Teufelsgrund (Münstertal)

Teufelsgrund pit
	General information about the mine
	Information about the mining company
Start of operation	before 953
End of operation	1958
Successor use	Visitor mine
	Funded raw materials
Degradation of	Silver / copper / lead / fluorspar
	Geographical location
Coordinates	47 ° 50 '43 " N , 7 ° 49' 11.9" E Coordinates: 47 ° 50 '43 " N , 7 ° 49' 11.9" E
	Location of the Teufelsgrund pit
local community	Munster Valley
District ( NUTS3 )	Breisgau-Upper Black Forest
country	State of Baden-Württemberg
Country	Germany

p2

The Teufelsgrund mine in the Münstertal was a medieval silver , copper and lead mine ; fluorspar was mined in the 20th century . The first dismantling was before 953, the final shutdown took place in 1958. Since 1970 the mine has been operated as a visitor mine .

geology

In the environment of the pit, in the Mulde and Untermünstertal there are several quartz - barite - fluorite - courses with accompanying sulphide ores and siderite , calcite and Ankerit than surrounding rock, and paragneisses and transition porphyry . The corridors strike in a north-south direction and have an average thickness of 1.5 m.

history

953 to 1512: Middle Ages

Underground mining took place very early in the Teufelsgrund , a piece of charcoal found in a tunnel could be dated to the year 953. Mining began between the years 900 and 920, taking into account the annual tunneling capacity at that time . The first documentary mention was made in 1028 in a deed of donation from Emperor Konrad II , in which the mine was transferred to the Bishop of Basel Ulrich II.

The height of medieval mining was in the 13th and 14th centuries; Despite the start of the construction of the hereditary tunnel in 1450 and transfer to the St. Trudpert Monastery in 1512, mining began to decline gradually in the 16th century, as the water inflows , which became stronger with increasing depth , could no longer be discharged. In addition, the trades withdrew because they could invest much more profitably in the neighboring and much more important areas in Alsace .

1792 to 1958: modern times

No mining has survived from the 17th century, the Thirty Years' War , plague epidemics and wars of succession for supremacy in the region prevented regular mining.

From 1792 onwards, the mine was cleared again under the direction of Upper Austria . Mining was discontinued around 1800 without much success, as the political affiliation of the Breisgau changed several times and it was not until 1805 with the Peace of Pressburg that it was finally added to Baden .

From 1809 mining was resumed under state administration, after 1833 it was continued by various private companies. This was followed by extensive expansions and the concentration on the mining of the silver-bearing galena , from 1840 the Wilhelmstollen was opened , from 1854 the Friedrichsstollen. Due to increasing competition from cheap ores from abroad and rising costs, the mine was finally closed in 1864.

Due to the strong increase in the need for fluorspar for steel production due to the war , mining was resumed in 1942; Barbara Erzbergbau GmbH mined over 70,000 t of raw spar until the mine was finally closed in 1958, with an average usable share of 49% to 56% over 35700 tons of fluorite.

Visitor mine

The opening as a visitor mine in 1970 makes the Teufelsgrund pit one of the oldest visitor mines in the Black Forest . Asthma treatments have been taking place in a separate area since 1972 .

The mine has been the target of burglars and robbery since July 2020 . After years of dismissing mineral theft as a minor offense, professionals are now at work breaking minerals out of the mountain with heavy equipment and carrying them out in rucksacks. These are green lead ore , cube-shaped fluorite or the rare devil's base octahedron, which are then offered at trade fairs and on the Internet. After four robbery graves were discovered and scared away, break-ins and property damage began. Now the police are taking care of it.

Teufelsgrund silver mine, Münstertal, 2011.

particularities

The intensive mining of the ore veins on several levels resulted in the formation of large, almost vertical, widely open mining cavities, which vividly illustrate the method of mining using, among other things, recovery boxes . Access to the mine is through modern, wide tunnels ; a modern shaft hoisting machine from the Schönberg iron ore mine , which was closed in 1942, can also be viewed.

literature

Wolfgang Werner, Volker Dennert: Deposits and mining in the Black Forest. Published by the State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining, Baden-Württemberg, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2004, ISBN 3-00-014636-9 .

Individual evidence

↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 133
^ H. Schürenberg: Ore and mineral veins in the Belchen area. In: The Belchen. Historical and natural history monograph of the most beautiful Black Forest mountain. Nature and landscape protection areas of Baden-Württemberg, Volume 13, pp. 327–367, Karlsruhe, 1989.
↑ F. Kirchheimer: The age of silver mining in the southern Black Forest. P. 14, Freiburg i. Br., 1971.
↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 267.
↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 268.
↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 269.
↑ Max Schuler: Münster valleys want to defend themselves against robbery miners. Badische Zeitung, August 15, 2020, accessed on August 19, 2020 .