Early Birthplaces

Iron production in the Ruhr
from 1750 to 1850

Industrial production of iron in the Ruhr began in 1758. It was at this time that the first raw iron flowed from a blast furnace in the area. The first blast furnace – St. Antony Ironworks in Osterfeld, now a part of Oberhausen - worked using local raw materials. Bog iron ore was extracted from the region's plain tracts, charcoal from the neighbouring forests.

When the success of this ironworks became evident, two more ironworks were soon built in the neighbouring territories: The Gute Hoffnung ("Good Hope") ironworks in Sterkrade and the Neu-Essen ironworks in the Imperial Abbey in Essen. These three ironworks formed the basis of the Gutehoffnungshütte company, which later became a global concern.

It was only in the 1820s that more ironworks were built in the Ruhr, including the Tacke steel factory in Steele, the Friedrich Harkort & Comp ironworks in Wetter and the Westfalia ironworks near Lünen. But in an international context, the charcoal techniques used by these ironworks were only competitive to a limited extent. It was only when new reserves of ore were found in the southern Ruhr and mineral coal was available at greater depths which could be refined in the coke ovens, that in 1849 the region's first coke blast furnace went into operation at the Friedrich-Wilhelms ironworks in Mülheim.