Historic Mining Industry
The mining industry in the Harz has its origins about 3,000 years ago during the Bronze Age. The seven Upper Harz mining towns - Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Bad Grund, Sankt Andreasberg, Lautenthal, Altenau and Wildemann - and around 30 other villages within and on the edge of the Harz can thank the Upper Harz mining and smelting industries for their boom. The former imperial town of Goslar, too, whose splendour depended on the ore treasures of the Rammelsberg, mined argentiferous lead ore for centuries. Mining heavily dominated the economic life of the Harz as well as its scenery. Miners created the famous engineering system for the management of water in the Upper Harz, the Upper Harz Water Regale, of which 70 kilometres of ditch and 68 'ponds' (with a volume of 8 million cubic metres) are still used today. Without using their considerable hydropower output, silver mining in the Harz would never have been able to attain its major economic significance.
In the eastern Harz Foreland (Mansfeld Land and Sangerhäuser Mulde) copper schist was mined until 1990. The early beginnings of this industry were first mentioned in 1199, and it was considered in its heyday, at the end of the 15th century, as the most important in Europe. In addition, at Ilfeld is the only stone coal mine in the Harz, the former Rabenstein Gallery Mine (Bergwerk Rabensteiner Stollen). In the North Thuringian mining area, there were numerous potash mines and, in the vicinity of Röblingen, geological waxes were extracted by a mining concern.
The last mine in the Upper Harz – the Wolkenhügel Pit in Bad Lauterberg – closed its operations in June 2007 for economic reasons. Having formerly had 1,000 workers, the mine employed just 14 people towards the end, using the most modern technology to extract barite. With the closure of this facility, mining operations that had begun in the Middle Ages and had continued unbroken since the 16th century, extracting silver, lead and zinc, came to an end. Bearing witness to the industry are cultural monuments as well as the negative consequences of mining for the environment such as e. g. pollution of the ecosystem with heavy metals.
Famous quotes containing the words historic, mining and/or industry:
“The historic ascent of humanity, taken as a whole, may be summarized as a succession of victories of consciousness over blind forces—in nature, in society, in man himself.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
“Any relation to the land, the habit of tilling it, or mining it, or even hunting on it, generates the feeling of patriotism. He who keeps shop on it, or he who merely uses it as a support to his desk and ledger, or to his manufactory, values it less.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“My plan of instruction is extremely simple and limited. They learn, on week-days, such coarse works as may fit them for servants. I allow of no writing for the poor. My object is not to make fanatics, but to train up the lower classes in habits of industry and piety.”
—Hannah More (1745–1833)