Werner Trümpelmann (Figure 1) was born 125 years ago on 17th October 1892 as the son of factory director Otto Trümpelmann in Düsseldorf/Germany. After completing his secondary school examinations in 1911, he was accepted as a mining apprentice at the Zollverein coal mine industrial complex, in the district of Ost-Essen. Starting in 1912, he studied at the universities in Tübingen and Aachen in the fields of geology, mineralogy, mining engineering, mining law, and metallurgy, among others. During World War I he was deployed in French and Belgian mining companies. In 1918, Werner Trümpelmann finished his studies at the Technical University Aachen. On 15th August 1919, Trümpelmann was appointed by the Prussian mining authorities as junior civil servant for the mining industry, and on 15th October 1920, and obtained his Dr. phil. title at the philosophical faculty of the University Bonn. As a mine assessor, he was head of the water management office of the Westfälische Berggewerkschaftskasse WBK (Westphalian Miners’ Union Fund) in Bochum from 1921 to 1924. This new institution was established to answer questions regarding the channelling of water from coal mines and waste material as well as the sourcing of process water for the mines. During this brief period, Trümpelmann published significant papers on this topic based on his accumulated experience. In these papers, he concentrated both on the channelling of water from chalk covering layers, which is significant for mining but hadn’t been studied much at the time, and on the formation of depression cones (Figure 2) due to the pumping of mine drainage water. After the water management office was closed in 1924, he took leave from the Upper Mining Authorities and assumed the role of chief operating director 1 for the Eschweiler Mining Association in Kohlscheid. To be able to maintain this position, Trümpelmann quit his civil service job in 1925.
Fig. 2. Depression cone in the Ruhr area. // Bild 2. Absenkungstrichter im Ruhrgebiet. Source/Quelle: Trümpelmann: Die Wasserführung des Weißen Mergels im Ruhrbezirk
In addition to his managerial position, he also developed innovations for pneumatic waste filling together with Hermann Krehl and registered two patents for the Eschweiler Mining Association in 1929.
Werner Trümpelmann passed away in Gundelsheim am Neckar on 23rd June 1935 at the early age of 41, and was buried by his family in his native city of Düsseldorf. During the course of his brief life and productive period at the water management office, Trümpelmann made outstanding contributions in the field of mine water management and can justly be counted among the pioneers in this field. (Wilhelm G. Coldewey, Melanie Schwermann, Iris Hollenbeck, Münster/Germany)
