Oven roast

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Theodor Ring's entrance to the Ofenkaulen in the Siebengebirge. This entrance number 31 is also called Kalter Heinrich. In the 1980s, the entrances were concreted over and only entry slits were left for bats that live in the tunnel system.

The Ofenkaulen are a system of tunnels in the Siebengebirge , two kilometers east of Königswinter , which was created by mining tufa for baking ovens in Königswinter. The mountain Ofenkaul on the south side of the Mirbesbach valley opposite the Nonnenstromberg is named after it. Entering the protected cave system is prohibited due to the risk of collapse.

Creation and operation

Ventilation of P. Jos. Neffgen studs (aero steel studs) by means of a wind or weather hole.

The tunnels were created from the late Middle Ages onwards by mining trachyte tuff , which was used as oven stone for the construction of ovens ; hence the name “ Ofenkaule” or “ Ofenkuhle” . The trachyte tuff extracted there was of an extremely high quality, so that oven plates of up to 2 m² could be obtained. With the development of the Königswinter oven , which had fire chambers on the side, baking operations were simplified considerably. The baking chamber remained largely free of ashes and it was now possible for the first time to use coal , which otherwise would have damaged the tuff vault due to the great heat.

The peak of mining was reached in the 19th century. Above all, the railway connection that existed from 1871 led to a widespread use of Königswinter ovens. The sales area was next to the surrounding area v. a. in the Lower Rhine and Westphalia and reached as far as Belgium and northern France. At the end of the 19th century there were around thirty mostly family-structured small businesses with 5–10 workers each. In the course of intensive underground mining the Ofenkaulen were a total of seven different soles exploited, some of which are connected by deep shafts. A total of around 48,000 m² of mining area can be proven today. The introduction of modern electric and gas stoves, as well as the effects of the First World War, led to a rapid decline in the industry. In contrast to the oven construction center in Bell / Eifel , the development of new oven systems was missed. The last two companies gave up their work around 1960.

Use in World War II

At the end of the Second World War , forced laborers had to manufacture injection pumps for the BMW 801 aircraft engine in some parts of the Ofenkaulen . It was about the underground relocation of the company Aero-Stahl Fluggerätebau GmbH from Cologne-Porz, which was housed in the tunnel under the code name "Schlammpeitzger" . The 400 or so forced laborers, mostly of Eastern European origin, but also Italian prisoners of war, were housed in a barrack camp on the mountain. The tunnels were previously expanded by the Todt Organization. Production at the factory that had previously been relocated from Andrichau / Poland began at the end of 1944.

Buried entrance to shaft 44, which leads into Mr. Preukschat's tunnel.

In the last days of the war, several hundred citizens of Königswinter sought a bomb-proof refuge here, sometimes for several weeks.

Nature and monument protection

The Ofenkaulen have been a registered ground monument since 1980 . They are also under nature protection as part of the FFH protected area Siebengebirge and have been massively closed since 1969. Entry slits have only been left for bats , which belong to the specially protected species according to the FFH guidelines. The Ofenkaulen are among the most important bat winter quarters in southern North Rhine-Westphalia and northern Rhineland-Palatinate .

Trivia

In a robbery on February 14, 1962, Dieter Freese shot and killed the branch manager of a savings bank in Winningen on the Moselle. At the end of February Freese sought refuge in the Siebengebirge, first in Hövel near Aegidienberg and later in the Königswinterer Ofenkaulen. On March 1, a police officer tried to arrest the fugitive there. However, Freese managed to disarm the police officer, shoot his dog and flee.

See also

literature

  • C. Boye et al .: The Ofenkaulen in the Siebengebirge as a bat roost: The currently occurring species, stocks and threats . In: Decheniana 155 . Bonn 2002.
  • J. Kling: Underground tuff quarries in the Siebengebirge on the Rhine . In: Studiegroep onderaardse Kalksteengroeven; Natuurhistorisch Genootschap in Limburg, Maastricht (Ed.): SOK-Mededelingen 33 . 2000, p. 15-35 .
  • J. Kling, R. Klodt, S. Scheuren, A. Schmidt, J. Sieger: A forced labor camp in the Siebengebirge . In: Archeology in the Rhineland 2004 . Stuttgart 2005, p. 194-195 .
  • C. Meyer-Cords, R. Hutterer: The Ofenkaulen in the Siebengebirge as a bat roost: Species records and research activities from 1908 to 1978 . In: Decheniana 154 . Bonn 2001, p. 125-143 .
  • E. Scheuren: Oven construction and "Ofenkaulen" in the Siebengebirge . In: Yearbook of the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis 2001 . Siegburg 2000, p. 136-139 .
  • Siebengebirgsmuseum der Stadt Königswinter (Ed.): Fifty years ago. End of the war in the Siebengebirge . Siegburg 1995.

Web links

Commons : Ofenkaulen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

Coordinates: 50 ° 40 '42.65 "  N , 7 ° 13' 12.59"  O

  1. ↑ a b c Klaus Blömeke: Entrance Theodor Ring "Kalter Heinrich". June 26, 2002, accessed July 27, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c J. Kling: The Ofenkaulen - Underground tuff quarries in the Siebengebirge on the Rhine . In: Studiegroep Onderaardse Kalksteengroeven, Natuurhistorisch Genootschap in Limburg (ed.): SOK Mededelingen . tape 33 . Limburg June 2000, p. 15–35 ( ofenkaulen.de ).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Elmar Scheuren: Oven construction and oven barn in the Siebengebirge. In: Rheinische Heimatpflege. Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection e. V., 1993, accessed July 27, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Carsten Schultz: Ofenkaulen: A plate weighing tons jacked up. In: Rundschau Online. June 18, 2010, accessed July 27, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b Entry by Christine Wohlfarth on the Ofenkaul quarry in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on July 27, 2020.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Kaes: Dieter Freese: "Otherwise I'll rivet you down!" In: General-Anzeiger (Bonn). June 6, 2012, accessed July 27, 2020 .