Saar mines
The Saarbergwerke AG (short: Saarnberg ) was a mining company based in Saarbrücken . In addition to the hard coal mining in the Saar area , Saarberg also operated the further processing of the extracted coal by maintaining power plants and coking plants. Today the company belongs to Deutsche Steinkohle AG (DSK) as RAG Saarberg GmbH . Until 1998 it was one of the most important German companies that belonged to the “Industrial Federal Assets”. Their seat was Saarbrücken.
Around 3,200 employees in the Saar mine and the Saarbrücken regional location (workforce, location and geospatial services and commercial services) including the Hirschbach central workshop in Sulzbach generated sales of around EUR 300 million in 2008. The roughly 1,700 employees who worked directly in the Saar mine produced around 1.35 million tons of hard coal in 2010. Coal production in the Saar district ended on June 30, 2012.
precursor
The planned coal production on the Saar began in 1751 on the initiative of Prince Wilhelm Heinrich von Nassau-Saarbrücken . From the beginning, Saar mining was under state control, which set it apart from mining in other regions. In 1769 a forerunner of a miners' fund was introduced. In 1790 around 50,000 tons of hard coal were mined by 270 miners each year. Under French rule (1793–1814), the coal deposits were first mapped.
In 1816 the Prussian state took over the mines. By 1850, 600,000 tons per year were being mined, in 1869 3.44 million tons. From a technical point of view, the Saar coal mines often played a pioneering role. B. Europe-wide in 1862, when ropes were first introduced at the Von der Heydt colliery . From 1920 the coal mines were administered by the French state. The repurchase of the mines by the German state was agreed in the Rome Agreement (1934). During the Second World War, numerous Russian slave laborers and Italian military internees were used in the mines.
In July 1945, the American authorities returned the pits to the French mine administration. In 1948 the Régie des Mines de la Sarre followed as the successor to the liquidated Saargruben AG . In 1949, 16.3 million tons of coal were mined by 65,000 miners. The Saar state was not financially involved in the income from coal mining, which led to increasing resistance.
history
After the Treaty of Luxembourg (Saar Treaty) had been signed in 1956 , Saarbergwerke AG was founded in September 1957. The main shareholder became the Federal Republic of Germany (74% of the shares), the Saarland owned the remaining part. As early as the end of the 1950s, the coal crisis led to rationalization measures, which affected both the organization in the company and overall coal production . New business areas were also sought ( diversification ). Trading in petroleum products in particular was a flourishing business. To this end, a refinery was built in Klarenthal in Saarbrücken - in cooperation with the French partners. The Saarland refinery went into operation in 1967. But as early as the beginning of the 1970s, the production of petrochemical products was given up again due to the rapid rise in the price of crude oil products. In addition, Saarbergwerke AG u. a. since 1963 at Saar-Gummiwerk GmbH in Büschfeld, since 1964 in the tool division at Dowidat-Werke Saar GmbH , since 1966 at DEMINEX (Deutsche Mineralöl-Explorationsgesellschaft mbH), acquired the majority of the shares in Erdölwerke Frisia AG in Emden and in 1965 founded Petrocarbona GmbH in Bexbach in 1963 , which produced and sold synthetic foam products.
The coal mines of the Saarbergwerke were gradually merged into larger mines, so-called composite mines, or closed. This is how the Göttelborn-Reden, Warndt-Luisenthal and Ensdorf composite mines came into being. The penultimate mine, the Göttelborn - Reden joint mine , was closed on September 1, 2000, and the Warndt-Luisenthal and Ensdorf joint mines were merged to form the Saar mine . On June 17, 2005, hard coal mining was stopped at the Warndt / Luisenthal locations. Since then, coal has only been mined at the Ensdorf site of the Saar mine. Funding on the Saar ended on June 30, 2012.
Key figures
| 1957 | 1975 | 2006 | 2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total output million t | 16.3 | 9.0 | 3.7 | 1.4 |
| Number of conveyor systems | 18th | 6th | 1 | 1 |
| Number of shafts | 97 | 52 | 4th | 4th |
| Workforce | 58290 | 16980 | 3908 | 3200 |
| of which underground | 40630 | 10950 | 1680 |
Saarland mining operations
- Saar mine, Ensdorf - the last mine in Saarland, which was in operation until June 30, 2012
- Camphausen - the former mining site with adjacent settlement areas
- Dudweiler - the "Burning Mountain" and the former Hirschbach mine (later the central workshop and occupational medicine center of the Saar regional administration of RAG-Deutsche Steinkohle)
- Frankenholz - formerly a royal Bavarian mine
- Göttelborn - from a former mine to a future location
- Heinitz and Dechen - two former large mines in the Neunkirchen area
- Hunters' joy - former pit and mining environment
- König - former mine in Neunkirchen; the headframe is still standing
- Kohlwald - between Schiffweiler and Wiebelskirchen
- Landsweiler-Reden - today's dewatering of the RAG DSK on the Saar with a daily water pumping of approx. 35,000 m³ of water from 886 m depth
- Luisenthal - pit and mining environment
- Maybach - former mine and listed miners' settlement
- Neunkirchen - Bauershaus - the former Reden-Gegenort mine (Gegenort mine)
- Nordfeld - historical hiking trail to the remains of the mine - the easternmost and formerly royal Bavarian coal plant in Saarland
- Rischbach - former royal Bavarian mine, today visitors' mine
- Velsen - mine site and mining environment in the Rosseltal
- Viktoria - Pit and other evidence of mining
- Von der Heydt - former mine and listed miners' settlement
- Warns
Company headquarters / head office
For many years, Saarberg was the seat of the Saarbrücken Mining Directorate, which was built from 1877 to 1880 according to plans by architects Martin Gropius and Heino Schmieden in the neo-renaissance style , before moving into the nearby administration building, popularly known as the "Blauer Bock", in the 1970s has been
Further operations of the Saarbergwerke
In addition to coal mining, the Saarbergwerke also got involved in the continued use of the Saar coal. Three large power plants, some with several power plant blocks, were operated: Fenne in Völklingen, Weiher in Quiigart and Bexbach power plant in Bexbach. Some of these power plants had direct delivery connections (conveyor belts) to the neighboring coal mines, so that the supply was possible without costly transport. These power plants are now part of Steag . The Fürstenhausen coking plant in the Fürstenhausen district of Völklingen, which also belongs to the Saar mines, was supplied with coal from the Luisenthal mine by means of a conveyor belt running in a tunnel under the Saar.
literature
- Saarbrücken miners calendar
- Saarbergwerke AG (ed.): 25 years of Saarbergwerke Aktiengesellschaft 1957–1982. Saarbrücken 1982.
- Delf Slotta: The Saarland coal mining industry . Publisher: RAG Aktiengesellschaft (Herne) and Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland e. V. (Schiffweiler), Verlag Krüger, Dillingen / Saar 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-035206-5 .
- Gregor Zewe: Saar mining. A journey through time in pictures . Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2019, ISBN 978-3-95400-855-1 .
Web links
- Mining on the Saar . rag-deutsche-steinkohle.de, accessed on September 1, 2011
- Regional location Saarbrücken of RAG Deutsche Steinkohle. rag-deutsche-steinkohle.de, accessed on September 1, 2011
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans-Christoph Seidel: Polish forced laborers in the Ruhr and Saar mines during the Second World War, in East-West Dialogue - Dialogue Wschodu i Zachodu: Polish Week - Tydzień polski. Saarbrücken 2015 full text , pp. 95–112, also as print
- ↑ Arbeitskammer.de (PDF) Employees , magazine of the Saar Chamber of Labor, special issue Der Bergbau an der Saar 2012
- ^ The Saarbergwerke administration. In: Modere Regional. July 25, 2016, accessed January 7, 2020 .