Mauthausner granite

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Stone of the Republic on Helmut-Zilk-Platz in Vienna

Mauthausner Granite (also Mauthausener Granite ) is a type name for fine to medium-grain biotite - granite with a light gray to bluish color, as it occurs within the Bohemian masses . It is named after the mining in Mauthausen in the Mühlviertel in Upper Austria , there are other names to indicate the local occurrence common or even protected (e.g. Neuhauser Granit, Perger Granit, Naarntaler Granit ). In addition to the original designation of origin, Mauthaus (e) ner Granit has established itself in connection with the Mauthausen stone industry as a trade name for such granites.

Its widespread use in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy as paving stone , but also as building stone and as a construction stone for the construction of bridges and buildings, are the reasons for its relative popularity.

Geology, origin, occurrence

The South Bohemian Pluton has a very heterogeneous structure and consists of several types of granite ( Weinsberger granite , Mauthausner granite, Schremser granite, Eisgarner granite ).

Hauptgemengteile of Mauthausener granite to be 66 percent feldspar (38 percent idomorpher, zonar built plagioclase (Kalknatronfeldspat) in the form of andesine - oligoclase and 28 percent microcline , also called Silikatfeldspat) to 10 percent silica and 10 percent biotite (magnesium iron mica, also called dark mica). Hornblende (calcium amphibole) or muscovite (light mica, also called alumina mica) have been observed occasionally. The minor components are titanite , clinozoisite , orthite , rutile in biotite, apatite , light mica , zircon and ore . In certain occurrences, pyrite occurs as a component. For this reason, the rock can occasionally tend to discolour (yellow, rust tones).

Petrological investigations showed that the hardening process of crystallization of the Mauthausen granite from a hybrid melt took place at great depth. During the hardening of the feldspar and as the Variscan regional metamorphosis subsided, it flowed into a relatively cool environment. Spotting around titanite crystals can also be observed.

The Mauthausen granite occupies large areas in the southern Lower Mühlviertel , with the places Altenburg , Arbing , Langenstein , Mauthausen , Münzbach , Luftenberg , Perg , Pulgarn Pregarten , Ried in der Riedmark , Schwertberg , Tragwein and Bad Zell to be mentioned.

The fine to medium-grain granite around Weitersfelden was also included, although this also occurs in porphyry varieties such as Karlstifter granite. The chemical composition is very similar to that of the Weinsberger granite, but in the Mauthausner granite the plagioclase predominates over the microcline.

As a rule, the Mauthausen granite characterizes a quieter landscape because it disintegrates into fine sandy weathered gravel , and on slopes into angular blocks. The delineation of the occurrences of Weinsberger and Mauthausen granite is sometimes difficult because the Mauthausen granite cuts through the Weinsberg granite in countless passages and smaller stumps (such as in Mistlberg-Erdleiten - Feiblmühler northwest and north of Tragwein).

Variations (edge facies ) of Mauthausen granite can be found in the area between Münzbach and Pabneukirchen (resembles the medium-grain Weinsberger or Engerwitzdorfer granite), in the area around Freistadt and St. Oswald near Freistadt and west of Pabneukirchen (Freistädter Granodiorit ), southwest of Unterweißbach (Two-mica granite). A special variety is the granitic to Esboitic globular rock that occurs south of Pabneukirchen.

At least half of the natural stone built under the trade name Mauthausner Granit probably did not come from Mauthausen or the Mühlviertel, but was quarried in more distant quarries within the Bohemian mass, for example in Bohemia , Moravia , but also in Bavaria . This also included rocks from quarries in the area north of Pilsen near Jechnitz - Woratschen , Petersburg -Jechnitz and others.

Kaolin is a weathering product of Mauthausen granite , which is why a mining company (Kamig) mined Austria's largest kaolin deposit in the area of Allerheiligen ( Kriechbaum ), Perg ( Weinzierl ), Schwertberg and Tragwein in the 20th century.

Early mining, quarries

The use of workpieces made from Mauthausen granite can be traced back to Roman times . They have already been used for the production of masonry but also for artistic handicrafts, as various exhibits in the Lauriacum Museum in Enns show. In contrast, the use of granite was largely avoided in the Middle Ages.

While the extraction and use of granite in the late Middle Ages was still limited to the processing of boulders and the removal of easily accessible layers, from the 15th to 18th centuries its manual use played an increasingly important role.

In the Anna Chapel of Altenburg Affiliated Church of the builders of let Pragstein Castle Ladislaus Prague and his wife in 1510 a Renaissance up -Fireplace granite. There are irregular granite slabs on the floor of the church.

In 1636 three quarries near Mollnegger, Wansch and Mayrhofer were named in the land register of the Windhaag rulership , which provided beautiful granite for stone carving and two quarries near Hintermüller and Hofer zu Altenburg, whose granite was only suitable for building blocks .

When exactly the first quarries in Mauthausen started operating cannot be determined exactly, but there are indications that earlier commercial use appears possible. Until May 6, 1652, according to the old law, every citizen of the market was allowed to break or collect the stones necessary for his "domestic use". This right was taken from them by Abraham Widmer, the administrator of the Mauthausen estate, on May 6, 1652. Old building bills of the St. Florian Monastery show that between the years 1687 and 1715 high amounts were repeatedly paid out to the stonemason Hans Wolfinger zu Langenstein. Thus, by the end of the 17th century, the commercial use of granite in the area in and around Mauthausen was a reality.

The first documented quarry founding in Mauthausen dates back to 1781. The master stonemason Johann Gehmacher opened Heinrichsbruch in 1781 in the east of Mauthausen. This quarry was to develop into the largest quarry in the area around Mauthausen over the next few decades. The Kamptnerbruch began operating towards the end of the 18th century. In the first decades of the 19th century, more and more quarries were built. The Kamptnerbruch in 1828 was followed by the founding of the Bruch on the Bettelberg and the Spitalbruch opposite the Heinrichskirche.

Bavaria

Bohemia

Moravia

Mühlviertel

Gusen

Langenstein

Pillar of the Chain Bridge in Budapest from the Dirnbergerbruch in Langenstein

Mauthausen

The base of the equestrian statue of Josef II is made of Mauthausen granite and comes from the Heinrichsbruch in Mauthausen
  • Farmer
  • Bettelberg: In 1828 this quarry was one of the first to be built in the course of the many foundations at the beginning of the 19th century. This quarry was also owned by the Poschacher family until 1916, but it was leased by a Viennese master paver in 1906 and acquired by the municipality of Vienna 10 years later . The price was 30,000 kroner in cash and a piece of land worth 10,000 kroner. During the Second World War , the quarry, along with the Wienergraben and Marbach quarries and in Gusen Kastenhof and Pierbauer, was leased to or confiscated from the Mauthausen granite works . The granite stone in the Bettelberg was particularly easy to split, but due to its coarse-grained structure, it was not suitable for high loads and special shapes. This granite was mainly used in road construction. Wiener Städtische Granitwerke operated the last active quarry in Mauthausen until 1982.
  • Böck
  • Bohm
  • Augustin Dersch / Leopold Heindl / Turk closed in 1911.
  • Heinrichsbruch : The Heinrichsbruch was opened by Johann Gehmacher in 1781 and later had a width of 300 and a height of 80 meters. Gehmacher took part in a competition in Vienna "To find the best stone for paving the streets of Vienna" and presented sample stones made of Mauthausen granite. He won the advertised 100 ducats and in 1807 supplied stones for the Josef II monument on Josefsplatz near the Vienna Hofburg . Mauthausner Granite became so well known that King Ludwig in Bavaria wanted the gray fine-grain granite from Heinrichsbruch for the Max I monument. It was made from the Bayernwald granite from Hauzenberg. Wolfgang's son Friedrich was able to get the monument to Emperor Franz II / I. deliver another masterpiece in the great Viennese courtyard. The deliveries of "Viennese granite pavement" on a large scale were of economic importance. The stones were transported to Vienna by ship on the Danube.
  • Herndl
  • Holzer
  • Holler
  • Kamptnerbruch (end of the 18th century): With this break, Anton Poschacher (industrialist, 1812) founded the A. Poschacher Granitwerke , which later became the heart of the Mauthausen stone industry .
  • Strasser
  • Hospital break (1828)
  • Wiener Graben (Marbach / Mauthausen (Langestein)), acquired by the Vienna Municipality, later part of the Gusen concentration camp (see also Granitwerke Mauthausen )

Münzbach

  • Mayrhofer
  • Mollnegger
  • Wansch

Perg

Perger granite from the drum mine

In 1883 the Perg granite works employed 284 people in the quarries and buildings listed below (1 civil servant, 17 foremen, 18 stonecutters, 92 cube makers, 67 scrapers, 59 day laborers, 20 blacksmiths, 1 farmhand, 9 apprentices). In 1887, 292 people were employed (83 in the drum mountain quarry, 38 in the Hammerleiten, 36 in Lanzenberg, 44 in the Hörzenberg quarry, on the Aiser in Schwertberg 61, in the stonemason's workshop 22 and in the hammer forge 8). Michael Burgholzer (* 1837, † 1908), Mayor of Perg from 1876 to 1883) was the manager in Perg from the beginning of the 1880s until his death. He was followed for a short time by Johann Ev. Spatzek and then until 1954 Franz Spatzek.

In 1943, 45 (drum mountain and hammer smithy) were initially employed, later only 34. In 1945 the drum mountain, which was temporarily closed, was opened with 20 men. In 1946 35 people were employed, in 1947 52, in 1948 57. Orders from the rest of Upper Austria could not be received because they did not want to order anything in the Soviet occupation zone.

  • Hammerleite (Georg Willnauer, corporation for roads and bridges, Anton Poschacher), closed due to the war on July 31, 1942.
  • Hammerschmiede (Enengl and Erblich, public limited company for roads and bridges, Anton Poschacher), granite works, from 1959/1960 Hammerschmiede power plant of the Poschacher family
  • Lanzenberg (Josefa Herndl, public limited company for road and bridge construction, Anton Poschacher)
  • Drum Mine (Michael Burgholzer, Aktiengesellschaft für Straßen und Brückenbauten, Anton Poschacher), temporarily shut down in 1945, initially ceasing cube production in the 1980s and later ceasing stonemasonry around 1990.

Saint Martin

  • Neuhaus (Neuhauser Granite Stone Union August and Eduard Planck)
  • Maria-Luisenbruch in Plöcking

Schlägl

Schwertberg

  • Josefstal (Carl Berger)
  • Commune break in Windegg (acquired by the Vienna Commune)

Steyregg

  • Pulgarn (2 quarries, mining until 1925)

Waldhausen

  • Gloxwald (several quarries by Leopold Strasser, later Maria and Franz Helbich, later Schöllerbank and Consortium Helbich-Spanlang, closed in 1980)

Windhaag near Perg (Altenburg)

South of the Danube

Enhagen (Enns)

  • Tabor

Economic importance and use

Mauthausner granite can be used in many ways, for example:

The largest workpiece made of Mauthausen granite ever delivered comes from the Perger drum quarry, weighs 57 tons and is 8.4 meters high. It concerns the stone of the republic on the memorial against war and fascism on the Helmut-Zilk-Platz (formerly Albertinaplatz ) in Vienna and contains parts of the government declaration for the establishment of the 2nd republic as well as the names of the men who made it on April 27th Signed in 1945.

Numerous application examples are listed in the main article Mauthausner Steinindustrie .

See also

literature

  • Gerhard Fuchs, Alois Matura: On the geology of the crystalline of the southern Bohemian mass. In: Yearbook of the Federal Geological Institute. Volume 119, Vienna 1976, pp. 1-43. (PDF)
  • Werner Fuchs, Otto Thiele: Explanations for sheet 34 Perg of the geological map of the Republic of Austria 1: 50,000. Owner, editor and publisher: Geologische Bundesanstalt, Vienna 1987. (PDF)
  • E. Jäger, M. Grünenfelder, M. Grögler, Erich Schroll: Mineral age granitic rocks from the Austrian Moldanunic. In: Tschermaks Mineralogisch-Petrolgraphische Mitteilungen. 3rd episode, Vienna 1965, pp. 528-534.
  • EF Maroschek: Contributions to the knowledge of the granite from Mauthausen in Upper Austria. In: Anzeiger Akademischer Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse. 68, Vienna 1931, pp. 94-96.
  • EF Maroschek: Contributions to the knowledge of the granite from Mauthausen in Upper Austria. In: Tschermaks Mineral-Petrologische Mitteilungen. 43rd episode, Vienna 1965, pp. 37–405.
  • W. Richter: Petrological investigations on Mauthausen granite in the Austrian Moldanubic. In: Tschermaks Mineral-Petrologische Mitteilungen. 3rd episode, Vienna 1965, pp. 265–296.
  • Josef Stummer: Granite - building block from Pulgarn to Gloxwald. Manuscript of a lecture given on March 17, 2010 for the Steinbrecherhaus Association in Perg. (PDF) ( Memento from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard Fuchs, Alois Matura: To the geology of the crystalline of the southern Bohemian mass. In: Yearbook of the Federal Geological Institute. Volume 119, Vienna 1976, p. 19f.
  2. ↑ a b Werner Fuchs, Otto Thiele: Explanations on sheet 34 Perg of the Geological Map of the Republic of Austria 1: 50,000. Owner, editor and publisher: Geologische Bundesanstalt, Vienna 1987, p. 11ff.
  3. ↑ Stefan Fuchs: The infrastructure system of the Waldviertel - connection of a peripheral natural landscape. Thesis . Pöggstall 2010. (PDF)
  4. ↑ Percentages according to W. Richter, 1965.
  5. ^ Alois Kieslinger: Geology for building construction and plastic . Vienna (Österreichischer Gewerbeverlag) 1951, p. 38.
  6. ^ W. Richter: Petrological investigations on Mauthausen granite in the Austrian Moldanunic. In: Tschermaks Mineralogische und Petrographische Mitteilungen. 3rd episode, Vienna 1965, pp. 265–296.
  7. ↑ Alois Kieslinger: The stones of the Vienna Ringstrasse . Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1972, pp. 59-60.
  8. ↑ August Hanisch, Heinrich Schmid: Austria's stone quarries . Carl Graeser, Vienna 1901.
  9. ↑ Christoph Gaßner: The development of the stone industry in the Mühlviertel. Linz 1998.
  10. ↑ Georg Grüll : History of the castle and the rule Windhaag. In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Society for regional studies, year 87, Linz 1937, p. 229 and 263 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  11. ↑ Mauthausen homeland book. P. 80.
  12. ↑ Christoph Gaßner: The development of the stone industry in the Mühlviertel. Linz 1998, p. 18.
  13. ↑ Mauthausen homeland book. P. 79 and Gaßner, 1998, p. 19.
  14. ↑ Mauthausen homeland book. P. 82.
  15. ^ Quarry "Wiener Graben" , ( Memento from April 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) mauthausen-memorial.at.
  16. ^ Josef Stummer: Granite - building block from Pulgarn to Gloxwald. Manuscript of a lecture given on March 17, 2010 for the Steinbrecherhaus Association in Perg, p. 5.