Odenwald hard stone industry

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The Odenwald Hartenstein industry GmbH (OHI) Originally a joint stock company , now based in Hanau , a company is in the southern Rhine-Main area quarries operates. Today it belongs to the holding company of the Central German hard stone industry . The Odenwälder Hartstein-Industrie AG was established in the spring of 1898 through the merger of the Breitwieser & Co , owner Ludwig Breitwieser (1842–1905), Ober-Ramstadt , and the Leferenz brothers , Philipp Leferenz (1845–1930) and Johannes († 1895), from Heidelberg . The business premises and the headquarters were in Ober-Ramstadt and were relocated to Darmstadt in 1904. In 1910 500 workers were employed in the factories who extracted almost 460,000 tons of rock.

The quarries that OHI operates or operated include:

Roßberg basalt quarry
Aerial view from 3–5 km altitude
  • The active quarry on the Roßberg , which is in the districts of Roßdorf , Ober-Ramstadt and Zeilhard , east of Darmstadt , on the northern edge of the Odenwald . Here basalt is extracted, which occurs there in a compact lens, the largest diameter of which is about 600 m. The open pit reaches a depth of 100 m. The Roßdorf quarry is currently around 400 × 500 m in size. He has four soles in the basalt. The up to 27 m high dismantling walls have striking column formations. The basalt was formed from the lava of a volcanic eruption that took place between 43 and 58 million years ago in the Eocene . The basalt was formed at about the same time as the geological formation on which the neighboring Messel pit is based. This volcanic activity is related to the collapse of the Upper Rhine Rift .
The quarry has existed since around 1870. In 1887 Breitwieser & Co took over it and expanded it considerably. It is to be operated until the usable basalt has been completely removed. In Ober-Ramstadt, at the loading facility, there was a gravel works . Another major product was paving stones . Around 250 workers were employed here at the beginning of the 20th century. In the “cement slab factory” belonging to the quarry, colored basalt tiles were produced, the decorations of which were partly based on Art Nouveau motifs by the artists of the Darmstadt artists' colony . One of the owners of the OHI, Karl Breitwieser (1872–1918), maintained contacts with the artists. In the 50s of the twentieth century, up to 400 workers were employed here.
In 1888 the quarry was given a four kilometer long industrial railway with a gauge of 600 mm. It made it possible to drive the mined basalt from the quarry to the nearest railway line in standard gauge . The basalt was later transported to the loading station by cable car .
  • In the quarry on Wingertsberg in Nieder-Ramstadt , diorite , hornfels and granite were extracted. All of these rocks are also either of volcanic origin or formed by volcanic activity and high temperatures. The quarry opened in 1886. In the Second World War , the operation was stopped. From 1953 the now "flooded" quarry was pumped empty again and in 1954 operations resumed. In 1974 the quarry was finally closed.
From August 1891 the quarry had an industrial railway with a gauge of 720 mm, which transported the extracted rock to the Nieder Ramstadt-Traisa station (today: Mühltal) of the Odenwald Railway .
For this line see: Industriebahn Nieder-Ramstadt
Obererbach still has the columnar basalt in its coat of arms
  • Two quarries on the Ölberg and the Miltersberg have also been part of the Odenwald hard stone industry since 1898. They were taken over by Stein & Cie., Hadamar . They were located in the districts of the communities Hundsangen , Obererbach and Oberhausen , but were mostly named after the closest train station in Steinefrenz . These quarries were leased to the Central German hard stone industry for decades. The mine railway used here had a track width of 750 mm.

literature

  • G. Klemm: Odenwälder Hartstein-Industrie A.-Ges., Darmstadt . In: Historical-biographical sheets industry, trade and commerce for the Grand Duchy of Hesse , Berlin 1911.
  • Berthold Matthäus: Feldbahnen of the Odenwald hard stone industry . Ed .: Association for Local History Ober-Ramstadt 2000.

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