Was that the whistle? The year is 1959. Imagine working your last shift at the Dölitzer Schacht. This was the last shift for coal production. Welcome to the Dölitzer Schacht. It stands as a monument to Leipzig’s mining history.
The Dölitzer Schacht is the last well-preserved relic of brown coal mining in central Germany. Locals call it simply “Schacht Dölitz”. It operated almost continuously from 1895 to 1959. The final load of coal was mined on June 13, 1959.
The above-ground facilities remain intact. See the winding tower. Inspect the shaft house. Admire the engine room and steam boilers. Notice the New Sorting facility. These structures are protected as a technical monument. They are part of the Central German Brown Coal Route.
In 1894, the Leipzig firm Gustav Klause conducted test drills. This occurred on the Dölitz manor grounds. Major Georg Ernst von Winckler owned the manor then. The drills found a 12-meter-thick brown coal seam.
The first excavation occurred in 1895. Wilhelm Schurath’s firm from Leipzig and Brandis managed it. Initial water problems were overcome. Two shafts were sunk using the sinking shaft method. The hoisting shaft reached 73 meters deep. The ventilation shaft went down 68 meters.
Miners reached the upper coal seam at 65 meters in 1902. The first raw brown coal from Dölitz was mined. It was transported to the Gasthof Reiter on a festive cart. In 1902, 2,138 tons of coal were extracted. The coal was mainly used for the steam engine. The engine powered the hoisting system. It also powered water management.
Until 1902, the facilities included a wooden headframe. It had skip hoisting, a boiler house with a chimney, an engine house, and sheds. The office was south of the ventilation shaft. In December 1902, the brown coal operation became the “Leipzig-Dölitzer Kohlenwerke” union.
Shafts continued to be sunk until December 1903. The surface facilities were rebuilt for planned coal production. The company’s logbook No. 1 lists orders for the surface facilities. On October 5, 1903, orders were placed for a chimney, a steel winding tower structure, machinery for the hoisting system, and two steam boilers.
The building of new structures began. The shaft house surrounding the winding tower was a 12.50-meter-high brick structure. The winding frame had rope pulleys. Their axial height was 21.50 meters. A crusher and sorting plant was added to the north. Four pairs of supports held the coal bunkers. These allowed horse-drawn carts to pass through and be filled. The steel structure was clad with corrugated iron. The machine house complex got a new boiler house with a second chimney. Another engine room and a bathhouse were built on the west side of the shaft house.
A new office and staff house with horse stables were built northwest of the shaft. They were located on Friederikenstrasse. The raw brown coal was crushed and separated by vibrating screens. It was offered in four grades: Klarkohle, Nusschenkohle, Nusskohle, and grosse Nusskohle.
Preparations for coal mining were completed by 1905. Industrial coal production started in 1906. In 1910, Dölitz became part of Leipzig. In 1917, the city of Leipzig took over the majority of the Leipzig-Dölitzer Kohlenwerke union. The mine secured the fuel supply for municipal facilities. It became a municipal operation of the Leipzig municipal utilities.
Between 1920 and 1930, the entire complex was modernized and expanded. The brick building of the shaft house was raised by about 4 meters. A new hanging platform with a northern overhang was built. The winding tower was extended for the new axial height of the rope pulleys. The shaft got its final height of 30.35 meters.
The Dölitzer Schacht stands today as a reminder of the past. It is a testament to the hard work of miners. They fueled Leipzig for decades. Preserved as a technical monument, it provides insights into the history of brown coal mining in this region.