Bad Rappenau salt works
The saltworks in Bad Rappenau was a saltworks founded in the 1820s , in which salt and brine were extracted until 1973 . The brine baths used for healing purposes established today's Rappenau spa and the town's spa title . The former saltworks area is now part of the spa park, brine is still extracted for healing purposes. The Bad Rappenau local history museum in the “Forum Fränkischer Hof” cultural center focuses on the history of the spa and salt works.
history
Development of salt production near Bad Rappenau
In Bad Rappenau, salt lies at a depth of between 165 and 210 meters in the shell limestone between 40 and 290 meters deep , which is covered by a 30-meter thick layer of keuper and a few meters of loess . In the Neckar Valley between Heilbronn and Mosbach there have always been salt springs emerging freely on the surface and salty swamp areas, which may have established the settlement there and, according to some soil finds, were also used there in prehistoric times for boiling salt. Modern salt production in that Neckar region begins with the establishment of the boiling plants in Offenau in 1756, in Wimpfen in 1763 and in Mosbach in 1764.
In today's Rappenau district of Heinsheim , salt water leaked freely, but the Teutonic Order , which operated the salt works in Offenau, could not come to an agreement with the barons of Racknitz as Heinsheim landlords about the construction and operation of a salt works in Heinsheim. The Racknitz received compensation payments from the order until 1794 in order not to build a saltworks in Offenau that would compete with the Teutonic Order saltworks on the other bank of the Neckar.
After the already existing boiling operations had only extracted salt from brine emerging from the surface, Bergrat Bilfinger found an underground salt store in Jagstfeld in 1816 while drilling at a depth of 150 meters. In 1818 the Wimpfen salt warehouse was discovered at a depth of 134 meters, and in 1820 the Offenau salt warehouse was discovered at a depth of 140 meters. The salt discoveries were followed by the construction of new salt works. The founding of several salt pans is related to the fact that territorial upheavals had occurred in southwest Germany at the beginning of the 19th century and the states of Württemberg , Baden and Hesse bordered one another in the area around Rappenau and all of these states had their own interest in salt production. Württemberg won salt in Jagstfeld and Offenau, and Hesse in Wimpfen. Only Baden remained unsuccessful for the time being with test drillings on the Neckar from 1818 at Heinsheim, Neckarmühlbach , Haßmersheim and a few other places.
The salt store was found in 1822, the salt works founded
In February 1821, the Dürkheim saltworks director Georg Christian Heinrich Rosentritt applied for a license to test drillings in the Rappenau district. After this was approved in November 1821, successful drilling was finally carried out in 1822 to a depth of 191.60 meters. In March 1823, together with Friedrich Arnold and the head of the Baden Ministry of Finance, Rosentritt wrote a memorandum on the conditions under which the delivery of 80,000 quintals of table salt from the Rappenau salt works by the end of the year. J. , which convinced the Baden government in April 1823 to take over the well. Rosentritt received the office of saltworks administrator. On May 4, 1823, the saltworks was named Ludwigssaline after Grand Duke Ludwig I (Baden) . In the same year a second borehole was drilled to a depth of 183.40 meters, the foundation stone for a saltworks was laid on the saltworks hill, which was then still known as the Schwärzberg, and a first test soil was carried out in August. The first buildings in the salt works were only provisional.
A significant expansion was carried out up to 1826 with expenditures totaling 1 million guilders : three more boreholes were drilled to a depth of 214.55 meters. Each borehole was kept free of mud and rock by a drilling team of up to 15 men using treadmills .
The brine was pumped by a low-pressure steam engine through wooden dyke lines to three boiling houses with five pans each . A 25 meter high pump house was built for this pump , additional fresh water was brought in from the Rappenauer Schlosssee by horse and cart .
Development of the saltworks
In 1826 the salt works reached an annual production of 120,000 quintals of salt. For the handling of the salt, a port called Lauer and a salt store were built on the Neckar near Heinsheim , and the salt route from Heinsheim via Rappenau and Kirchardt to Richen was expanded. Around 20 buildings had been built in the salt works by 1830: in addition to the boilers and warehouses, there were also administrative and residential buildings, which were built in the classicism style by Friedrich Arnold , a nephew and student of Friedrich Weinbrenner's . In the housing estate for the saltworkers there was also a private school for the workers' children until 1837.
From 1828 to 1936 , the Ludwigssaline, together with the Clemenshall ( Offenau ), Ludwigshall ( Bad Wimpfen ) and Friedrichshall ( Jagstfeld ) salt works, formed the Neckarsalinenverein salt sales cartel , the oldest and longest effective German business cartel , to protect against their respective competitors .
In the 1830s, the operation of the steam engine became uneconomical, so that it was shut down in 1832 and the pumps operated by hand in the future. Two teams of 40 men each operated the pumps in 12-hour shifts around the clock. By doubling the borehole diameter of boreholes 4 and 5, the brine production could be doubled. In 1838, hole 2 collapsed. A freshwater well about 35 meters deep was built in its place.
In 1837, based on a model exhibited in the Municipal Museum Forum in the Franconian Court , based on the example of Dutch sawmills and grain mills, a wind pump was used to transport brine , and in 1839 a new steam engine house was built.
The saltworks established a strong upswing in Rappenau, as it offered jobs for day laborers and agricultural farm workers, attracted foreign workers and several doctors and a pharmacist settled in Rappenau. In the 1830s, the brine was also used for therapeutic purposes , which is where the city's current importance as a spa goes back. In 1835 Rosentritt handed over the administration to Franz von Chrismar , in the following year he became an honorary citizen of Rappenau.
In 1846 the boiling houses were modernized, which reduced heating costs and created 1,000 square meters more boiling area. A nearly 29 meter high chimney announced the new heating technology. The annual production was 150,000 quintals. The energy demand was covered with wood and hard coal. For the production of around 152,500 quintals of salt in 1847, almost 80,000 quintals of hard coal and 600 fathoms of wood were required in the three boiling houses , the operation of the steam engine required another 8,000 quintals of hard coal and twelve fathoms of wood.
In the 1850s there were occasional considerations to build a salt mine in Rappenau, but these were not realized. Plans from the same period to relocate the saltworks to Heinsheim on the Neckar also failed, which would have saved the expensive transport costs from the saltworks to the landing stage, which meant a cost disadvantage for the Rappenau saltworks compared to the other Neckar saltworks nearby. The Rappenauer Ludwigssaline formed the Neckar Saltworks Association with the Ludwigshalle saltworks in Bad Wimpfen , the Clemenshall saltworks in Offenau and the Friedrichshall saltworks in Jagstfeld , which formed the first international cartel through price agreements with French saltworks in 1867 .
After the salt monopoly was lifted at the instigation of the German Customs Association in 1868, the production volume in Rappenau initially fell. The connection to the rail network from 1868, the exemption from trade and income tax, and the renewal of the simmering pans created further operational advantages, so that in 1869 an annual production of 200,000 quintals was achieved, which rose to 300,000 quintals (15,000 tons) by 1872. In the following years the boiling area was increased again and a seventh borehole was drilled, but the opening of the Heilbronn salt mine in 1885 led to a temporary decline in production due to the competitive situation, and in 1889 a boiling house and a salt store fell victim to a major fire.
In 1894, the saltworks acquired a piece of land with several springs west of Rappenau to meet its freshwater needs. The construction of a pumping station and an elevated tank created the basis for the drinking water supply of some of today's Rappenau districts. At the same time, a sewage treatment plant was built in the Mühlbachtal , where the highly salty wastewater from the saline was cleaned. In 1895 a high-pressure steam engine was procured for the salt works, which from 1896 also supplied electricity for pumps, salt mills, salt elevators and lighting.
Connection to the railway network
The first plans for connection to the transport network in 1863 included the plan to build a road to Waibstadt , where a station for the Schwarzbachtalbahn was located. The opening of that railway was delayed, however, so that the road construction plans became superfluous when the western fork railway from Meckesheim via Sinsheim and Rappenau to Jagstfeld , which began in 1868, was given a 1.2 km long branch line especially for the saltworks on April 5, 1869. Coming from the Rappenau train station, the route led along the large salt store to three storage and shunting tracks in front of the large store building. Via cross tracks and a total of three turntables, the wagons could be brought to three further tracks along the two boiling houses I and II or to boiling houses A and B of the magazine that were perpendicular to the branch. Maneuvering work within the salt works was initially done with a team of horses or oxen, from 1926 with electric carts. The railway remained for over 100 years, from its establishment in 1869 until the end of the salt works in 1973, the most important means of transport of the salt works, while the old salt road to Eppingen as well as the salt transport on the Neckar lost all meaning for the salt works.
The saltworks in the 20th century
By 1900 an annual production of around 20,000 tons of salt had been reached. A fifth boiling house was built for fine salt production, later expanded to include bathing facilities. In 1905 a mobile drilling rig was erected, and in 1909 a 2000 cubic meter high brine reservoir was put into operation at Einsiedelwald.
The shortage of skilled workers during the First World War caused production to halve. The pre-war production was not reached again until 1928, after the merger with the saltworks in Dürrheim to form the United Badische Staatssalinen Dürrheim und Rappenau AG and with various improvements in operational processes and modernization of boiling houses, drilling rigs and drilling houses.
In 1930 the recycling of raw materials was started with the return of the mother liquor to the brine reservoir . At that time the saltworks was considered to be the most modern saltworks in Europe, and Rappenau received the title of Bad as a recognized health resort. In 1934, the German Salt Association set the sales volume for the salt pans in Rappenau and Dürrheim at 3.16927 percent of total German salt production. In 1935 the boiling plants were modernized again. Of the old boiling houses, only House 5, built in 1900, was still in operation, the majority of the boiling works in the future was largely mechanized in the new boiling houses A and B, between which the 70-meter-long central magazine was located.
The saltworks survived the Second World War almost unscathed. Due to a lack of raw materials and inadequate transport conditions, production fell to around 10,000 tons per year, although the tenth and eleventh boreholes were sunk in 1941 and 1943. From 1944 onwards, 50 prisoners of war and German prisoners were employed in salt production, who were deported to Dachau via the Neckarelz concentration camp at the end of March 1945 after the saltworks were closed. On April 2, 1945, the saltworks was occupied by American troops. After the resumption of operations in September 1946, only a small amount of salt could initially be produced due to a lack of coal, but the raw material situation soon improved again.
In the 1950s, a sun salt plant was in operation, which produced around 3 tons of salt every day in sunshine and was also available to spa guests with chronic respiratory diseases. However, the plant was sold to Morocco in the 1960s. In 1957 the coal-firing of the boiling houses, which in future would be heated with heavy oil, ended. In 1962, 22,000 tons of salt were produced, with a daily capacity of 60 tons, the capacity limit of the saline was reached.
In 1965 the salt works in Dürrheim, Rappenau, Friedrichshall and Rottweil were combined with the salt mine in Kochendorf to form Südwestdeutsche Salz AG , which in 1971 merged with the Heilbronn saltworks to form Südwestdeutsche Salzwerke AG . Their salt production with vacuum evaporation in Kochendorf was the most economical, so it was decided to close the pan salt pans in Bad Dürrheim and Bad Rappenau in December 1971. On March 31, 1972, production in Rappenau was stopped for the time being. However, as there was still a need for salt with a special grain size that could only be produced in Rappenau, production was continued for another five months from autumn 1972 to February 28, 1973 before operations finally ended.
Spa business since the 19th century
The state of Baden, as the owner of the salt works, had no interest in using the Rappenau brine for spa purposes. Therefore, at the instigation of a doctor and a pharmacist, a public limited company was founded in 1833, which from 1833 operated the Sophienbad in the saltworks area , which was named after its patron, Grand Duchess Sophie von Baden . The bathing business was initially stopped again in 1837, but from 1845 it developed extremely favorably. The capacity was increased from initially ten bathing cabins in 1873 to 23 and later expanded to include a steam bath and brine inhalations. At the brine bath there was a bath hotel built in 1827, other spa accommodations like the Landhaus Reichert quickly followed. Another spa facility followed in 1887 with the Siloah children's sanatorium .
Towards the end of the 19th century, the community took care of the bathing system and built a new bathing building that met the hygiene requirements of the time, which was inaugurated as the Sophie-Luisen-Bad in 1903 . In memory of the spa , one of today's spa clinics in Bad Rappenau was given the name Sophie-Luisen-Klinik. In 1905 the community acquired the former state-Baden saltworks hotel with various farm buildings. In 1912 the Vulpius Clinic was established in Rappenau , which also made use of the healing properties of the Rappenau brine. In 1919 the children's pool was built with funds from the Robert Bosch Foundation. In the Baden state parliament, the representatives Neuwirth and Sidler were committed to the interests of the Rappenau saltwater pool. The spa operation meant that Rappenau was given the name Bad Rappenau in 1930 . In 1935 a brine swimming pool was inaugurated.
The Second World War severely affected the spa system in Bad Rappenau. In the post-war period, the financial resources required to modernize the aging spa facilities were initially lacking, so that only minor extensions were made until 1960: the communal Sophie-Luisen-Bad was expanded in 1953, and the Bad Rappenau moated castle was expanded into a sanatorium in 1956/57 In 1959 the spa area was expanded to include an inhalatorium. In 1961 the Stuttgart architects Rudolf and Ingeborg Geier created a memorandum on the overall planning of the spa area. The first significant new buildings after the Second World War were the Schwärzberg Sanatorium in 1964 and the Kurmittelhaus and the brine indoor swimming pool in 1966. In 1972 the construction of the spa house began, at the same time a large-scale redesign of the spa park began, which could be significantly enlarged after the acquisition of the neighboring property of the former machine factory Botsch .
The former saltworks since 1974 as part of the spa park
As early as 1974, most of the salt works, including the sun salt system, the approximately 70-meter-long central store, the large boiling houses and the elevated tank on the western edge of the Einsiedelwald were demolished. The remaining administrative and residential buildings were added to the spa. Today the former Saline terrain forms the Saline Garden said part of the suite Rappenauer spa park, which for the State Garden Show was extensively modernized of 2008. Buildings that go back to the saltworks include the saltworks office building with the characteristic bell tower as well as the former cashier's house and the former apartment of the saltworks mechanic on its sides, two officers' houses, a transformer station and various pump houses in Hohenstadter Grund with a memorial for the fallen saltworkers from 1914 to 1918, a historical mobile derrick and a treadmill (so-called saline cow ) from the beginnings of brine extraction.
The Rappenau brine is also pumped and used after boiling has ended. In 1986 the city of Bad Rappenau received the concession to extract brine for the growing spa business. In addition to two well-preserved old boreholes, a third borehole was drilled. In March 2008, the city announced a 200 meter deep new borehole. A graduation tower was also built for the state horticultural show .
literature
- Gustav Neuwirth: History of the City of Bad Rappenau . City of Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau 1978
- Michael Konnerth: The Rappenauer Saline and its history . City of Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau 1990
- Almut and Hubert Friedrich: The historic drill house magazine . In: Bad Rappenauer Heimatbote No. 19, Bad Rappenau 2008
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Museum Bad Rappenau , badrappenau.de , December 3, 2017
- ^ Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: Railways between Neckar, Tauber and Main . tape 1 : Historical development and railway construction . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2001, ISBN 3-88255-766-4 .
Coordinates: 49 ° 14 ′ 20 ″ N , 9 ° 7 ′ 0 ″ E