Additional Project: „Library and Archives of the Montanwerke Brixlegg”
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Project Leader: Univ.-Ass. Mag. Reinhard Bodner (Homepage) Project Co-Leader: Mag. Gerhard Rampl Staff: Gebhard Bendler Contact at the Montanwerke: Dipl.-Ing. Robert Stibich, Dr. Josef Pesl
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The project "Erschließung der Bibliothek und des Bergbauarchivs der Montanwerke Brixlegg" ("Indexing of the Library and the Mining Archives of the Montanwerke Brixlegg") is a complementary project to the special research area HIMAT (“The History of Mining Activities in the Tyrol and Adjacent Areas: Impact on Environment and Human Societies“) at the Leopold Franzens University Innsbruck.
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Bild 2: Detail of the roller plant at Brixlegg (19th century) |
Bild 3: Situation of the aboveground facilities at Jochberg (19th century.) |
The aim of the project is to preserve, arrange systematically, and make accessible the library stock and mining-archives of the “Montanwerke Brixlegg”, which is an Austrian company with a long history. The first extant record of the Brixlegg copper and silver refinery is a document dated 1463. Since that date at least, copper and noble metals have been produced in Brixlegg. Due to the increase in use of electricity, as early as 1885 very pure copper was produced through the introduction of electrolysis. After a strong decline in copper and silver mining in Tyrol, the continued existence of the refinery, which belonged to the state, was guaranteed at the beginning of the 20th century through a change in production to the recycling of copper from scrap metals.
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Bild 4: Copper prodiction at the Montanwerken Brixlegg nowadays |
Bild 5: Montan historic literature from the 19th century. |
The library collection includes some very important and unique sources of history of the Tyrolean mining and metallurgy from the 17th century to the present, which are of high scientific and social interest. In the library we find about 400 records, 70 learned journals, over 2500 monographs, encyclopaedias and collected editions on mining engineering and copper-metallurgy, in addition to literature on the business environment of a copper producing company.
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Sponsored by Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung und des wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses in Tirol (TWF) |
With financial support by |
With consultation of the library of the |
Part of "Schnittstelle Kultur. Kulturelles Erbe - Kunst - Wissenschaft - Öffentlichkeit" |
The core of the mining-archives is five chests containing 1200 mine and construction plans, engineering drawings, and geological maps from the late 18th century to the 20th century. The focus lies on the mining areas around Schwaz, Kitzbühel and Brixlegg and of high importance are the overview plans (“Hauptkarten”) of the mines “Falkenstein” and “Ringenwechsel” from the beginning of the 19th century.
Since 1957/58 the “Montanwerke Brixlegg” extracted dolomite from the mines in Schwaz, however a rockslide in 1999 temporary halted this work. For this latest phase of Schwazer mining history there is a collection of more than 300 folders with operational documentation in the mining-archives. These collections offer a wealth of material on the history of a small business, which employed up to 18 people. Of particular historical value are the materials which are related to the rockslide at the “Eiblschrofen” in 1999. While the major part of the archives documents the history of dolomite mining at Falkenstein, a small stock relates to the mines of “Kogl” in St. Gertraudi: after the extraction of fahlore ceased and the mechanical treatment of barite was introduced in the 1920’s, barite was extracted at this location until the 1960’s.
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Bild 6: Main Mining Report of the Falkenstein/Schwaz 1759 |
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