Völklingen Ironworks
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Ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...
() is a former blast-furnace complex located in the German town of
Völklingen Völklingen (; , Moselle Franconian: ''Välglinge'') is a town in the district of Saarbrücken, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated on the river Saar, approx. 10 km west of Saarbrücken, and directly borders France. The town is known for ...
,
Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...
.
Pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate good used by the iron industry in the production of steel. It is developed by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with si ...
production occurred at the site from 1882 through 1986. As one of the only intact ironworks surviving from the 19th and early-20th centuries in Europe and North America, it was declared a
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
in 1994 because of its exceptional preservation and its testimony to
ferrous metallurgy Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...
and the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
. In addition, the site is an anchor point of the
European Route of Industrial Heritage The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a tourist route of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The ...
(ERIH).


History

In 1873, Julius Buch planned and built a steel works near Völklingen on the banks of the Saar river. However, the steel works ceased operation only 6 years later, and were acquired by Karl Röchling. in 1881, construction on a
blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...
for producing iron began, and two years later the first smelter began operation. Four new furnaces were added between 1885 and 1893, and a
coking Coking is the process of heating coal in the absence of oxygen to a temperature above to drive off the volatile components of the raw coal, leaving behind a hard, strong, porous material with a high carbon content called coke. Coke is predomina ...
plant was added in 1897. In 1900, the first gas-blowing engines were introduced to the Völklingen Ironworks, making it the first large-scale ironworks to use furnace gas to operate the blast furnaces. By the 1910s, the Völklingen Ironworks was Germany's largest producer of steel beams. A large conveyor belt system was installed in the plant, and the technology used at the ironworks became a model for other factories across the world during the early 20th century. With a shortage of labor during and after World War I, up to 1,446 people from territories occupied by Germany (with most of them from Russia and Belgium) were forced to work involuntarily at the Völklingen Ironworks between 1915 and 1918. Over 143 of these laborers died during that time. Forced labor was again used in World War II, when a total of 12,393 people (including prisoners of war and civilians deported from the Soviet Union) worked at the plant in brutal and inhumane conditions. After World War II, only minor maintenance was conducted until the plant closed in 1986 during the economic steel crisis. The ironworks retains its 1930s-era appearance today, with intact blast furnaces and the original coking plant. The ''Stiftung Industriekultur'' (Industrial Culture Foundation) was founded at the beginning of 1996 with the aim of presenting the history of the Völklingen Ironworks and making the site culturally accessible. Meinrad Maria Grewenig was the first General Director and Managing Director of the World Cultural Heritage Site Völklingen Ironworks. Ralf Beil has been the General Director of the World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks since 1 May 2020.


Today

Today, the Völklinger Hütte is a museum and it is also a unique location for international exhibitions, festivals and concerts. The Ferrodrom is an interactive
science center A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mus ...
focusing on the making of iron. Visitors can tour the production areas. Huge gas machines stand in the blower hall. They were driven by blast furnace gas and generated the wind for the blast furnaces. Parts of the blower hall are used for exhibitions today. The Völklingen Ironworks is also the venue for the ''UrbanArt Biennale''. The ''UrbanArt Biennale'' is a biennial exhibition (since 2011) dealing with urban art. The aim of the Biennale is to highlight the current positions of this art movement, document its development and to give an overview of the world scene of Urban Art. In 2012, the area was the venue of ''electro magnetic'' for the first time. As part of the ‘European Festival Awards’ in Groningen, The Netherlands. It was awarded ‘Best New Festival in Europe 2012’ and ran successfully until 2019.


Exhibitions (selection)

*
Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...
(1998 / 1999) *
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
– Machine Man (2002 / 2003) * IncaGold – 3000 Years of Advanced Civilisations - Masterpieces from the Larco Museum Peru (2004 / 2005) * Treasures from
1001 Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...
- Fascination of the Orient (2005 / 2005) * Power&Pomp. Europe's splendour in the 19th century (2006 / 2007 *
Duane Hanson Duane Hanson (January 17, 1925 – January 6, 1996) was an American artist and sculptor born in Minnesota. He spent most of his career in South Florida. He was known for his life-sized realistic sculptures of people. He cast the works based on ...
– Sculptures of the American Dream (20. Oktober 2007 bis 12. Mai 2008) * The Celts - Druids. Princes. Warriors. The life of the Celts in the Iron Age (2010 / 2011) * UrbanArt – Graffiti 21. (2011 / 2011) *
Mel Ramos Melvin John Ramos (July 24, 1935 – October 14, 2018) was an American Figurative art, figurative painter, specializing most often in paintings of Nude (art), female nudes, whose work incorporates elements of Realism (arts), realist and abstract ...
– 50 Years of Pop Art (2011 / 2012) * Allen Jones – Off the Wall – 1957-2009 (2012 / 2013) * Mythos
Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...
– Photographs by Günter Raupp (2012 / 2013) * UrbanArt Biennial 2013 (2013 / 2013) * Generation Pop – hear me! feel me! love me! (2013 , 2014) * Egypt – Gods. Humans. Pharaohs. (2014 / 2015) * UrbanArt Biennial 2015 (2015 / 2015) *
Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...
– Collectors open their treasure chambers. 232 masterpieces of Buddhist art spanning 2,000 years. (2016 / 2017) *
Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...
– Gold. Power. God (2017 / 2018) * UrbanArt Biennial 2017 (2017 / 2017) * Legende Queen Elisabeth II. – Luciano Pelizzari Collection (2018 / 2019) * Banksy's Dismaland and Others – Photographs by Barry Cawston (2018 / 2018) * UrbanArt Biennial 2019. (2019 / 2019) * Pharaoh's Gold: 3,000 Years of Ancient Egypt (2019 /2020) * Mon Trésor. Europe's Treasure in Saarland. (2021 / 2021)


Gallery

Image:VoelklingerHuette1.JPG Image:VoelklingerHuette2.jpg Image:VoelklingerHuette3.jpg Image:VoelklingerHuette4.jpg Image:VoelklingerHuette5.jpg Image:VoelklingerHuette6.jpg Image:VoelklingerHuette7.jpg Image:VH pano10.jpg Image:VoelklingerHuetteEmblem.jpg Image:Völklingen steelworks inclined plane & blast furnaces, 20 April 2011.jpg Image:Tipping slag at Völklingen steelworks, 20 April 2011.jpg Image:Torpedo car at Völklingen steelworks, 20 April 2011.jpg


See also

*
List of preserved historic blast furnaces This list of preserved historic blast furnaces contains decommissioned blast furnaces, of which substantial remains survive. The furnaces are preserved in a park or museum, or as a site otherwise open to visitors, or intended to become such. While ...


Notes

* This article is based on the entry Völklinger Hütte in the
German Wikipedia The German Wikipedia () is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. Founded on 16 March 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia edition (after the English Wikipedia). It has  articles, ma ...
.


References


External links


Völklingen Ironworks / UNESCO Official Website

Völklinger Hütte

Initiative Völklinger Hütte

Völklingen im Wandel
(German only)
European Route of Industrial Heritage

''Tim Traveller'' visits the disused Ironwork
(YouTube) {{DEFAULTSORT:Volklingen Ironworks Buildings and structures in Saarbrücken (district) European Route of Industrial Heritage Anchor Points Steel companies of Germany Iron and steel mills Economy of Saarland Museums in Saarland Science museums in Germany World Heritage Sites in Germany Industry museums in Germany