Association for hard coal mining in the worm area
The association for hard coal mining in the Wurmrevier was an operating company founded in 1836 for lean coal mines in the Wurmrevier .
chronology
After the Eschweiler Bergwerkverein (EBV) had been founded as early as 1834 , which initially only operated the mines of the Eschweiler mining industry , but wanted to influence the neighboring regions, several influential Aachen personalities decided to establish an operating company for the mines in the Wurmrevier as an economic counterweight which until then had mostly run their own business. The founding committee decided to set up the business model according to the “Code de Commerce” in the manner of a French Société anonyme , which was comparable to a stock corporation . Thus the company operated under the name "Vereinigungsgesellschaft, anonymous society for hard coal construction in the Wurmrevier" or "Association for hard coal construction in the Wurmrevier SA". The administrative headquarters were initially in Aachen, but in 1870 it was relocated to Kohlscheid .
The intention was to bring all mines that exclusively extracted lean coal under one administration, in order to achieve higher market shares and prices, but also to reduce the cost of the individual companies by introducing more efficient operation. For example, most of the pits were connected to one another, common extraction floors were created and concentrated on certain areas. In addition, newer techniques were jointly introduced and applied, thereby simplifying dewatering and improving weather management .
In 1839, however, only around 28% of the mine shares were in the hands of the association, as the majority of the mine owners still found it difficult to give up their independence, but also because some directors made too high demands that exceeded the value of the respective plant . Above all, the four most profitable mines, Gouley , Langenberg, Teut and Hoheneich, with a total of around 47% , refused to join the company for the time being.
Until 1840, the Hankepank (later Neu Langenberg), Abgunst and Kämpchen mines in Kohlscheid, Spidell, Glückauf and Kircheich belonged to the association. In addition, it owned half the shares in the mines Ath, Alt-Laurweg in Kohlscheid, Bostrop-Pesch as well as smaller shares in the mines Neu Voccart in Herzogenrath Straß, Alte Prick, Vieslapp-Herrenkuhl, Vieslapp-Mühlenbach, Sichelscheid, Rapp, Kranz, Sandberg and Großkuhl. Several of the latter mines were, however, in some cases not in continuous operation or only produced small quantities.
To make matters worse, the "Pannesheider Mining Association" was founded in 1842 at the instigation of the EBV, in which the EBV itself owned shares and acquired shares in the pits in which the newly founded association was also involved. The difficulties resulting from this could only have been solved by mutual purchases or sales, which the two companies were not yet ready to do. Furthermore, the industry also had to be convinced that steam engines, for example, can also be operated with lean coal. But it was not until the railway connection from Aachen to Cologne completed in 1841 by the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft that new markets opened up for lean coal in the area on the left bank of the Rhine.
After increasing sales in 1858, this ultimately led to the fact that the association was able to take over the Pannesheider Mining Association and all the corresponding shares, including the remaining shares in the Voccart mine and the entire share in the Hoheneich mine and the flame coal fields Königsgrube and Community fell to society. In the same year, the association also bought the Gouley mine and the Langenberg mine a year later. A massive price war forced the Furth mine in 1861, Eduard Honigmann's royal mine in 1869 and finally the Teut mine in 1870 under its roof. With the exception of the Dutch mine Domaniale Mijn, almost all mines with lean coal in the worming area were now owned by the company. On the edge of the worm area, there were only the Aachen-Höngener Bergwerk-Aktiengesellschaft, founded in 1864, with its Maria mine, also managed by Eduard Honigmann, Leopold Schoeller and Friedrich Ernst Bölling, and, from 1900, the Nordstern mine, managed by Carl, Friedrich and Moritz Honigmann .
In 1875, the association also set up its own station for personnel and material transport with the Aachen Nord station, which was part of the network of the Aachen industrial railway , which was founded in 1873 and connected most of the mines with the most important transshipment points . Finally, in 1890, the company took over the Maria mine, on which it set up a briquette factory .
In the following years there were massive sales losses. On the one hand, an economic crisis at the end of the eighties caused an oversupply, and on the other hand, the brick factories failed because they could only be operated with gas-rich coal due to the introduction of new ring kilns . Likewise, lignite on the left bank of the Rhine pushed more and more onto the market as a direct competitor to lean coal, but the company also lost an important sales market due to the closed association of the neighboring Dutch coal mining industry. As a result, smaller unprofitable pits had to be closed and others had already been completely sunk .
As a consequence, at the instigation of the EBV supervisory board member Robert von Görschen , the association finally merged with the EBV in 1907 and operated under the common name EBV. This created the largest mining company in Europe for many decades.
literature
- Matthias Kaever: The non-renewable energy sources between the Rur and Maas. Literaturverlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7424-9 .
Web links
- Glückauf Announcement No. 31, Dec 2009 (PDF; 7.3 MB)