Weisenau cement works

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Mainz-Weisenau cement works

logo
legal form Corporation
founding July 22, 1864
Seat Mainz , Germany
management in personal union as plant manager of the Leimen Ulrich Schneider plant
Number of employees 29 (January 2016)
Branch Building materials
Website http://www.heidelbergcement.de/de/mainz

The cement plant Weisenau was founded in 1864 by Christian Lothary in Weisenau founded. Colloquially known as Portland by the Weisenau citizens , it shaped the Mainz district that was incorporated on January 1, 1930.

history

The beginnings

Christian Lothary around 1860

The entrepreneur Lothary, who became wealthy through the construction of the Mainz-Worms railway line in the Weisenau area, looked for new goals after completing the embankment he was responsible for. At first he thought of founding an iron foundry on the edge of the newly built railway line, for which he was able to win over the ironworks technician Julius Römheld from the vicinity of Marburg as a partner. However, the land between Oppenheim and Monzernheim, acquired by Lothary for the purpose of mining iron ore, turned out to be not as productive as Lothary had imagined. Although Römheld started producing pig iron with ten workers in a specially built workshop from 1859, Lothary realized that this iron foundry could not develop as he had imagined due to the lack of the iron ores required for it. It was the reason why he turned to the production of hot-fired bricks . Römheld moved his foundry to the northern edge of Mainz in 1862/63, while Lothary used the now empty foundry building for his purposes as a brick factory .

In the middle of the 19th century, Portland cement , which was developed from Roman cement by the Englishman Joseph Aspdin and named after the Isle of Portland , was used more and more in the construction industry. Portland cement plants were established in Bonn (1858), Mannheim (1860), Hattenheim (1860), moved to Mainz-Amöneburg in 1862 and Nieder-Ingelheim (1863) took this into account. Lothary also followed this development. A quarry for quarrying lime, the site of which he had acquired from the time the embankment was being built, buildings and building plots were plentiful. What was still missing was a specialist who had already gained enough experience in the production of Portland cement. And he found in the Mannheim engineer Carl Brentano (January 4, 1833 in Mannheim, † 10 May 1898 in Basel ) previously in Mainz-Amöneburg with Dyckerhoff the cement plant Amöneburg had founded but because of unbridgeable differences of opinion from him separated and had to look for a new field of activity, especially since he had to pay 7,500 guilders to Dyckerhoff because of the termination of the joint articles of association and thus almost all of his assets were used up.

Foundation of the plant

On July 22, 1864 , Lothary submitted a planning application to the Grand Ducal Mayor's Office in Weisenau to build a cement factory next to his brick factory above Weisenau . The request was granted and Brentano was entrusted with the construction and management of the cement works. Lothary, at that time a member of the state parliament of the Grand Duchy of Hesse , had enough capital to give Brentano the time to build the factory and to experiment with ovens and raw materials, using the existing ring oven, in which Lothary's bricks were also used were burned. Eventually it turned out that shaft furnaces were best suited to produce satisfactory results. The ovens were seven meters high and two meters in diameter. Compared to today's cement production, the loading of the shaft kilns was hard physical work. The stoves were first layered with a layer of brushwood on which wood was then placed. A layer of coke was then placed on top and then the first layer of the raw meal stone to be burned until the ovens were one third full . Then the sticks were ignited. When the fire reached the top layer, coke and flourstone continued to be added until the ovens were filled. This whole procedure took about a week until the ovens had cooled down again and the sintered kiln was broken as clinker by hand from the ovens and then ground to cement. The yield of the final product after one batch was about 80 to 100 tons.

Consolidation and death of Lothary

After production had started successfully, the necessary infrastructure for the plant was expanded under the direction of Brentano in quick succession . As early as 1866, the existing locomobile was replaced by a horizontal twin steam engine. Workshops for locksmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters and saddlers built and expanded with two more shaft furnaces. The limestone extracted from the quarry and the clay brought in by horse and cart from Bodenheim seven kilometers away were stored in newly built wooden silos. In those years, the cement was still transported in wooden barrels, for which a cooperage had to be built. In addition, there was a ship loading device on the Rhine and, in addition to the four existing shaft ovens, four more, while the production of hot-fired bricks in the brickworks continued in parallel.

The sudden and early death of Christian Lothary in 1868 marked a turning point for the company. Lothary's widow now joined Brentano as co-owner. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 was followed by a construction boom, which was followed by a construction crisis in 1872 with the corresponding effects on the industry, but which did not have a major impact on the Weisenau plant. Production increased to 10,000 tons per year by 1882, which also made it necessary to build four more shaft furnaces. As early as 1875 a new cooper's workshop was built, the cement warehouse was expanded and a new office and laboratory was set up. Around 180 to 200 workers were employed in the factory at that time, of which around 20 were employed in the quarry, who were paid up to 5.10 marks a day, compared to the "ordinary" workers who deal with 1.80 to 2, 00 marks had to be satisfied. But you can also see from this how difficult and dangerous the work in the quarry must have been during this time. The prosperity of the plant can also be seen in the population development in Weisenau, which grew from a little over 1,600 in 1858 to over 2,000 by 1864. In 1890 the community had over 4,500 inhabitants.

The limited partnership

There was a significant change in ownership on April 4, 1881, when the factory was converted into a limited partnership with a share capital of 60,000 marks. It seems the time when Brentano gave up the management of the plant and left Weisenau. For a short time Christian Lothary jun. responsible for the management of the plant but with his early death at the age of 33 on July 6, 1881, the responsibility as head and director of the plant was transferred to the hands of the businessman Jakob Junker (December 20, 1849 in Rheinböllen ; † March 10 1901 in Berlin ). It is not known whether the changes in ownership were related to a breakdown with Brentano. However, there is a presumption that Brentano's departure was related to falling sales. In any case, his further life is largely in the dark. It is only known that he lived with his family in Wiesbaden-Biebrich for a short time before he was appointed director of a brick factory in Allschwil in the canton of Basel in 1883 .

Junker, a Methodist and Salvation Army officer who , like Brentano, was previously employed by Dyckerhoff, directed the work in a patriarchal manner and was feared as a strict superior among the workers. He did not tolerate alcohol consumption and was an opponent of excessive entertainment. One of his first decisions was to shut down the brick factory and build a large ring kiln with 36 chambers and a 50 meter high chimney. The capital for this investment probably came from the sale of land and property owned by the Lothary family in Mainz.

After the brief lull in the construction sector, Junker was accommodated by the fact that the economy picked up again strongly in the 1880s. The expansion of the Mainz fortress and the expansion of the city of Mainz, the regulation of the Rhine , the construction of the road bridge between Mainz and Mainz-Kastel and the railway tunnel with the parallel relocation of Mainz main station from Rheinstrasse to the western periphery of what was then the city of Mainz, which was inaugurated in 1884 brought the cement plant to the limits of its capacities. In order to defend himself from the strong competition on the market of cement manufacturers in the vicinity, Dyckerhoff in Amöneburg and the Portland cement factory Fr. Sieger & Co., GmbH in Budenheim, Junker saw only the opportunity to enlarge the production facilities in Weisenau by his own To be able to stand up to competitors. For this purpose, the freight station urgently needed for the removal of the cement was built by the Hessian Ludwig Railway on the floodplain of the Rhine, which Lothary had already created in 1855 , but which could not be put into operation until 1890, and thus much too late. But all these investments already contained the decline of the plant. The care and maintenance of the already existing blast furnaces, buildings and machines was neglected in favor of the restructuring. In addition, after the construction boom in Mainz there was an economic dip with falling cement prices and so the community of heirs had to look for a financially strong buyer, who they had also found in the Mannheim-based Portland-Cementfabrik AG .

The takeover by the Mannheim Portland cement factory

For the “ Mannheimers ”, who had a maximum of 3,700 m² of built-up area available for their production facilities, compared to 19,000 m² in Weisenau, and with the quarry in Weisenau even more than 72,000 m², the purchase of the Weisenau factory was a good idea, also because of the favorable traffic situation on the Rhine an interesting alternative. After lengthy negotiations, they agreed on November 15, 1887 on a price of 800,000 marks for the entire business assets with the exception of the Jungefeld-Aue, located below Mainz-Laubenheim , by the von Jungsfeld family, to keep Lothary at bay for the purpose of future competition , acquired in 1863 and is now commonly known as Lothary Aue . The irony of history is the fact that the "Mannheimer" bought this site on September 12, 1898 for the same reasons as Lothary 35 years earlier.

It seems that the plant director Junker, who was active until the takeover, paid more attention to the moral lifestyle of his workforce than to the maintenance of the production facilities. In a minutes of the supervisory board of the new owners of December 21, 1887 it was noted that the operating facilities are in a "thoroughly depraved, no longer operational" condition. Wilhelm Merz , head of the Mannheim main plant, also took over management of the plant in Weisenau at short notice. Together with the chemist Emil Grauer , who replaced Junker as head of the plant on January 1, 1888, he subjected the plant to a thorough overhaul and the production facilities were considerably improved and expanded.

With two new steam engines of 600 and 200 HP each, the installation of a duct drying machine in the quarry, a new cement mill with three pan mills , three ball mills , two grinding aisles and a cement warehouse with packing room, the manufacturing facilities were made sustainable again. It was not until 1890 that the freight station could also be put into operation, although the wagons had to be pulled several hundred meters onto the factory premises by horses. Only after 1918, with the purchase of a shunting locomotive, could this temporary arrangement be replaced. When the ring kiln was built by Junker in 1882, the ten shaft kilns from the time of Brentano were only used irregularly. They were torn down and replaced by four Dietzsch deck ovens and two years later they were expanded to include three more deck ovens.

On January 1, 1894, management of the plant was transferred to Karl Schindler , who held this position for many years until December 31, 1931. During the time under Schindler's leadership, the plant expanded steadily. Particularly noteworthy is the electrification of the plant in the mid-1890s with the installation of a dynamo machine , which replaced the kerosene and oil lamps and operated some elevators and apparatus.

A major fire on the evening of August 18, 1899, brought about a turning point, which, with the help of the Weisenau volunteer fire department and soldiers from a nearby garrison, was extinguished with great effort. Nevertheless, production could be resumed on August 29th. But it was not until mid-1900 that all damage was repaired and cement production continued at the same level as in the previous year.

From Mannheim to the Heidelberg Portland cement factory

On June 1, 1901, the two cement works in Mannheim and Heidelberg merged to form Portland Cementwerke Heidelberg & Mannheim Actiengesellschaft . Both plants had reached their capacities on their production facilities and had to look for other locations, also because of the strong competition. The "Heidelberger" had already drawn the consequences in 1895 and, in addition to the administration building, relocated their production facilities to Leimen after a fire . At that time it was the largest cement works within the borders of the German Empire . An optimal solution for the "Mannheimer", as the city administration in Mannheim had long pushed for the plant to be closed within the city limits. In 1902 the relocation was completed and the Mannheim plant shut down.

For the "Weisenauer" these changes in the ownership remained without consequences. However, the permanent shortage of workers caused problems. The number of employees rose from just under 500 in 1887 to around 700 in 1901, but in relation to the fivefold increase in production in the same time, it can be measured that this is only possible with a considerable optimization of work processes, rationalization, modernized ovens and a tight organization has become. It is said that at that time a Mr. Keller placed workers in the cement factory for advertising bonuses. The plant also suffered from considerable fluctuations. Heavy physical work in the heat and dust was not for everyone. The management of the plant with Karl Schindler at the helm tried to counteract this shortcoming with cheap or even free accommodation, living and sleeping places, as well as workers' apartments. He was actively supported in this by Wilhelm Merz, who had meanwhile been promoted to the board of directors of the stock corporation and held several director positions. The former Born'sche Wirtschaft in Merz 'private property in Wormser Straße 193 was converted into a canteen with an attached grocery store in 1901/02. Free coffee, tea, and soda water were available for workers in the summer. Long service bonuses and a support fund for workers in need were further incentives to keep fluctuations as low as possible. A foundation founded by Merz with a contribution of 25,000 marks pursued similar goals by providing financial support for workers on vacation. A company health insurance fund was also set up for this purpose.

It should also be mentioned, however, that not everything ran smoothly at the Weisenau factory. Social democratic or even socialist activities were sufficient grounds for termination. In 1896 there were violent disputes when there were bottlenecks in the manufacture of barrels for transporting the cement. The coopers, whose work was to be replaced by more rational, mechanically powered machines in a new barrel production facility, rebelled and threatened to throw the new machines into the Rhine, as they feared for their jobs. There were no unfounded fears and since no agreement was reached with the management of the plant, almost all cooperators were dismissed without further ado and replaced by younger unskilled workers.

Numerous rationalizations, investments in the improvement of accident protection, the use of conveyor belts and conveyor belts determined the further path of the plant. In the quarry, they went to excavate the rock in terraces and attach the explosive charges to the base of the excavation walls. From 1907, pneumatic hammers were also available, which made the heavy, hand-held rock that had to be crushed with hammers much easier for the workers and also significantly increased the output of the raw material.

The great demand at this time also made it necessary to think about new methods of cement production. The numerous small individual furnaces could no longer meet the demand and so, after lengthy negotiations, the decision was made to build ten rotary kilns by the Danish company FL Smidth , of which only three were initially built for test purposes. When building the three new chimneys required for this, new paths were taken across Europe in that they were no longer bricked up, but made entirely of concrete . The construction of the rotary kiln, however, caused a number of difficulties, such as B. Water ingress into the construction pits, the bucket elevators and chain pumps worked unsatisfactorily and the tube mill did not meet the guarantee conditions either. In short, nothing worked as expected. The “Weisenau” came to the benefit of the fact that the Portland cement factory, founded in 1863 , was before. Krebs, Ingelheim was shut down in 1907 but was already equipped with rotary kilns, which were given new honors in Weisenau. The renovation work was not completed until 1911 and the plant increased its production from almost 100,000 tons before the modernization to almost 160,000 tons in 1914.

First World War

At the beginning of the war in 1914, the plant had 513 employees and thus a sufficient workforce. This number could not be kept by conscription and attempts were made to compensate for this deficiency with prisoners of war. However, the cement works in Germany were not among the factories that were important to the war effort. Exports abroad, which in the meantime had generated an important part of the turnover, collapsed completely and could only be inadequately balanced with deliveries to the front. In addition, the cement works in Germany were only supplied with inferior fuels such as briquettes , lignite waste and hard-to-ignite bituminous and anthracite coal. So one experimented with mixtures of the different types of coal until they were able to achieve reasonably satisfactory calorific values. But the resulting coal dust already harbored the risk of catastrophe. On October 12, 1916, there was also a severe coal dust explosion that cost eight people their lives. Including four Russian prisoners of war.

However, with the large stocks still available, the required cement could easily be maintained and delivered to the front. In contrast, there was great demand for lump lime , which was burned in the still existing lime kiln in the quarry. Nevertheless, production could only be maintained under very poor conditions, as the inadequate quality of the substitute lubricants kept the moving parts of the machines running hot.

Weimar Republic

Even before the end of the armistice, there was an elephant wedding on August 24, 1918, when the two companies merged in Heidelberg between the management boards of Portland-Cement-Werke Heidelberg-Mannheim AG on the one hand and Stuttgarter Immobilien- und Bau-Geschäfts AG on the other was decided. The Weisenau plant now operated under the name Portland-Cement-Werk Heidelberg-Mannheim-Stuttgart AG . The largest manufacturer of building materials in the German borders at the time was born. But even this merger did not change the situation in the Weisenau cement works, if one disregards the fact that the social upheavals and political unrest of the time did not stop at the gates of the plant. This also included the still poor supply of lubricants, bearing metals and even lower-quality deliveries of coal immediately after the end of the war, among the problems with which the Weisenau plant director Karl Schindler was confronted. The inflation following the war prevented urgently planned investments to modernize the machine park and often enough the payment of wages.

As in the other subsidiaries of the group, the increased self-confidence of the employees led to strikes and work stoppages for the reasons mentioned above. Wages just above the subsistence level, the strengthening of social democracy and the unions that encourage workers to become more self-confident did the rest. In 1920, the situation of Portland-Cement Heidelberg-Mannheim-Stuttgart AG was complicated by hostile takeover activities by two foreign companies, which could be fought off with a trick.

It was not until 1924 that times calmed down again and numerous multiple installations of production machines were replaced by more powerful large units. The two large triple composite mills from the G. Polysius company from Dessau and the complete electrification of the plant deserve special mention . The 50 kilogram paper sacks were used for shipping instead of wooden barrels, while at the same time the packing machines and conveyor belts were optimized for shipping by wagon and ship. Nevertheless, the shipping volume did not reach the pre-war level again until 1926/27.

But at the beginning of 1930 the calm was over when the global economic crisis also made itself felt in the Weisenau plant. In mid-February, production had to be stopped because the silos were overfilled due to stagnation in sales. For a short time, from April to August, production could be started up again, but then until the beginning of April 1931 operations were finally shut down for almost a year. In a short phase, which can hardly be called a phase of relaxation, production could be started again but on February 8, 1932 it was finally over. Layoffs of the workers and precautionary dismissals of the employees from term to term were the result. Plant director Karl Schindler had to retire against his will in 1932 at the age of 69. Until the spring of 1933, all operations were inactive.

The Nazi era

Even before the seizure of power , the company's supervisory board appointed Otto Heuer as its chairman in 1929. As a member of the Keppler circle, he had close ties to the NSDAP . The driving force behind this appointment seems to have come from Privy Councilor Friedrich Schott, who died in 1931 , who has directed the company's fortunes since 1875, in his final years represented a German national position and with articles in the company newspaper and leaflets against communists, social democracy and trade unions sharply polemicized. The group was then, so to speak, softened by the National Socialists with Heuer at the top. Schott's son, Erhart Schott on the board of directors and works director in Leimen until 1933, who opposed these developments, paid for it on May 5, 1933 with the so-called protective custody practiced by the system at that time .

In Weisenau, after Schindler's forced resignation, Albert Leonhard (son of Carl Leonhard , Heidelberg) took over the management of the plant from 1932 to 1933 and Ludwig Meyer from 1934 to 1935 . Only then did Wilhelm Anselm take over the helm for a longer period from 1935 to 1939 .

With Anselm, the National Socialist practices were finally reflected in the Weisenau factory. Anselm's focus was on cleanliness, hygiene and order. To this end, he implemented the latest findings on the requirements of modern workplaces, provided social and washing facilities, a "health room" with a specially employed "healing assistant" and established a training workshop for 35 apprentices for the first time in the history of the plant. The construction of a factory housing estate with 41 private homes according to the Reichsheimstätten Act of 1920 was implemented in 1936 and was financed by cheap factory loans. But the workforce bought all of these "benefits" with total control of their living conditions, which was extended to the private sector and families by the custodians and social workers. In the event of rebellion, the consequences ranged from release to imprisonment. In addition, incomes fell below the level of 1925. The minimum wage for women was 29 Reichspfennig per hour, while it was 48 Reichspfennig for unskilled men. Skilled workers of the same age group could count on 60 Reichspfennig per hour.

Anselm's activities did not go unnoticed by the "party" either, and so the plant was the first of the 140 existing cement manufacturers in the German Reich to be awarded the honorary title of National Socialist Model Company on May 1, 1937 . Weisenau, a district of Mainz since 1930, had grown to 8,000 inhabitants.

The building boom initiated by the National Socialists made the cement division in Germany, and thus also the cement works in Weisenau, a key industry. Extensive rationalization and reconstruction measures, new buildings and the modernization of the existing large aggregates and the transport system from the quarry to the production facility took into account the labor shortage that had been emerging since 1937.

Second World War

On May 1, 1939, Anselm was replaced as head of the plant by SS-Sturmführer Rudolf Köhres . Under his direction, according to a ministerial order of August 30, 1939, two days before the attack on Poland, production was to be kept to the limit of its capabilities. The construction of airfields, bunkers, barracks, etc. was given the highest priority, for which concrete was required in large quantities. This decree also applied to all other cement manufacturers in the German Reich. From the beginning of 1940 Köhres found himself in the predicament of not being able to initiate urgently needed repairs due to the high production output and the lack of materials such as steel and non-ferrous metals . Just as an example, the foundations of the cement mill, built close to the Rhine in 1927, were displaced during floods, which repeatedly caused the drive to break. In addition, there were short deliveries of coal due to the war and the shortage of workers due to the conscription. The labor shortage was absorbed as best as possible with prisoners of war and conscripted civilian workers from the occupied eastern territories. In April 1942, the first bomb damaged a roof on one of the factory's production facilities. From September 12, 1943 to May 31, 1944, the barracks of a branch of the SS special camp in Hinzert were located in the southern part of the plant , in which around 200 forced laborers of various nationalities who had committed criminal offenses were housed. In the spring of 1944, the camp was relocated to Ingelheimer Aue , as forced laborers from the MAN plant in Gustavsburg were quartered in the accommodations , which were to be built for the construction of tunnels in the quarry for the purpose of underground production facilities for the manufacture of components for the launching ramps of the V2 . The tunnels had a total length of 1,200 meters.

From the spring of 1944, the factory and the quarry were the target of heavy Allied bombing attacks, which continued until the end of the war. One can assume that the devastation in the Weisenau plant would have been less severe if the MAN plant in Gustavsburg had not been located directly opposite on the other side of the Rhine . While the much larger factory premises of the MAN branch had only slightly more than 25 percent damage to complain about at the end of the war, the cement works in Weisenau was practically completely devastated, as many bombs that were aimed at MAN were probably mistaken for Weisenau and the industry there have been dropped.

The scandalous treatment of the forced laborers during the Nazi era can be seen from the fact that the last 35 forced laborers owed their lives only to a dispute between the Gestapo in Mainz and the camp guard over their planned transfer to the other side of the Rhine. Wehrmacht pioneers were tasked with blowing up the railway bridge between Mainz and Gustavsburg. Köhres, meanwhile promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer and head of the organization of the local werewolf, procured the necessary explosives from the stocks of the cement works. It was planned to blow up the remaining forced laborers in a railroad car on the bridge. For the reasons mentioned above, this did not happen. The bridge was blown up on the night of March 17-18, 1945. A makeshift bridge was built by American pioneers in record time from November 14th to December 15th, 1945 and opened for rail traffic on December 19th, 1945.

The new beginning

After the end of the war, the plant was in a pitiful state. Due to the numerous bomb damage, the production of cement was no longer possible. The acting works manager Anton Werner (April 1945 to August 1946) had his hands full with saving the few still reasonably intact machines and equipment from being dismantled by the French occupation authorities. Erhart Schott , who had become trustee at the head of the corporate headquarters in Heidelberg, applied for the reconstruction on March 6, 1946 and calculated that after the makeshift repair of the damaged aggregates, 20,000 to 22,000 tons of cement will be produced per month and 1,000 tons of precast elements will be produced in the connected concrete plant could. As a result, on March 15, 1946, a furnace with a capacity of 300 tons of cement per day was the first to be put back into operation. It took until 1952 for the war damage to be completely repaired. By then the number of employees had increased again to 420.

View of the Weisenau cement works

The building boom and the currency reform helped the company. As early as 1952, annual production was more than in any previous year since the plant was founded. In 1953, the factory expanded its premises to include the level area of ​​the quarry. The cramped location between the railway line and the Rhine, on the floodplain created by Lothary in the 19th century, had become too small to be able to expand further. Kilns and a cement mill with the same output as the existing ones increased the monthly output to 36,000 to 40,000 tons. A tunnel that crossed the federal highway 9 and the railroad, connected the new production facility to the main plant. The plant expanded continuously until the 1970s. With 1.6 million tons, 1972 was the best-selling year in the entire history of the cement plant. The workforce had meanwhile settled at around 500.

Fixed points in these years was the construction of the Weisenau bridge from 1959 to 1962 for the federal motorway 60 , the access from Weisenau to Ginsheim led through the middle of the quarry and for which the Weisenau factory had made the cut. In the meantime, a precast concrete plant had been built on the southern part of the old factory site, but for economic reasons it was replaced by a soy grinder at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s; production started on June 6, 1973, and where HeidelbergCement held 30 percent shares. For reasons related to the industry, HeidelbergCement withdrew from this investment years later, although the location was retained.

The oil crisis in autumn 1973 also left its mark on the Weisenau plant. The recession that followed due to the sharp rise in energy prices was sought in Weisenau with more heat-saving combustion processes, full automation, optimization of quarrying and personnel savings. The number of employees fell to 365 in 1977. It was not until the reunification in 1990 that the economy in the construction sector picked up again, and with it production in Weisenau, which came to an end just five years later.

From cement works to grinders

Rhine speech of the cement works

As early as the early 1990s, the Heidelberg headquarters were aware that the plant in Weisenau could only continue to operate economically with a considerable expansion of the quarry. The quarry-free limestone in the existing area was coming to an end and so it was thought of a 70 hectare expansion in a southerly direction, which would have secured the existence of the plant for another 30 years. A hill at the edge of the Rheinhessen hill country , the Laubenheimer Höhe between Laubenheim and Hechtsheim would have fallen victim to this. HeidelbergCement therefore applied for an approval procedure in 1993, which was accompanied by citizen protests and initiatives. A new spatial planning procedure had to be drawn up until, after ten years, shortly before the extraction of raw material would have been exhausted in 2003 anyway, the permit was subject to certain conditions.

In these ten years, however, the economic situation had changed so much due to the decline in demand in the construction sector, diversifications and acquisitions of other cement plants that the implementation of the project was no longer considered necessary for the group. The company headquarters therefore decided in 2004 to partially shut down and convert it into a grinding plant. The expected result was the loss of 130 jobs. Dismantling began in 2005. The still intact factory facilities such as the raw mill, drying drums, ovens and conveyor belts were to be sent to Iraq, but due to the political circumstances at that time, it was decided to accept an offer from Sudan. After the completion of the dismantling, the remaining and required operational parts were concentrated in a smaller area, a silo with 40,000 tons of capacity and an administration building were newly built. The clinker to be processed was supplied by the sister plant in Lengfurt am Main.

The recultivated quarry was taken over by the municipal waste disposal company in December 2008 and turned it into a popular hiking and recreational area. In 2010, a recycling company set up shop on a smaller area, directly on Bundesstraße 9.

literature

Web links

Commons : Zementwerk Weisenau (Mainz)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Founding of the cement works - mapped cities / Mainz and Wiesbaden in the field of tension between natural space and socialization - by Constanze Bückner, Andreas Hoppe on Google Books .
  2. a b The history of the Weisenau cement works p. 13; PDF.
  3. The history of the Weisenau cement works p. 17.
  4. The history of the Weisenau cement works, p. 18; PDF.
  5. The history of the Weisenau cement works p. 18.
  6. a b The history of the Weisenau cement works p. 19; PDF.
  7. The history of the Weisenau cement works p. 21; PDF.
  8. Handbook of chemical-technical apparatus, mechanical aids and materials on Google Books ; Ed .: AJ Kieser .
  9. The history of the Weisenau cement works, p. 23 ff .; PDF.
  10. Concrete and its application by Feodor Ast on Google Books .
  11. The history of the Weisenau cement works, p. 33; PDF.
  12. The history of HeidelbergCement ( Memento from February 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) by Dietmar Cramer , p. 34 PDF.
  13. "Labor Battle", "Aryanization", "Work Slaves". Aspects of economic life in Mainz during the National Socialist era - Thürmer-Brüchert - PDF.
  14. ^ Regionalgeschichte.net Hinzert special camp - Hinzert satellite camp.
  15. ^ Ingelheimer Aue industrial area - forced labor camp in Mainz.
  16. ^ The camp Rhine - Ingelheimer Aue.
  17. Foreign forced laborers in Mainz during the Second World War - Thürmer-Brüchert - p. 18 - PDF.
  18. ^ South bridge Mainz after the demolition - construction of the temporary bridge.
  19. Quarry recreational area - hike through the quarry.
  20. Weisenau recycling company - Meinhard municipal cleaning.

Coordinates: 49 ° 58 ′ 28.5 "  N , 8 ° 18 ′ 53.7"  E