The old water reserve above the Michelsweg had a deep sleep for 50 years. Now the 100-year-old concrete structure is to be given a new use: pyrotechnician Moritz Hummig would like to use the discarded elevated tank as a storage place for fireworks in the future.
Peißenberg - Moritz Hummig is known as a tinkerer, as someone who breathes new life into old things. The 29-year-old's latest project: the former Peißenberg water reserve above the Michelsweg. Hummig bought the elevated tank, which had been decommissioned in 1970, together with the roughly 1200 square meter site encompassing the municipal works in early 2019. Fireworks are to be stored in the concrete bunker after it has been renovated. A fireworks depot above Peißenberg? Sounds threatening at first, but according to Hummig it is completely harmless. Contractually agreed with the municipal works that only non-hazardous material may be stored. Hummig speaks of "normal, standard fireworks".
In addition, the old elevated tank will serve as a storage place for customs-seized firecrackers and missiles. The authorities are working with the company "Hummig Effects" in this regard. As a state-certified pyrotechnician, Hummig is allowed to store fireworks as part of the small quantity regulation. "Nothing can happen there," he says. He had a colleague produce a special certificate and presented it to the municipal works when the contract was signed. "If something burns there, at most the bunker is damaged," explains Hummig.
As part of the renovation, a second security door is to be pulled in and a dehumidification system installed. Hummig wants to generate the electricity for this via solar panels.
The latter are to be mounted on a hydraulically hinged tower in order to lift the modules over the high tree tops. “In winter, when there are no leaves on the trees, you can fold down the tower again,” explains Hummig.
But the construction work is currently on hold. The fact that something is happening to the old water reserve has not gone undetected. The authorities have already received one or two clues and the question of whether the project was even approved. For example, Hummig cut down rotten trees above the water reserve: “If I hadn't done that,” he emphasizes, “the broken logs would have flown over during the last storm.” Hummig reports that he is in contact with the district office. He sees no problems in terms of construction law: "I am not building anything, I am only making use of the old." As a pyrotechnician, he is also privileged like farmers outside. "We are dependent on storage facilities," says Hummig. He hadn't heard anything to the contrary from the district office: “I'll wait and see if anything comes. I don't know what I would have done, what I am not allowed to do. "
Incidentally, there will be no traffic to the fireworks depot. It also cannot because there is no access. The equipment for the first renovation work was transported by Hummig along a forest path that runs over a foreign property - with the permission of the owner. According to Hummig, the contract with the plants stipulates that "access" to the old water reserve is via hiking trails. For him that is also sufficient. "There are no problems with the neighbors at all," explains Hummig.
In 1912, the construction of the water reserve above the Michelsbach and the construction of an eight-kilometer water pipe from the Raffelbach springs in Paterzell had begun. During the First World War, French prisoners of war were also used, according to the "Peißenberger Heimatlexikon".
The elevated tank was put into operation at the end of 1916. It had a volume of 400,000 liters. In 1970, 50 years ago, it was decommissioned and replaced by a new, 1.2 million D-mark high tank south of the Schweiber-Hof.
