Former kali and rock salt shaft at Beendorf, now Schacht Marie of the Endlager für radioaktive Abfälle Morsleben (ERAM), with the original masonry shaft hall surviving on the listed complex.
Schacht Marie at Beendorf is the founding shaft of the Kali- und Steinsalzwerk Bartensleben, sunk between May 1897 and August 1898 to a final depth of 370 metres and named by the entrepreneur Gerhard Korte after his wife Marie. It was the first shaft in the complex and the source from which the later Burbach-Konzern grew. Planmäßiger Kaliabbau commenced on 31 August 1898.
In 1900 the Gewerkschaft Burbach joined the Deutsches Kalisyndikat. Steinsalz extraction continued, with wartime interruptions, until 1969. From February 1944 to April 1945 the underground workings were used by Zwangsarbeiter and female KZ prisoners from the Außenlager KZ Beendorf manufacturing armaments components; the shaft was known under the cover name Bulldogge.
Following the selection of the combined Bartensleben complex as the DDR central radioactive waste repository in 1970, Schacht Marie was connected to the ERAM operation and today forms part of the ERAM complex. A formal Stilllegungsplanfeststellungsverfahren has been in progress since 2005; the Stilllegungskonzept envisages the sealing of both Schacht Marie and Schacht Bartensleben with geotechnical barriers. The original masonry Schachthalle at the Schacht Marie surface site is recorded as surviving.
The origins of Schacht Marie lie with the merchant Gerhard Korte, who founded the Bohrgesellschaft Gott mit uns in 1889 to search for kali salts in the area north of Magdeburg. Successful trial borings at Walbeck and Beendorf confirmed the deposit, and Korte acquired the dormant thousand-part Gewerkschaft Burbach of the Siegerland — a legal manoeuvre to bypass the Prussian state reservation over mineral rights — and relocated it to Beendorf. The Teufarbeiten of Schacht Marie began in May 1897 and were completed in August 1898 at a depth of 370 metres (with an alternative source giving 520 metres as the final depth following later deepening). The tonhaltiges Deckgebirge was penetrated without major water ingress; the Salzgebirge was encountered at approximately 300 metres depth. The shaft was lined with a 2.5-brick-thick Klinkermauerwerk in lieu of the watertight Tübbings normally used for kali shafts. Füllörter were established at 310 and 360 metres depth. Surface buildings erected at this time included the Kessel- and Maschinenhaus and a steel Fördergerüst, together with the masonry Schachthalle which survives today. A processing factory at Beendorf, completed in 1902, succeeded a leased facility at Schönebeck (Elbe). An Endlaugenleitung to the Elbe was built for the disposal of residual brines.
Planmäßiger Kaliabbau commenced on 31 August 1898. In 1900 the Gewerkschaft Burbach joined the Deutsches Kalisyndikat, with an Absatzquote of 34.59 Tausendstel in 1905 — an indicator of the enterprise's then significant share of German kali production, although this had fallen to 14.76 Tausendstel by 1910 as the number of competing Kalischachtanlagen across the Reich expanded greatly. The Gewerkschaft Burbach und their successor structures grew to form the Burbach-Konzern, one of the significant kali enterprises of the early twentieth century.
In 1910 a Prussian Bergpolizeiverordnung requiring every mining operation to have a second shaft as a Fluchtweg prompted the constitution of the separate Gewerkschaft Bartensleben and the sinking of Schacht Bartensleben in Morsleben between 1910 and 1912. The two shafts were linked underground at several levels. Kali and Steinsalz extraction continued through both shafts until 1969, with interruptions caused by the two World Wars and the intervening economic crises.
During the Second World War, from February 1944 until April 1945, the underground galleries of the combined Kali- und Steinsalzwerk Bartensleben were converted to armaments production using Zwangsarbeiter and KZ prisoners. From August 1944 approximately 2,500 female prisoners from the KZ Ravensbrück, assigned to the Außenlager KZ Beendorf (a sub-camp of KZ Neuengamme), were deployed more than 400 metres underground to manufacture components for the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet aircraft and for the rockets V1 and V2. During this period Schacht Marie was assigned the cover name Bulldogge.
After the end of mining in 1969 and following the DDR's selection of the Schachtanlage Bartensleben as the site of the Zentrales Endlager Grube Bartensleben (ZEGB) in 1970, Schacht Marie became an integral part of the ERAM. The Stilllegungskonzept of the BGE requires the sealing of both Schacht Bartensleben and Schacht Marie with geotechnical Abdichtbauwerke, together with the injection of approximately four million cubic metres of Salzbeton into the underground void network. The formal Planfeststellungsverfahren for the Stilllegung has been under way since 2005. The original masonry Schachthalle at the Schacht Marie surface site at Beendorf is recorded as surviving from the mining era.