Velpker sandstone

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Picture work, created in a sculpture symposium in Velpke by Paul Justus Lück in Bad Helmstedt
Heinrichsbrunnen made of Velpker sandstone on the Hagenmarkt in Braunschweig

The Velpker sandstone , also called Velpker hard sandstone or incorrectly called Rhätquarzit , can be assigned to the Upper Keuper . This sandstone was mostly extracted in numerous smaller quarries that were not very thick. The sandstone was created by deposits of a river delta in the Hameln , Hildesheim area and around Velpke near Helmstedt . It is one of the hardest and most wear-resistant sandstones in Germany. Organized quarrying has been documented since 1630. Since that time, Velpker Sandstein has been associated with the name of the stonemason family Körner, who only gave up the quarry in the 1990s and sold it to the Lower Saxony construction company Papenburg AG. The Velpker sandstone quarries are located between Velpke and Danndorf in the Helmstedt district in Lower Saxony . Today most of the quarries are flooded; no quarry is in operation in 2008.

Occurrence

Covering a wall from Velpker sandstone; the color of the rock is clearly visible.

The Velpker sandstone was created in the Upper Keuper (Rhät). Large, flat, quartz-bound sandstones were formed during this geological period. The Velpker deposit originated in a river delta about 200 million years ago. The river carried the grains of sand and the sands were compacted under the weight of the Ice Age glaciers, which towered up several thousand meters. Under this load, the quartz grains were released under pressure , and the grains were enclosed with silica and cemented. The main occurrence of this sandstone is between Velpke and Danndorf and in some places near Querenhorst and Döhren it comes to the surface. In the south and north, the occurrence changes into the Rätsandstein. The storage is regular and the occurrence rarely shows a stratification of 10 to 20 °. The usable thickness is 8 to 14 meters, but mostly 4 to 6 meters. The mining is made more difficult by the large amounts of overburden and shallow pits are also created during the extraction, which quickly fill with water due to the groundwater conditions.

Under an overburden at a height of 3 to 8 meters, which consists of loose rock and weathered rock material, there is a sandstone layer that is up to 14 meters thick. The four to five sandstone banks that are ideal for quarrying ashlar are located around the lowest area of ​​the deposit. The bench height reached a maximum of 1.50 meters and the block formats that could be obtained were 5.00 × 2.00 × 1.50 meters, which were split up for further use . In the middle area of ​​the sequence of layers, only rough blocks with a layer height in the decimeter range could be obtained. These ashlar stones could only be used for masonry stones or for garden designs. The other overlying material, which could not be used for the production of ashlar, was used for road construction or as bulk material.

Rock description

Its colors are gray, gray-white, yellow-white, yellow to gray-blue. The mineral that gives natural stone its yellow color is iron-containing limonite . It is a fine-grain sandstone that consists almost entirely of quartz ; feldspar and mica occur very rarely. In different bank positions there are thin black stripes that are suitable for splitting. Some banks that hold the mineral pyrite (also known as "fool's gold") are called sulfur banks . These are not suitable for the extraction of natural stone, as the formation of rust is to be expected when installing outdoors. There are isolated strata of rock that have less quartzitic bonds. The grain bond is quartzitic, which is why this rock is one of the hardest and most wear-resistant sandstones in Germany. It consists almost entirely of 97.7 percent quartz, the hardest mineral in rocks. Sandstones with a quartz content over 90 percent can be classified as hard sandstone . The compressive strength ranges from 500 to 1,280 kg / cm², depending on the rock, and the water absorption is low at 0.51 percent. The Velpker stone is frost-proof and resistant to chemical weathering .

The components of Velpker sandstone are: 85 percent quartz, 13 percent rock fragments, 1 percent feldspar, accessories below 1 percent ( muscovite , tourmaline , zircon , carbonate ).

use

When installed outdoors as a stone, it will darken after a period of 15 to 20 years on the sides facing the weather. This darkening is caused by the yellow constituents in the Velpker sandstone, limonite, which is transported to the stone surface in a dissolved form. This process is not harmful to the stone.

The Velpker sandstone was used as a stone for walls and structures. It was used for profiled cornices , steps , floor coverings inside and pavement slabs outside, paving stones, millstones and as cattle troughs. The stone is an excellent armor stone. It is characterized by its heat properties, as it can withstand high temperatures without deformation. It can be ground up and used to make bottle glass. It was also used as a furnace component and whetstone and as an acid trough in the chemical industry.

Foundation of the quarries

Around 1630 Michael Körner traveled to the Velpke area in the middle of the Thirty Years War . He was born in 1580 in the Saxon town of Moßbach and settled as a master stonemason in Eisleben in what is now Saxony-Anhalt . After the death of his wife and economic uncertainty in Eisleben, he left this place with his sons Hans and Justus and opened up the sandstone deposit in the Danndorf-Velpker area. He applied for the concession of the quarry and thus met the interest of the landlords and court lords of Büstedt and the Braunschweig regional authorities, who promised an additional source of income. The peasants who do tensioning services and who had a corresponding number of draft horses may also have been interested in opening up quarries. After 1630 there was a certain economic boom in Velpke. But it was not until the end of the 17th century that there was an upswing caused by the stone carving trade. The place was previously characterized by rural life.

Development of the quarry location

Technical University of Braunschweig made of Velpker sandstone
Göttingen University Library
Hanover: Welfenschloss around 1895

According to a document from 1715, the master stonemasons Velpkes were organized together with the masons in a guild in Schöningen . When Napoleon dissolved the guilds in 1808 and collected their assets, the guild of 13 master stonemasons remained in Velpke, contrary to this ban. The guild was finally banned before the district court of the district of Vorsfelde . Some Velpker master stonemasons, including Christian Körner sen. and Johann Friedrich Körner jun. had hired so-called unguild journeymen. The non-guild journeymen had less than four years of training and should be dismissed by resolution of the newly founded successor organization of the guild, a society that was among other things a sickness and death fund. The masters resisted because they feared that they would lose all employees. They won the lawsuit and the partnership had to accept the journeymen.

As early as 1680, the grain factory was delivering large quantities of incombustible glass furnace bricks to Mecklenburg and Lübeck . In 1743 the entrepreneur Körner applied unsuccessfully to the Duke of Braunschweig for an exclusive privilege for this stone trade. Due to the successful foreign sales, all of Velpke's stonemasons became dependent on exports and when the Prussian government prohibited the import of these stones at the beginning of 1770, the sales of Velpker Sandstein fell considerably.

In 1749 Christian Körner tried to break natural stones deeper than his competitors , which was a difficult undertaking due to the water conditions in the quarry area. The water had to be pumped out with wooden pumps and horse drives and this technique was not fully developed at the beginning of the 18th century. This attempt failed completely, but showed that the stonemason family Körner possessed daring and creativity. Furthermore, the removal of the overburden and useless sandstones for all quarries was a technical and financial problem, because these materials were not systematically deposited but on the underlying stone material. As a result, further exploration was significantly impeded and expensive because the masses had to be moved again.

Around 1800 the Velpker sandstone was not only sold regionally, but also to Prussia, Hanover and Russia. Industrialization began in Velpke at the end of the 19th century. Machines were used for stone extraction and processing, which did not lead to job losses, but to an increase in the workforce because the demand increased. From 1824 the development of the village of Velpke was dominated by the quarries, because not only the master stonemasons, journeyman stonemasons and stone cutters worked in the quarries, but also day laborers and farmers profited from the demand for work and goods.

In 1682 a craftsmen's survey showed that there were six stone carvers, 70 years later there were 13 master stonemasons and 26 journeymen and in 1772 15 master stonemasons were counted. From 1824 the number fell to 12 masters who employed over 100 journeymen and 100 day laborers in the quarries with a total Velpke population of 565 people. In 1858 the demand for stones decreased and 12 masters, around 50 journeymen and 10 apprentices were employed in Velpke. Although sales developed again, the number of masters fell to three in the period that followed and these were compared with a considerable number of journeymen and helpers. Obviously, in this economic environment, the master craftsmen selected, the large ones bought up the small ones.

This development had causes and far-reaching effects: In order to obtain a license as a master craftsman in Velpke, a farmer's position was required. Land could hardly finance professionally experienced journeymen who aspired to the master's qualification, so the social and economic status was inherited only within the stonemason families. Furthermore, the economy of that time barely flourished. Despite this difficult situation, the brothers Friedrich and Carl Körner expanded and bought the Büstedter Gutsforst, thus not only securing mining fields, but also quarries with better stone material. The concentration on a few stone companies also meant that there were no technical innovations and that essential innovations in the economic area were not taken, such as the mobilization of capital for modernization by converting the companies into stock corporations. From the point of view of the Velpker entrepreneurs, capitalization was obviously not necessary, because in 1913 the concentration in a few companies had resulted in only three large companies, the companies Gustav Schulze , Kurt Velke and CFC Körner with a total of around 1,000 employees. It was possible to maintain the average daily output of 37 railroad cars during the First World War . The stone was sent to the Netherlands , Bohemia and Russia as a grindstone . During the First World War, the structural problems of the Velpker sandstone extraction, the neglect of extensive mechanization with the consequence of a lack of capacities for large-scale orders, as well as the spatial expansion of the quarries and the lack of capital resources, were hidden.

Quarry and Railway Age

Roland made of Velpker sandstone at the town hall in Oebisfelde

The railway age came to Velpke in 1871 when the Magdeburger-Halberstädter Eisenbahngesellschaft built a railway line from Berlin to Lehrte that touched Oebisfelde and Vorsfelde , but only ran through Prussia. The connection to Braunschweig was missing. As a result, goods had to be transported on horse-drawn vehicles from Velpke to Oebisfelde. In 1895 a railway line Oebisfelde-Helmstedt was opened, and not Velpke got a train station, but Wahrstedt. This problem was solved with the construction of a narrow-gauge railway with a length of 1.96 kilometers and a gauge of 750 mm from the quarries to Wahrstedt-Velpke. In 1902, Velpke received a train station when the Braunschweig – Oebisfelde railway was completed, on which 5,840 railway wagons with Velpker stones were transported in 1925.

The railway was an important factor not only for the stone transport, but also supplied the stone workers and the population with goods and also created the conditions for workers from the surrounding area and seasonal workers from abroad to come to Velpke. Numerous Polish seasonal workers came to Velpke and according to a census in December 1900, 11 percent of Velpke's residents said their mother tongue was Polish. In the summer, seasonal workers were mainly employed in the quarry and in agriculture and therefore it is assumed that 20 percent of the population were Poles in the summer months.

Social situation of the quarry workers

In December 1912, the SPD newspaper Vorwärts published an article in Braunschweig about the “Steinarbeiterhölle zu Velpke”, in which the situation of the predominantly Polish stone workers was described. The main criticism in this article was that the so-called "truck system" was used, which was forbidden under Section 115 of the Reich Labor Code . The system meant that the workers hardly received any wages in the form of money, but were largely paid in the form of accommodation, food and other luxury goods from the company's own sales outlets. There was no obligation to buy in these shops, which belonged to the employers and the foremen, if the workers received his wages after 14 days. However, they had to use the wages to pay off their debts. If they didn't buy in the company's own stores, they suffered from pressure from employers and foremen. A subtle form of debt bondage emerged . Because of this fact, many gave up, fell victim to alcoholism, or vegetated. The consumption of alcohol in the form of brandy was forbidden during working hours by a stipulation of the stone masons guild, but the quarry owners ignored this, in their opinion, unworldly decision and opened their canteens. In addition, the stone workers worked in piece work and exceeded the high maximum working hours as "lone fighters" and reached the limit of their physical strain. To make matters worse, it was not known at the time that sandstone processing could cause silicosis (stone dust lung) if no protective measures were taken. Therefore it can be assumed that there was a high mortality among stone workers. The population of Velpke counted with 1,350 inhabitants 44 widows, not a few stone worker widows. In the forward further described unimaginable the housing conditions of the stone workers. Hundreds of workers had to sleep in triple beds with straw sacks and horse blankets in the company apartments , curtains, shelves and cupboards were missing and privacy was not possible. Some of the rooms were so full or so small that there was an air space of 6.5 cubic meters available for each sleeping person.

Great Depression

When share prices collapsed on so-called " Black Friday " on October 25, 1929, this accelerated the existing unemployment of stone workers in the Velpke area. The rising unemployment had several reasons, because firstly the state labor office tried to oblige unemployed Germans to work to build so-called resettlement houses; secondly, the Polish stone workers were forcibly expelled; Thirdly, the laws of the Weimar Republic were used by the quarry owners exclusively for their own economic advantage and fourthly, the quarrels about the settlement houses and the closure of the quarries used the National Socialists to demonstrate the impotence of the democrats of the Weimar Republic.

In order to reduce mass unemployment, it was decided to create work and affluent demand by building houses. The resulting settlement houses, into which only stone workers were allowed to move, could not be moved into due to a lack of tenant demand and the community therefore ran into financial difficulties. This was used by the National Socialists to take over the municipal council. Only much later was this rental condition canceled and the apartments could be rented to someone else.

When the economic crisis began in 1929, 610 workers were employed in the quarries; in 1930 there were 440. In the summer, the quarry owners announced a further 385 layoffs. The announced layoffs did not take place, but the quarry owners took the opportunity to lay off the higher-paid German workers and to continue to employ the lower-paid Polish stone workers. In this way, the Polish quarry workers unintentionally became wage pushers. This brought tensions in the place and xenophobia, which the National Socialists deliberately stirred up. Among other things, these effects made it possible to set up a foster home for foreign children in Velpke at the end of the Second World War on the outskirts of the village. The responsible state authorities were not prepared to accept the behavior of the quarry owners and the state labor office prohibited the employment of foreigners without an exemption certificate. In November 1930 the State Labor Office banned 54 Poles from being employed and allowed only 14 Poles to keep their jobs. The Polish Consulate General was supposed to arrange for the repatriation of the 54 men with 24 women and 61 children. The repatriation did not take place immediately, it took place later in February 1932.

Until the beginning of the Second World War, the quarry owners tried to close their quarries due to a lack of orders and to fire the workers. They have been hinted that if they withdraw their closure plans, they can hope for public contracts. Friedrich Körner and the Velke company continued to insist on the dismissal of a third of the employees, while the Gustav Schulze company withdrew its application for closure. None of that helped, because with the beginning of World War II, the Nazis were no longer interested in Velpker Sandstein.

Second World War

The quarries were of little importance for the preparation and implementation of the World War and the conversion was compulsory. The remaining essential war needs should be met by fewer companies. The Velpker sandstone was out of the question for railway construction and concrete. This also applied to the manufacture of bricks and architectural elements. Only the production of grindstones and refractory furnace blocks saved the Velpkes quarries from being completely closed, and Friedrich Körner's company was the only option for continued operation. The other two large factories were closed. Intrigues were initiated against Friedrich Körner in the village, which resulted in his being declared war-dependent as a manager , which was unusual for a man in this position. It was used near Aachen on September 21, 1994 and has been considered lost ever since.

In the Velpker quarries, in the so-called Wetzsteinkuhlen , there was one of the notorious foster homes for foreign children from May 1 to December 21, 1944, in which 102 Polish and Russian infants and toddlers were housed by Polish and Russian forced laborers Farmers in the Helmstedt-Wolfsburg area had to work. 91 children died of willful neglect and malnutrition and were buried in the village.

post war period

After the end of the war, the zone boundary not far from Velpke cut through the old economic network, which was of great importance for the Velpker sandstone. The quarries lost their importance not only for the place and only the company of Körner with five to six employees could continue to work after the war. In 1948 it had 40 employees. At the end of the 1940s, the other quarries reopened after the currency reform. The Schulze and Velke quarries ceased operations again in 1950. In the 1960s, two new companies opened, Velpker Hartsandsteinbrüche GmbH and Huppertz & Zucker , quarries. At that time, before the two factories closed, 60 people were employed. In 1948 there were two smaller companies and a hard stone quarry company Frömbling & Frasch with 40 employees in Grasleben who had quarries in the southern part of the deposit. In the end, all that remained was the Körner company, which manufactured special materials for the glass industry and whetstones. She worked on and initially supplied Velpker sandstone. But she, too, stopped mining in Velpke and processed Polish sandstone with a comparable texture and color. Until the end of the 1990s, the history of the Velpker quarries was linked to the name Körner, but when the Günter Papenburg company bought their quarry, a centuries-old stonemason era ended. The Papenburg company from Lower Saxony no longer used the quarries for natural stone extraction, but for sand extraction, until they ceased operations. Today (2009) there is no more quarry in operation.

Sculpture Symposium

The Velpker sandstone achieved notoriety in the region and in artistic circles, especially in 1996 and 1998. The sculpture symposia took place in the quarries with the participation of internationally recognized sculptors. In the three-week symposia, works of art were created from Velpker sandstone. The symposia were organized by the Kunstverein Velpke in cooperation with the stonemason company C. Körner Natursteinwerk GmbH Velpke . Some of the stone works of art are exhibited in Velpke and in the theater park in Bad Helmstedt Brunnental . The symposia were discontinued after 1998.

Buildings made of Velpker sandstone

See also

literature

  • Christian Eggers, Dirk Riesener: A good stone can be found here. On the history of stone carving in Velpke , published by the municipality of Velpke with the kind support of the Helmstedt district, self-published in 1996.
  • W. Dienemann, O. Burre: The usable rocks in Germany and their deposits with the exception of coal, ores and salts, Enke-Verlag, Stuttgart 1929.
  • Karlfriedrich Fuchs: stone index: natural stones from all over the world; discover, determine, apply. Callwey-Verlag, Munich 1997, sheet 206
  • Otto Sickenberg: The deposits of Lower Saxony and their management , Vol. 5, ed. by Kurt Brüning, Lower Saxony Office for State Planning and Statistics. Dornverlag. Bremen, Horn 1951.
  • Fritz J. Krüger : Geology and Paleontology: Lower Saxony between Harz and Heide . Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-440-05153-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jochen Lepper: Naturstein 2/98, p. 74
  2. ↑ Sickenberg: The Deposits of Lower Saxony, pp. 116-120 (see literature)
  3. ↑ Dienemann, Burre: Gesteine ​​Deutschlands, p. 281 f (see literature)
  4. ^ Wolf-Dieter Grimm, picture atlas of important memorial stones of the Federal Republic of Germany, ed. from the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, Rock No. 113, Lipp-Verlag. Munich 1990. ISBN 3-87490-535-7
  5. ↑ Eggers, Riesener: History of stone cutting p. 14 (see literature)
  6. ↑ Eggers, Riesener: Geschichte des Steinhauens p. 35 (see literature)
  7. ↑ Eggers, Riesener: Geschichte des Steinhauens p. 35 (see literature)
  8. ↑ Eggers, Riesener: History of stone carving p. 39 (see literature)
  9. ↑ Eggers, Riesener: History of stone cutting p. 40 (see literature)
  10. ↑ Eggers, Riesener: History of stone cutting p. 61 (see literature)
  11. ^ Sickenberg: The deposits of Lower Saxony, p. 119f (see literature)

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 '44.9 "  N , 10 ° 55' 2.6"  E