The Hausner and Grau families let charcoal burning live on in the upper Dietzholz valley
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Written by Uli Horch
Published: July 02, 2014
For many centuries, probably even up to two thousand years, charcoal burners could be found everywhere in the local forests. Their product, charcoal, was irreplaceable for the ironworks people. Wood did not generate enough heat when burned to be able to extract pure iron from the ore. That was only possible with the "refined" product.
When the railway reached the Dilltal in 1862, the hard coal of the Ruhr area was also available in large quantities in this country. The blast furnaces, which were operated with charcoal, were now uneconomical and therefore gradually shut down. The last one in the region was that of Eibelshausen in 1898.
2014-06-koehlerei-dht-uli-horch 02The charcoal piles disappeared from the local forests with them. In Ewersbach (today a district of Dietzholztal) this tradition was revived to a modest degree after World War II – when the Hausner charcoal burner family was expelled from the Sudentenland and found a new place to live here.
It was Adolf Hausner who, starting in the late 1970s, organized an annual charcoal burner festival that has been held in the "Berger Wald" on the Ebersbach ever since. Years ago he passed on his know-how to Wolfgang Grau, who this year together with his son Michael set up the kiln. There have been a lot of visitors over the past few days, who have looked over the shoulders of the two at work.
The kiln is now in the cooling phase. On Saturday, July 19, the dismantling and harvesting is to begin early in the morning at 6 a.m. The sale starts at 8 a.m. Around four tons of charcoal are expected. The Grays are anticipating high demand. Contact: Wolfgang Grau, phone no. 02774-5984.
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