Chew

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The Annaberg mountain altar impressively shows the landscape strewn with chews.

A coop (formerly also Grubenkaue , Kauhe or Kähe is) in the pre-industrial mining a superstructure above a mine-shaft . In today's mining linguistic usage, Kaue is generally used to denote a built-in above-ground space that z. B. is used as a place to stay or changing rooms ("washrooms").

The chews in early mining

Word origin and use of the chews

The term chew means hut or cottage. The term chew is derived from kaf or kab , which means something like hollow space. But other terms such as kaa , käu , kau , kawe or caw were also used. At Agricola it says:

“A miner, when he bares a deep passage, raises a shaft to sink, and puts it in a reel and a kaw that it does not rain in the shaft, not even the reelers freeze from the cold or otherwise from rain get annoyed. "

- Veith 1871

Initially, the miners only referred to the building erected above the shaft as the Kaue. These buildings served to protect the shaft mouth or, in the case of tunnel mines, to protect the tunnel mouth hole . The miners working there protected the Kaue from the weather. According to its purpose, the Kaue was a small building, which usually stood on a dump. Often the chews were designed as a pointed roof similar to a Finn hut . Occasionally, when the miners were not present, children played in the shaft and they could fall into the shaft during their game due to inattentiveness, or throw stones into the shaft and injure miners working below. In order to prevent these dangers, the shaft had to be protected against unauthorized access. For this purpose, the chew was provided with a door, which was provided with an iron bolt, the chew lock. This chew lock was locked with the chew key . This locking mechanism was so complicated that it took a little practice to operate. Because of this, the miners left the chew key under a stone near the chew. The Kaue was also the morning gathering place. The pit climber was present in the morning when the miners approached the Kaue to check it . For safety reasons, it was forbidden to shout or make any other noise in the chews for no reason. It was also forbidden to sing or whistle loudly. Assault among the miners was also prohibited under penalty.

Other chews

Over the years the term Kaue was also used for other buildings in the mines. Already in the Joachimsthaler Bergordnung of 1548 the colliery houses and hut houses were called Kauen. Usually an additional word was added to differentiate between the individual chews. The superstructure above the Göpel was known as a Treibekaue . The miner called the building above a reel Haspelkaue . The building in which the pit wood was prepared for the pit was called the carpenter's chew . The bucket above the shaft was called the bucket . In all chews, especially at night, it was forbidden to light a fire. Today, only the buildings in which the miners can move and clean are referred to as “stalls” or “ washrooms ”.

Washrooms

It used to be common for the miners to come to the colliery in their work clothes and then go home with the heavily soiled clothes after the shift . There they washed themselves under simple conditions with the help of a bucket or a wash tub.

The first wash chews

The first washrooms were put into operation in individual mines in the second half of the 19th century. These chews were often inadequately hygienic. There was only one common, mixed changing room where the miners changed their clothes. The traffic routes were designed in such a way that the miners coming or going had to pass between the comrades who were changing their clothes. They usually kept their clothes in cupboards in which there were two compartments, one for private clothes and one for work clothes. The miners only had wash basins about one meter deep for cleaning. As a rule, these were not equipped with boarding ladders. The walls and floors of the pools were concreted and plastered with cement plaster. In these pits, the miners, often crowded together, had to clean themselves. Often these wash basins have not been adequately cleaned. The water in the basins was also not changed enough, so that the miners had to wash themselves in heavily polluted water. There were also mines where the washrooms were so small that only a few miners could clean themselves there at the same time. All of these grievances ultimately led to many miners coming to the mine in their work clothes and washing themselves at home. Often only the miners who had a long way home made use of the washing facilities in the Kaue.

Problems and remedies

The worm disease spread among miners in the 19th and early 20th centuries . This disease was also favored by the poor hygiene in the chews. In the communal wash basins in particular, the worm larvae could easily spread through the bathing water. Since the miners were often exchanged between the mines, the disease was also spread as a result. At the beginning of the 20th century, a "Committee to Combat Worm Disease" was formed under the chairmanship of the Medical Council Dr. Tenholt. As a result of the investigations of this committee and revelations by the Bergarbeiter-Zeitung, the fight against the epidemic was strongly accelerated and on August 1, 1903, a mountain police ordinance came into force, which in addition to health and medical preventive measures to combat the worm disease, also extensive hygienic measures regulated. The mine owners were obliged to ensure perfect hygienic conditions in the chews. In particular, the chewing rooms had to be adapted to the workforce and equipped with adequate showers instead of the swimming pools. Thanks to the shower baths, the miners always had clean water available. The systems had to be cleaned regularly so that they were always in a clean condition.

Modern laundry chews

The black-and-white principle was created for modern laundromats in order to easily switch between street and work clothes even in large numbers. In addition to the team chews, there are separate chews for steers and for young people under 18 years of age. The chews are designed in such a way that the clean, coming and the dirty miners at the end of the work do not meet. The Waschkaue essentially consists of two identical changing rooms, the "Weißkaue" and the "Schwarzkaue". These changing rooms are dimensioned so that there is a space of 0.3 m 2 available per miner . The clothes are hung on hooks and pulled up to the ceiling using a rope or chain. Due to the higher temperatures in the ceiling area, clothes can dry and air out quickly if they are damp. The chains are locked on a stand. This arrangement allows the chew to be cleaned better and the clothing is largely protected from dust and theft. So that the miners can sit down while they change clothes, continuous benches are fixed to the floor at regular intervals. These benches also prevent a wild mess. To the side of the changing rooms are the toilets, which can be easily reached from the changing rooms.

Showers and other washing facilities are located between the changing rooms. The number is such that, based on the most heavily occupied shift, there is a shower for nine to ten men. The space around the shower is 1.5 m 2 per shower . This means that a shower can be used by several miners at the same time. In order to avoid skin diseases, hygiene must be observed in the chews. This requires regular cleaning and disinfection of the chews. Depending on the mine, a corresponding number of marshals is responsible for these tasks. Before the start of the shift, the miner undresses in the Weißkaue, hangs his private clothes on the white hook and pulls it up. Then he goes naked to the blackout and puts on his work clothes, which are also hanging on a hook on a chain. After the work is done, this process works the other way round, but then using the showers.

Web links

Commons : Pithead baths in Germany  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Kaue  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Tilo Cramm, Joachim Huske: Miners' language in the Ruhr area . 5th revised and redesigned edition, Regio-Verlag, Werne 2002, ISBN 3-929158-14-0 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Heinrich Veith: German mountain dictionary with documents. Published by Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn, Breslau 1871.
  3. ^ A b c Walter Bischoff , Heinz Bramann, Westfälische Berggewerkschaftskasse Bochum: The small mining dictionary. 7th edition, Verlag Glückauf GmbH, Essen 1988, ISBN 3-7739-0501-7 .
  4. ^ A b c Rudolf Hildebrand: German Dictionary by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm . Fifth volume, published by S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1873.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f German Encyclopedia or General Real Dictionary of all arts and sciences from a society of scholars . Nineteen volume, Kam - Kep, bey Barrentrapp and Wenner, Frankfurt am Main 1796.
  6. ^ Moritz Ferdinand Gätzschmann: Collection of mining expressions . Second substantially increased edition, Verlag von Craz & Gerlach, Freiberg 1881.
  7. ↑ Rules of conduct for miners to avoid accidents . 1876, pp. 5-6.
  8. ^ Heinrich von Achenbach: The common German mining law in connection with the Prussian mining law taking into account the mining laws of Bavaria, Saxony, Austria and other German countries . First part, in Adolph Marcus, Bonn 1871, pp. 237, 252, 253.
  9. ^ Karl Bax: The German miner in the course of history, his position in the present and the question of his next generation of professionals . Third edition, published by Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1942, p. 52.
  10. ↑ a b Wilhelm Hermann, Gertrude Hermann: The old collieries on the Ruhr. 4th edition, Verlag Karl Robert Langewiesche, successor Hans Köster KG, Königstein i. Taunus 1994, ISBN 3-7845-6992-7 .
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g Lujo Brentano, Walter Lotz (ed.): Munich economic studies . Fifty-eighth piece, Lorenz Pieper: The situation of the miners in the Ruhr area , J. G. Gotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachhaben, Stuttgart and Berlin 1903, pp. 26, 158–171.
  12. ↑ a b c The facilities for the good of the workers in the mines . Verlag von Ernst & Korn, Volume II, Berlin 1876, pp. 76–82.
  13. ↑ a b c d Hans Väth: Colliery buildings above days . Dissertation at the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina, printed by Ms. Wilh. Ruhfus, Dortmund 1929, pp. 17, 34-37.
  14. ↑ a b Joachim Huske: The former mining in the Holzwickede area 1. Edition. Regio Verlag Peter Voß, Werne 2003, ISBN 3-929158-16-7 , p. 101.
  15. ↑ Wolfgang Weichardt: Results of the Hygiene Bacteriology Immunity Research and Experimental Therapy . Twenty-first volume, Springer Verlag Berlin, Berlin 1938, pp. 187–195.
  16. ^ Gerhard Piekarski: Textbook of Parasitology . Springer Verlag Berlin-Heidelberg, Berlin 1954, p. 384.
  17. ↑ a b c The welfare institutions for the workers in the pits of the royal mining directorate in Saarbrücken . Julius Springer's publishing bookstore, Berlin 1904, pp. 101–106.
  18. ^ A b c d Association for mining interests in the Oberbergamtsiertel Dortmund (ed.): The development of the Lower Rhine-Westphalian hard coal mining in the second half of the 19th century . Part VIII Disposition of the daytime facilities - steam generation - central condensation - air compression - electrical central units. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH, Berlin Heidelberg 1905, pp. 58-65.
  19. ↑ a b K. Kegel: Textbook of mountain economy. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH, Berlin / Heidelberg 1931, p. 438.
  20. ↑ Alois Riman, Friedrich Lockert: Project planning and rationalization of coal mines . Springer Verlag Wien GmbH, Vienna 1962, p. 209.
  21. ^ Franz Koelsch: Textbook of industrial hygiene . Special occupational hygiene, Enke Verlag, 1946, p. 29.
  22. ^ Archives for industrial pathology and industrial hygiene . Volume 16, Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 1957, pp. 250, 337-340.
  23. ^ General Association of German Hard Coal Mining (Ed.): Hard coal mining in Germany . IDAG Industriedruck AG, Essen 2006, p. 3.