Colliery Consolidation

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Colliery Consolidation
General information about the mine
Consol Gelsenkirchen.jpg

Double strut frame above the central conveyor shaft 9
Information about the mining company
Start of operation 1865
End of operation 1993
Successor use Cultural monument
Funded raw materials
Degradation of Hard coal
Geographical location
Coordinates 51 ° 31 '50 "  N , 7 ° 6' 48"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 31 '50 "  N , 7 ° 6' 48"  E
Colliery Consolidation (Regional Association Ruhr)
Colliery Consolidation
Location colliery consolidation
Location Bismarck
local community Gelsenkirchen
Independent city ( NUTS3 ) Gelsenkirchen
country State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Country Germany
District Ruhr area

Central mining shaft 9, conversion of the shaft system after the closure to Consolpark and the railway line to the Rhine-Herne Canal, which was converted as a cycle / footpath
Concrete headframe over shaft 4
Oberschuir mine in Gelsenkirchen-Feldmark

The Consolidation colliery or shortened was "Consol" a coal - mine in Gelsenkirchen . Today the facilities are under monument protection or are used commercially or culturally.

history

1848-1890

From 1848 onwards, several exploratory boreholes were carried out in the Schalke Mark , which suggested that there were rich hard coal deposits in the area around Schalke and the surrounding farmers . In 1854 a coal seam was reached at a depth of 170 m.

In 1861, Friedrich Grillo brought about the merger of various trades to form the "Union of the Coal Mine Consolidation" ( Consolidation = merging of mine fields and their shares).

In 1863, the sinking of the Gertrud shaft began at Schalker Markt on today's trade street . In 1865, funding could begin. The shaft initially received a Malakow tower as a conveyor system. The expectations that were set in the colliery were fulfilled, as it produced high-quality fat coal and gas coal , which could be sold extensively in Friedrich Grillo's other companies .

As a result, after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the mine continued to expand, even if the entire coal economy was temporarily in decline. From 1869 to 1871, the Wilhelmine shaft (later shaft 2), which functioned as an independent conveyor system, was set up 700 meters east of shaft 1. In 1871, the Minna shaft (shaft 3) followed, which began mining in 1873. From 1874 to 1875, a pure weather shaft was sunk in the southern field area. This was only referred to as shaft 4 (later: shaft 5). From 1872 to 1876 the Consol colliery, as it was now popularly called, was the largest in the Ruhr area . In 1873 the production amounted to 366,000 tons with a workforce of 2060 employees. The expansion of the mine led to a rapid increase in population.

In 1878 the operating company of the Unser Fritz colliery was taken over by the Consolidation union. The colliery continued to operate as an independent conveyor system. In 1883 the first coking plant was put into operation at the Gertrud shaft . In 1885 coal production reached 700,000 tons annually with 2,300 employees. In 1886 there was a severe coal dust explosion that killed 56 people.

1890-1923

In 1890 another coking plant was put into operation at the Minna shaft.

From 1893 to 1895 the “Fritz” shaft was sunk next to the Minna shaft. For the sake of simplicity, the shafts were given numbers from now on, with the Fritz shaft being named shaft 4 as a conveyor shaft in future, and the older weather shaft with consolidation shaft 5.

In the following years, the two oldest pits were expanded. Shafts 1, 2 and 3 each received a drawn-in headframe placed on the Malakow tower. Then from 1896 to 1899, next to shaft 1, shaft 6 and from 1902 to 1906, next to shaft 2, shaft 7. These shafts were each main shaft for the respective shaft system.

In order to improve the weather management (high risk of firedamp in the mines ), shaft 8 was sunk in the Feldmark from 1906 to 1908. This was also called the "Oberschuir Shaft".

Machine hall of the Oberschuir shaft

In 1913 the coal production of all Consolidation pits reached the value of 1.95 million tons per year. The coking plants produced 600,000 tons of coke .

In 1915, the sinking of a new central shaft 9 was started in shaft 3/4 . The sinking work had to be interrupted in 1917 because of the First World War. The sinking work could only be continued after the war - shaft 9 went into operation in 1922 and was equipped with a large double strut structure. It is one of the last filigree shaft scaffolding, as scaffolding made of solid wall profiles became popular in the following years.

1923-1968

In 1923 the Mannesmannröhren-Werke AG acquired the Kuxen majority of the Consolidation union. The 3/4/9 shaft in Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck was expanded to become a central system. In 1928, the Consolidation colliery was split into two plant departments. One of the factory directors comprised the shafts 1/6, 2/7, 5 and 8. Shaft 1 received a new two-storey solid wall strut frame and was converted to vessel conveyance. In 1929 the closed Unser Fritz colliery in Wanne-Eickel was connected to the 3/4/9 mine. The Unser Fritz shafts were kept open and from then on served as an outdoor facility.

At the same time, both coking plants were renewed and run as a separate plant management in Mannesmann-Kokereien AG.

In 1938, a mine fire temporarily put the pit 2/7 out of operation. In 1942, part of the former Hibernia colliery was leased to Consolidation 3/4/9. The Hibernia 3 shaft was added as a weather shaft.

Towards the end of the Second World War , the pits in the urban area of ​​Gelsenkirchen were badly affected. In 1943, shaft 5 was so badly damaged by bombs that it had to be dropped and filled . In 1944, the processing and coking plant shaft 1/6 as well as the coking plant shaft 3/4/9 were badly damaged, while the shaft 3/4/9 remained intact and production could be resumed immediately after the end of the war.

It was not until 1949 that plant 1/6 was able to fully resume production. In 1951, shaft 2 was finally given up. The coking plants were fully operational again in 1953. At the beginning of the coal crisis , some modernizations were carried out. In 1958, Shaft 4 received a new characteristic concrete headframe with external sheaves . In 1959, the shaft 6 headframe was replaced by a new type of steel box construction. The total production was 2.6 million tons annually with a coke production of 1.1 million tons. In 1963 the twin steam engine for the southern production at shaft 9 was put into operation; it thus forms the end point in time for this technology.

As part of the worsening coal crisis, the mid-1960s began to merge the conveyor systems. The Hibernia field was dropped in 1964. In 1967, Consolidation 1/6 and the coking plant were shut down in favor of a consolidation on shaft 3/4/9.

1968-1993

In 1968 the mining ownership of Mannesmann AG was transferred to the newly founded Ruhrkohle AG . This initially expanded the Consolidation colliery into a composite mine .

From 1972, the dismantling of the existing flame coal reserves of the former was Graf Bismarck colliery in attack taken. In 1973 the shaft 3 shaft tower was rebuilt. This was equipped with two fully automatic vascular conveyors . The 95 meter high concrete headframe was one of the tallest in Germany.

In 1976 the mine field of the closed Pluto colliery in Herne with the Pluto 2/3/7, Pluto 4 and 5 pits was taken over. Gradually the no longer required shafts Consolidation 1, Pluto 5, Pluto 4, and Consolidation 8 were discarded and filled. In 1983 the coking plant shaft Consolidation 3/4/9 was shut down. The mining shifted to ever greater mining depths of up to 1200 meters. The production was at times 3.2 million tons per year with 5,800 employees.

In 1984 the colliery came into the public's interest due to a tragic mine accident (face break) with 5 fatalities. In 1986 the Nordstern shafts were taken over from the disbanded Nordstern-Zollverein mine . The Consolidation / Nordstern composite mine had 15 shafts. The main production levels were 1040 m (north shaft) and 1100 m (consolidation). In 1988 the composite mine still achieved a production of 3.4 million t. This was followed by a reduction in employees and production.

After the Nordstern and Pluto construction sites were closed in 1990, a decision was made to merge the mining technology with the Hugo mine in 1993, with the gradual abandonment of the entire Consolidation mining site.

Shutdown

In 1993 the promotion to Consolidation 3/4/9 was stopped. The shafts on “Consolidation”, “Our Fritz” and “Pluto” were gradually filled . At the end of the 1990s, pits 1/6 and 2/7 were completely demolished. The shaft 3 headframe was removed in 1996 by a dismantling crane. The Consolidation Shafts 4, 8 and 9 as well as Unser Fritz 1 and Pluto 3 were placed under monument protection. The stocks remaining in the Bismarckfeld were mined by the Hugo colliery until 2000 .

Current condition

The grounds of shafts 1/6 and 2/7 have been completely converted into commercial use. The conveyor systems above shafts 4 and 9 have been preserved on site 3/4/9. The fan building and the machine house, shaft 4, as well as the winding tower are used for cultural purposes (Consol theater, music rehearsal center C4) . For the open spaces on this site, efforts are being made to locate further businesses. Shaft Consolidation 8 has been preserved as an almost complete system. The Malakow tower above the Unser Fritz 1 shaft was preserved as a memorial. The surrounding area of ​​the shaft 1/4 facility was recultivated. The Pluto 3/4/7 system with the double strut frame above shaft 3 is still used by DSK. A forensic prison was built there.

The operation of shaft 8 as a weather shaft ended in 1981, the system was placed under monument protection. After renovation and expansion by a glass cube, designed by the architects Pfeiffer and Ellermann, it opened in 1996 as the Galerie Architektur und Arbeit Gelsenkirchen GAAG. Since October 2002 the exhibition hall has been operated under the name "stadtbauraum" by the European House of Urban Culture as part of the state initiative StadtBauKultur NRW .

The exhibitions, debates and lectures are aimed in particular at interested citizens.

An underground station on line 301 near the former colliery is called Bergwerk Consolidation .

Art installation Werner Thiel Collection

Since 2006, the Werner Thiels Collection has been presented on two floors in the northern machine house . Since 1980, the artist Werner Thiel (1927–2003) has been collecting artefacts and relics of mining and industrial work in addition to his own photographic and drawing work on numerous Ruhr area mines destined for demolition. From this he created frequently changing, very original art installations at home and abroad. The first was created in the artist mine "Our Fritz" in Herne, where his studio was. The last, largest and then permanent installation is in the former north hall at Consol shaft 9 in his hometown of Gelsenkirchen. After Werner Thiel's death in 2003, Helmut Bettenhausen, supported by Lutz Kahnwald, set up an extensive installation in the machine hall of the former Consolidation colliery in early 2004 in the spirit of Werner Thiel, made of objects of everyday mining use, which was opened in 2006. The art installation is grouped around the largest object - the winding machine of the old machine hall. The old objects with their own history and their ornamental arrangement make the machine hall a very special place - a cathedral of mining. The collection can be viewed free of charge every Saturday and Sunday.

literature

  • Wilhelm Hermann, Gertrude Hermann: The old mines on the Ruhr. 6th expanded and updated edition, Verlag Karl Robert Langewiesche, successor Hans Köster KG, Königstein i. Taunus, 2006, ISBN 3784569943 .
  • Joachim Huske: The coal mines in the Ruhr area. 3rd edition, self-published by the German Mining Museum, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-937203-24-9 .

Web links

Commons : Zeche Consolidation  - Collection of images, videos and audio files