Weißeritzmühlgraben
The Weißeritzmühlgraben was an artificial watercourse fed by the Weißeritz in downtown Dresden . It is of outstanding importance for the industrial history of the city.
course
The Weißeritzmühlgraben started as the right branch of the Weißeritz at a weir that was a few meters below the current Würzburger Straße bridge in Löbtau . Here the main part of its water was withdrawn from the Weißeritz in an unnatural way. In a roughly north-easterly direction of flow, the canal initially followed the present day Fabrikstrasse in order to cross under the Dresden – Werdau railway north of the Nossener Bridge . Then it turned again to the northeast and flowed between the railway line and today's Feldschlößchenstrasse . Then it crossed today's 26er Ring and ran through the Wilsdruffer suburb . Here the Weißeritzmühlgraben passed the present Hercules Club , the Annenkirche and the theater . The last section led past the Duchess Garten to the Erlweinspeicher , where it reached the Elbe . In the Wilsdruffer suburb it was crossed by a bridge on Ostra-Allee . The former estuary is level with the congress center . Its total length was about four kilometers. The Weißeritzmühlgraben ran largely parallel to the actual, earlier course of the Weißeritz river (before it was canalised and relocated to the west) and was almost 800 meters away from it, farthest at the Postplatz , where it almost touched the old town in front of the Wilsdruffer Tor .
geology
Due to the surrounding geological conditions, the bed of the Weißeritzmühlgraben lies within the alluvial cone of the Weißeritz. The course of the trench extends from approximately the railway line Hauptbahnhof-Bahnhof Mitte along the eastern edge of this zone, which is characterized by white scree, in which parts of the monzonite from the Plauen reason and gneiss from the Ore Mountains region can be found. To the east of its course, loam and gravel join the Elster-2 ground moraine ( Elster Ice Age ), which also cover the valley flanks of the Weißeritz.
In the area of the former Dresden paper mill (in the Gleisdreieck on Freiberger Strasse ), a hole was drilled in 1861 to obtain water, which reached a total depth of 110.0 meters. It pumped water with its own buoyancy and thereby formed an artesian well . The water obtained in this way came from deeper layers, water-bearing Cretaceous sediments ( planes , sandstone ) under the Ice Age boulders , sands and silts . From the surface to a depth of 11.5 meters, coarse gravel was found in the drill profile , which corresponds to the alluvial cone of the Weißeritz. The original bed of the Weißeritz was characterized by Werdern and oxbow lakes, in whose area the course of the Weißeritzmühlgraben represents part of the surface water flow .
history
The Weißeritzmühlgraben was built in the 15th century to power various types of water mills in the growing capital of Saxony and its western suburbs. Furthermore, until the 18th century, it had the function of a raft ditch in its upper section , on which Ore Mountain timber and firewood was transported. Due to accelerated technical progress, the Weißeritzmühlgraben was used less and less towards the end of the 19th century. In addition, it increasingly proved to be an obstacle to urban planning and was relocated in sections to underground vaults. Last but not least, it had become an odor nuisance due to its strong pollution caused by discharged sewage and rainwater and thus a serious hygienic problem. This decline finally led to the permanent closure of the branch in Löbtau on October 9, 1937 and thus to the final closure of the canal. At this point in time it was only a few places above ground. Over the years the remains were filled in or converted into air raid shelters, which saved the lives of many Dresden residents during the air raids in 1945 . As a result of the changed rebuilding of large parts of the Wilsdruffer suburb after the Second World War , the historical district structure was destroyed and the former Weißeritzmühlgraben was largely overbuilt. Today only very isolated traces remind of him. There is a street called Am Weißeritzmühlgraben near the Nossener Bridge . There is also the Floßhofstrasse and the Papiermühlengasse, both of which are named after businesses that were previously located there. As part of the creation of a public park on the Weißeritzufer, a 45-meter-long section of the trench and the pit of the powder mill's water wheel were exposed by 2015 . At this point, a small documentation center about the Weißeritzmühlgraben was also built.
During archaeological excavations in the old town, remains of the Weißeritzmühlgraben were found on Hertha-Lindner-Straße.
use
The Weißeritzmühlgraben was used in a wide variety of ways, as water was the only effective source of energy for a long time. At times there were over 20 facilities on its banks, mainly grinders , which were dependent on its power. In addition to the classic grain mills , this also included a paper , melt, fulled , spice , oil , saw and pasta mill . There were also two tobacco mills , a hammer mill for metalworking, the silver hammer , slaughterhouses , tanneries and the raft yard, the end point of the wood brought from the Erzgebirge to the Weißeritz.
The noodle mill , founded around 1770, was a company founded by the Italian actor Antonio Bertoldi on the lower reaches of the Weißeritzmühlgraben. The pasta mill was also known as the macaroni or Italian pasta mill . The old noodle mill, a popular pub, was part of it . After it was demolished in 1913, it was continued at the same location in a new building. The pasta mill burned out in 1945 and was then demolished.
Finally, the three electoral works were of particular importance and notoriety . This included the powder mill , in which gunpowder essential for the war effort was made and which also enabled magnificent fireworks to be carried out at the Dresden court . The cannon boring mill was also essential for national defense . The third state institution was the Spiegelschleife , which supplied precious stones and mirror glass for the electoral court. In this way, the moat with its mill wheels and later turbines was immensely important for supplying the city and the country for centuries. For example, it was used to produce food and mint coins.
In the area of the former powder mill, the powder mill park was opened to the public in October 2014 .
Former mills and factories at Weißeritzmühlgraben
- Fulling mill (built around 1550/60, demolished in 1934)
- Spiegelschleife (built around 1700 as an iron hammer, from 1712 grinding and polishing mill)
- Powder mill (built in 1576 by Paul Buchner, exploded several times, shut down in 1875, later a grain grinder)
- Cannon boring mill (1554 as copper hammer, from 1765 boring mill)
- Polishing and grinding mill (Würzmühle) (built 1550/76, demolished in 1895)
- Kunadmühle (built around 1500 as a grain mill, demolished in 1895)
- Paper mill (built before 1493, in operation until 1914)
- Poppitzer Mühle (tobacco mill) (in operation since 1766, burned down in 1865)
- Hofmühle (Beisertmühle) (around 1400 as a grain grinding mill, closed in 1937)
- Bäckermühle (Beisertmühle) (1455 as a grain grinding mill, closed in 1937)
- Damm-Mühle (grain grinding mill, demolished in 1874)
- Silberhammer (coin) (1622 for minting coins, broken off in 1898)
- Pasta mill (built in 1773, demolished in 1912)
- Tobacco mill (built before 1774, demolished around 1800)
- Smelting mill (built in 1606, demolished in 1899)
- Schleifmühle (built around 1623 as an iron hammer, later glassworks and grinding mill, demolished in 1862)
literature
- H. Ebert, H. Grahmann, K. Pietzsch : Explanations of the geological map of Saxony on a scale of 1:25 000 . No. 66 sheet Dresden. Ed .: Saxon Ministry of Finance. 3. Edition. Leipzig 1934.
- Wolfgang Müller: Stories from old Dresden - With the Weißeritzmühlgraben through our city . 1st edition. Hille, Dresden 2011, ISBN 978-3-939025-23-8 .
- W. Paelchen, H. Walter (Ed.): Geology of Saxony ' . Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-510-65239-6 .
- Stadtlexikon Dresden A-Z . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1995, ISBN 3-364-00300-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paelchen, Walter, Geologie , 2008, p. 437
- ↑ Ebert, Grahmann, Pietzsch, Explanations , 1934, p. 130
- ↑ a b Ebert, Grahmann, Pietzsch, Explanations , 1934, pp. 130, 171
- ↑ a b F. Kossmat et al .: Geological map of Saxony, No. 66 sheet Dresden . 3rd edition Leipzig 1934
- ↑ Christoph Stephan: Alter Mühlgraben rediscovered, DNN (2013) No. 108 (from 11/12 May 2013), p. 15
- ↑ Recreation on historical ground - powder mill park was officially opened, from DNN, No. 237 11./12. Oct. 2014, p. 16