Ahe-Hammer

The Ahe-Hammer is located in the Schwarze Ahe valley. The single-storey quarry stone building with its flat gabled roof was built by the Brünninghaus family of entrepreneurs. The trade of the family, whose family name comes from the Brüninghausen estate near Lüdenscheid, involved both the extraction of iron ore in the surrounding area and the smelting of this ore in their own furnaces.

In a directory dating from around 1767, the owners, foremen and workers of various Osemund hammers are named. The following details are given for the Ahe-Hammer: Reidemeister: Peter Brüninghaus, Peter Wilhelm Geck, Peter Rentrop. Required: 2 blacksmiths, 1 hammer delay, 1 apprentice. Available: Blacksmith: Christian Ahman (41 yrs.) Herm. Died. Scharpe (33 yrs.); Hammer delay: Herm. Died. vom Hofe (27 yrs.). Missing: 1 apprentice.

The forge was rebuilt in 1883/84 to its present form. Until 1941, the pig iron was heated in hearth fires and worked on two so-called tail hammers. The well-known Osemunde iron was produced.

The two hammers (90 kg and 160 kg) were driven by the water of the Ahe, which was dammed in a hammer pond. One water wheel was responsible for driving the hammers, the second for generating wind at the two forge fires.

This hammer mill was temporarily shut down before it was renovated in 1950 and has since been open to the public for demonstrations with all its former equipment, watercourses and drives.

Contact, guided tours and further information
Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur
Tel. 0231-931122-0

Text source © Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur

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