard to its area coverage and depth of change tangible [...] (DACHVEREIN MITTELDEUTSCHE STRASSE DER BRAUNKOHLE eV 2004). The main concern of the sponsoring association is, in addition to the identification or signage of a signage system, the provision of information materials (publications, maps, flyers, homepage). The association also acts as a contact exchange for tourism associations and travel companies. A key element in establishing the lignite route was its inclusion in regional planning. In the West Saxony regional plan, for example, the preservation of suitable mining-related objects and facilities as well as their connection with cultural-historical sights is anchored as a principle for the development of thematic tourism offers.

In the course of the Brown Coal Road, around 200 material witnesses have so far been found throughout Central Germany within the thematic groups of technology / industrial architecture (large opencast mining equipment, power plants , briquette factories , railway systems, technical artifacts ), nature and landscape (geological outcrops, educational trails , succession areas, nature reserves ), education (museums , Exhibitions, information centers), settlement (archaeological excavation sites, revitalized open-cast mining communities), leisure time, sport and recreation (remaining lakes as bathing lakes, water sports , converted industrial buildings) and water (relocated rivers, flood structures, flood protection systems).

So far it can be said that the concept of the brown coal road has succeeded in establishing a well-founded information and educational offer on the previous and future development of the central German brown coal industry, from which the first tourist impulses are already emerging. The Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlenstraße makes the structural and landscape change tangible and thus contributes to the image change of the region. The concept primarily benefits from the commitment of those involved, the growing fascination with which technical systems and industrial architectural buildings exert on broad masses of the population Linking of educational, information and entertainment offers (edutainment: education by entertainment) and the concentration of other existing tourist roads on topics beyond industrial and economic history. Last but not least, the success of the concept can also be measured by the fact that a proposal for a Rhenish lignite road developed in the (today) much more important Rhenish lignite area takes up the basic content of the concept of the Mitteldeutsche lignite road.

Sponsorship

The development of the Mitteldeutsche Strasse der Braunkohle eV is coordinated by the umbrella organization Mitteldeutsche Strasse der Braunkohle eV .

course

The road runs through the three federal states of Saxony-Anhalt , Saxony and Thuringia . It begins in the Graefenhainichen or Bitterfeld area , runs over the northern and southern areas from Leipzig to Altenburger Land and then turns west to the Zeitz , Hohenmölsen , Weißenfels section and finally ends in the Geiseltal near Röblingen near Halle (Saale) .

A map of the complete route of the Mitteldeutsche Strasse der Braunohle can be found on the association's website.

Route points (selection)

Subject area technology and industrial architecture

The subject area of technology and industrial architecture includes mining equipment and processing systems, above all, material evidence of the production history of lignite mining.

  • Bucket wheel excavator in Ferropolis

  • formerly Briquette Factory Borna-Witznitz

  • Excavator 1547 in the Bergbau-Technik-Park

  • Mining Technology Park : The excavator 1547 and the stacker 1115 formthe core of the mining technology parknear Großpösna . A visitor mine has been designed, which shows the steps of coal mining with the two large machines.
  • Ferropolis : The excavation city ​​of Ferropolis , also known as the city ​​of iron , comprises five large open -cast mining machines (1 bucket chain excavator, 1 bucket chain swing excavator, 2 spreaders, 1 bucket wheel excavator), which form the spectacular backdrop for a unique open -air event area near Gräfenhainichen on the former open -air mining site .
  • Briquette Borna Witznitz : Built in 1912-1918 briquette Borna -Witznitz was south of Leipzig and 1992 in operation. Despite individual structural demolitions and the dismantling of the entire technology, the factory escaped total demolition, as its eleven monumental, functional buildings made of yellow clinker brickwork were a high-quality testimony to industrial architecture. An elaborated re-use concept (Florian Beigel Architects London) provides for the creation of a new Borna district, which is to be grouped around the old factory buildings and at the same time to fill them with new life. The aim is a mixed use with a focus on education / culture / leisure, trade and living. The first single-family houses have already been built in the area of ​​the former rail connection. Four of the eleven factory buildings have been renovated so far. They house offices and are used for exhibitions and cultural events. Negotiations for the conversion of another building as a residential location for lofts were recently successfully concluded (as of early 2006).
  • Herrmannschacht briquette factory in Zeitz : The factory, which was built in 1889, is today the oldest surviving first-generation briquette factory in the world, with its administrative, residential and functional buildings as a whole. Most of the machinery comes from the 1870s and 1880s. As an important material testimony to Central German industrial and mining history, it was included in the European Route of Industrial Culture on April 19, 2009.

Subject area water

  • Bitterfeld waterfront : renatured mining landscape on the immediate outskirts of Bitterfeld
  • Kulkwitzer See : The Kulkwitzer See was created from the flooding of an open-cast brown coal mine operated between 1937 and 1963 on the southwestern outskirts of Leipzig . The mining landscape has been targeted on the setting of reduction designed to intensively usable recreational area and is available as such since 1,973th

Theme Education

  • Haus am See in Schlaitz: Nature conservation and information center in Schlaitz , located at the Muldenstein open-cast mine that was flooded 30 years ago
  • Bitterfeld district museum : amber and geology

See also

literature

  • Andreas Berkner (1996): Project Central German Brown Coal Road. in: Christian environmental association Rötha / Pro Leipzig eV [Hrsg.] (1996): Leisure and recreation landscape southern Leipzig. Südraum-Journal Vol. 2. Leipzig. Pp. 22-31.
  • Andreas Berkner (2006): Lignite in Eastern Germany. in: tec21 - trade journal for architecture, engineering and the environment. Issue 3 / 4-2006. Pp. 4-7. Digitized
  • Dachverein Mitteldeutsche Straße der Braunkohle eV [Ed.] (2004): On the street of brown coal. A journey of discovery through central Germany. Leipzig. ISBN 3-936508-98-4 .
  • IJ Demhardt (2000): Transport lines as tourist attractions. in: Institut für Länderkunde [Hrsg.] (2000): National Atlas Federal Republic of Germany. Vol. 10 Leisure and Tourism. Heidelberg / Berlin. Pp. 64-67.
  • Saxon State Office for Environment and Geology / Sächsisches Oberbergamt [Hrsg.]: The lignite mining in the southern area of ​​Leipzig. Dresden 2004. Digitized version (pdf, 12 MB)
  • Hans Dieter Sauer (2002): New landscape made by human hands in eastern Germany. Neue Zürcher Zeitung from August 2, 2002
  • Lutz Schiffer et al. [Ed.] (2002): Mining residual lakes in Central Germany. Nautical compass. Chemnitz / Espenhain.
  • Business and regional magazine ARGOS (1998): Special edition brown coal: The central German brown coal region between history and revitalization. Leipzig.
  • Tillmann Scholbach (1997): Opportunities for sustainable regional development in old industrial regions taking into account the concept of the regional life cycle - the example of the southern Leipzig area , dissertation, Environmental Research Center Leipzig-Halle

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ map. In: Central German road of brown coal. Retrieved April 21, 2017 .