Category Archives: Germany

The Smallest Hot Rolling Mill In Germany

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The Idealspaten-Bredt company was founded in 1899 by Emil Eckardt under the name „Schaufel- und Spatenfabrik Eckardt & Co“ in Herdecke, Germany.
Built next to the railroad line from Hagen to Dortmund the new company was spezialized in the production of spades and shovels.The company’s speciality, until today, is the Idealspaten. A spade whose blade is hot rolled of one piece of steel.
In 1925 a new rolling mill was built which is still in use today.
In 1928 the company went bancrupt and changed it’s name to “Idealspaten- und Schaufelwalzwerke vorm. Eckardt & Co., G.m.b.H., Herdecke“.
In the 1930ies and during the second world war the rolling mill produced vast numbers of spades and shovels for the Reichsarbeitsdienst and the German Army. More than 500 people worked for the Idealspaten company.
In 1939 the „Teplitzer Eisenwerke, Schaufel- und Zeugwaren-Fabrik AG“, formerly owned by a Jewish family, in the Czech Republic was taken over.
In 1971 Idealspaten fusioned with its competitor from nearby Witten to form the “Idealspaten- und Schaufelwalzwerke A. Bredt GmbH & Co. KG”, the last industrial producer of spades and shovels in Germany. Further images

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Teeming Ingots

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BGH Freital

BGH(Boschgotthardshütte) Freital is a speciality steel mill just outside of Dresden, Germany.
It was founded in 1855 under the name Sächsische Gußstahlfabrik benefited by the local iron ore and coal deposits.
After the second world war it was completly dismantled by the Soviets and rebuilt afterwards now called VEB Edelstahlwerk 8. Mai 1945 (date of the German capitulation).
The mill employed more than 5000 people and used to bet he largest speciality steel producer in the former DDR.
After the German reunification in 1990 the work force succesfully fought for the survival of their steel mill and Freital was privatized by the West German entrepreneur Rüdiger Winterhager from Siegen.

Today BGH Freital produces speciality steel in a 42 ton electric arc furnace and a downstream ladle furnace plus a VOD facility for further steel refining.Casting is done in a continuous horizontal caster or by teeming ingots.
The rolling department includes a blooming mill and a bar and wire rolling mill.
The forging division contains a continuous forging machine and a hammer mill.
BGH Freital employes more than 600 people. Further images at Stahlseite.

Steel Foundry

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Silbitz Guss

The Silbitz foundry was established in 1938 in a rather remote area of the German Reich to produce military equipment. During the war more than 1000 workers were employed.
In 1946 the foundry was nationalized and became part of the SAG Marten (Soviet stock company) and in 1954 the VEB Stahlgiesserei Elstertal Silbitz. This company was privatized in 1990 and is named Silbitz Guss GmbH since.
The foundry produces nodular iron and steel castings up to eight tons a piece.
Two eight ton electric arc furnaces and four induction furnaces are in use.
Further images.

Heavy Rolling

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Schwere Profilstrasse Hoesch Spundwand und Profile
Hoesch Spundwand und Profile (HSP) is the last survivor of the once fully integrated Dortmunder Union steel mill.
The Union AG für Bergbau, Eisen- und Stahl-Industrie was founded in 1872 west of Dortmund in Germany.
In 1881 three blast furnaces were built.
After the Union became part of the Deutsch-Luxemburgische Bergwerks- und Hütten-AG in 1910 an extensive modernisation scheme brought a new Thomas converter melt shop an open hearth shop,a blooming mill and the heavy section mill, called rolling mill NO1, that is partly still in use today.
In 1926 the Union works became part of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG from Düsseldorf.
After this company was dismantled after the second world war the Union works joined the Hörder Verein , another steel company from Dortmund, to form the Dortmund Hörder Hüttenunion (DHHU).
In 1957 a continuous medium section rolling mill was erected now called rolling mill NO 2.

In November 1963 the last of the five Union blast furnaces and the Thomas converter steel mill were closed for good.
In 1966 the DHHU was taken over by the Hoesch Stahl AG from Dortmund. The division was called “Werk Union” from now on.
In 1981 the open hearth shop and the rolling mill NO2 were closed.
In 1992 Hoesch was bought by the Krupp company from Essen. Two years later the new subdivision Hoesch Spundwand und Profile was founded.
From 1999 on the remaining rolling mill was part of the ThyssenKrupp Stahl company to be sold to the Salzgitter Stahl company in 2000.
HSP is the only producer of sheet piles and heavy sections in Germany now.
Further images.

Karte Hoesch Werk Union

 

1. Heavy sections mill
2. Blooming mill
3. Former Thomas steel   mill
4. Open hearth shop
5. Roll lathe plant
6. Forge
7. Medium sections mill
8. Boiler house
9. Repair shops

Dortmunder Union Brückenbau

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dortmunder-union-brueckenbau

 

Once one of the largest engineering companies in Europe (later Rheinstahl Union Brückenbau AG) whose steel bridges are still present everywhere in Germany and that built the Assuan dam in Egypt has nearly disappeared by now.
The workshop south of the Dortmund harbor was famous for it’s 276 meter long and 60 meter wide main hall that housed a bridge assembly line.
This famous structure built in 1898 was torn down in 1995.

dortmunder-union-brueckenbau2

 

Hand rolling.

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Hand RollingThe Walzwerke Einsal GmbH is one of the oldest iron works in Germany.
Founded as a forge in 1675 by the Holtzbrinck family (same family that today owns the Rowohlt and DIE ZEIT publishers) it became the Einsaler Eisenwerke in 1856. Main product were wire and nails.
In 1963 the Thomashoff family took over and transformed the Einsal works into a speciality steel rolling mill.
In 1992 a new fully automatic rolling stand for bars was installed.
Sections are still produced on three Banning double-duo hand rolling stands.
Finishing is done in a cold rolling and a heat treatment center.
Walzwerke Einsal employes 300 people.

More from there.

The vintage image #1

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August Thyssen Huette Bruckhausen
Bruckhausen, the former working class neighbourhood that adjoins to the vast August Thyssen Hütte steel mill in Duisburg, Germany, in the early 1950ies.
Ironically Bruckhausen looks much the same nowadays again because the ThyssenKrupp steel company and the administration of Duisburg have decided to tear it down in favour of a huge park (Article, in German).
Guntram Walter did some impressive images of this ghost town.

Survivor

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Hosch Schwerter Profile Walzwerk

The Hoesch AG based in Dortmund once gave work to 64000 men and women, controlling dozens of subsidiaries. Few members of this steel empire have survived. One of them is the Hoesch Schwerter Profile GmbH.

The steel mill in Schwerte, Germany was founded by the Kissing & Schmöle company from nearby  Menden in 1868 next to the brand new railroad line going from Hagen to Unna.
A melt shop and 5 rolling mills were built.
The Johanneshütte near Siegen, running two blast furnaces, was acquired in 1871 and supplied iron until 1914.
In 1891 the mill was expanded by an open hearth shop, a blooming mill and a wire mill.
In 1926 the steel plant became part of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG and was renamed Schwerter Profileisenwalzwerke AG in 1936.
After the war Schwerte became part of the Dortmund-Hörder Hüttenunion (DHHU).
The stamping mill was built in 1957 and from 1962 the new rolling mill no.7 replaced all older mills.
After the fusion of DHHU and Hoesch in 1966 Schwerte joined the Hoesch rolling mills in Hohenlimburg to form the Hoesch Werke Hohenlimburg Schwerte AG.

Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG ; Schwerter Profileisenwalzwerke

The takeover of Hoesch by Krupp in 1992 made the works part of  Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, and in 1999 of the ThyssenKrupp AG.
In 2005 the Calvi holding from Italy purchased the Schwerte plant, now called Hoesch Schwerter Profile GmbH, producing 70000 tons of special profiles per year and employing a staff of 530.

Further images.