Paul Kottwitz

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Paul Kottwitz (born June 25, 1913 in Essen , † June 12, 1983 in Nabburg ) was mine director in the Upper Palatinate fluorspar mine .

Life

Paul Kottwitz studied mining in Upper Silesia and came to Nabburg in 1936 before the Second World War to work in the fluorspar mining in Upper Palatinate. There he met his wife Elisabeth, geb. Danhauser, whom he married on April 29, 1939 in Beuthen . At that time he was working in the Karsten Center mine as a steiger.

Soon after, he was drafted into the war against France. The subsequent Russian campaign ended for him shortly before the boiler in Stalingrad . There Kottwitz was injured by a shrapnel on his right leg. The wound healed superficially. He was declared indispensable for coal mining and released from further war use.

In October 1944, bone augmentation came back, which meant that he was unable to walk until the end of the war.

In 1954 he was hired by Saline Ludwigshalle AG in fluorspar mining in Upper Palatinate as managing director for the fluorspar plant Schwarzenfeld GmbH. The company was located on the site of the Cäcilia mine, which at that time had developed into the world's largest extraction site for the mineral.

In 1962 a processing plant (flotation) was built on the site of the Cäcilia pit. This meant that operations could be maintained for a few more years.

The following neighboring pits delivered their production to the processing plant and still had to be gradually processed by Paul Kottwitz:

Fluorspar imported from China and bought in from the Donauwörther Fluorsparvier were also processed.

On October 20, 1970, Kottwitz was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany with the following reason:

“After the war, Paul Kottwitz was a senior engineer at the Roland mine and the Vereinigte Flußspatgruben GmbH in Stulln for 7 years before he joined the Flußspatwerk Schwarzenfeld GmbH as operations manager and managing director in 1954. During this time he had a decisive influence on the design of fluorspar mining, was actively involved in the technical development of the pits and always convinced himself on the spot about the research work that he largely co-determined. When various companies stopped mining because of sales difficulties, he succeeded in continuing the extraction of fluorspar and preserving the existing jobs and an important raw source for the Upper Palatinate economy. When the demand suddenly set in on a large scale, he was able to take over two pits and thus ensure the supply of industry in the Federal Republic with the important raw material for a few more years. In addition, he has been the deputy chairman of the Association of German Flußspatgruben for years. "

In 1973 Kali Chemie, today Solvay GmbH, took over the entire share package in Saline Ludwigshalle.

This company was continued under the name Kali-Chemie Fluor GmbH, Bad Wimpfen.

In 1978 the processing plant at the Cäcilia mine was sold to Thailand. For health reasons, he could no longer accept the offer to take care of the reconstruction of this facility.

He died on June 12, 1983 shortly before his seventieth birthday.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Yearbook of German Mining 1955. Glückauf, Essen 1955, p. 552.
  2. ↑ The Upper Palatinate Fluorspar Anthology. ISBN 978-3-942668-01-9 .
  3. ↑ http://www.mineralienatlas.de/?l=308 - Mineralienatlas Wiki: Grube Cäcilia
  4. ↑ Bundesarchiv Koblenz Az. B 122/38488 Proposal list No. 602 for the award of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Munich, October 7, 1970. Dr.hc Goppel, Bavarian Prime Minister
personal data
SURNAME Kottwitz, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German miner
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH eat
DATE OF DEATH June 12, 1983
Place of death Nabburg