EurGeol Dr. rer. nat. Lutz Krakow (married, 2 children) studied Geology and Palaeontology at the Georg-August Universität in Göttingen. With his team he supplies the brick industry with raw materials and is a reliable partner for numerous companies. He also offers services such as the geological exploration of clay deposits and product development. Dr. Krakow is an author of the journal ‘Ziegelindustrie International’; the official organ of the federal association of the German brick industry ‘Bundesverband der Deutschen Ziegelindustrie e.V.’.
‚author * employer * geologist * managing director * company owner * raw material supplier’
The artificial shortage of primary raw materials and the planned decarbonization have arrived in the industry. This makes the exploration of new clay resources all the more important. Entry into the subject of Metaclay as part of an AIF-funded research project: Calcined Clays from Mineral Secondary Raw Materials. Project-Number: KK5029102KI0. Duration 2021-05 to 2023-10.
‘The signs for 2022 point to stagflation’
Expansion of office space and laboratory capacities in Göttingen. Creation of new jobs for geologists. First partial renovation of a rundown building built in the early nineties. Geological explorations of numerous areas in the western Harz foreland and in the Lower Rhine area for roof tile factories. Exciting development work in the laboratory.
‘Let go of the old and create space for the new’
Exploration of a weathered and re-plasticized Rotliegend claystone in the untouched wilder-ness of Lower Silesia. Early sintering and with brilliant red firing colour for the clinker and roof tile industry. A forest route of 2.2 km has to be turned into a road for tipping semi-trailers in advance. An expensive project. Overall a risky business.
‘Deliveries to the largest Polish brick producer’
First deliveries of processed tunnel excavation material from the building site of Stuttgart 21 to the brick industry within Baden-Wuerttemberg. Exemplary cooperation with the Oberrhein-Handels-Union GmbH & Co. KG, which organized the logistics. Scheduled project completion is July 2020. Then the big pile of material from the railroad tunnel will be gone.
‚An amazing contribution to preservation of primary resources‘
Customers from the brick and clinker industry with entrepreneurial foresight commission geo-logical explorations in the North German Geest area and the Egge Mountains. All involved parties had realized that the permission of excavation requests can easily take 10 years.
‘At least the exploration results are promising’
The raw material of the biggest brick producer in Brandenburg is threatening to run out be-cause of legal permission problems. Spontaneous substitution of large amounts of clay by locally processed marly claystone from the claystone open pit mine Peißen South. Great co-operation with the Jaeger-Group in Bernburg which is responsible for extraction and pro-cessing. Logistics are carried out by the companies Troitzsch Trans GmbH and Contex GmbH & Co. KG.
‘Luck is when preparation meets opportunity’
More and more quarries of the Deutsche Basalt AG including the West German Grauwacke Union GmbH up-grade. Rock fillers, previously unusable residual materials, can be homoge-neously moistened with tubing screws. This technique makes the transportation of rock fillers with conventional trucks and dust-free processing in brickworks possible. We are happy to help with marketing.
‘Continuous delivery to Westphalian and Rhenish brickworks’
Technical specialization on paleozoic as well as magmatic and metamorphic rocks as brick raw materials. A new geological challenge. Successful raw material exploration in Poland. Supplier for the biggest roof tile plant in Europe. Further activities in Belgium, France, Austria and Romania. Awarded with the German Raw Material Efficiency price in Berlin.
‘A combination of fortunate circumstances and excellent business contacts’
Lutz Krakow has defined resource efficiency as a hot topic of the future at expert conferences and international congresses since 2007. While at the time wearily dismissed, today every University of applied sciences and institute has recognized the topic as an research interest. At the same time, we already practically realized the concept with top clients.
‘The spirit is the precursor of all things’
A Belgian building material company plans the construction of a new roofing tile plant in Romania. We are commissioned with the geological search for a location. After visiting and inspecting numerous clay pits in Transylvania and tough negotiations with the Romanian pub-lic authorities to authorize sample drillings, the drill cores were transferred to Germany. The laboratory analyses were summarized in a final report.
‚Largest exploration job in the company’s history until 2007‘
Video abspielen
On the 26th of December 2004 a seaquake in the subduction zone of the Sunda trench causes a Tsunami, which leads to large destructions in the Region of Banda Aceh on Sumatra, Re-public of Indonesia. In conjunction with the reconstruction of building fabric the Bundesan-stalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe assigned us to characterize selected brick clay pits and to optimize ceramtechnological parameters.
‘More than 200 000 people die because of the world’s most devastating Tsunami.’
With the foundation of ClayServer GmbH long-term raw material trading in northwest Germany began. Main specializations were clay slates and chamottes. The transportation of material is carried out by trucks and ships. Long-time cooperation with Hollweg, Kümpers & Comp. in Rheine. The geoceramic laboratory was established.
‘Raw materials and logistics under one roof’
A new chapter began as a project leader and expert reviewer in landfill seals. The performance of suitability tests, self-monitoring and inspection, clay mineral analysis and writing up to 200 expert reports a year belonged to the task areas. Dr. Krakow was nominated as managing director in 1993. In 1995 the first contracts were made with the brick industry. Two years later (1997) the company of Dr. Krakow RohstoffConsult today Dr. Krakow Rohstoffe GmbH was founded.
‘A time of incredible market opportunities after the German reunification. But today anyone could do it.’
With the beginning of his doctoral studies at the Georg-August University Göttingen Dr. Krakow focussed on rocks from Mesozoic layers. He studied the connections of clay mineralogy and landfill construction. He made first business contacts with the well-known companies Jacobi and Wienerberger, supported by his doctoral supervisor Dr. Siegfried Ritzkowski.
‘Unplanned basis for the entry into the brick industry’
Diploma student in the Erdbaulabor in Göttingen. Numerous projects about construction ground. Among other things hydrogeological evaluation of 13 tunnel constructions for the Deutsche Bahn on the new railway line Hannover/Würzburg. South of Hildesheim the line leaves the North German Basin and crosses the highlands of the Hildesheim forest and the Leinebergland.
‘Monthly traffic on all tunnels from Hildesheim to Hann. Münden’
Already before his university studies Lutz Krakow was fascinated by the idea to make money with Geology. His mentor was Dr. Eckard Gauglitz, laboratory director of the ‘Erdbaulabor’ in Göttingen where Lutz Krakow worked as a student assistant. During the job he gained experiences with core drillings in quaternary unconsolidated rocks. His diploma thesis was focussed on engineering geology supervised by Dr. Norbert Wilczewski. His chemistry teacher Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Herbert W. Roesky had a profound an inspiring influence on the studies of Lutz Krakow.
‘First fascinating insights into the geological underground’
Lutz Krakow spent his early childhood close to the clay pits of Rosdorf in southern Lower Saxony. It may be part of the game of life, that his first customers in the brick industry were the local brickworks HENTE & SPIESS and MEURER. After primary school Krakow attend-ed the Otto-Hahn High School in Göttingen.
Mihaela Krakow, née Stamatide is born in Bucharest as the second child of Mihai Stamatide, a geologist, and Clemanta Stamatide, a bank employee. She has three siblings. After graduating from the Liceul Mihail Sadoveanu, she trained as a managerial assistant and became chief secretary at the Romanian Ministry of the Interior.
‘Nothing is past like the past’
