Schriesheim quarry

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The Schriesheim quarry seen from the west

The Schriesheim quarry (also: Edelstein quarry , after a previous operating company) is a porphyry quarry southeast of Schriesheim on the western slope of the Mount of Olives ( Lage ). It operated from 1900 to 1967.

Location and nature

Level three of the quarry

The quarry is located on the western slope of the Mount of Olives down to the Upper Rhine Plain at an altitude of about 410  m above sea level. NN and 340  m above sea level NN and begins almost at the top of the mountain. Together with the quarries of Dossenheim , which start about a kilometer further to the south, but which are less high on the mountain, it shapes the appearance of the southern mountain road .

The high yellow edges of the quarries, especially those of the Schriesheims quarry, are visible from afar.

The Schriesheim quarry has five floors of different sizes.

Occurrence

At first, sandstone was mined in Schriesheim , which is widespread in the region and was therefore often used in the construction of buildings.

In the Edelstein quarry, however, rhyolite - older name: quartz porphyry - was mined, a porphyry rock that is used, for example, for gravel production. This rock was formed there in the Permian about 290 million years ago, when there was still brisk volcanism in the region . The porphyry layer is partly over 150 meters thick.

The Dossenheimer rhyolite mined there is partly rich in large quartz crystals and partly poor in sprinkles. The cooling of the rock after the volcanic eruptions and the associated reduction in volume resulted in many cracks and fissures in the rock that can still be seen today.

Granite is also often formed during the genesis of porphyry . However, this has sunk deep in the area of ​​the southern Bergstrasse and has never played a role in the local quarry industry.

history

The history of rock mining in Schriesheim does not begin with the porphyry, but with the sandstone. In the meadow valley of the "Plattengrübe" ( ), sandstone was mined as early as the 18th century, mostly for local needs for house stones and sandstone slabs . Over time, other areas were opened up, such as the one at “Hartenbühl”. ( ) However, the Schriesheim sandstone was not competitive in the long term because it was too soft compared to the competing quarries. The mining was therefore stopped in the 1860s.

Porphyry gained importance as a ballast material for road and railroad construction . The community therefore opened its own break at the rear of the Mount of Olives, but its location was unfavorable because of the long transport routes from there.

In 1899 two architects from Mannheim and a few other donors founded Porphyrwerk Edelstein GmbH . The company began mining porphyry on the western slope of the Mount of Olives a year later; for this purpose, a ballast mill ( ) was built on Bergstrasse and the branch line running parallel to it . A cable car connected the break with the plant.

In 1906 the plant was also connected to the freight railway from Schriesheim via Dossenheim to the Heidelberg freight yard, which was built by the Süddeutsche Eisenbahngesellschaft (SEG) in the same year, which greatly improved the transport of the material.

Production began to increase in the years that followed: in 1913, almost 100 employees cut around 88,000 cubic meters. The quarry industry had become an important branch of the economy in Schriesheim; However, it never developed to such a local importance as, for example, in the southern neighboring town of Dossenheim . In contrast to the Dossenheimer breaks, the Schriesheim company ran into economic difficulties as early as the late 1920s and early 1930s. At that time, the company had merged with the Weinheim quarry to form Porphyrwerke Weinheim-Schriesheim AG .

The fact that mining was taking place near the hilltop called for landscape and nature conservationists on the scene from the start. After even under monument protection standing gems , a cluster of porphyry columns were blasted off in 1919, the porphyry break was final controversial.

In the fifties began with rationalization and modernization of equipment. The quarry industry in Schriesheim and Dossenheim found itself increasingly confronted with financial problems in the sixties , since the sales prices for porphyry did not rise as the expenses. In 1967 the gravel works burned out due to a major fire. After that, it was decided against resuming operations and the quarry was shut down.

The quarry area developed into a climbing area in the years that followed, and today it is one of the most important in the region. Today the quarry is also part of the Neckartal-Odenwald Nature Park .

sport and freetime

Climber in the quarry

Immediately after the quarry was closed, there were considerations to expel him for climbing. In the following years the quarry developed into an important climbing area in the area. After the site was planned to be closed to climbers for reasons of nature conservation, the AG Climbing & Nature Conservation im Odenwald eV campaigned for the preservation of the climbing area from 1990 onwards . After some negotiations, an agreement was finally reached in 1999: climbing remained allowed but was restricted to designated corridors; This also won nature conservation in the Bruch. Today the Schriesheim quarry is one of the most important climbing areas in the region; sport climbing is mainly practiced in the quarry . There are over 200 climbing routes of difficulty levels three to ten in the area.

nature

On the lowest level, nature is already overgrowing large parts of the quarry

On the Mount of Olives and on its flat hilltop that characterizes the landscape, there have been nature and heritage-protected areas for a long time. After the gemstones were blown off in 1919 , it was decided to at least preserve the mountain silhouette. Therefore, the rocky north spur Schwedenkanzel ⊙ of the mountain outside the mining area and the ring wall were placed under protection.

After the quarry was closed, nature began to reclaim the area. Quarry areas are generally interesting for many animal species, also because stagnant waters can form here , which disappear elsewhere, for example in floodplains or ponds . The Mount of Olives has been designated as a nature reserve since 1998 .

See also

literature

  • Hermann Brunn: 1200 years of Schriesheim . Südwestdeutsche Verlagsanstalt, Mannheim, 1964.
  • Rudolf Conzelmann: Dossenheim. The story of a 1200 year old mountain road community. Municipal administration, Dossenheim 1966, OCLC 311569268 .
  • Jens Seeling: Heidelberg - Walks through the history of the earth , JSV Jens Seeling Verlag, 2005, ISBN 9783938973004 .

Web links

Commons : Steinbruch Schriesheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Seeling 2005, p. 122 and own observation
  2. a b Conzelmann 1966, p. 159.
  3. Seeling 2005, p. 115f.
  4. Seeling 2005, p. 116.
  5. a b c d e f g h i Brunn 1964, pp. 278-279.
  6. ^ Frank Muth: Tramways in Heidelberg, GeraMond Verlag , Heidelberg 2002, p. 157.
  7. Conzelmann 1966, p. 169.
  8. ^ Entry at the Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector, Baden-Württemberg
  9. a b City of Schriesheim on climbing and nature conservation
  10. leaflet of the city of Schriesheim (pdf)
  11. Information board in the quarry.