Neunkirchen ironworks
First of all, one must differentiate: An ironworks in Neukirchen had existed since the 16th century. The Neunkircher Eisenwerk AG, however, was not established until 1933 and was the successor to the Stumm Werke. The Neunkircher Eisenwerk was an ironworks in Neunkirchen (Saar) . Neunkircher Eisenwerk AG had a branch in Homburg from 1936 . Iron smelting existed from 1593 to 1982 and shaped the history and industrial development of Neunkirchen as well as the cityscape. In the wake of the steel crisis , Neunkircher Eisenwerk AG, formerly Gebrüder Stumm, was merged with its previous competitor, Stahlwerke Röchling Burbach GmbH , and pig iron production at the Neunkirchen location was shut down. The industrial tradition continues in Saarstahl AG . Most of the extensive factories in Neunkirchen were dismantled after 1982. Remnants of the former factory have been preserved on the former company premises in the area of the old huts . Small parts of the former ironworks are still in operation today (2020) in Neunkirchen as a Saarstahl site and in Homburg since 1992 under the name Saar-Blankstahl .
First messages (1593–1603)
The oldest news about the construction of an ironworks near Neunkirchen comes from a volume with debt claims against the estate of Count Albrecht von Nassau-Weilburg . Some craftsmen were still unpaid at the Count's death in 1593 and submitted claims, some of which concern the ironworks near Neunkirchen, which Count Albrecht had built. The village of Neunkirchen was in the area of today's Upper Market , the ironworks northwest of the village at the confluence of Sinnerbach and Heinitzbach in the Blies . The hydropower of two dammed ponds, the potential for compulsory labor in the Ottweiler office , the extensive forests suitable for the production of charcoal and nearby iron ore deposits formed good conditions for the establishment of an iron works. Most of the iron ore that was smelted seems to have come from the area between Schiffweiler and Landsweiler .
A stove plate, allegedly dated 1593 and labeled "Neunkirchener Eisenwerk", which is repeatedly cited as the first known reference, has not survived. Two years later, oven plates were definitely cast at the Neunkirchen plant. Two casts with the inscription NEVNKIRCHEN, a front and a side plate, have been preserved. The motif shown is the alliance coat of arms of Count Ludwig von Nassau-Weilburg and his wife, Landgravine Anna Maria von Hessen. Above the coat of arms are six elongated helmets with various decorations, including the year 1595. A variant discovered in 1964 still has the addition WEILMVNSTER 1589 under the indication of origin, which is framed by a scale pattern. The reference to Weilmünster suggests that the first skilled workers came from the Weiltal to Neunkirchen and brought models and stamps for stove plates from there.
Files on the early days of the work have not been preserved. A directory created in 1741 with the names of the admodiators (temporal inventory, tenants) from 1603 to 1699 was preserved.
The Metz Admodiators (1603–1635)
During the following three decades, the factory was leased to Metz merchants of the Reformed faith. The first to appear in the admodiator directory is “Unbehendts von Mess de ao 1603 an”. Nicolas Unbehend was a businessman in Metz. Its existence for Neunkirchen ended in 1610.
For the next 10 years from 1610 Peltre and Olry are registered as tenants. They too came from Metz merchant families of the Reformed creed. Paul Peltre was also the tenant of the Geislautern ironworks . In 1614, Peltre operated another ironworks and hammer mill in the Kurtrierischen on "Schwebelbach" (today's threshold brook) in the office of Saarburg near Saarhölzbach .
His co-tenant from 1610 and sole tenant from 1620 Olry, whose name also occurs in German as Ulrich, is more prominent than Peltre. It is Drouin Olry, the son of the reformed Metzger merchant Michel Olry.
The work died in the Thirty Years War . In the report of Saarbrücken rent master Klicker from December 1635 it says: “Neunkirchen and Spiesen are more than half burned down, in these two places no more than four subjects live. Wellesweiler is almost completely extinct and partly burned. "In addition to the mention of the castle, the village and the parish church, the Nassau-Saarbrücken registrar Johann Andreae noted in Volume IV of his" Genealogia Saraepontana "written in 1638 about Neunkirchen:" There is an ironworks at this place , because of their good iron, furnace p. widely famous and owned (leased) by foreigners and not far from the Schweizerhof (...). Most of the village burned down. "
After the peace treaty in 1648, Count Johann Ludwig tried to get the ruined Neunkirchen plant going again and in 1652 initially turned to the former tenant Olry. Olry's son-in-law Hanß Nickel Becker answered the letter with the date Lubeln , September 17, 1652. He wrote that Olry was out of the question as "an old and well-aged man who can no longer read and write because of old age." With Olry, who died three weeks later in Metz, the line of Metz entrepreneurs ends.
Entrepreneur from the Eifel-Ardennes area (1653–1675)
The following quarter of a century of Neunkirchen ironworks history is dominated by entrepreneurs from the Eifel-Ardennes area. The Admodiator Register mentions a stock called Duppengießer "from 1652 onwards". He is identical to a Lampert Dieppengießer, whom Count Johann Ludwig promised on May 20, 1652 the privileges and freedoms customary in mining and metallurgy, both for him and his masters and servants. Apparently there was no deal.
Negotiations were also conducted with two former Salm-Reifferscheidt subjects of the Protestant denomination, “people who evaded because of religion”. A temporal inventory over 14 years was then concluded with the two ironworks foremen Peter Virmond and Heinrich Beuchen from the Schleiden Valley. They gave up after just five years. Her ten times blowing on the expensive blast furnace and all further operations in the smelting and under the hammer had not even brought back the expenses, let alone the funds necessary for living and paying the annual rent.
The search for suitable tenants continued. In a public invitation to tender on November 15, 1664, the Count advertised the favorable location of Neunkirchen and listed everything that could be offered to a tenant in terms of advantages. The beautiful forests for logging, good conditions for hunting and arable farming, ponds and flowing waters for fishing, pastureland for livestock are emphasized. The ironworks had two smelting furnaces and two hammers before the “perishable war system”. A furnace and hammer were now back on their feet. There were ore deposits in front of the door, there was no lack of wood.
Jakob, Henry and Louis Houart then appear for a short time as the ironworks stock. In 1666 they gave 20 guilders to the gracious lordship “for the repair of devastated goods”.
In 1669 Peter Pastert appears "from the Birkenfeldischen" as a tenant. He too came from a Reidemeister family of the Schleidertal. He was supposed to pay 350 guilders and 3 quintals of iron a year as a rent. In 1675 Pastert also gave up in Neunkirchen and moved on to the hut near Honnefeld in the Westerwald, where he began a career as a successful entrepreneur and founder of an efficient group.
After Pastert's departure, the factory seems to have lain idle from 1676 to 1682. The Dutch War also caused great damage in and around Neunkirchen.
The Reunion Period (1680–1697)
By decree of the Metz Reunionskammer on January 9, 1681, Count Friedrich Ludwig got the County of Ottweiler as a fiefdom under French sovereignty. Regarding Neunkirchen, it says in 1683: "Près de ce village, les seigneurs ont une forge qui est ruinée."
As tenants during the reunification, the admodiator directory names Strintzen from 1682, Fever and Gilles Humbert from 1684, Huy from 1687, Meyer from 1692, and Hauzier from 1697.
Johann Daniel Strintz was a trader and citizen of Strasbourg. The "former smelter of Neukirchen" drowned in the pond in 1683 (probably the smeltery). Simon Lefebure from Homburg is behind Fever. This got the work going again. However, Lefebure left before the end of March 1686.
A statement from March 29 to April 2, 1686 of the workers' wages still outstanding since September 1685 gives an insight into the organization of the company. The detailed document states the names of the wages, their function, their services, the outstanding wage bill, often less advances and debts to the work, and the wage rate. A total of 48 workers were employed. 1 master smelter, 1 small smelter, 1 ore and 1 coal feeder and 1 master foundry worked at the furnace. At the hammer were 3 hammer smiths, 1 fresh foreman and 1 fresh worker. 18 workers alone are designated as ore miners or "mineurs".
The next tenant was Gilles Humbert, a Saarlouis merchant who was mentioned in 1688 as "admodiateur des forges de Neunkirch".
In 1688 Neunkirchen went to the "honorable" Johann Jacob Meyer from Zweibrücken, who also occurs under the first name Johann Paul. They don't seem to be two different people.
In 1694, the Wallon Remacle Joseph Hauzeur, who came from Verviers, took over the Neunkircher Hütte in lease. He left Neunkirchen soon afterwards in order to devote himself entirely to his diverse metallurgical endeavors in the high forest area. His wide-ranging initiatives give him the status of a major entrepreneur.
The two cooks (1700–1730)
After the end of the reunion, the hut was leased to two brothers-in-law. These were Hans Georg Koch, citizen and trader of Zweibrücken, and Grégoire Jacques, who had already appeared as a factor in Neunkirchen from 1686 to 1688, and who is now the owner of the manorial estate in Bergzabern.
The lease agreement concluded with Count Friedrich Ludwig on February 6th and coming into force on June 24th, 1700 was limited to six years. At that time the plant consisted of a smelting furnace, a hammer forge, a coal scrubber, a house and other buildings. This included hydraulic engineering, the "running dishes" and what belonged to the mine. The workers were given the usual freedoms and privileges (freedom of movement, exemption from aristocratic burdens, free religious practice, serving of alcoholic beverages). The annual metallurgy rate (canon) was 450 guilders and 12 quintals of iron in kind.
With the death of Friedrich Ludwig in May 1728, the Saarbrücken line of the house of Nassau went out, and the offices of Saarbrücken and Ottweiler fell to the Usinger line. Guardian and regent for the minor Hereditary Prince Wilhelm Heinrich was his mother Charlotte Amalia, who had information sent to her about the holdings on the left bank of the Rhine in Nassau. Such a report, written around the turn of the year 1728/29, also goes into the ironworks, including Neunkirchen. The Neunkircher or Ottweiler smelting works consisted of a smelter, a large and a small hammer. It was the "considerableste" (most handsome) of all smelting works in the left bank of the Rhine (Nassau), both because of the good location and the iron stone (ore) that was mined nearby and was of better quality than other deposits. Hans Georg Koch, who moved from Zweibrücken to Neunkirchen around 1700 and took up residence in the house near the Schmelze, died on January 30, 1729. His successor was his only surviving son, Johann Wilhelm Koch, who on February 2, 1729 - that is, three days later - is referred to as the “high-class” ironworks factor in Neunkirchen. Apparently, however, the lease for Neunkirchen was not extended to him after 1730.
Von Stockum and the Oberschmelz (1748–1782)
The work has now evidently been carried on again under lordly management. This is indicated by the fact that a new hut clerk was appointed in 1730. It was Johann Mathias Wengenroth, born in the town of the same name, today a district of Westerburg in the Westerwald. Wengenroth held office for 18 years.
In the 1740s, Wilhelm Heinrich returned to the leasing system. Little by little, the Nassau works came into the hands of mostly Jewish tenants from Alsace, with the exception of the Neunkircher Hütte. Interested parties from Frankfurt merchant circles were found for this. On August 20, 1748, the company Thomas von Stockum and Sons in Frankfurt am Main took over the Neunkirchen plant, along with the newly built steel hammer, for 16 years in temporal inventory. In addition to the factories, an inventory also mentions a number of residential buildings. A decree from Prince Wilhelm Heinrich of March 11, 1749 allowed the tenants to build a second smelter at "Hasselbächer Weyher". This melt was then called Schmelze am Sinnerbach, Neue Schmelze or Obere Schmelze. The new plant had a blast furnace with two large bellows, a sand foundry, a molding house, an ore wash, a coal scrubber and three workers' apartments. It was on the edge of the Kohlwald on the border with the Wiebelskircher Bann.
Now attempts were made to produce particularly high-quality wrought iron, which was then called steel. In the long run, these attempts were not economical. The hard coal , which emerged in abundance near Neunkirchen , was used for various furnaces and attempts were made to produce metallurgical coke from it . The coal of the Saar district is not very suitable for this. The charcoal remained indispensable for the smelting process itself .
When the lease was renewed in 1764, Johann Heinrich Stumm and his brothers applied for the lease without success. The work started again from Stockum and Sons.
The general tenants (1782–1806)
In 1776, under Prince Ludwig, the French model of the general lease was transferred to Nassau-Saarbrücken . The general lease from Leclerc, Joly & Co. included the customs duties, the levies on salt, tobacco and drinks, the domain and the sovereign ironworks and coal mines from October 1, 1776 for 18 years. When von Stockum's lease expired in 1782, the Neunkircher Hütte also came to Leclerc, Joly & Co. During the First Coalition War , the left bank of the Rhine was occupied by the French and became part of the French Republic in 1798 . From 1795, the former Nassau-Saarbrück huts, now under French management, went to a tenant consortium, were then operated under direct management and leased to the Paris company Equer for ten years in 1797. Napoleon left the Neunkirchen ironworks to the Legion of Honor in 1804 for their financial support. On March 21, 1806, the Stumm brothers bought the plant.
The silent era (1806–1974)
See main article Gebrüder Stumm
The Saarstahl era (from 1982)
See main article Saarstahl
Homburg branch
At the beginning of the 1910s, the Neunkircher Eisenwerk took over the screw and sleeper factory from Roth & Schüler in Homburg and ran it as a subsidiary. Around 1,500 people worked there towards the end of the Second World War. From 1975 the Homburger Stahlbau company also belonged to the Neunkircher Eisenwerk. In 1990 the Homburger Röhrenwerke was founded as a subsidiary of Saarstahl AG. Cold drawn and oxy-fuel welded pipes were produced there. In 1998 the pipe production facilities were sold and this area was shut down.
Around 1970 the production of square tubes was started, which u. a. were used for the production of heavy-duty shelf supports. This area was sold to IWKA in the early 1980s , which switched to the production of steel cylinders for industry, medicine, diving, etc. In 1990 Mannesmann Röhrenwerke AG Duisburg acquired the properties and production lines of IWKA and founded Homburger Stahlflaschen GmbH. After Mannesmann was taken over by Vodafone, these production lines went to Salzgitter.
The area of the former Homburg branch of Neunkircher Eisenwerke is now owned by various investors and rented to various companies. Saar-Blankstahl GmbH, a subsidiary of Saarstahl, uses part of it. Since May 2019, a new annealing strand system for Saarstahl has been built on the area of the demolished screw and clamp works.
literature
- Alexander Tille: One hundred years of Neunkirchen ironworks under the Stumm brothers company , Saarbrücken 1906
- Five-quarter century Neunkircher Eisenwerk and the Stumm brothers , Mannheim 1935
- Walter Petto: The Neunkircher Eisenwerk and its entrepreneurs from the beginning until 1750 . In: Saarländische Familienkunde, Volume 10, Saarbrücken 2006, pp. 309–333
- Heinz Gillenberg: Technology history of the Neunkircher hut . In: Rainer Knauf, Christof Trepesch (Ed.): Neunkircher Stadtbuch . District town Neunkirchen, 2005, ISBN 3-00-015932-0 , p. 127-146 .
Web links
- The end of the Neunkirchen ironworks in Neunkirchen and Homburg (PDF)
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Neunkircher Eisenwerk in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ^ Rolf Spang : Die Gewässernamen des Saarlandes , Saarbrücken 1982, p. 84. ISBN 3-921-646-45-6
Coordinates: 49 ° 20 ′ 52 ″ N , 7 ° 10 ′ 15 ″ E