Muldenhütten

View from the south of Muldenhütten

The Mulden smelter near Freiberg, 1856

View of the lead smelter (1980)

Muldenhütten is an industrial area that has belonged to Freiberg since January 1st, 2012 . It lies directly on the right bank of the Freiberg Mulde . The place has a train station on the main line Dresden – Werdau and has been shaped by metallurgy for almost 700 years . Muldenhütten belongs to the Freiberg-Ost district of Freiberg .

history

The Muldenhütte 1989

As early as 1318, 1353, 1367 and 1370, various deeds and documents mentioned "smelters". Benefiting from its location on the tray on which the for smelting needed firewood zoom rafted was developed the so-called Upper Muldener hut or even crooked hut and the Lower Muldener hut , even New house or piece of oven hut called. These huts, like the entire silver mining , were partly owned by the Wettins or the Saxon state.

The Muldenhütte 2011

Initially, only silver ore from the Freiberg mining area in the immediate vicinity was smelted . The resulting copper and nickel were brought to Halsbrücke , Aue or Oberschlema for further processing . In 1825, the Untere and the Obere Muldener Hütte were combined to form the Muldenhütten hut . Arsenic has been privately mined in Muldenhütten since 1847 . A zinc smelter started operations in 1857 , and a pottery factory was added in 1863 . In 1878, the first factory-made sulfuric acid . In 1862 Muldenhütten was connected to the railroad to Freiberg and Dresden . At this time the 150 m long and 42 m high Muldenhüttener railway viaduct was built. Increasingly, foreign ores, which in 1909 had a share of 82%, were smelted in Muldenhütten.

Silver has been supplied to the Dresden Mint since 1863 . From 1887 to 1953 the Saxon State Mint ( mint mark E) was the Muldner Hütte mint , which was relocated from Dresden and was later called the Muldenhütten mint . About 7.5% of the coins of the German Empire were minted here. In 1892 a somewhat remote dynamite factory was opened. In this complex there were facilities for the extraction of lead, which in 1961 became part of the mining and smelting combine "Albert Funk" . Trace metals were extracted in the 1960s and silicon crystals were grown later . From the 1970s onwards, production was increasingly switched to recycling of metals and trace metals . In 1990 the combine was privatized. Since then, only so-called secondary lead has been extracted from batteries and accumulator scrap. The complex merged with SAXONIA AG Metallhütten- und Processingwerke Freiberg . A short time later, this was transformed into Saxonia Standortentwicklungs- und Verwertungs GmbH . In 1993 the Rheinische Zinkgesellschaft mbH bought the Muldenhütten smelter and formed Muldenhütten Recycling und Umwelt GmbH from it .

The centuries of use as a smelter site were associated with considerable environmental pollution. The heavy metal emissions released by the production processes of the "Albert Funk" combine in the Freiberg region and the health risks from exposure to significant lead and arsenic levels were already discussed in the GDR in the 1980s.

Extensive soil and contaminated site remediation projects have been carried out since 1990. The hut's facilities were extensively modernized between 1993 and 1994 by Muldenhütten Recycling und Umwelttechnik GmbH (MRU), which is active there today . Today's plants meet the requirements for the health and safety of employees and environmental protection. They are regularly checked by independent test centers and supervisory authorities.

Muldenhütten is the oldest, still in operation, hut location in Germany. Today the smelters are the main smelter of Muldenhütten Recycling und Umwelttechnik GmbH (MRU) . Today MRU is a subsidiary of Berzelius Metall , which in turn forms part of the Eco-Bat Technologies Ltd. group. heard. The smelter, which is operated as a secondary lead smelter with an attached hazardous waste incineration plant, is the third largest lead smelter in Germany.

Viaduct Muldenhütten

A special feature of Muldenhütten are the striking chimneys , which were first erected in the middle of the 19th century. In 1859 a first higher chimney was built on a hill above the station with a height of 58 m. This was replaced in 1934/35 by an 84 m high chimney. In 1979 and 1982, the two 200-meter chimneys that still characterize the landscape today as so-called landmarks were finally built .

Panorama of the industrial area

Other historically important objects are the shaft furnace building from the years 1886/1887, the Pattinson hut, the Huthaus I from the second half of the 17th century and the blower house with the original cylinder blower.

The Muldenhütten site is a selected part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Ore Mountains Mining Region .

literature

Franz-Peter Kolmschlag: Muldenhütten as a site for seven centuries. Muldenhütten Recycling und Umwelttechnik GmbH, 2010.
The Mulden smelter near Freiberg. In: Album of the Saxon Industry. Volume 1, 1856-1863, pp. 58-61. (Digitized version)
Franz-Peter Kolmschlag: Muldenhütten as a site for seven centuries . 2nd revised edition, Muldenhütten Recycling und Umwelttechnik GmbH, 2018