What actually happens when a road is opened? Where do the stones we see everywhere in our daily lives come from? To get to the bottom of these questions, the 22 pupils in Year 4 at Auerbach Primary School, together with their teachers Annemarie Vogl and Claudia Zitzelsberger, visited the Hötzelsberg quarry – a ‘living classroom’ of a special kind.
Safety First: Equipment for Little Explorers
The day started excitingly for the children: after a shared snack, everyone was provided with their own safety vests and protective helmets. Before heading onto the site, Angel Bibov, Managing Director of Thiele GmbH, Markus Raab, Authorised Signatory and Technical Manager, and Siegfried Pfeffer, Mechanical Engineer at MAX STREICHER GmbH & Co. KG aA, went over the important safety rules with the children. After all, safety is the top priority in a quarry where up to 3,000 tonnes of rock are extracted every day.
About Granite, Tunnels and Environmental Protection
During the tour, the children learnt interesting facts about the history of the site, which has belonged to Thiele since 1952 and has been further strengthened since 2023 through the partnership with MAX STREICHER Holding.
The versatility of Hötzelsberg granite became clear: not only does it serve as a stable foundation for roads, but the special “Luxivit granite” is even ideally suited as cladding and surfacing for tunnels due to its brightness and strength, thereby reducing the need for artificial lighting there.
A key topic was sustainability: the children learnt that tar has been banned in road construction since the 1970s due to its texture. Instead, asphalt is used today. New asphalt is made from bitumen, grit and recycled material, which – much to the pupils’ delight – is highly recyclable. Particularly impressive was the tour of the new asphalt mixing plant with its ‘parallel drum’. This plant, which is expected to be completed in mid-June 2026, is state-of-the-art. It can recycle old asphalt, meaning that up to 90 percent of recycled material can be incorporated into new road surfacing.
A Day to Remember
The absolute highlight for the Year 4 pupils was getting hands-on with the machinery. At the so-called ‘hole’ (the quarry pit), the granite extraction process was explained, and the children were even allowed to climb into the cab of the massive dump trucks, which can carry up to 63 tonnes of rock, and feel like real professionals.
To round off the educational morning, class representatives Helena Schmid and Tobias Wohlfahrt, on behalf of all the children, warmly thanked Mr. Bibov, Mr. Raab and the entire team for the exciting tour and the generous gifts.
For the Year 4 class, this trip was a real experience that brought the subject matter from their local history and general studies lessons to life – and who knows, perhaps the visit to the Hötzelsberg quarry even sparked an interest in a technical career in one or two of the children.