Location: Briquette factory – quenching pond – casino

briquette factory 1955

They start building of the Lucherberg briquette factory on 1 May 1899. When it was constructed, the factory plant consisted of a low-pressure boiler house with 11 masonry flame-tube boilers, two chimneys, a press and drying house with two briquette presses, tube dryers and grinding equipment, a briquette shed with loading facilities for railway and land sales. The plant also included a warehouse and workshops.

Production began in May 1901 with two presses, a third press was added in 1904 and further five presses were installed by 1910.
Production figures in 1912 were around 90.000 tonnes of briquettes, and in 1956 469.215 tonnes.
The raw lignite came from the open-cast mines Lucherberg I, today Goltsteinkuppe; Lucherberg II, today Siedlung Talstraße, Lucherberg III, until 2024 Lucherberger See. After the end of mining in the Lucherberg open-cast mines, the coal was transported to the factory using chain conveyors and coal trains from the Konzendorf mine, now Badesee Echtz, and the Düren mine, now Badesee Düren.
Due to a shortage of German labour, workers from Italy, the Netherlands and Croatia came to Lucherberg right at the start of production.
Around 1900, houses were built for the factory employees in Goltsteinstraße, which are still inhabited today. In the upper part – formerly known as the colony – houses were built for the workers, while the employees lived in the three larger blocks in the lower part.
One of the consequences of the merger of several mining companies to form ‘Rheinbraun AG Köln’ was the decision to close the factory on 2 July 1960.

Casino Lucherberg around 1956

The demolition of most of the buildings began in early 1961, and the remaining chimney was blown up on 4 March 1961. Other buildings were demolished in June 2019, only the warehouse still standing today.
The ‘Casino’ was built a little later than the factory. It had guest rooms for fitters and visitors. Meetings were held here and it was used by workers and employees for social events. Today it is run as a family-owned restaurant.

fire pond swimming pool 1955

Above the ‘colony’, at the end of today’s Akazienstraße, a fire-fighting basin was built during the Second World War. It was 50 metres long with a depth of 0.5 to 4.5 metres. The useful was combined with the good; it could be used by the population as a swimming pool. After the factory was shut down, it was filled in.

Overview Lucherberg