The Klingenberg power plant used to have two such cranes from the VEB Kranbau Eberswalde. coal supplied Photo: Ralf Drescher
By Johannes Malinowski
They used to be used to load coal. But now the crane giants are going into retirement for the time being – but maybe not forever.
The Köpenicker Chaussee in Rummelsburg generates heat and electricity for 300,000 Berlin households. From 1926 the Klingenberg power plant burned coal. That ended in May 2017, operator Vattenfall converted the plant to natural gas.
Coal was no longer needed, nor was the port at the branch canal through which the fuel was delivered.
From the opening in 1927 until May 2017, the Klingenberg power plant was operated with coal. The photo from 1960 shows the environmental pollution at that time Photo: Ralf Drescher
The two huge TAKRAF cranes from VEB Kranbau Eberswalde have been out of work and shut down ever since. They currently do not have an operating license. Unlike the power plant and the branch canal, the two cranes are not under monument protection.
The now insolvent Kranbau Ardelt in Eberswalde had at times considered buying back the cranes and modernizing them. But operator Vattenfall has other plans. “A sale is currently not planned,” says a spokesman.
Lichtenberg
“In connection with the future development of the site, it is being examined whether the cranes could be used to handle biomass.”
So it’s quite possible that one day the two cranes will load wood or grain instead of coal, for example.
