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Copyright © 2007 Markus Altendorff, All Rights Reserved
The topic, "Sustenance", does not have the broad meaning in the german language as it has in english - it only translates into "livelihood", or earning one's living. The panorama was shot just outside the Maxhuette steel mill at my hometown of Sulzbach-Rosenberg. The pictures imposed on the sky and ground are from around 2002/2003, when the steel mill closed down after 139 years. At the turn of the century and up until the 1960s, it was the largest source of work and income for the whole district, with a workforce of almost 10,000 people depending on it for their sustenance. In 1987, the Maxhütte, or "the hut", as it was called for short, went bankrupt for the first time. Spending the next three years under receivership, the "Neue Maxhütte" was established in 1990, only to also fail in November 1998. Almost four more years passed under receivership, looking for an investor, until in September 2002 the fires finally went out for good. It was the only german steel mill that integrated the whole process in a single location, with rarities like OBM converters, old steel frameworks and high power steam engines that have been running since 1863. These days, despite suggestions of preserving it as a historical monument, sustenance is earned for its current owner by selling parts of it for scrap, slowly eating away at the buildings. Comparing the current panorama with the unrolled 2002 picture (first view), you'll notice towards the sunset a gap where huge conveyors and the storage for manganese and other steel additives stood just a year ago. While my pano is not a technically ambitious scene, I picked it because there's a soft spot in me for "the hut". Two generations of my family have worked at the mill, and the three visits that I was lucky to be able to make just before it closed down have left me with a lasting impression. Detailed descriptions for the overlaid pictures
Shortcut to this page: http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp_rss/go/n3810
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