As the bells of St. Barbara rang, the mining symbol fell

Created: 11/25/2022, 2:00 p.m

Reminiscent of the winding tower: the segment of the sheaves in the underground tunnel © Hochenauer

Exactly 50 years ago, on November 25, 1972, the winding tower of the Peißenberg mine was blown up.

With that, a little more than a year and a half after the end of mining in Peißenberg, its symbol also disappeared.

A model of the winding tower is now a reminder of this time.

Peißenberg

– Only a few spectators were there when, on November 25, 1972, a Saturday, around 12 noon, the 56-meter-high headframe in the direction of St. Georg crashed to the ground.

The time of the blast was not previously announced.

The targeted demolition of the supports put an end to the steel colossus.

The press reported at the time: “The winding tower in Peißenberg was blown up on Saturday as the last symbol of the mine.

The first warning signals sounded in the 12 o'clock bell of the parish church of St. Barbara.

Minutes later, a detonation shook Peißenberg and the winding tower of the coal mine, the landmark of the mining town, collapsed.”

On the following days, the workers of the demolition company "Westschrott" dismantled the 502-ton steel frame with their cutting torches.

The scrap parts were taken away by rail and taken to the blast furnaces to be used to make new steel.

The tower was just 18 years old

This winding frame – colloquially referred to as a winding tower – only stood for 18 years, while its predecessor lasted almost 40 years.

In 1954, this massive and stable steel construction was built over the old winding tower, as it was too weak for the heavy loads to come from the ever deeper mining.

The construction project was implemented during ongoing operations by the company "Dortmunder Union".

The new winding tower was on 27./28.

Commissioned in March 1954.

A day later, the early shift was able to roll in.

With the closure of the Peißenberg coal mine on March 31, 1971, a winding tower was no longer needed.

The Ziegelmeier shaft with a depth of 1050 meters was filled in soon after the pit was closed.

From May 30, 1971 to July 28, 1971, 43,899 cubic meters of material was dumped into the shaft.

Those buildings and parts that could not be used were demolished.

The bridge was also demolished

Deprived of its task, the winding tower stood around uselessly.

The buildings and technical facilities that were demolished included lime processing, coal storage hall 1, clarifier, briquette factory, coal washing, sorting, coaling plant (belt bridges), shaft house (115 meters long, 24 meters high, built in 1955/56), the said winding tower 1954 and the railway bridge over the then federal highway 472 in the village (between the Vogl petrol station and the library, where the large concrete foundations of the former bridge can still be seen).

Several thousand tons of scrap steel were generated during the demolition work.

The documents from that time state that the Westschrott company began demolishing the buildings and technical facilities on February 8, 1972 and finished them at the end of 1972.

Only a section of one of the large sheaves can still be found in Peißenberg.

It's in the parking lot at the underground hall and shows how big and massive these steel wheels were.

The strong hoisting rope that ran over this sheave and brought the hoisting cage 1000 meters deep into the shaft weighed 20 tons.

A mistake from today's perspective

From today's perspective, blowing up the winding tower may have been a mistake, but at that time people didn't think about preserving this Peißenberg "landmark".

At that time, a large part of the population had also stopped mining.

Today, many people from Peißenberg find it difficult to imagine that a good 50 years ago there was a mining company where there are supermarkets and shops today, which employed 2,000 people in the market town alone.

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Peißenberg now has a winding tower again: on the former shaft site, the model of a winding tower is reminiscent of the mining era in the market town.

The model, built by former miner Franz Merkl, was inaugurated on March 31, 2021 - 50 years after the last shift was run there.

Rudy Hochenauer

This photograph of the winding tower probably dates from 1955.

At that time the shaft house was built.

© Hochenauer

On the wintry November 25, 1972, the winding tower was blown up.

The photo was taken by the former miner Franz Auer, who knew the time of the blast.

© Photo: Nicoletti