Former brown coal mine near Lübtheen in south-west Mecklenburg, operated from 1817 to 1838 as the Friedrich-Franz-Zeche, now a buried and closed altbergbau site with no surviving surface structures.
The Braunkohlenbergwerk Lübtheen refers to the Friedrich-Franz-Zeche, the first underground brown coal mine established in the Mineraldistrikt of south-west Mecklenburg, situated at Bockup near Lübtheen in what is today the Landkreis Ludwigslust-Parchim in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 1817, following a cabinet rescript of the Großherzogliche Kammer, Bergrat Abich and Steiger Adam Christian Mengebier from the Brunswick coalfield conducted exploratory drilling near Bockup on the Elde riverbank. A second borehole struck a brown coal seam at approximately 26 metres depth with a thickness of 1.1 metres.
Mengebier personally directed the sinking of the shaft at the Alaunberg, which reached the coal at 16 metres. Production began around 1820 and the mine was named the Friedrich-Franz-Zeche, after the reigning Duke Friedrich Franz of Mecklenburg. Only the lumpen coal (Klarkohle) could be sold; the fine-grained waste (Gruskohle) was tipped onto spoil heaps.
Poor market conditions and persistent water problems progressively undermined profitability, and by 1838 water ingress had made the mine entirely unworkable. It was permanently closed in 1838 at a considerable net loss to the ducal treasury. In 1856 an Aktiengesellschaft, the Mecklenburgische Bergbau-Verein, reacquired the Friedrich-Franz-Zeche and briefly recommenced extraction, but operations ceased again shortly thereafter.
No surface structures survive from this mine.
The history of brown coal extraction near Lübtheen begins with a cabinet rescript (Kabinettsreskript) of the Großherzogliche Kammer in 1817, which ordered a systematic programme of exploratory drilling across the area between Bockup and Malliß. Earlier indications of mineral potential had been noted through the long tradition of alum-clay working at Bockup in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Duke Friedrich Franz of Mecklenburg had already commissioned informal surveys for coal on the Wanzeberg from 1790.
The exploratory drilling of 1817 was led by Bergrat Abich and Steiger Adam Christian Mengebier, drawn from the Braunschweig coalfield at Helmstedt. Two boreholes were sunk on the southern bank of the Elde river at Bockup: the first encountered no coal; the second, at the southern slope of the Elde bank, struck a brown coal seam at 26 metres depth with a thickness of 1.10 metres. Mengebier directed the sinking of a shaft at this borehole (at the Alaunberg), which located the coal at approximately 16 metres depth and found a seam approximately 1.5 metres thick. A pumping installation powered by a horse-drawn Roßkunst was built to manage water. The shaft was named the Friedrich-Franz-Zeche after the reigning duke.
Production began around 1820. Monthly output was approximately 3,000 Bergscheffel, of which around 1,300 Bergscheffel of saleable lump coal (Stückkohle) was extracted; the remainder — the fine-grained Gruskohle — was consigned to spoil heaps. Coal revenues in 1820 amounted to 500 Taler against operating costs of approximately 517 Taler — already in deficit. A report of 1833 confirms monthly production of 3,000 Zentner. Total coal extracted during this first phase was estimated by Pinzke (1981) at approximately 25,000 tonnes. The cumulative cost to the ducal treasury by 1838 was 25,249 Taler in operations and maintenance, against revenues of only 1,317 Taler — a loss that made the poor commercial case unmistakable.
Water ingress grew increasingly serious as extraction deepened. By 1838 the underground workings had become wholly unmanageable and the Friedrich-Franz-Zeche was permanently closed. Mengebier subsequently transferred his surveying activity to the gypsum quarry at Lübtheen, which had been discovered in 1823 and would eventually lead to the Kali- und Steinsalzbergwerk Lübtheen.
In 1856, an Aktiengesellschaft, the Mecklenburgische Bergbau-Verein, acquired the Friedrich-Franz-Zeche and briefly recommenced extraction of the brown coal Oberflöz. Operations ceased again around 1880 when water management became once more unworkable. All underground workings subsequently flooded. No surface structures from the Friedrich-Franz-Zeche are recorded as surviving. The site is managed as part of the Altbergbau record of the Bergamt Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the former workings are classed as a subterranean hazard area subject to monitoring for ground subsidence.