King Ludwig colliery
| King Ludwig colliery | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
 Workers and officials of the colliery in April 1892 |
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| Information about the mining company | |||
| Start of operation | 1886 | ||
| End of operation | 1965 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Hard coal | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 51 ° 35 '3.6 " N , 7 ° 14' 15.3" E | ||
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| Location | Old border road, King Ludwig | ||
| local community | Recklinghausen | ||
| District ( NUTS3 ) | Recklinghausen | ||
| country | State of North Rhine-Westphalia | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | Ruhr area | ||
The König Ludwig colliery was a coal mine in Recklinghausen .
history
Founding of the King Ludwig union
1856 pushed by the Inspector General August Bockholtz (Bockholte) and the banker Wilhelm Hagedorn excited exploratory drilling in Recklinghausen south on coal . Bockholtz and Hagedorn gave courage and the Henriettenglück I to III pit fields were awarded . They were consolidated under United Henriettenglück in 1867 .
During the founding period in 1871, the United Henriettenglück trade union under mining law was able to organize the capital required to build a mine . At a general assembly on February 16, 1872 in the hotel “Berliner Hof” in Essen, it was decided to build the mine soon. It was also decided to name the union after the Bavarian King Ludwig II .
Geitenfeld , owned by the city of Recklinghausen , was to be purchased for the construction of the surface operations. Due to a dispute over the purchase price, the property was leased in March 1872. After another dispute over the assumption of costs for the road construction, the union bought ten acres of land on Stillbrink from farmer Hestermann. The country belonged to the independent rural community of Suderwich and, apart from the dispute with the city of Recklinghausen, was particularly attractive because of the lower taxes. The Recklinghausen city council and the mayor Hagemann tried to change the society, but even a strenuous process could not convince them to build the colliery on Recklinghausen land.
Depth
In the second attempt on April 27, 1872, the sinking work for the first shaft began at Stillbrink . The engineer Koepe ( Carl Friedrich Koepe ?) Organized a hoisting machine from the Carl colliery . In 1873 the work came because of problems with the drainage to a halt. In 1874 all workers had to be fired and the sinking work was stopped for the time being. In spring 1875, several board members resigned (including Friedrich Grillo ), so that in April 1875 only board members Carl Funke and Wilhelm Hagedorn met. In 1876 the sinking work could be resumed, but the dewatering continued to cause problems. With centrifugal pumps (from 1882) and tubbings (from 1883) the shaft could be drained permanently. In the same year the shaft reached the coal-bearing layer ( seam ) at a depth of 307 m . At a depth of 361 m, the first floor was used as a weather floor , and in 1885 the construction floor was set at 440 m . Promotion began in 1886.
On July 22, 1886, seven miners were killed in a firedamp explosion . In three further firedamp and coal dust explosions on November 12, 1891, August 18, 1893 and January 17, 1901, 31 other miners were killed.
Promotion, expansion and strike
| Place of birth in | absolutely | percentage |
| Westphalia | 562 | 38 |
| Rhine Province | 96 | 7th |
| East and West Prussia | 62 | 4th |
| Poses | 514 | 35 |
| Silesia | 100 | 7th |
| Others | 155 | 10 |
| total | 1489 | 100 |
In 1886, a workforce of 144 men mined 24,869 tons of coal. Since the raw coal sold for 4.80 Marks / t was relatively low, the construction of a processing plant with coal separation and coal washing was started in 1887 . In March 1888 the construction of a coking plant began in order to achieve higher profits with the coke produced in it. On July 1, 1889, the first 60 coke ovens went into operation. The high-quality coke was sold at an average price of 12.15 marks / t. The gases produced in the coking plant were used to heat 20 Cornwall boilers to generate steam for the hoisting machines. At the end of 1890 another 40 coke ovens went into operation. By 1890 the workforce had grown to 740 men, the production amounted to 429,291 tons.
In the mass strike of 1889 , which from the end of April spread from the Bochum Zeche President throughout the entire Ruhr area, 470 miners from the "König Ludwig" colliery also took part. Several companies of Infantry Regiment No. 13 under the command of Captain von Seidewitz guarded the striking miners in Recklinghausen. At a meeting of the strikers in Dortmund-Dorstfeld it was decided to send the miners Schröder, Bunte and Siegel as delegates to the Kaiser and the Reichstag. They presented their demands to Kaiser Wilhelm II as a delegate on May 14th. With members of the Reichstag of the National Liberal Party , including the chairman of the Mining Association , Friedrich Hammacher , they stipulated the 8-hour shift, regular wage increases and overtime only in exceptions approved by workers' committees in the “Berlin Protocol”. However, the entrepreneurs did not accept this protocol and instead issued the "Essen Declaration" on May 18. According to this, the 8-hour shift should be introduced, but the workers' committees were rejected and wages should only be increased once. The miners were divided on whether to accept the declaration. Under pressure from the private sector, the miners resumed work on May 27th after a three-week strike. The strike led to the social reforms in 1890 and the establishment of the first miners' union (later the "old association").
Mountain police requirements meanwhile required the construction of a second shaft at the “König Ludwig” colliery, so the union decided to create a weather shaft . From April 1889, shaft 2 was sunk 80 m from shaft 1 . In 1891 he reached the 442 m level (now weather sole ), at a depth of 527 m was a second sole attached. In 1894, shaft 2 was put into operation as the second production shaft . For this purpose, the new weather shaft, shaft 3, was sunk about 1 km south of the shaft system 1/2 from August 15, 1894.
With the accession to the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Kohlen-Syndikat (RWKS) in February 1893 the coal prices stabilized and the economic situation of the union "King Ludwig" improved. However, membership in the RWKS also limited the mines' output. In order to increase the production anyway, the board decided to use the shaft 3 planned as a weather shaft as an additional production shaft, which increased the permitted flow rate. Shaft 3 reached the 442 m level on October 1, 1896. The coal extracted was transported to mine 1/2 for processing by a field railway . From 1898 the company's own 1.7 hectare port on the branch canal of the Dortmund-Ems Canal (now part of the Rhine-Herne Canal ), which is still under construction, was completed. On the one hand, coal and coke could be sold to the North Sea ports via the port, but material could also be delivered.
In 1896, the mine with 1,767 employees produced 592,000 tons of coal. In 1898, 147,030 tons of coke were produced in the 180 coke ovens. The coking plant was meanwhile connected to plants for the extraction of the by-products tar , ammonia , benzene , various hydrocarbons and later town gas . Sales of coke and its by-products accounted for 35% of the union's total income in 1899.
Construction of the pit 4/5
In May 1898 the “King Ludwig” union acquired the kuxe of the neighboring “Henrichenburg” union, including 13 pit fields with a total area of 27.6 km². This had the Berechtsame the union of 8.7 square kilometers to 36.3 square kilometers expanded. On July 3, 1900, 3 km northeast of plant 1/2, west of the municipality of Suderwich, work began on a new "König Ludwig" 4/5 mine. In 1901 a railway line was built between facilities 1/2 and 4/5. In August 1902 shaft 4 reached m at 453 m and depth of 520 already on the pit 1/2 from ascended routes. In October 1902 reached shaft 4, the preliminary final depth m of 628 and took the promotion as the new main production well, while the promotion was set to pit first Shaft 5 was put into operation as a weather shaft when it reached the 520 m level in November. From 1902 to 1903, shaft 6 was sunk on the site of the first shaft as an additional weather shaft. In 1903, a coking plant with 80 Otto Hoffmann ovens also went into operation on shaft 4/5.
Because the actual conditions had hardly improved even after the social reforms in 1890, the miners went on strike again in 1905. When a list of demands from the miners ' unions was rejected by the employers' associations, a general strike was called on January 16 . After negotiations and the commitment to amend individual provisions of the General Mining Act, the general strike was lifted on February 10th. In the amendment to the law, among other things, the duration of the shift, including entry and exit, was limited to 8½ hours and the "zeroing of the wagon", ie the complete deduction of a coal wagon that was not fully loaded, was abolished; Workers' committees should monitor compliance with these regulations. The workers' committees were formed at the “König Ludwig” colliery in November 1905. The mining board of the “König Ludwig” union wrote in the 1905 annual report about the economic consequences of the strike : “Due to the strike in January and February, we are at a loss and lost earnings resulted in damage of 500,000 marks. We have suffered a further incalculable disadvantage in that our factories, which are in strong upward development, have been pushed back in their progress by many months. As was unfortunately to be expected, the indulgence of the state government against the incited masses and the misguided public has led to the mandatory introduction of workers' committees in Prussian mining. "
The following years were marked by new technical developments. The length of the face could be extended by cutting machines and vibrating chutes , which enabled more economical mining . In 1905, 32 horses were kept underground to transport coal ; due to the operation of locomotives and cable cars, only eight pit horses were still in use in 1912 . The workforce had increased to 3822 by 1905. In 1906, the annual output exceeded the million ton limit for the first time at 1,086,055 t. The value of the König-Ludwig-Kuxe rose from 4,800 marks in 1889 to up to 32,500 marks in 1912. The Kuxe thus ranked fourth among the highest rated carbon papers.
Also under the impression of two mine accidents on June 28 and July 18, 1910, in which five miners were killed, a mine rescue service was set up in 1911 . Despite the deployment of the mine rescue team, another five miners were killed in accidents on February 16 and October 17, 1916.
First World War
As a result of being called up for World War I from July 1914, the workforce fell by around 25% by 1916. The mine management tried to replace the missing miners with prisoners of war and foreign workers and to compensate with overtime. However, coal mining was made difficult by the poor food supply. The production leveled off around 1915/1916 at 80% of the amount produced in the last month of peace. Because of the war there was a lack of material for further expansion of the facilities. But the war also increased the demand for coal, so that the union felt that it was financially well equipped. Shaft 2 was given a new headframe in 1915 and a new twin hoist in April 1916 . To align a third level, shaft 4 was sunk 26 m deeper in 1917. The by-product extraction systems were also expanded: in 1916 a new tar distillation was put into operation after the old one was destroyed by a fire in June 1913. The benzene factory was modernized and the plants for the extraction of coumarone resin , Stauffer fat and tar oil were rebuilt in 1917. In 1918, a new power plant was also built on the "König Ludwig" 4/5 facility, which replaced the outdated boiler houses.
Ruhr uprising and occupation of the Ruhr
In the revolutionary mood after the end of the First World War, clashes similar to civil war broke out between miners and free corpse soldiers. On November 9, 1918, 150 sailors and soldiers from Cologne freed 20 soldiers held in the Recklinghausen court prison. Work stoppages occurred in February and March 1919. In April, the miners of the “König Ludwig” colliery stopped their work to demonstrate against the government military and for a better food supply. After almost four weeks, the strike collapsed without any results.
However, the situation did not calm down permanently and finally escalated into the Ruhr uprising in the spring of 1920 . On March 20, 1920, 800 members of the Red Ruhr Army occupied the city of Recklinghausen and disarmed the police. However, the Executive Council appointed by the Ruhr Army could not restore order. The supply of the population remained catastrophic and looting began. Then in April there were several shootings. The communist chairman of the Executive Council, Markuse, was killed by police officers. The advancing Reichswehr finally put down the uprising. Economically, however, the uprisings had hardly any negative consequences. Shafts 4 and 5 reached the 3rd level at a depth of 620 m. In 1922, shaft 6 was sunk as a weather shaft up to the 2nd level.
In contrast, the occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops in 1923/1924 had more severe effects . On April 1, 1923, Easter Sunday, mine 4/5 was partially occupied and the stocks of coke were confiscated by the French. On October 10, 1923, the Mission interalliée de Contrôle des Usines et des Mines (MICUM) confiscated all the facilities of the “King Ludwig” union. The passive resistance of the miners against the occupiers led to a production of only 568,802 t in 1923. After more than a year, the occupation ended on October 27, 1924. However, when they were returned, the operating facilities were in a desolate condition: the coking plant on Shaft 1/2 had to be partially shut down, the coking plant on the premises of Shafts 4/5 was completely demolished. Although more than a million tons were mined again in 1924, the repair costs led to an annual loss of 1,180,000 Reichsmarks.
In the summer of 1924, 80 newly built coke ovens went into operation at shaft 1/2. The new coking plant at shaft 4/5 was completed in 1926. The union "King Ludwig" bought the coal mine United Trappe in Wetter. The union closed the colliery on December 31, 1925 in order to increase its own production rate permitted by the coal syndicate and to use it for the "König Ludwig" colliery.
Construction of the pit 7/8
In order to further increase the permitted flow rate, the mining board decided in 1928 to sink shafts 7 and 8 east of shaft 4/5. On May 15, General Director Jacob Kleynmans broke ground for the first time. Shaft 8 reached its final depth of 637 m on October 11, and shaft 7 at 758 m on December 30, 1929. The weather floor was set at 470 m, the extraction floor at 606 m.
In the meantime, the mining operation has been modernized. Rod cutters were used where the coal was stored flat. With the increased use of machines, a three-shift rhythm was introduced. The first layer mined the coal, the second layer filled the cavity with dead rock ( offset ) and the third layer prepared the machines for the next mining. The pneumatic-powered pick hammer was used in an inclined position.
Mining AG Ewald-König Ludwig
Under the pressure of the global economic crisis , the trade unions "König Ludwig" and "Ewald" in Herten initially merged to form a sales association. In addition to the Ewald colliery in Herten and the Ewald colliery continuation in Oer-Erkenschwick , the Haus Aden colliery in Bergkamen also belonged to the "Ewald" union . On July 31, 1931, it was decided to unite them into a joint company. How close the connection between the two unions was is also shown by the material ropeway that brought coal from the “Ewald Continuation” mine to the processing of the “König Ludwig” 4/5 mine. On June 21, 1935, the two companies founded the public limited company Bergbau-AG Ewald-König Ludwig , Ewald-König Ludwig AG for short .
Because the coking plant at plant 1/2 was not profitable enough, operations were stopped in 1930. With the war economy starting according to the four-year plan , the demand for coke increased and the coking plant was operated again from 1937.
Second World War
In December 1939 the state-owned Reichswerke Hermann Göring took over half of the shares in Ewald-König Ludwig AG . On January 9, 1940, the company was incorporated into the group. Because of the war there was still an increased demand for coal, but not enough workers. Longer shift times, additional “armored shifts” and, above all, the employment of prisoners of war and forced laborers should increase the output. The forced laborers from Poland, Italy and Russia were housed in a camp on Ickerottweg at Annex 7/8, while Belgians, French, Croats, Poles and Russians were in a second camp on Kanalschlösschen. Due to language problems and insufficient qualifications of the forced laborers and the poor food supply for the entire workforce, the subsidy hardly increased.
The limited coal reserves in the mining area of plant 1/2 led to the leasing of the eastern field of the neighboring Recklinghausen colliery on October 1, 1940. The 3.6 km² mine field also included a shaft that was already sunk up to 387 m. This shaft, known as the “Grullbadschacht”, was sunk to the level of the 2nd level by 1942 and the extraction of plant 1/2 was shifted to this part of the field. In the meantime, shaft 3 was abandoned in 1942, after which production had ceased in 1925.
17 miners died in a mine fire with a subsequent firedamp explosion on November 10, 1940. This largest mine accident at the “König Ludwig” colliery was abused as a death of honor on the labor front for propaganda purposes. 12 miners died in a bomb attack on mine 4/5 on November 1st. The facilities, railway lines and bridges destroyed by bombs led to material bottlenecks which made operations even more difficult.
Post-war period and foundation of the Ruhr Festival
On April 1, 1945, the Allies occupied the operating facilities and dismissed the mine director. The military government had the conveyor systems as well as the coking plants and other ancillary systems shut down. In the post-war period , Rhine Coal Control took over management and ensured that the plants were restarted. However, the factories got back into motion only slowly because of the continued poor food supply. Coal production started again in August 1945. In 1945 Ewald-König Ludwig AG produced a total of only 648,022 t. The coking plant in plant 4/5 went back into operation in 1945, the coking plant in plant 1/2 resumed production in 1946.
During the cold winter of 1946/1947, the Hamburg theaters were about to close because they no longer had any coal for heating. The administrative director of the Hamburger Schauspielhaus , Otto Burrmeister , the works council chairman of the Hamburg State Opera, Karl Rosengart, and others drove into the Ruhr area in two wood-gas-powered trucks to ask for help at the coal mines. From the A 2 autobahn , they saw the chimneys of the power stations at mine 4/5 and took the next exit. The miners of the "König Ludwig" 4/5 colliery helped the theater people bypassing the controls by the occupying powers and loaded the trucks with coal. This illegal action was repeated several times until the loaded trucks were discovered by the military police.
In the summer of 1947, 150 actors from the three Hamburg theaters made guest appearances in the Städtisches Saalbau Recklinghausen as thanks for the coal aid . The Mayor of Hamburg, Max Brauer , gave a speech on the occasion from the conveyor bridge to the workforce of the colliery: “I can imagine a different and new kind of festival. Festivals not only for writers and the chosen, but festivals in the midst of places of hard work. Yes, the festival in the coal pot in front of the buddies. Yes, the festival takes place in Recklinghausen instead of Salzburg. ” The tradition of the Ruhr Festival in Recklinghausen grew out of the guest performance of the Hamburg actors .
The main focus of funding was the Grullbadfeld. The alignment of the field part east of shafts 7/8, begun in 1942, was continued from Annex 4/5. In the flat storage, the fully mechanical dismantling with modern double chain scraper conveyors and planing systems prevailed. However, because the deposits were geologically severely disturbed, more stretches had to be driven, which reduced the economic efficiency of mechanical mining. In a steeply inclined and steep position , the compressed air-powered pick hammer remained the most important tool.
Due to increased wages and a fixed coal price, Ewald-König Ludwig AG had to record a loss of 38,122,800 Reichsmarks in 1947. Not least with the currency reform , the situation improved from 1948 onwards. The following economic upswing ( economic miracle ), the increased demand for coal and the abolition of fixed prices and production restrictions also led to increased subsidies at the “König Ludwig” colliery. In 1950, Ewald-König Ludwig AG produced 1,510,374 t with 7,788 employees; in 1955 the company produced 1,618,076 t with a workforce of 7,767.
In 1955, with a breakthrough at a depth of 800 m, a connection was created between systems 1/2 and 4/5. Shaft 4/5 was expanded to become the main facility. Shaft 5 was sunk deeper and reached the 1000 m level in 1958. The processing including the coking plant at the shaft system shaft 1/2 was given up in 1958.
Coal crisis and shutdown
From 1958 the energy sources natural gas and crude oil and cheaper imported coal pushed increasingly onto the energy market. The coal from the “König Ludwig” colliery was too expensive because of the geologically disturbed deposits. The mine stockpiles grew and celebrations had to be put in place. Hopes now lay on shaft 5, which was expanded into a central shaft with modern vessel conveyance by 1961. It was called a “worry breaker”, but the worries remained: In 1962, the target output was reduced from 6,300 t / day to 3,300 t / day and uneconomical mining operations were thrown away. 1800 employees were relocated to the “Ewald” and “Haus Aden” collieries or were retired early via a social plan. Shafts 7, 2 and 8 were closed in 1963, shaft 1 followed in the spring of 1964. In 1960 the conveying capacity in kg per man and shift (kg / MS) was still 1651, through mechanization and rationalization the output was increased to 2464 kg by 1963 / MS are increased.
In the face of tough competition, the measures were apparently not sufficient to keep the mine running economically. The Bergbau AG Ewald King Ludwig had "King Ludwig" removed from the company name on 3 December 1959, and was renamed as Ewald coal AG within the Salzgitter AG . On January 7, 1965, the company decided to close down the “König Ludwig” colliery. The protest actions of the IGBE in the past few years were unsuccessful. On June 15, 1965, the "König Ludwig" mine stopped mining. The shafts were to 1966 filled .
Most of the 2500 employees could be relocated to other Ewald Kohlen AG mines or take early retirement. The mining department for the “König Ludwig” colliery became an independent company, Gesteinsbau König Ludwig (GKL), with around 700 employees. The GKL took on orders for mine works on other collieries, but also carried out industrial demolitions, track construction and civil engineering work. The coking plant in plant 4/5 was operated with coal from other Ewald Kohlen AG mines until 1978 . Most recently, almost 300 employees worked there. Like the GKL, the coking plant was incorporated into Ruhrkohle AG in 1969 .
Use after decommissioning
The Recklinghausen biomass cogeneration plant is located on the site of the colliery .
The König Ludwig railway line is currently being converted into a cycle and hiking trail. A first section from the Koenig Ludwig 1/2 colliery to the Rhine-Herne Canal , at the location of the former Friedrich der Große colliery , was opened to the public in December 2008. The bridge structures have been repaired and seating groups have been set up. Blue steles indicate the course of the path. The section between Ortlohstraße and Oer-Erkenschwick was released in June 2018.
literature
- Working group König Ludwig, Christoph Thüer (Ed.): Our Zeche König Ludwig. Cradle of the Ruhr Festival and more. Regio-Verlag, Werne 2005, ISBN 3-929158-19-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ For the working conditions cf. the work order of August 14, 1886, printed in: Collection of sources for the history of German social policy 1867 to 1914 , III. Department: Expansion and Differentiation of Social Policy since the Beginning of the New Course (1890–1904) , Volume 4, Labor Law , edited by Wilfried Rudloff, Darmstadt 2011, No. 53.
- ↑ Otto Taeglichsbeck, Königliches Oberbergamt Dortmund (ed.): The workforce of the mines and salt pans in the Oberbergamtsiertel Dortmund. Volume II, Bellmann & Middendorf, Dortmund 1893.
Web links
- Ulrich Eumann: Chronicle of the König Ludwig colliery (pdf, 91 kB)
- Contributions to the 132-year history of hard coal mining in Recklinghausen. PDF file
- Caught in the deep. In: WAZ March 1, 2009 (report on the 1958 accident).
