Mining in the Harz Mountains:the beginning and end of an era

For centuries people in the Harz Mountains have lived with and from mining. With the freedom of the mountains in St. Andreasberg in 1521, everyone could look for mineral resources. The end of the "Help God" pit in Bad Grund in 1992 as the last German ore mine to produce ore ended the era.

by Irene Altenmüller

A good 500 years ago, the Harz experienced a "gold rush":With the Bergfreiheit in St. Andreasberg in 1521, anyone can search there for mineral resources - and the local people use it. They open up the underground landscape and from then on live from and with the mining industry . It not only changes the region economically, but also the natural landscape.

"Black cave. Illuminated chimney. Flames, crackling. Smoke, draught, embers. Sparks fly, bang, dull roar of the leaping rocks."

This is how Johann Wolfgang von Goethe describes his impressions from a tunnel in the Rammelsberg mine in the Harz Mountains in 1784. What he observes is the so-called fire setting, in which the miners blast the rock with large fires in order to extract the valuable ores. At the time, Goethe was Minister of Mining in Thuringia and on his journey he studied the techniques of the Harz miners - because they are known for their extensive knowledge, which goes back centuries.

The beginnings of mining in the Harz Mountains

Because systematic mining has been going on in the Harz Mountains since the Middle Ages, and on the Rammelsberg since at least 968. According to researchers, a piece of leather found in a previously inaccessible shaft in 2021 could even date back to the 9th century. Other finds show that Harz ores were already being processed in the Bronze Age. In the 12th and 13th centuries, mining in the Upper Harz experienced its first heyday. Galena, copper, zinc and above all the coveted silver - the low mountain range is rich in mineral resources.

At first, the miners mainly extract ores that are close to the surface of the earth, later they have to penetrate deeper and deeper into the mountain. But depths of more than 60 meters can no longer be overcome for the people of the Middle Ages - mining is reaching its technical limits. Then there was the plague in the 14th century, which depopulated entire areas.

Mountain freedom attracts people to the Harz Mountains

Only in the 16th century did a new era dawn for Harz mining. In 1521 and 1527, the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Heinrich the Younger, issued the so-called mining freedoms to attract miners. They guarantee, among other things, tax exemption, permission to hunt, free access to construction timber and firewood and freedom from the services of a gentleman - immense privileges at a time when serfdom prevailed in many places.

Saint Andreasberg in the silver rush

With the great "Mountain Scream" - the news of important silver finds - a veritable silver rush begins in the small town of Sankt Andreasberg:droves of people are drawn there - not only miners from the Ore Mountains, but also adventurers and knights of fortune. Mining is booming:as early as 1537, 115 pits were in operation in Sankt Andreasberg alone, and around 1570 up to 8,000 people lived in the mining town - about four times as many as today. Within a few decades, a total of seven free mountain towns emerged with far-reaching privileges such as duty-free, market rights and their own jurisdiction - in addition to Sankt Andreasberg the towns of Altenau, Clausthal, Grund, Wildemann, Zellerfeld and Lautenthal.

Mining in the Harz is changing the forest

Mining not only attracts many people, it also changes the landscape of the low mountain range. Large quantities of wood are required to support the shafts and to break up the rock using fire-setting, and so more and more trees are being felled in the densely wooded region. To replace them, spruces are usually planted - undemanding, fast-growing trees that can just as quickly be processed back into lumber.

But the monocultures are vulnerable:In severe storms, they snap over a wide area like matchsticks - and offer the bark beetle ideal conditions. Between 1770 and 1800 alone, a devastating plague of bark beetles, the "Great Worm Dryness", destroyed thousands of hectares of spruce forest.

Women of culture reforest the forest after the war

Before and after the Second World War, the Harz forests were overexploited, the wood was only used for war preparations, after 1945 for reconstruction, for heating and for reparation payments to the British. Many slopes have been completely deforested in the post-war period. As a kind of "rubble women of the forest", so-called culture women begin reforestation and tirelessly plant young trees. Her work is immortalized in the 50 pfennig coin:it shows a woman planting an oak tree.

However, the culture women do not reforest with oaks, but mainly with spruces. To this day they dominate the forests in the Harz - and are currently dying. Because spruces are particularly susceptible to climate change and its consequences such as heat, drought and storms.

Canals, reservoirs, dams:Mining tames water

In addition to wood, water is essential for mining. As early as the 16th century, miners were systematically using hydroelectric power, capturing rainfall and tapping distant streams to divert water to reservoirs and catch basins. From there it flows through underground and above-ground pits and channels into the mines to power water wheels and the pumps that the miners use to drain the tunnels. Because the water seeping in from the surrounding rock has to be pumped out of the pits again - the miners fight the water with water.

Storage ponds ensure that there is always enough water available even in periods with little rain. One of them is the Oderteich, the oldest dam in Germany. It was built from 1715 to supply the Sankt Andreasberg mines with water. Later, hydropower also drives the so-called driving skills, which are used to transport miners and material in a kind of simple elevator to their work sites up to 600 meters below.

From the 16th to the middle of the 19th century, a sophisticated water supply system was created in the Harz Mountains, which included around 500 kilometers of ditches, 120 reservoirs, around 30 kilometers of underground watercourses and 100 kilometers of drainage tunnels. They shape the character of the landscape to this day and have been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011 because of their historical importance as part of the Upper Harz water management system.

The end of mining in the Harz Mountains

For centuries, mining remained the most important pillar of the Harz economy. Up until the 19th century, new ore deposits kept being developed. But the mines are gradually being exhausted, and at the same time world market prices are falling, so that mining is becoming less and less worthwhile. After almost 500 years, the Samson pit in Sankt Andreasberg closes in 1910, and by 1930 almost all other pits in the Upper Harz are also closed. The Rammelsberg near Goslar did not follow until 1988. Ore was mined there for over 1,000 years.

Stopping production in the "God's Help" pit ends an era

Four years later, on March 28, 1992, production in the "Help God" pit in Bad Grund was also stopped - it was one of the last German ore mines in which lead and zinc were still being mined up to that point. With a marching band and the last tram from the depths, a symbolic farewell is said. The 350 employees had worked there for decades up to 800 meters underground. "Stamping" is what many people say now, as they told the NDR at the time. In most cases of advanced age, the prospects of finding a job in the area are bleak. According to the plan at the time, parts of the disused company premises were to be converted into commercial areas or renatured.

In the Knesebeck mine, which belongs to the "God's Help" pit, the Bad Grund Mining Museum has a comprehensive exhibition on the history of mining in the Harz Mountains and offers guided tours through the industrial plant and the tunnel system.

The Harz myth:a landscape of legends shaped by people

Miles of tunnels, mysterious caves and mountains full of treasures in the midst of rugged cliffs and dark forests:this image of the Harz landscape, significantly influenced by the descriptions of Goethe and other poets, shapes us to this day and is. But what was once described as a romantic impression of nature was, in many places, a landscape shaped by humans. Only recently has there been a reversal. A new mixed forest is created, spruces are pushed back and moors are waterlogged again. Nature is reclaiming the Harz Mountains.