Rheingold (floating dredger)

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The Rheingold was a gold dredger ( floating dredger ) with which gold was extracted from the Rhine from 1939 to 1943 on behalf of the National Socialist Reich government .

Gold extraction from the Rhine

The Celts and Romans already found gold in the Rhine . Up until the 19th century, gold panning was a widespread secondary occupation of farmers, fishermen and craftsmen, especially on the Upper Rhine . Between 1748 and 1874, around 366 kilograms of the precious metal were collected at the official collection points of the state of Baden .

The collectors, the so-called "golds", were obliged to hand over their finds. Since their gold was paid far below its value, there was also a black market. The total funding in Baden is estimated to be at least three times as much for the period mentioned.

River straightening and the California gold rush led to the decline of the industry in the 19th century.

The “Rheingold” project and the dredger

In 1936, the Reich Ministry of Economics decided to have the gold deposits on the Upper Rhine systematically investigated in order to create jobs and in the hope of being able to increase the Reich's foreign exchange holdings. The “Rheingold” project launched by the Society for Practical Deposit Research (PRAKLA), which was newly founded in 1937, began with 1,053 test drillings and 1,372 washing tests. For further investigation of the promising results on the Altrheinarm near Steinmauern and Elchesheim-Illingen , the floating dredger Rheingold was built in 1938 on behalf of PRAKLA at Schiffs- und Maschinenbau AG Mannheim based on the model of large gold dredgers, as they were at that time in other parts of the world . At that time the largest device of its kind in Europe, from 1939 on it extracted 120 cubic meters of gravel every hour and created the so-called gold channel . The investigation should be funded from the combined gravel and gold proceeds. In a good four years, however, only 300 grams of gold were extracted, only a tenth of what would have been necessary for economic gold extraction in the long term. This was therefore ended in June 1943, and the excavator subsequently only carried gravel.

Reichsmarschall Göring allegedly had a "Nibelung ring" weighing 30 grams made from the gold. Its whereabouts are unknown, as is that of the rest of the gold.

See also

Web links

literature

  • Gustav Albiez: New investigations into the occurrence of Rheingold. In: Reports of the Natural Research Society of Freiburg i. Br. 41 (1951), No. 2, pp. 179-204