Rombacher Hut

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The former administration building of the Westphalian steelworks

Rombacher Hütte is the popular name of an old industrial site in the Bochum district of Weitmar and the iron and steel works that used to produce on this site , which was built by Westfälische Stahlwerke AG from 1889 and later belonged to the Bochumer Verein as the "Weitmar factory" .

history

Ascent

The Westphalian steel plants AG was founded in 1889 by Heinrich Koehler established the 15 years as general manager (the company CEO initiated) - popularly the work, therefore, "Kohler's factory" was called. Heinrich Köhler had previously headed the Bessemerwerk of the Bochumer Verein under Jacob Mayer and had also participated in the establishment of the company Neues Stahlwerk Daelen, Schreiber & Co. in 1870 , which later became the BV's "Werk Stahlindustrie". The plant prospered up to 1900, so that finally 1700 people were employed and, in addition to its own Siemens-Martin steelworks with 5 furnaces from 20 to 80 t operating weight, several rolling mills and mechanical plants were set up, which mainly produced railway material. In particular, the construction of turnouts and complete wheelsets was a specialty of the plant, but steel castings up to 50 t were also produced.

Changing times

View of the Westfälische Stahlwerke AG around 1910

After 1900 the company had financially taken over by buying the Marienhütte in Siegen-Eiserfeld as well as some Siegerland iron stone mines and extensions in the Bochum plant: the expansion program decided in 1905 alone required the commissioning of the new Siemens-Martin steelworks with five furnaces and the new rail Rolling mill in the course of 1907 building costs of 10.5 million marks instead of the 7 million marks financed in advance by credit and capital increase .

Cross-section of the Siemens-Martin steelworks completed in 1908

The new Martin steelworks finally went into operation in January 1908. The 40 / 50t SM furnaces were prepared for liquid use, as further plans existed for the construction of a nearby own blast furnace facility. The Westfälische Stahlwerke AG was taken over by the Upper Silesian Bismarckhütte AG during the First World War due to its capital problems . Friedrich Flick , the main shareholder of Bismarckhütte AG , incorporated the Bochum plant into his company as "Westfalenstahlwerk", but in 1921 it was sold to Rombacher Hüttenwerke AG.

However, since Rombacher Hüttenwerke AG found itself in financial difficulties in mid-1925 and was actually managed by a bank consortium, negotiations were started at the end of 1925 to take over Westfälische Stahlwerke AG by the Bochumer Verein .

Bochum Association and Krupp

Cast lid from the Weitmar factory

With the incorporation of the BV into the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, the Westfälische Stahlwerke AG with its meanwhile seven SM furnaces, rolling mills and wheel tire rolling mills was finally sold by the banks to Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG in 1926. The plant already had a rail connection to the route of the former Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft near the current S-Bahn station Bochum-Ehrenfeld, as well as to the coal collecting railway Hasenwinkeler Kohlenweg in Weitmar via the connection of the former Zeche General , in 1926 the Weitmarer plant became beyond a new rail connection to the Höntrop steelworks and thus also to the Alleestraße plant. The SM furnaces were shut down by the United Steel Works in 1928 due to the existing overcapacity. When the Bochumer Verein became independent on January 1, 1934, “Köhler's Factory” was incorporated into the BV as “Werk Weitmar”. From 1935 onwards, due to the armaments projects of the Third Reich, in particular the order to produce heavy armored domes for the Siegfried Line, the plant was gradually modernized and put back into operation: In 1935 three of the SM ovens were restarted as "Stahlwerk IV" of the BV, the rest four ovens demolished by 1938 and replaced by three remote gas-fired ovens with a capacity of 70 t each. The casting hall was also enlarged and equipped with new crane systems, and the 850 rail rolling mill was modernized.

In 1965 Fried. Krupp Hüttenwerke AG founded the Bochum association with the "Weitmar plant". Steelworks 4 was shut down as early as 1968, followed by the entire plant in 1969/70.

present

The city of Bochum bought the entire site from Krupp in December 1980 with financial support from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia - it was the first industrial area that the city acquired itself in order to set up new businesses. The conversion of the now heavily overgrown site into an industrial area was accompanied by protests from the residents, who feared new nuisances after decades of dust exposure from the old plant. The administration building of the iron and steel works on Kohlenstraße, built in 1896, was renovated from 1984 to 1985 by the Bochum architect Kurt Peter Kremer and has since been used as the “Bochum Engineering Center”; it is now a listed building . The iron and steel works site itself is now an industrial park , u. a. is the headquarters of ThyssenKrupp Automotive Systems . A large discotheque also settled there, known for a long time beyond the city limits under the name Tarm Center . Only small remains of the extensive factories of the ironworks have survived; It was not until 2008 that a converted machine hall from the time before 1914 on the Kohlenstrasse was demolished to make way for the expansion of a commercial enterprise.

Since March 2014 the location has also been listed in the Route of Industrial Culture , themed route Bochum .

swell

  • OV .: “Köhler's factory in Weitmar” - today “Werk Weitmar of the Bochumer Verein” - looking back over fifty years. In: Westfälische Landeszeitung from February 10, 1939 (Bochum city archive, signature ZA IX A1)
  • N / A: Westfälische Stahlwerke Bochum. Self-published, produced by Willi Roerts, Hanover 1910.
  • Alfred Reckendrees: The “Stahltrust” project. The foundation of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG and its corporate development 1926–1933 / 34. Verlag CH Beck , Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-45819-X , p. 247f. on-line
  • Newspaper article collection "Mining Industry" in the Bochum city archive, signature ZA IX A1
  • Gustav-Herman Seebold: A steel company in the Third Reich - Der Bochumer Verein 1927–1945 , Peter Hammer Verlag Wuppertal, 1981, ISBN 3-87294-175-5 , in particular p. 122

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report of the Board of Directors on the 1906/1907 financial year in: Stahl und Eisen , Volume 27, 1907, No. 36 (from September 4, 1907), p. 1307.
  2. ^ O. V. Rundschau: "The Martinwerk der Westfälische Stahlwerke in Bochum", magazine of the Association of German Engineers, Volume 52, No. 19, May 9, 1908 p. 763f.
  3. ^ Collection of newspaper articles in the Bochum city archive
  4. ^ Collection of newspaper articles in the Bochum city archive

Coordinates: 51 ° 27 '53.4 "  N , 7 ° 11' 38.9"  E