Zinc hut Velau

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The Velau zinc smelter was the first zinc smelter in Eschweiler and the Aachen district . It was located in 1819 by Matthias Leonhard Schleicher and was probably the only Eschweiler Kupferhof Velau on the lower Vichtbach and was also operated by him. The zinc smelter was later taken over by the Eschweiler Bergwerkverein EBV and, together with shares in the surrounding ore mines, formed the EBV's “ lead and calamine works ” division.

At the same time, the Centrum mine increased its daily hard coal output by fifty percent. In the Eschweiler Hütten Steinfurt , Velau and Birkengang and the zinc works Münsterbusch , zinc was extracted using the reduction process, for which coal was required. In order to keep coal production at a high level, the mining facilities had to be expanded. In order to compensate for the increased cost of this, it was decided to increase coal prices by ten percent. When the Prussian government then lowered the import tariff for Belgian coal to a quarter, this led the EBV into a financial crisis.

To overcome this crisis, the EBV sold its lead and calamine plants, whereby the zinc smelters Velau and Birkengang passed into the ownership of the Eschweiler company in 1848 . Even before the merger with the Stolberger Gesellschaft , the zinc smelter Velau was closed. In 1935 the district of Velau came from Eschweiler to Stolberg .

Literature and Sources

  • Erdmann, Walter: Eschweiler coal already in Roman times? - On the history of coal mining in the Indemulde . In: Series of publications by the Eschweiler Geschichtsverein, vol. 5, p. 27ff, Eschweiler 1983.
  • Kauling, Gregor u. Oediger, Hermann-Lambert: Coal and iron in the Inderevier - the early industrial center in Eschweiler , ed. vd RWTH Aachen, Aachen 1989.
  • Küpper, Simon: The Eschweiler Kohlberg . In: Series of publications by the Eschweiler Geschichtsverein, vol. 2, p. 14ff, Eschweiler 1979.
  • Willms, Christa: Eschweiler, a mining and industrial town of the 19th century , Wiss. Work at the Economic Geography Institute, ed. vd University of Cologne, Cologne 1958.

Coordinates: 50 ° 47 ′ 21.7 "  N , 6 ° 13 ′ 29.5"  E