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39-871: The nature park includes the Upper Harz minus the Lower Saxon parts of the Harz National Park . Its eastern and southeaster boundary is part of the German Green Belt . It borders on the Harz/Saxony-Anhalt Nature Park to the east and the South Harz Nature Park to the southeast, the entire Harz being a single, large protected area ( Großschutzgebiet ). In the Harz and thus in the nature park, which

78-767: A Reichsgut directly belonging to the Holy Roman Emperor . When in 1175 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa called for support on his campaign against the Italian cities of the Lombard League , the Welf duke Henry the Lion demanded his enfeoffment with the Goslar mines in return, which Frederick denied. Duke Henry laid siege to the town and had the mining installations demolished. Restored after his deposition in 1180,

117-583: A new town with the name 'Oberharz am Brocken'. There were major protests against this name in the borough of Oberharz in Lower Saxony. The reasons were that, on the one hand, there was a significant risk of confusion by having two similar names, and on the other hand that the new region had never belonged to the Upper Harz, but was part of the Lower Harz. Rammelsberg The Rammelsberg

156-574: A result it is maintained in the newspapers. For example, there are occasionally articles published in the Upper Harz dialect in the local section of the Goslarsche Zeitung . To illustrate the dialect here is the refrain of a Sankt Andreasberg folk song: The town of Elbingerode and the municipalities of Brocken-Hochharz in the district of Harz decided to merge on 1 January 2010, as part of regional reforms in Saxony-Anhalt, into

195-516: Is a mountain, 635 metres (2,083 ft) high, on the northern edge of the Harz range, south of the historic town of Goslar in the North German state of Lower Saxony . The mountain is the location of an important silver, copper, and lead mine. When it closed in 1988, it had been the only mine still working continuously for over 1,000 years. Because of its long history of mining and testimony to

234-557: Is based on the function of the Harz as a natural watershed . On this basis "by taking the Brocken as the mid-point, the Upper Harz includes everything to the west of it; the Lower Harz everything lying to the east. […] All that drains from the western mountains belongs to the catchment area of the Weser , all that drains from those in the east, to that of the Elbe ". Heinrich Heine also used

273-414: Is characterised by a rich variety of flora and fauna , are extensive forests, plateaus that are partly used by agriculture, deeply incised valleys with wild river courses and waterfalls, as well as storage ponds and reservoirs . In many places there are signs of a long history of settlement. In addition, there are winter sports areas and the Harz as a whole is a major hiking area. The highest point in

312-456: Is documented in 1376, when more than 100 miners were buried and killed. The main ores mined at Rammelsberg were lead-zinc ore, copper ore, sulphur ore, mixed ore ( Melierterz ), brown spar ( Braunerz ), barite ore ( Grauerz ), banding ore ( Banderz ) and kniest along with the important minerals of galena , chalcopyrite , sphalerite , baryte and vitriols . The chief metals extracted from these ores included silver, lead, copper and zinc, on which

351-508: Is just east of the Bruchberg. The mines , more than anything else, have left a lasting impression on the region and left their traces in the towns and villages as well as the countryside (see e.g. Upper Harz Water Regale ). Clausthal-Zellerfeld was known as "Capital of the Upper Harz" in the heyday of the mining industry. It was also the administrative seat of the former Samtgemeinde ('collective municipality') of Oberharz . The part of

390-572: The Zeche Zollverein in the Ruhr area, now also a UNESCO World Heritage Site). After more than 1000 years during which almost 30 million tonnes of ore were extracted, the mine was finally closed by the Preussag company on 30 June 1988 as the mineral deposits had been largely exhausted. A citizens' association argued forcefully against plans to demolish the surface installations and fill in

429-661: The Upper Harz , the ore deposits at the Rammelsberg were caused by the escape of hot, metal-bearing, thermal springs on the sea floor in the Devonian period. This formation is referred to as a sedimentary exhalative deposit . At the bottom of the Devonian sea, two large massive sulfide lenses formed that were later caught up in the folding of rocks during the Carboniferous period and so lie overturned at an angle in

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468-592: The Bollrich above the village of Oker . Once again the mine architect, Fritz Schupp, was responsible for planning the facilities. The site was linked to the Rammelsberg mine via the pit railway through the Gelenbeek Gallery. The removal of concentrates to the lead smelter at Oker and the Harlingerode zinc works was facilitated by a standard gauge railway line . In 2008 Goslar's "Old Town" and

507-415: The Brocken (1,141 m), Bruchberg, Wurmberg , Torfhaus and Acker, which lie above 800 m. The High Harz therefore includes most of the Harz National Park . One feature of the Upper Harz is, or was, the Upper Harz dialect ( Oberharzer Mundart ). Unlike the Lower Saxon, Eastphalian and Thuringian dialects of its surround area, this is an Erzgebirgisch dialect that goes back to the settlement in

546-418: The Brocken as the dividing line in his book Die Harzreise ("The Harz Journey") in 1824 and remarked that the "Lower Harz, as the eastern side of the Brocken is called, as opposed to its western side, […] called the Upper Harz". This definition extends the montane Upper Harz eastwards roughly to the state border with Saxony-Anhalt , so that e.g. Braunlage or Hohegeiß may also be counted as lying within

585-601: The Clausthal Kulmfaltenzone , it extends to the western and northern rim of the Harz and is bordered in the southeast by the Acker - Bruchberg ridge beyond the Söse valley. The Upper Harz was, for centuries, dominated by the hugely profitable silver mining industry and is also distinguished by its own dialect (see below). The mining area of Sankt Andreasberg occupies a special place in this regard, because it

624-670: The Harz Nature Park ( Lower Saxony ) is the Wurmberg ( 971.2 m above  sea level (NN) ). 51°50′41″N 10°21′21″E  /  51.84472°N 10.35583°E  / 51.84472; 10.35583 Upper Harz The Upper Harz ( German : Oberharz , pronounced [ˈoːbɐhaːɐ̯ts] ) is the northwestern and higher part of the Harz mountain range in Germany . The exact boundaries of this geographical region may be defined differently depending on

663-620: The Protestant commander Christian the Younger of Brunswick ; however, to no avail as his nephew Duke Augustus the Younger reconciled with Emperor Ferdinand in 1642. Under the Welf dukes, gold was also won from the 18th century onwards. With Goslar the Rammelsberg mines passed to the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814 and to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866. Under the 1936/37 Rammelsbergprojekt ,

702-585: The Rammelberg mines were again contested in 1198/99 during the Welf- Hohenstaufen throne quarrel between his son Otto IV and Frederick's son Philip of Swabia . After Imperial influence waned, the mines were held in pledge by the council of the Imperial city of Goslar, who officially purchased the entitlement to the rights and royalties from mining ( Bergregal ) in 1359. A mining accident

741-467: The Rammelsberg occurred as a continuous process in different phases. Initially the main product was copper ore, then, (much) later lead, and with lead, silver. The analysis of written sources and archaeological finds of unsmelted pieces of ore and slag found during archaeological excavations between 1981 and 1985 at Düna (near Osterode ) in the South Harz indicates that the earliest mining activity at

780-588: The Rammelsberg occurred in the late 7th century AD. Anglo-Saxon burial objects made of Harz ore were also excavated in England. Mining on the Rammelsberg was first mentioned in the records around 968 by the Saxon chronicler, Widukind of Corvey . According to his Res gestae saxonicae , Emperor Otto the Great had silver ore deposits ( Latin : venas argenti ) opened and extracted. The mining settlement of Goslar

819-427: The Upper Harz, as well as some high mountain ridges: The Upper Harz includes the plateaus of Clausthal and Andreasberg, some 2,000 feet high, and the ridges and peaks of the so-called Ackerberg, Bruchberg and Brocken which are almost twice as high […] To the east it transitions to the less prominent Lower Harz which descends gently eastwards. The High Harz ( Hochharz ) refers to the only sparsely populated region around

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858-439: The advancement and exchange of technology over many centuries, the visitor mine of Rammelsberg was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. According to legend, the mountain was named after a knight called "Ramm", who was a henchman of Emperor Otto the Great . In 968, whilst out hunting, the knight tied his horse to a tree, in order to pursue some deer through almost impassable terrain. His charger impatiently pawed

897-498: The area of mining folk from the Ore Mountains of Saxony in the 16th century. The Upper Harz dialect is restricted to only a few places and so forms something of a language island in the Harz. The best known are Altenau, Sankt Andreasberg, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Lautenthal and Hahnenklee. Today the dialect is rarely heard in everyday life in the Upper Harz. It is mainly members of the older generations that still speak it; as

936-477: The context. In its traditional sense, the term Upper Harz covers the area of the seven historical mining towns ( Bergstädte ) - Clausthal , Zellerfeld , Andreasberg , Altenau , Lautenthal , Wildemann and Grund - in the present-day German federal state of Lower Saxony . Orographically, it comprises the Harz catchment areas of the Söse , Innerste and Grane , Oker and Abzucht mountain streams, all part of

975-408: The ground with its hooves whilst waiting for his master to return and so exposed a vein of silver ore. According to another explanation, the name may be derived from the widespread ramsons ( Low German : Ramsen ) found on the slopes. It is most probably however, that "ram" is a very old word-explanation for "ore with copper". In Italian today "rame" means "copper". Unlike the mineral deposits of

1014-407: The historic underground mine workings. Consequently, the disused mine was developed into a museum to preserve its heritage and display the history of the mine and its industrial equipment. In February 2009, the company, Scandinavian Highlands Holding A/S, published the results of geophysical investigations by its subsidiary, Harz Minerals GmbH, according to which hitherto unknown mineral deposits of

1053-644: The ironworks that process its ore, and which lie on the northern foothills of the mountains near Ocker , Langelsheim etc. […] The actual Upper Harz, now part of the Prussian state and forming the district ( Bezirk ) of the Clausthal Mining Department, is that region west of the Bruchberge with mineral lodes in Devonian and Carboniferous mountains, which are divided into specific groups or seams. Another division into Upper and Lower Harz

1092-466: The larger Weser watershed. Much of the Upper Harz area is up to 700 metres (2,300 ft) above sea level . In a wider sense, it also comprises the adjacent High Harz ( Hochharz ) range in the east, climbing to over 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in the Brocken massif. The region is centred on the geological structure of the region around the municipality of Clausthal-Zellerfeld, merged in 1924. From

1131-698: The mine was greatly expanded at the behest of the Nazi authorities as part of the Four-year plan . The Nazis saw the Rammelsberg with its metal ores as vital to their war efforts and the difficulty of mineral dressing the ore had been technically solved (using froth flotation ). This led to the construction of the present-day surface installations including the hillside processing plant and Rammelsberg shaft. The architects were Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer, who designed other important industrial buildings (including

1170-462: The mountain range lying west of the Brocken described in a geographical sense as the Upper Harz is divided from a miner's and ironworker's perspective into the Upper Harz ( Oberharz ), i.e. the plateau of Clausthal, with this town and Zellerfeld and the mining towns of Altenau, Lautenthal, Wildemann, Grund and Andreasberg, and the communion of the Lower Harz, i.e. the Rammelsberg near Goslar and

1209-485: The mountain, including: The Master Malter's Tower ( Maltermeisterturm ) is the oldest surviving above-ground mine building on the Rammelsberg and, probably, in Germany as well. It was built around 1500 on a slagheap on the side of the Rammelsberg. Initially the tower was used to oversee the pits; from 1578 it was used as a bell tower ( Anläuteturm ). Since the mid-18th century the master malter ( Maltermeister ) lived in

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1248-521: The mountain. Ore mining started in the "Old Bed" or "Old Orebody" ( Altes Lager ), exposed on the surface by erosion , during the Bronze Age . The "New Bed" ( Neues Lager ) was only discovered in the 19th century as a result of specific exploration . The mines were exhausted only in the 1980s, and were shut down in 1988. The ore contained an average of 14% of zinc , 6% lead, 2% copper, 1 g/t gold and 140 g/t silver. The mining history of

1287-571: The museum became a UNESCO World Heritage project together with Goslar's Old Town. In 2010 this World Heritage Site was expanded to include the Upper Harz Water Regale , Walkenried Abbey and the historic Samson Pit . The Rammelsberg Museum and Visitor Mine is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH). The World Heritage Site protects many artifacts from the medieval era of mining operations at

1326-602: The occasion of the city's weakened position upon the Schmalkaldic War and seized ownership of the mines from the citizens. Mining operations were further promoted by Henry's son and successor Duke Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1568. During the Thirty Years' War the Goslar citizens once again tried to regain the Rammelsberg mines distinguishing themselves as loyal supporters of the Imperial forces against

1365-512: The size of those at the Rammelsberg may be present, two kilometres west of the Rammelsberg ore deposits. In autumn 2009 several exploratory bores were sunk in the area of the Hessenkopf and Gosetal to a depth of 500–600 metres. At the end of January 2010, after a news blackout of several months, the company announced that they would soon be drilling to a depth of 800 metres, where they suspected there would be rich mineral deposits. In 1992

1404-560: The swimming basin of the woodland pool. Due to the German Wirtschaftswunder ("economic miracle") after the Second World War and sharply rising lead and zinc prices in 1950, investigations were undertaken into the deposits of banding ore ( Banderz ). After successful trials into the processing of this low-grade ore (recoverable metal content of about 25%), the dressing of banding ore was begun in 1953 on

1443-465: The tower. He managed the wood needed for the mine, which was measured in malters , hence the name. In order to have enough water to drive water wheels during times of drought the Herzberg Pond was created in 1561. Since 1926, this has been used as a woodland swimming pool. Until the closure of the mine, water was used for cooling and the warm water was pumped back into the pond where it heated

1482-661: The wealth of Goslar was based. Because of this wealth, Goslar and the Rammelsberg mines were influential in the Hanseatic League throughout the 1440s, but in 1552, control over the mine was transferred from Goslar to the Margraviate of Brandenburg The Goslar mines for centuries had been a thorn in the side of the Dukes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel ruling over the adjacent Harz estates. In 1552 – after decades of legal proceedings, feuds and skirmishing – Duke Henry V took

1521-489: Was not mentioned until 979. In 1005, attracted by the presence of silver, King Henry II of Germany had the Imperial Palace of Goslar ( Kaiserpfalz Goslar ) built at the foot of Mt. Rammelsberg, and held his first Imperial Assembly there in 1009. Extended by his Salian successors Conrad II and Henry III , the palace of Goslar gradually replaced the former Royal palace of Werla . The profitable mines remained

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