Saline Wilhelmshall
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In the Wilhelmshall salt works on the upper Neckar , brine was extracted and evaporated salt extracted from 1824 . The salt works near Schwenningen , named after King Wilhelm I of Württemberg , were shut down in 1865; the salt works near Rottweil remained in operation until 1969.
history
At the beginning of the 19th century, the kingdom of Württemberg had the brine springs at Sulz am Neckar , Schwäbisch Hall , Offenau and Niedernhall available for salt extraction . The yield was insufficient to supply the population. An attempt was made to develop new salt deposits, which were suspected to be deep under the Kocher Valley , by drilling . In 1815 a deep borehole at Jagstfeld was successful, from which the Friedrichshall salt works emerged from 1817 .
Salt deposits on the upper Neckar were also known for a long time and were used in the Sulz saltworks. That is why one suspected rock salt deposits in the depths here too . In addition to the independence of salt imports, the prospect of lucrative exports to nearby Switzerland attracted .
Saline Wilhelmshall near Schwenningen
After a deep drilling in Dürrheim in Baden was successful in February 1822, the search for the coveted salt began a few months later in the vicinity of Schwenningen in Württemberg . The first well near Mühlhausen did not find anything. The second well near Schwenninger Moos , directly on the border with Baden , encountered a salt deposit on July 26, 1823 at a depth of 162 m. A total of seven wells were carried out between 1822 and 1825, four of which were developed for salt deposits. The remaining drilling attempts were abandoned because they encountered underground cavities or did not reach salt. A final deep drilling took place in 1836 to increase production and ensure brine production while cleaning and repairing other wells.
| Borehole | Drilling work | location | height | Depth of the salt store | Mightiness | Depth of hole |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apr. 1822 - Feb. 1823 | Messnerbühl | 691 m above sea level NN | 186 m | ||
| 2 | Oct. 1822 - Sep. 1823 | Front drilling house | 712.5 m above sea level NN | 162.4 m | > 10.6 m | 173 m |
| 3 | May 1823 - March 1824 | Rear drill house | 710 m above sea level NN | 153 m | > 14.3 m | 167.3 m |
| 4th | Fall 1823 | Rear drill house | 710 m above sea level NN | 45 m | ||
| 5 | March 1824 - April 1825 | Front drilling house | 712.5 m above sea level NN | 163.1 m | > 14.3 m | 177.4 m |
| 6th | from May 1824 | Kuhbühl | 705 m above sea level NN | 144.1 m | 4 m | 159.8 m |
| 7th | June 1824 - July 1825 | Salinenhof | 709 m above sea level NN | 127.5 m | ||
| 8th | 1836-1837 | Rear drill house | 710 m above sea level NN | 152 m | 16.4 m | 171.3 m |
The drilling was done by hand with auger bits , chisels and drill bits attached to wooden drill rods. Casing pipes prevented rocks from falling. A piston pump was installed for brine pumping , from which a suction pipe led to the salt store.
No hydropower was available on the high Schwenninger Moos . The brine therefore first had to be pumped up by hand, later horse pegs were used as a drive. A wind turbine was temporarily erected at borehole 3, but it did not prove itself and was later also replaced by horse power.
The first Siedhaus was built at borehole 2 in the Hilben district. It was designed for the production of 1000 tons of salt per year. The Siedhütte, which went into operation on January 5, 1824, was intended as a temporary measure until the salt works near Schwenningen were completed. This enabled the Württemberg government to fulfill the salt supply contracts concluded with Switzerland at the end of 1823, which had anticipated the Baden neighbors.
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The new saltworks near Schwenningen started operation in the autumn of 1824 after less than a year of construction. It comprised two brine tanks, four boilers, a salt store, workshops and apartments. The system was later expanded to include a further brine tank and a booth house. A nearly 2.9 km long dike line with a 15 m gradient led from the brine wells in Hilben to the brine tanks of the salt works. From there the brine got into the heating and boiling pans of the boil houses. The precipitated salt was drawn off every 8 to 18 hours and dried and packaged in drying rooms.
Large amounts of fuel were required to fire the boiling pans . Wood was scarce and expensive, and one was dependent on suppliers from the Baden region. That is why peat from the Schwenninger Moos was soon used as fuel. Three large peat storerooms were built for storage. Over the entire operating time, one third of the fuel requirements were met from wood and two thirds from peat.
The Schwenningen saltworks employed 30 to 50 workers. In addition, there were orders from craftsmen, carters, wood cutters and peat cutters in the area. In Schwenningen, which was not very industrialized at the time, the operation of the saltworks was an important economic factor.
Production rose to over 5000 t per year by the middle of the 19th century, the majority of which was delivered to Switzerland. The best operating result was achieved in 1839/1840 with 6659 t. In total, around 160,000 t of table and cattle salt were produced in 42 years of operation . From 1850, sales fell because Switzerland had meanwhile developed its own salt deposits. Further competition arose with the Stetten salt works near Haigerloch and the expansion of the Dürrheim salt works. In December 1865 the saltworks near Schwenningen was shut down.
Saline Wilhelmshall near Rottenmünster
In February 1824, drilling began at two locations south of Rottweil. While the first borehole at Rottenmünster Abbey only developed a small amount of salt, the second borehole in Primtal found a rock salt deposit almost 10 meters thick at a depth of 134 m. The further drilling was therefore carried out in the Primtal.
| Borehole | Drilling work | location | height | Depth of the salt store | Mightiness | Depth of hole |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 1824 - Dec 1824 | Rottenmünster Abbey | 561.8 m above sea level NN | 112.94 m | 2.03 m | 136.37 m | |
| 1 | Feb 1824 - Dec 1824 | Upper drilling house | 566.7 m above sea level NN | 134 m | 9.7 m | 144.4 m |
| 2 | Jan 1825 - Oct 1825 | Upper drilling house | 566.7 m above sea level NN | 134 m | 11 m | 148.6 m |
| 3 | March 1825 - January 1826 | Riedwiesen | 569.3 m above sea level NN | 138.66 m | 6.59 m | 146.68 m |
| 4th | March 1825 - December 1825 | Riedwiesen | 569.3 m above sea level NN | 138.37 m | 5.16 m | 169.6 m |
| 5 | Apr. 1830 - May 1831 | Lower drilling house | 565 m above sea level NN | 137 m | 8.45 m | 148.9 m |
| 6th | Feb. 1835 - July 1836 | Lower drilling house | 565 m above sea level NN | 136 m | > 7.6 m | 143.6 m |
| 7th | Jan 1838 - Apr 1839 | Lower drilling house | 565 m above sea level NN | 137.2 m | 8.8 m | 146.6 m |
| 8th | Feb. 1849 - Oct. 1849 | Lower drilling house | 565 m above sea level NN | 135.2 m | 12.9 m | 169.3 m |
| 9 | May 1851 - February 1852 | Upper drilling house | 566.7 m above sea level NN | 133.4 m | 9.1 m | 157.95 m |
| 10 | March 1939 - October 1939 | Upper drilling house | 566.7 m above sea level NN | 129.5 m | 9 m | 155.5 m |
The location near Rottweil had many advantages: The boreholes were less deep than in Schwenningen, where the brine had to be extracted from a depth of around 170 m. Firewood could be obtained from the surrounding forests. There were good road connections inland and Switzerland, and finally there was sufficient hydropower available in Primtal to drive the pumps.
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Drilling houses were built over the brine well. Its tower was used to remove and install the brine pumps and suction pipes for cleaning and repair. At each location, a waterwheel drove the pumps.
Brine wells 1 and 2 were used for around 25 years and then replaced by borehole 9. Boreholes 3 and 4 in the Riedwiesen soon only yielded insufficient yields. Instead, holes 5 and 6 were drilled one kilometer north and the drilling house moved there. Brine wells 7 and 8 at the same location and borehole 10 constructed in 1939 were in operation until the salt works were closed in 1969.
The saline buildings were built on a hill between the Neckar and Primtal valleys, not far from the Rottenmünster monastery. Salt production began on June 24, 1825, six months after the well in Primtal found what it was looking for. At the end of 1825, six booths and two brine tanks with feed from the brine wells were in operation. Two of the eight originally planned houses were used as workshops and storage rooms. In the years that followed, four peat magazines were built to store the fuel, a forge, a horse stable, and administrative and residential buildings.
A brine pipe led from the drilling houses in Primtal to the brine tanks of the salt works. This had to overcome a height difference of around 30 m. Cast iron pipes were laid as the pressure line, and wooden drawbars in the rest of the area. The storage tanks were designed in such a way that the brine could flow into the pans of the boil houses by gravity.
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The brine tanks were necessary to maintain production even during the cleaning and repair of individual brine wells. In addition, there was not enough hydropower to operate the pumps during dry periods. The capacity of the first two containers, each with almost 1000 m³, was soon no longer sufficient. In 1827/1828 and 1836/1837 two additional brine storage tanks were built as round tanks with domed roofs.
Initially, wood and peat were used as fuel. In the first half of the 19th century the price of firewood rose steadily. From 1862 on, hard coal was also burned despite the long transport routes . It was not until Rottweiler was connected to the railway network in 1868 that hard coal could be used cost-effectively.
In addition to the officials and officers of the administration, the permanent workforce comprised 40 to 70 workers, depending on the sales situation. There were also 200 to 600 craftsmen, carters, woodcutters, peat cutters and day laborers working for the saltworks without permanent employment.
Salt production rose to over 9,000 t per year by 1847/1848. The best operating result in 1837 was 9442 t. After sales to Switzerland fell, production fell to an average of 2500 t per year between 1860 and 1870. With the railway connection, the sales situation improved again. In the first half of the 20th century, more than 7,000 tonnes per year were produced at times, an increasing proportion of which was denatured cattle and industrial salt. Total production in 144 years of operation was around 800,000 t of evaporated salt.
In the 1930s, plans arose to modernize the facilities and work processes that were no longer implemented because of the Second World War . After the war and the formation of the southwestern state , the Baden-Württemberg saltworks were merged to form Südwestdeutsche Salinen GmbH . Production in the very outdated Rottweiler company was no longer economical and was partially discontinued from 1965 and finally on April 2, 1969.
A brine tank has been preserved from the buildings of the salt works and is a listed building . One of the peat magazines served the sculptor Erich Hauser as an artist's workshop and is now used as an exhibition room. The dome roof of a round brine tank was moved to the saltworks museum at the lower drilling house. Another round container is at Bad Dürrheimer Narrenschopf . The remaining buildings were demolished. The Rottweiler Saline industrial area was built on and around the site .
Shaft construction on Stallberg
A few years after the Wilhelmshall salt works began operations, there were considerations to mine the rock salt on the upper Neckar in order to reduce production costs. Instead of the brine wells, sinks should ensure an even supply of the settlements with pure, fully saturated brine. Low-quality cattle and industrial salt could be mined. In addition, the salt deposits should be better exploited than was possible through solution.
There was little experience of salt mining in the country in the 1830s . Strong water inflows were expected, which in 1819 made the construction of the shaft near Jagstfeld fail. The only possible location was the Neckar Valley, as there was the necessary water power there to drive the pumps. Southeast of the Stallberg, an exploratory borehole at a depth of 142 m was found in 1839 to be a minable rock salt deposit.
In 1841 the construction of the hydropower plant and the shaft house began . The vertical shaft was planned with a diameter of 3.5 m in the upper part to 2.86 m in the lower part. In the area of water-bearing layers, it should be secured with cast iron tubbings , in the remaining area with masonry. A conveyor run and a drive run were provided in the shaft section .
Sinking began in December 1842 and was progressing much more slowly than expected. Again and again there were water inrushes, especially in heavy rain or snowmelt, which caused the shaft to fill up. The pumps used turned out to be too weak and unreliable. After eight years the depth was only 56 m and it was not possible to reliably pump out the penetrating water. In October 1850 the work was stopped.
Friedrich von Alberti
The drilling work was under the direction of the geologist Friedrich von Alberti , who previously worked as a mountain cadet in Sulz am Neckar and as a saline inspector in Friedrichshall. At the age of 27 he was sent to Schwenningen. After the successful drilling and construction of the salt pans near Schwenningen and Rottenmünster, he worked as their administrator until 1853.
Alberti, appointed royal mountain ridge in 1836 , was always concerned about the profitability of his operations. He saw the future of salt extraction in salt mining: "When the salt pans, which are based solely on boreholes, have long been cold, the rock salt pits of Wilhelmsglück and Wilhelmshall will still be in full bloom [...]".
The attempt to build a shaft on the upper Neckar failed. With his vast experience, Alberti headed the shaft works at Friedrichshall from 1854, which led to success in 1859.
museum
After the Rottweiler Saline was closed, the drilling houses in Primtal remained. The Solebadverein Rottweil e. V. took care of the maintenance of the facilities. In 1981 the salt mine museum Unteres Bohrhaus was opened. It shows the drilling houses above the brine well, two of which were still in operation until 1969, as well as the engine room with water wheel and pump. The exhibition in a former round brine tank documents the history of the Wilhelmshall salt works and shows the technology of salt extraction. The museum has been run by the Salinenmuseum Rottweil e. V. supervised on a voluntary basis.
Salt was drilled again near the museum in 1986. The extracted brine supplies the Aquasol adventure pool in Rottweiler.
literature
- Walter Carlé : Searching for and extracting salt in the Kingdom of Württemberg and in the subsequent period until today. In: Contributions to the history of the Württemberg salt pans. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1968, pp. 105-176.
- Günter Schulz: History of the former Royal Württemberg saltworks Wilhelmshall near Schwenningen am Neckar 1823-1865. City administration Schwenningen am Neckar, 1967.
- Günter Schulz: The Wilhelmshall salt works near Rottweil 1824-1969. Rottweil City Archives, 1970.
- Wilfried A. Wurst: The former Wilhelmshall salt works. In: History of the city of Rottweil. Issue 7, Rottweil 1974.
- K. statist.-topograph. Bureau description of the Rottweil Oberamts , lead author Karl Eduard Paulus , Lindemann, Stuttgart 1875. Reprint Bissinger, Magstadt 1972, ISBN 3-7644-0054-4 (The Württemberg Oberamtsbeschreibung, Volume 56), page 335.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erich Hauser Art Foundation. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ↑ Walter Carlé: The role of the Royal Mountain Council Dr. hc Friedrich August von Alberti in the development of geology, saltworks and mining. In: Annual books of the Society for Natural History in Württemberg. 133. Jg., Stuttgart 1978, pp. 53-87, here: 67.
- ^ Winfried Hecht, Kornelia Hermann: Rottweiler museums. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg 1999, ISBN 3-933784-44-1 , pp. 25-28.