Around 1750 B.C. people in Central Europe alloyed tin and copper to a new material: Bronze.
It became important in the production of articles of daily use and weapons. until ca. 800 B.C.: Bronze age in Germany | 1500 B.C.? In the 1930s, a scholar claimed that ore mining had already been parcticed in Ramsbeck in the Bronze age. He believed that at that time, the Venetians, a tribe of the Illyrians small in stature, had mined in the "Venetianerstollen" in the Ramsbeckian Bastenberg. More recent research however calls such an old age into question. Although it is significantly older than from 1518, the mining likely only dates from the late Middle Ages. |
1492 Columbus discovered America This is commonly seen as one possible starting point of the modern era. | 1518 The first documentary proof of lead and zinc mining in Ramsbeck dates to this year. 1559 A decree of the elector of cologne granted Ramsbeck the right of mining. From this time onwards, the inhabitants of Ramsbeck earned their livelyhood with lead and zinc mining. 1759 The Ramsbeckian "Ausbeutetaler", bearing a portrait of elector Clemens August and a mining motif, was produced. |
1822-1860 there was a surge of technical inventions which contributed to the beginning industrialisation: Electric motor, steam train, water turbine, dynamo, steam excavator and - hammer... | 1815
For economic reasons, many small mining operations in Ramsbeck were combined and the Ramsbeckian union was formed. 1851-1854 The mining claims came into possesion of the "Rheinisch-Westfälischen Bergwerksverein". Europe was in the preindustrial phase. The Marquis de Sassenay, general director of the "Gesellschaft für Bergbau und Zinkfabrikation zu Stolberg", wanted to secure the ore necessary for his company by buying the Ramsbeckian mines. He hoped to turn the area into one of the biggest industrial centres of Europe. Ramsbeck did experience unprecedented growth due to big numbers of miners moving to the area from the Wittgensteiner Land, the Siegerland, from Saxonia and the Harz: New villages and streets were built as well as 25 new stamp mills for ore dressing. In Ostwig, the construction of the Friedrich-Wilhelm smeltery started. The number of workers increased from 450 to more than 2000. Even though the running of the operations cost 180,000 talers every month, in 1854 a net profit of 1,170,000 Francs was made. Shortly afterwards, initial doubts the administrative council had had proved true: The ore deposit was much smaller than expected. The Marquis de Sassenay vanished and left the company with 3.5 million talers of debt. This put a stop to all hopes of turning Ramsbeck into a mining metropole. 1856 The workforce was reduced to 925 miners. Many families returned to their homes. Those which stayed behind often experienced hardship and misery. |
Late 19. and early 20. century Further innovations and technological progress modernised peoples' lives: Steam turbine, motor vehicle, diesel engine, radiotelegraphy, airplanes... since 1929:
Great Depression | 1885 Until 1885 an increasing mechanisation of the mining took place, which led to a great rise of the extraction rate. About 50,000 tons of lead and zinc were mined in these years, by a workforce of 1100. 1933-1955 After the Great Depression had necessiated a stop in the mining from 1931 to 1933, the productivity could be increased continuosly from 1933 onwards. Due to new machinery, 600 miners were able to extract 350,000 tons of ore in 1955. |
| until 1974 The last significant change to the mining technology was made in 1971/72. For the first time in ore mining in Germany, railless freight vehicles were used, in combination with mobile, pneumatically or electro-hydraulically operated drilling vehicles. At this point, 450 workers extracted around 500,000 - 600,000 tons every year, containing about 20,000 tons of lead or zinc. Compare: In the first year for which records exist, 1843, 40 miners had mined 851 tons of ore. After this last modernisation the mine was at the top of German ore mines in productivity, with 10 tons per worker extracted each shift, and there are still large amounts of ore left in the deposit. Nonetheless, the mining was not profitable anymore: The ore's metal content was too small to allow for a cost-effective, economically viable metal production. Several upward revaluations of the DM since 1968 and the concurrent downward revaluation of the English pound contributed to the closing of the century-old ore mine on 31 January 1974. Shortly afterwards, it was turned into the exhibition mine it still is today.
Theoretically, it could operate as a mine in the future again. |
