Hercules colliery
| Hercules colliery | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| other names | Hercules colliery | ||
| Funding / year | approx. 350,000 t | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Start of operation | 1859 | ||
| End of operation | 1925 | ||
| Successor use | Commercial space | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Hard coal | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 51 ° 27 '24 " N , 7 ° 1' 24" E | ||
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| Location | Essen town center | ||
| local community | eat | ||
| Independent city ( NUTS3 ) | eat | ||
| country | State of North Rhine-Westphalia | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | Ruhr area | ||
The bill Hercules was a coal - mine in today Ostviertel of food .
history
1855 consolidated several Essen merchants the mine fields "Hercules," "Catherine", "welfare" and "Amsterdam" to union Hercules based in Essen . The minefield property extended from the southern area of Essen's old town to Huttrop and Kray .
In 1856, near Essen's old town, south of Frillendorfer Strasse, work began on sinking the “Hercules” shaft.
It is characteristic of the pioneering days of hard coal mining that this new mine was only two blocks south of the Graf Beust colliery . After the bay in 1857 already reached the coal mountains that could 1859 funding will be taken.
Due to the favorable economic development of the colliery, it was possible to quickly expand the mine workings. As early as 1863 a weather shaft was sunk on the road to Steele in order to also supply the mining operating points further away from the main shaft with fresh weather . The test shafts sunk between Huttrop and Steele in 1865 and 1866 could not, however, provide any further information about economically recoverable reserves in the eastern field. It was still limited to the extraction via shaft 1.
In 1889 the production was 230,000 tons of lean coal annually. It was decided to expand the mine extensively. Shaft 1 received a two-storey strut frame as a conveyor system. A briquette factory was also built at shaft 1 . In addition, work began on developing the colliery's southern section. From 1889 to 1891, shaft 2, which served as a cable car and weather shaft for the southern field, was therefore sunk.
Renewed test bores in the eastern field led to the decision to develop this area with an own production shaft. For this purpose, shaft 3 was sunk in 1899 at the Zehnthof between Huttrop and Kray, which was later also called the "Katharina" shaft. In 1901 this shaft went into production. It was equipped with a Tomson frame as a conveyor system. After its completion, the old weather shaft was thrown off . In 1905, one kilometer east of the "Katharina" shaft, shaft 4 was sunk as a weather shaft for the new conveyor system.
In 1906 the Hercules union, together with the Rheinische Anthracitkohlenwerke AG and the Dahlhauser Tiefbau union, founded the Essener Steinkohlenbergwerke AG , in which several lean coal mines in the Ruhr area initially merged. It was decided to separate shafts 3 and 4 for the Hercules colliery and to continue them independently as the Katharina colliery .
At the Hercules colliery, investments were made in expanding the Hercules 1 central hoisting shaft system. After expansion of the processing capacity, the new shaft 5 was sunk next to shaft 1 in 1911. (The shaft numbering for the Hercules and Katharina collieries was continued despite the separation.) It went into operation in 1912 and was equipped with a closed winding tower.
The production of the individual Hercules mine at this time was 350,000 tons per year.
Shutdown
In the economically tense period after the First World War , the sales market for lean coal and edible coal in particular was under pressure. Shaft 2 was closed in 1919. The Essener Steinkohlenbergwerke AG decided to rationalize the lean coal mining in the Essen area. A large-scale expansion of the pits in the Hercules / Katharina mine field was only possible from the outset at the Katharina colliery , as the Hercules 1/5 mine , located in the middle of the densely built-up inner city area of Essen, had no possibility of expansion.
Therefore, the decommissioning of the Hercules 1/5 production shaft for 1925 was decided and carried out on September 15 of that year. The shafts were filled and the briquette factory shut down. The mine field came to the Katharina colliery .
A short time later, a so-called Sturmlokal of the Essen SA was set up on the former colliery site . At the time of the seizure of power in 1933, the forced labor camp Zeche Hercules was located in old colliery buildings as a labor camp to accommodate around 150 forced laborers .
Current condition
After the shutdown, the systems, which were located in a street and track triangle on Herkulesstraße, were demolished. In the period after the destruction of World War II , the terrain and the road layout were partially changed. The Herkules industrial area takes up part of the old colliery area . The Herkulesstraße also carries the memory of the old colliery - and the horrors of the Herkuleswache - on.
literature
- Hermann, Wilhelm and Gertrude: The old mines on the Ruhr . 6th edition, expanded to include a digression according to p. 216 and updated in energy policy parts, the 5th edition, completely revised. u. extended edition 2003, Königstein i. Ts. ( Verlag Langewiesche ) 2008 ( The Blue Books ), ISBN 978-3-7845-6994-9