In Hausham: a masterpiece of engineering

Hausham - The Auer Erbstollen was considered a real masterpiece in its time.

Details are explained in a brochure that is now available in the Haushamer town hall.

Water always flows from top to bottom.

The miners wanted to take advantage of this physical principle when they began building the Auer Erbstollen in August 1871.

This almost 14-kilometer-long tunnel from the Hausham pit to the Au pit, which is almost 250 meters below, was intended to drain the eastern Hausham Mulde and thus open up further pitch coal reserves there.

Impressive, but also a letdown

On March 29, 1889 at 2 a.m., the miners celebrated the breakthrough and thus an engineering achievement that is still impressive from today's perspective.

From an economic point of view, the Auer Erbstollen fell into disaster.

So it was given up in the year of its completion because it was made superfluous by powerful pumps.

Mining Museum Association brochure explains the details

That the story of the Auer Erbstollen is no less worth telling is shown by Dr. Wolfgang Bloch, second chairman of the Bergbaumuseumsverein Hausham, in a brochure he wrote, which is now available for five euros in the Hausham town hall. The idea arose as part of the exhibition “The mining village of Au bei Bad Aibling and its mining on pitch coal”, which Bloch had organized in Bad Feilnbach in 2016. Many of the 1,300 visitors asked if there wasn't a brochure on display. “This is how this little book came about,” says Bloch proudly. The Auer Erbstollen takes up a considerable part of the space.

The beginning of the "mining and mining masterpiece", as Bloch writes, began on the side of the Au pit.

In 1871 the miners began to drive the tunnel towards Hausham.

Six years later, the Haushamer worked their way to the east at a depth of 256 meters.

The “breakthrough” on March 29, 1889 then showed how good the calculations and their practical implementation underground were: The two tunnels met almost precisely.

Pumps made the drainage shaft obsolete

The Auer Erbstollen was no longer needed for drainage. Thanks to modern pumps, the Schöllerschacht had reached a final depth of 525 meters as early as 1888 and thus reached significantly deeper than would have been possible with the hereditary tunnel. The 14 kilometer long passage was also no longer used for coal mining. Geological investigations did not reveal any further minable deposits between the Haushamer and the Auer Mulde. Later investigations, such as the drilling campaign from 1952 to 1957, did not produce sufficient new information either, so that the hope of successful mining of pitch coal in Au was finally discarded, reports Bloch.

In the end, the Auer Erbstollen was nothing more than a testament to the mining expertise in the region.

But those involved could be proud of that for a lifetime.

So that future generations will not forget their work, the accountant at the time donated a trophy on which all the engineers and miners involved were listed.

The trophy is now on display in the Haushamer town hall.

Where you can now buy Wolfgang Bloch's little book.

Work shows how closely Hausham was connected to mining

For Hausham's mayor Jens Zangenfeind, the treatise is "a further contribution to show how the municipalities of Hausham, the Leitzachtal and the municipality of Au were connected by mining". This connection is still being maintained, also through appropriate contacts between the political representatives. "As soon as we have survived the pandemic, further meetings will take place together with our friends," announces Zangenfeind and adds: "We all want to keep this impressive story alive forever."