The mine was named after Princess Auguste Viktoria Friederike Luise Feodora Jenny of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg VA [what a name!], the wife of Wilhelm II, the last German Empress and Queen of Prussia. The mine was one of the last active coal mines in Germany. It was the longest-running privately operated mine in the Ruhr region and from 1908 belonged to the Chemical Works Interest Group (later IG Farben) and from 1953 to BASF, one of the largest chemical companies in the world. The latter sold the mine to RAG in 1991. The mine has a special position in ore mining. A deposit of lead-zinc ores discovered by chance in a fault (Tertius jump) was mined until 1962 and provided almost 20% of German production in the 1950s. The former Chemical Works Hüls (CWH) were built next to the mine in 1928 on the basis of coal chemistry to produce artificial rubber. The polymer Buna (butadiene sodium), produced from butadiene and the catalyst sodium, was of great importance for the German armaments and war industry before and during the Second World War. The CWH developed into the Marl Chemical Park, one of the largest chemical sites in Germany and Europe. Almost 30 companies produce on the 650 hectare site and employ a total of over 10,000 people (2004).
With the smaller neighboring Brassert mine, the mine brought about the development of the church village of Marl into the town it is today (city rights since 1926), which has always followed modern trends. The town hall in the new town center, built between 1960 and 1967, for example, consists of two cubes, each of which sits on a massive pillar. The renowned television award from the Grimme Institute based here has been awarded annually since 1964. Another cultural institution is the Glaskasten Sculpture Museum, which has been awarding the Marl Video Art Prize since 1984. In 1912, three miners died from falling rocks, in 1924 four in a cable car accident and in 1927 five miners died when shaft 3 collapsed.
Translated by Google •
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