Bertzit Tower
Bertzit Tower is an investment ruin in the north of Kahla, which belongs to Plessa in the southern part of Brandenburg, itself part of the Elbe-Elster region. The tower was built in the 1920s in close proximity to mine Ada, intended to be used in the processing of brown coal. The remains of the plant now stand under conservation, along with other industrial buildings from the nearby brown coal mine. The 35-meter high industrial monument is visible from afar in the lowlands of the Schwarze Elster area. History Historical background German industrialization in the mid 19th century began with the discovery of brown coal deposits (also known as lignite) and the construction of the first railway tracks in the Elbe-Elster region. Lieutenant Colonel Hermann von Ploetz, a Prussian aristocrat who had resided on an estate in Doellingen near Elsterwerda since 1856, ordered his servants to drill for lignite on his property. The drilling was successful and thus, on April 1, 1857, lignite was extracted from a shaft known as Emilia a little east of Doellingen, which was the first time underground mining was carried out in the vicinity. However, the mine did not exist very long. Shortly afterwards, various additional mines were begun, but many of those (for example mine Robert, which was located just a few kilometers west of mine Emilia, did not last long. Mine Ada In 1911 the second lignite mine in this region was opened. It was an underground mine known as Ada run by the Doellinger Bergbaugesellschaft (Doellingen mining corporation) located north of the Falkenberg-Kohlfurt railway line and on the border between the two districts of Kahla and Doellingen. The coal field was about 4 meters thick and was covered by 30 meters of rock mass. The coal was extracted using the room and pillar system and was hauled up a ramp using a winch and an electric motor. Above ground, there were some drying plants and two briquette presses. The unprocessed coal, which was cut into pieces, sold well to mainly local customers. The majority of the low-quality coal was used to supply the mine with power and steam. In the mine, which occupied 118,000 square meters of space in the early 1920s, up to 170 workers were employed. In 1914 58,000 tons of lignite were produced. This amount of coal could not be produced again until the first year after World War I. Bertzit Tower In September 1915 the mining company applied to the mining authorities in Senftenberg for the construction of a Bertzit unit (named after the Bertzit procedure described below). The Bertzit tower was built in 1920 on the initiative of the management of the company running the mine Ada. It is 35 meters high and situated in close proximity to the mine. The tower has a square floor plan with a skeleton construction made of reinforced concrete. It was intended to be part of a coal drying plant, which would use the Bertzit procedure invented by Camillo Mahnhardt from Munich,