Tannenbergsthal is a village and a former municipality in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony , Germany . Since 1 October 2009, along with Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz , it is part of the municipality Muldenhammer .
104-767: Located in the western part of the Ore Mountains , it is also a part of the Vogtland . The village counts Europe 's only topaz rock and a nearby show mine . The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom contain Tannenbergsthal topazes. [REDACTED] Media related to Tannenbergsthal at Wikimedia Commons This Vogtlandkreis location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains ( German : Erzgebirge , Czech : Krušné hory ) lie along
208-707: A Hercynian block tilted so as to present a steep scarp face towards Bohemia and a gentle slope on the German side. They were formed during a lengthy process. During the folding of the Variscan orogeny , metamorphism occurred deep underground, forming slate and gneiss . In addition, granite plutons intruded into the metamorphic rocks. By the end of the Palaeozoic era, the mountains had been eroded into gently undulating hills (the Permian massif ), exposing
312-453: A loamy , rapidly weathered gneiss in the east of the mountains producing a light soil. As a result of the subsoils based on granite and rhyolite, the land is mostly covered in forest ; on the gneiss soils it was possible to grow and cultivate flax in earlier centuries and, later, rye , oats and potatoes up to the highlands. Today the land is predominantly used for pasture . But it is not uncommon to see near-natural mountain meadows. To
416-622: A cataclysm known as " The Great Dying ", the third and most severe Phanerozoic mass extinction. The early Cambrian climate was probably moderate at first, becoming warmer over the course of the Cambrian, as the second-greatest sustained sea level rise in the Phanerozoic got underway. However, as if to offset this trend, Gondwana moved south, so that, in Ordovician time, most of West Gondwana (Africa and South America) lay directly over
520-686: A cover up for the Eastern Bloc's highly secretive uranium mining. For the third time in history, thousands of people poured into the Ore Mountains to build a new life. The principal mining areas were located around Johanngeorgenstadt , Schlema and Aue . Uranium ore deposits were also exploited for the Soviet Union in Bohemian Jáchymov (St. Joachimsthal). Its processing was associated with serious health consequences for
624-445: A foothold on land. These early plants were the forerunners of all plant life on land. During this time, there were four continents: Gondwana (Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, Siberia), Laurentia (North America), Baltica (Northern Europe), and Avalonia (Western Europe). The recent rise in sea levels allowed many new species to thrive in water. The Devonian spanned from 419–359 million years ago. Also known as "The Age of
728-548: A height of 807 m above sea level (NN) on the mountain of Komáří vížka which lies on the Czech side, east of Zinnwald-Georgenfeld , right on the edge of the fault block. Consequently, it is a fault-block mountain range, which has been incised by a whole range of river valleys whose rivers drain southwards into the Ohře and northwards into the Mulde or directly into
832-504: A height of 922 m above sea level (NN) , on average only about 140 frost-free days per year are observed. Based on reports of earlier chroniclers, the climate of the upper Ore Mountains in past centuries must have been even harsher than it is today. Historic sources describe hard winters in which cattle froze to death in their stables, and occasionally houses and cellars were snowed in even after snowfalls in April. The population
936-528: A large number of Bohemian Protestants then fled into the neighbouring Electorate of Saxony . As a result, many Bohemian villages became devastated and desolate, while on the Saxon side new places were founded by these migrants, such as the mining town of Johanngeorgenstadt . Ore mining largely came to a standstill in the 17th century, especially after the Thirty Years' War . Due to the very sharp decline of
1040-488: A leading centre of wood and toy manufacturing. Here, wooden smoking figures , nutcrackers , hand-carved wooden trees ( Spanbäume ), candle arches , ( Schwibbogen ), Christmas pyramids and music boxes are made. Up to the last third of the 20th century, Coal was mined near Zwickau until 1978, around Lugau and Oelsnitz until 1971 and in the Döhlen Basin near Freital until 1989. The mountains that until
1144-438: A length of 120 km. The eastern Ore Mountains are protected landscape. Other smaller areas on the German and Czech sides are protected as nature reserves and natural monuments. On the ridges there are also several larger raised bogs that are only fed by rainwater. The mountains are popular for hiking and there are winter sports areas at higher elevations. In 2019, the region became a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In English,
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#17327988225341248-454: A literal translation of the German name, and Vyšehory , meaning "high mountains". In Upper Sorbian the mountains are known as the Rudne horiny . The German and Upper Sorbian names, as well as the historical Czech Rudohoří , literally mean "ore mountains". The Ore Mountains are geologically considered to be one of the most heavily researched mountain ranges in the world. The Ore Mountains are
1352-704: A long time, so that for about 100 years the blue colour works had a worldwide monopoly. From about 1820 in Johanngeorgenstadt, uranium was also extracted and was then used to colour glass, amongst other things. Even richer deposits of uranium ore were found in St. Joachimsthal. St. Andrew's White Earth Mine ( Weißerdenzeche St. Andreas ) at Aue supplied kaolin to the Meissen Porcelain Factory in Meissen for nearly 150 years. Its export from
1456-546: A result of settlement in the early 12th century at the northern edge of the Ore Mountains, the first silver ore was discovered in the vicinity of present-day Freiberg , resulting in the First Berggeschrey or mining rush. Almost simultaneously, the first tin ore was discovered on the southern edge of the mountains in Bohemia. In the 13th century, colonization of the mountains took place only sporadically along
1560-465: A second trending north–south from Freiberg through Marienberg, Annaberg, Niederschlag, Joachimsthal, and Schlaggenwald. Late Tertiary faulting and volcanism gave rise to basalt and phonolite dikes . Ore veins include iron, copper, tin, tungsten, lead, silver, cobalt, bismuth, uranium, plus iron and manganese oxides. The most important rocks occurring in the Ore Mountains are schist , phyllite and granite with contact metamorphic zones in
1664-660: Is Krušné hory , derived from an old Czech expression krušec , meaning "ore". The mountains are sometimes divided into the Saxon Ore Mountains and Bohemian Ore Mountains. A similarly named range in Slovakia is usually known as the Slovak Ore Mountains . Europe's earliest mining district appears to be located in Erzgebirge, dated to 2500 BC. From there tin was traded north to
1768-499: Is a protected landscape. Further small areas are nature reserves and natural monuments, and are protected by the state. Palaeozoic The Paleozoic ( / ˌ p æ l i . ə ˈ z oʊ . ɪ k , - i . oʊ -, ˌ p eɪ -/ PAL-ee-ə-ZOH-ik , -ee-oh- , PAY- ; or Palaeozoic ) Era is the first of three geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds
1872-663: Is considered the first Phanerozoic mass extinction event, and the second deadliest. The Silurian spanned from 444–419 million years ago. The Silurian saw the rejuvenation of life as the Earth recovered from the previous glaciation. This period saw the mass evolution of fish, as jawless fish became more numerous, jawed fish evolved, and the first freshwater fish evolved, though arthropods, such as sea scorpions , were still apex predators . Fully terrestrial life evolved, including early arachnids, fungi, and centipedes. The evolution of vascular plants ( Cooksonia ) allowed plants to gain
1976-478: Is seen historically as part of the Ore Mountains, Chemnitz is seen historically as just lying outside them, but Freiberg is included. The supposed limit of the Ore Mountains continues southwest of Dresden towards the Elbe Sandstone Mountains . From this perspective, its main characteristics, i.e., gently sloping plateaus climbing up to the ridgeline incised by V-shaped valleys , continue to
2080-575: Is the sudden appearance of nearly all of the invertebrate animal phyla in great abundance at the beginning of the Cambrian. The first vertebrates appeared in the form of primitive fish, which greatly diversified in the Silurian and Devonian Periods. The first animals to venture onto dry land were the arthropods. Some fish had lungs, and powerful bony fins that in the late Devonian, 367.5 million years ago, allowed them to crawl onto land. The bones in their fins eventually evolved into legs and they became
2184-605: The Appalachians , Caledonides , Ural Mountains , and mountains of Tasmania . The Cambrian spanned from 539–485 million years ago and is the first period of the Paleozoic Era of the Phanerozoic. The Cambrian marked a boom in evolution in an event known as the Cambrian explosion in which the largest number of creatures evolved in any single period of the history of the Earth. Creatures like algae evolved, but
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#17327988225342288-793: The Baltic Sea and south to the Mediterranean following the Amber Road trading route, of great importance in the Bronze Age . Tin mining knowledge spread to other European tin mining districts from Erzgebirge and evidence of tin mining begins to appear in Brittany , Devon and Cornwall , and in the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 BC. These deposits saw greater exploitation when they fell under Roman control between
2392-531: The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse . Gondwana was glaciated as much of it was situated around the south pole. The Permian spanned from 299–252 million years ago and was the last period of the Paleozoic Era. At the beginning of this period, all continents joined together to form the supercontinent Pangaea, which was encircled by one ocean called Panthalassa . The land mass was very dry during this time, with harsh seasons, as
2496-645: The Early Palaeozoic Icehouse , culminating in the Hirnantian glaciation, 445 million years ago at the end of the Ordovician. The middle Paleozoic was a time of considerable stability. Sea levels had dropped coincident with the ice age, but slowly recovered over the course of the Silurian and Devonian. The slow merger of Baltica and Laurentia, and the northward movement of bits and pieces of Gondwana created numerous new regions of relatively warm, shallow sea floor. As plants took hold on
2600-691: The Elbe . The main geologic feature in the Ore Mountains is the Late Paleozoic Eibenstock granite pluton , which is exposed for 25 miles along its northwest–southeast axis and up to 15 miles in width. This pluton is surrounded by progressive zones of contact metamorphism in which Paleozoic slates and phyllites have been changed to spotted hornfels , andalusite hornfels, and quartzites . Two key mineral centres intersect this pluton at Joachimsthal, one trending northwesterly from Schneeberg through Johanngeorgenstadt to Joachimsthal, and
2704-774: The Lusatian Mountains , the Iser Mountains , the Giant Mountains and the Inner-Bohemian Mountains . At the same time it forms a y-shaped mountain chain, along with the Upper Palatine Forest, Bohemian Forest, Fichtel Mountains , Franconian Forest , Thuringian Slate Mountains and Thuringian Forest , that has no unique name but is characterised by a rather homogeneous climate. According to cultural tradition, Zwickau
2808-712: The Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma at the start of the Mesozoic Era. The Paleozoic is subdivided into six geologic periods (from oldest to youngest), Cambrian , Ordovician , Silurian , Devonian , Carboniferous and Permian . Some geological timescales divide the Paleozoic informally into early and late sub-eras: the Early Paleozoic consisting of
2912-571: The South Pole . The early Paleozoic climate was strongly zonal, with the result that the "climate", in an abstract sense, became warmer, but the living space of most organisms of the time – the continental shelf marine environment – became steadily colder. However, Baltica (Northern Europe and Russia) and Laurentia (eastern North America and Greenland) remained in the tropical zone, while China and Australia lay in waters which were at least temperate. The early Paleozoic ended, rather abruptly, with
3016-717: The Western , Central and Eastern Ore Mountains , separated by the valleys of the Schwarzwasser and Zwickauer Mulde and the Flöha (" Flöha Line "), the division of the western section along the River Schwarzwasser is of a more recent date. The Eastern Ore Mountains mainly comprise large, gently climbing plateaux, in contrast with the steeper and higher-lying western and central areas, and are dissected by river valleys that frequently change direction. The crest of
3120-420: The discovery of large ore deposits the area was further renamed in the 16th century. Petrus Albinus used the name Erzgebirge ("Ore Mountains") for the first time in 1589, in his chronicle. In the early 17th century, the name Meißener Berge ("Meissen Mountains") was temporarily used. A quarter of a century later the names Erzgebirge in German and Rudohoří in Czech became established. The Czech toponym
3224-414: The engineering and textile industries . In 1789 the chemical element uranium was discovered in St. Joachimsthal; then in pitchblende from the same area, radium was discovered by Marie Curie in 1898. In the late 1930s, following the discovery of the nuclear fission , uranium ore became of particular interest for military purposes. After the incorporation of Sudetenland into Germany in 1938 all
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3328-703: The loess hill country to the north between Zwickau and Chemnitz is referred to as the Ore Mountain Basin ; that from the Eastern Ore Mountains as the Ore Mountain Foreland . Between Freital and Pirna , the area is called the Dresden Ore Mountain Foreland ( Dresdner Erzgebirgsvorland ) or Bannewitz-Possendorf-Burkhardswald Plateau ( Bannewitz-Possendorf-Burkhardswalder Plateau ). Geologically
3432-426: The 12th century onwards, and even the forests owned by the nobility could not cover the growing demand for wood. In the 18th century, industries were encouraged to use coal as fuel instead of timber in order to preserve the forests, and this was enforced in the 19th century. In the early 1960s the first signs of forest dieback were seen in the Eastern Ore Mountains near Altenberg and Reitzenhain , after local damage to
3536-664: The 21st century, the working group Naturhaushalt und Gebietscharakter of the Saxon Academy of Sciences ( Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften ) in Leipzig merged the Ore Mountains with the major unit group of Vogtland to the west and the major landscape units of Saxon Switzerland , Lusatian Highlands and Zittau Mountains to the east into one overarching unit, the Saxon Highlands and Uplands . In addition, its internal divisions were changed. Former major unit 420
3640-469: The 9th century, were only used in a general sense for the vast forests of the Central Uplands. Frequently the term Miriquidi is used to refer directly to the Ore Mountains, but it only surfaces twice in the 10th and early 11th centuries, and these sources do not permit a clear identification with the ancient forest that formerly covered the whole of the Ore Mountains and its foreland. Following
3744-472: The Bohemian Way ( antiqua Bohemiae semita ). It was here that Sayda was built, a station on the trade route from Freiberg via Einsiedl , Johnsdorf and Brüx to Prague. In Sayda it joined the so-called salt road that ran from Halle via Oederan and onto Prague. Glass-making was introduced into the region from the second half of the 13th century. The emergence of this branch of trade benefited from
3848-467: The Bohemian mining town of Graupen (Czech Krupka ) its name. With the further settlement of the Ore Mountains in the 15th century, new, rich, ore deposits were eventually discovered around Schneeberg Annaberg and St. Joachimsthal . The Second Berggeschrey started and triggered a massive wave of colonization. In quick succession, new, planned, mining towns were built across the Ore Mountains in
3952-633: The Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian; the Late Paleozoic consisting of the Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian. The name Paleozoic was first used by Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873) in 1838 to describe the Cambrian and Ordovician periods. It was redefined by John Phillips (1800–1874) in 1840 to cover the Cambrian to Permian periods. It is derived from the Greek palaiós (παλαιός, "old") and zōḗ (ζωή, "life") meaning "ancient life". The Paleozoic
4056-468: The Czech side, is actually the highest town in Central Europe . Only on the relatively inaccessible, less climatically favourable ridges are there still large, contiguous forests, but since the 18th century these have been managed economically. Due to the high demand for timber by the mining and smelting industries, where it was needed for pit props and fuel, large-scale deforestation took place from
4160-803: The Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: Keilberg ) at 1,244 metres (4,081 ft) above sea level and the Fichtelberg in Germany at 1,215 metres (3,986 ft). The Ore Mountains have been intensively reshaped by human intervention and a diverse cultural landscape has developed. Mining in particular, with its tips, dams, ditches and sinkholes, directly shaped
4264-716: The Eastern Ore Mountains by narrow fingers of the aforementioned basin. South(east) of the Western Ore Mountains lie the Sokolov Basin , the Eger Graben and the Doupov Mountains . To the north the boundary is less sharply defined because the Ore Mountains, a typical example of a fault-block , descend very gradually. The topographical transition from the Western and Central Ore Mountains to
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4368-589: The Eastern Ore Mountains. Here, the artisans were required by Prince-Elector Augustus under the Timber Act of 1560, to buy their wood in Bohemia. Wood from the Saxon Ore Mountains was still needed for the mines and smelters in Freiberg. This export of timber led, among other things, to the construction of an artificial cross-border rafting channel, the Neugrabenflöße , along the river Flöha . Because of
4472-556: The Elbe Valley zone. The western part of the Ore Mountains is home to the two highest peaks of the range: Klínovec , located in the Czech part, with an altitude of 1,244 metres (4,081 ft) and Fichtelberg , the highest mountain of Saxony, Germany, at 1,214 metres (3,983 ft). The Ore Mountains are part of a larger mountain system and adjoin the Fichtel Mountains to the west and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains to
4576-592: The Fish", the Devonian featured a huge diversification of fish, including armored fish like Dunkleosteus and lobe-finned fish which eventually evolved into the first tetrapods. On land, plant groups diversified rapidly in an event known as the Devonian explosion when plants made lignin , leading to taller growth and vascular tissue; the first trees and seeds evolved. These new habitats led to greater arthropod diversification. The first amphibians appeared and fish occupied
4680-601: The Mesozoic Era to recover. Recovery of life in the sea may have been much faster. The base of the Paleozoic is one of the major divisions in geological time representing the divide between the Proterozoic and Phanerozoic eons, the Paleozoic and Neoproterozoic eras and the Ediacaran and Cambrian periods. When Adam Sedgwick named the Paleozoic in 1835, he defined the base as the first appearance of complex life in
4784-404: The Middle Carboniferous). An important evolutionary development of the time was the evolution of amniotic eggs , which allowed amphibians to move farther inland and remain the dominant vertebrates for the duration of this period. Also, the first reptiles and synapsids evolved in the swamps. Throughout the Carboniferous, there was a cooling trend, which led to the Permo-Carboniferous glaciation or
4888-491: The Ore / ɔːr / Mountains are sometimes referred to as the Ore Mountain Range , but are also sometimes called the Erzgebirge [ˈeːɐ̯tsɡəˌbɪʁɡə] or Erz Mountains / ɛər t s , ɜːr t s / after their German name or the Krušné Mountains / ˈ k r ʊ ʃ n i , - n eɪ / after their Czech name. In Czech they are the Krušné hory [ˈkruʃnɛː ˈhorɪ] , from old Czech krušec , meaning "piece of ore", and were historically known as Rudohoří ,
4992-412: The Ore Mountains reach the city limits of Dresden at the Windberg hill near Freital and the Karsdorf Fault . The V-shaped valleys of the Ore Mountains break through this fault and the shoulder of the Dresden Basin . The Ore Mountains belong to the Bohemian Massif within Europe's Central Uplands, a massif that also includes the Upper Palatine Forest , the Bohemian Forest , the Bavarian Forest ,
5096-428: The Ore Mountains remains unchanged under the title of Southern Ore Mountains ( Süderzgebirge ). The climate of the higher regions of the Ore Mountains is characterised as distinctly harsh. Temperatures are considerably lower all year round than in the lowlands, and the summer is noticeably shorter and cool days are frequent. The average annual temperatures only reach values of 3 to 5 °C. In Oberwiesenthal , at
5200-410: The Ore Mountains was given new life during the First and Second World Wars in order to supply raw materials. Nazi Germany also saw the resumption of silver mining. Afterwards the people returned to the manufacture of wooden products and toys , especially in the Eastern Ore Mountains. The clock industry is centred on Glashütte . In the Western Ore Mountains, economic alternatives were offered by
5304-514: The Palaeozoic had very few facultatively motile animals that could easily adjust to disturbance, with such creatures composing 1% of its assemblages in contrast to 50% in Cenozoic faunal assemblages. Non-motile animals untethered to the substrate, extremely rare in the Cenozoic, were abundant in the Palaeozoic. Palaeozoic phytoplankton overall were both nutrient-poor themselves and adapted to nutrient-poor environmental conditions. This phytoplankton nutrient poverty has been cited as an explanation for
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#17327988225345408-404: The Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras and the Permian and Triassic periods is marked by the first occurrence of the conodont Hindeodus parvus . This is the first biostratigraphic event found worldwide that is associated with the beginning of the recovery following the end- Permian mass extinctions and environmental changes. In non-marine strata, the equivalent level is marked by the disappearance of
5512-462: The Permian Dicynodon tetrapods . This means events previously considered to mark the Permian-Triassic boundary, such as the eruption of the Siberian Traps flood basalts , the onset of greenhouse climate, ocean anoxia and acidification and the resulting mass extinction are now regarded as being of latest Permian in age. The GSSP is near Meishan , Zhejiang Province, southern China. Radiometric dating of volcanic clay layers just above and below
5616-464: The Silurian Period, about 420 million years ago, when they began to transition onto dry land. Terrestrial flora reached its climax in the Carboniferous, when towering lycopsid rainforests dominated the tropical belt of Euramerica . Climate change caused the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which fragmented this habitat, diminishing the diversity of plant life in the late Carboniferous and Permian periods. A noteworthy feature of Paleozoic life
5720-444: The abundance of excess timber, which was created by clearings and new settlements and which was able to meet the high demand of the glassworks. Monks from Waldsassen Abbey brought a knowledge of the glass manufacture to the Ore Mountains. Most glassworks were located in the vicinity of Moldau , Brandau and the Frauenbach valley . The oldest glassworks site is Ulmbach . This timber-hungry industry lost its importance, however, with
5824-434: The basal Cambrian Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) at the base of the Treptichnus pedum assemblage of trace fossils and immediately above the last occurrence of the Ediacaran problematica fossils Harlaniella podolica and Palaeopsacichnus . The base of the Phanerozoic, Paleozoic and Cambrian is dated at 538.8+/-0.2 Ma and now lies below both the first appearance of trilobites and SSF. The boundary between
5928-405: The boom in mining, which also enjoyed royal patronage. Mining on the Bohemian side of the mountains probably began in the 14th century. An indication of this is a contract between Boresch of Riesenburg and the Ossegg abbot, Gerwig, in which the division of revenue derived from ore was agreed. Grains of tin ( Zinnkörner or Graupen ) were obtained at that time in the Seiffen mining area and gave
6032-409: The border. From west to east: In the division of Germany into natural regions that was carried out Germany-wide in the 1950s the Ore Mountains formed major unit group 42: Even after the reclassification of natural regions by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation in 1994 the Ore Mountains, region D16 , remained a major unit group with almost unchanged boundaries. However, at the beginning of
6136-454: The boundary confine its age to a narrow range of 251.902+/-0.024 Ma. The beginning of the Paleozoic Era witnessed the breakup of the supercontinent of Pannotia and ended while the supercontinent Pangaea was assembling. The breakup of Pannotia began with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean and other Cambrian seas and coincided with a dramatic rise in sea level. Paleoclimatic studies and evidence of glaciers indicate that Central Africa
6240-511: The climate of the interior of Pangaea was not regulated by large bodies of water. Diapsids and synapsids flourished in the new dry climate. Creatures such as Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus ruled the new continent. The first conifers evolved, and dominated the terrestrial landscape. Near the end of the Permian, however, Pangaea grew drier. The interior was desert, and new taxa such as Scutosaurus and Gorgonopsids filled it. Eventually they disappeared, along with 95% of all life on Earth, in
6344-561: The continental margins, oxygen levels increased and carbon dioxide dropped, although much less dramatically. The north–south temperature gradient also seems to have moderated, or metazoan life simply became hardier, or both. At any event, the far southern continental margins of Antarctica and West Gondwana became increasingly less barren. The Devonian ended with a series of turnover pulses which killed off much of middle Paleozoic vertebrate life, without noticeably reducing species diversity overall. There are many unanswered questions about
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#17327988225346448-481: The crest of the mountains, such as the Freiberg Mines Water Management System or the Reitzenhainer Zeuggraben . Only a few mines remained profitable over a long period. Amongst them was the Himmelsfürst Fundgrube near Erbisdorf , whose 50 continuous years of profitable operation were commemorated in 1818 with the issue of a commemorative coin ( Ausbeutetaler ) and which went on to make a profit continuously until 1848. Thanks to discoveries of rich ore seams it became
6552-409: The decline in industrial production in that period, people without any ties migrated to the interior of Germany or Bohemia. After the discovery of the cobalt blue pigments the mining industry experienced a revival. Cobalt was extracted especially in Schneeberg, and processed in the state paintworks to produce cobalt blue paints and dyes. They succeeded in keeping the method of production secret for
6656-422: The early 1990s. In St. Egidien and Aue there were important nickel smelting sites. In Pöhla in the Western Ore Mountains, during exploratory work for SDAG Wismut new, rich lodes of tin ore were discovered in the 1980s. The test workings of that time are now considered the largest tin finds in Europe. Another well-known place of tin production was Seiffen . The village in the Eastern Ore Mountains has become
6760-408: The east. Past the River Elbe , the mountain chain continues as the Lusatian Mountains . While the mountains slope gently away in the northern (German) part, the southern (Czech) slopes are rather steep. The Ore Mountains are oriented in a southwest–northeast direction and are about 150 km long and, on average, about 40 km wide. From a geomorphological perspective the range is divided into
6864-446: The empty continent of Gondwana. By the end of the Ordovician, Gondwana was at the south pole, early North America had collided with Europe, closing the intervening ocean. Glaciation of Africa resulted in a major drop in sea level, killing off all life that had established along coastal Gondwana. Glaciation may have caused the Ordovician–Silurian extinction events , in which 60% of marine invertebrates and 25% of families became extinct, and
6968-560: The end of the Permian period. In late middle Permian the pareiasaurs originated, successful herbivores and the only sauropsids that could reach sizes comparable to some of the largest synapsids. The Palaeozoic marine fauna was notably lacking in predators relative to the present day. Predators made up about 4% of the fauna in Palaeozoic assemblages while making up 17% of temperate Cenozoic assemblages and 31% of tropical ones. Infaunal animals made up 4% of soft substrate Palaeozoic communities but about 47% of Cenozoic communities. Additionally,
7072-461: The first tetrapods, 390 million years ago , and began to develop lungs. Amphibians were the dominant tetrapods until the mid-Carboniferous, when climate change greatly reduced their diversity, allowing amniotes to take over. Amniotes would split into two clades shortly after their origin in the Carboniferous; the synapsids, which was the dominant group, and the sauropsids . The synapsids continued to prosper and increase in number and variety till
7176-433: The forests had become apparent since the 19th century as a result of smelter smoke ( Hüttenrauch ). The German population of the Bohemian part of the Ore Mountains was expelled in 1945 in accordance with to the Beneš decrees . The upper western part of the Ore Mountains, known in German as Erzgebirge , belongs to the Ore Mountains/Vogtland Nature Park . The eastern part, called the Eastern Ore Mountains ( Osterzgebirge ),
7280-420: The hard rocks. In the Tertiary period these mountain remnants came under heavy pressure as a result of plate tectonic processes during which the Alps were formed and the North American and Eurasian plates were separated. As the rock of the Ore Mountains was too brittle to be folded, it shattered into an independent fault block which was uplifted and tilted to the northwest. This can be very clearly seen at
7384-517: The heartland of the Central European mining industry. New ore discoveries attracted more and more people, and the number of residents on the Saxon side of the mountains continued to rise rapidly. Bohemia, in addition to migration from within the country, also received migration from elsewhere, mainly of German miners, who settled in the mountain villages and in the towns at the edge of the mountains. Under Emperor Ferdinand II an unprecedented Re-Catholicization began in Bohemia from 1624 to 1626, whereupon
7488-511: The heavy amounts of snow a natural Dwarf Mountain Pine region is found near Satzung , near the border to Bohemia at just under 900 m above sea level (NN) . By comparison, in the Alps these pines do not occur until 1,600 to 1,800 m above sea level (NN) . The term Saltusbohemicus ("Bohemian Forest") for the region emerged in the 12th century. In the German language
7592-574: The landscape and the habitats of plants and animals in many places. The region was also the setting of the earliest stages of the early modern transformation of mining and metallurgy from a craft to a large-scale industry, a process that preceded and enabled the later Industrial Revolution . The higher altitudes from around 500 m above sea level on the German side belong to the Ore Mountains/Vogtland Nature Park – the largest of its kind in Germany with
7696-400: The late 11th (and early 12th century) were covered in dense forests were almost completely transformed into a cultural landscape by the mining industry and by settlement . The population density is high right up into the upper regions of the mountains. For example, Oberwiesenthal , the highest town in Germany, lies in the Ore Mountains, and neighbouring Boží Dar (German: Gottesgab ) on
7800-651: The late Paleozoic, great forests of primitive plants covered the continents, many of which formed the coal beds of Europe and eastern North America . Towards the end of the era, large, sophisticated synapsids and diapsids were dominant and the first modern plants ( conifers ) appeared. The Paleozoic Era ended with the largest extinction event of the Phanerozoic Eon , the Permian–Triassic extinction event . The effects of this catastrophe were so devastating that it took life on land 30 million years into
7904-611: The late Paleozoic. The Mississippian (early Carboniferous Period) began with a spike in atmospheric oxygen, while carbon dioxide plummeted to new lows. This destabilized the climate and led to one, and perhaps two, ice ages during the Carboniferous. These were far more severe than the brief Late Ordovician ice age; but, this time, the effects on world biota were inconsequential. By the Cisuralian Epoch, both oxygen and carbon dioxide had recovered to more normal levels. On
8008-504: The majority of Ediacaran to Cambrian rock sequences are composed of siliciclastic rocks where skeletal fossils are rarely preserved. This led the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) to use trace fossils as an indicator of complex life. Unlike later in the fossil record, Cambrian trace fossils are preserved in a wide range of sediments and environments, which aids correlation between different sites around
8112-657: The miners. In addition a dam burst in 1954 at Lengenfeld at a uranium mining waste lake; 50,000 cubic metres of waste water poured down 4 kilometres into the valley. Until 1991 uranium ore was also mined in Aue- Alberoda and Pöhla . Mining operations in Freiberg that had begun in 1168 finally ceased in 1968 after 800 years. In Altenberg and Ehrenfriedersdorf tin mining continued to 1991. The smelting of these ores took place mainly in Muldenhütten until
8216-428: The mining industry and because the search for new ore deposits proved fruitless, the population had to resort to other occupations. Agricultural yields were low, however, and also the demand for wood was reduced by the closure of smelteries. Many people were already active at that time in textile production. However, since that was not enough for subsistence, the manufacture of wooden goods and toys developed, especially in
8320-402: The mining industry. Settlement in the Ore Mountains was slow to begin with, especially on the Bohemian side. The harsh climate and short growing seasons hindered the cultivation of agricultural products. Nevertheless, settlements were supported by the aristocratic Hrabischitz family and established mainly at the foot of the mountains and along mountain streams into the deep woods. In 1168, as
8424-556: The most productive Freiberg mine of the 19th century. But even the excavation of the Rothschönberger Stolln , the largest and most important Saxon drainage adit, which drained the entire Freiberg district, could not stop the decline of mining. Because even before the completion of this technical achievement the German Empire introduced the gold standard in 1871, the price of silver dropped rapidly and led to
8528-603: The most ubiquitous of that period were the armored arthropods, like trilobites. Almost all marine phyla evolved in this period. During this time, the supercontinent Pannotia begins to break up, most of which later became the supercontinent Gondwana. The Ordovician spanned from 485–444 million years ago. The Ordovician was a time in Earth's history in which many of the biological classes still prevalent today evolved, such as primitive fish, cephalopods, and coral. The most common forms of life, however, were trilobites, snails and shellfish. The first arthropods went ashore to colonize
8632-688: The mountains themselves forms, in all three regions, a succession of plateaux and individual peaks. To the east it is adjoined by the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and, to the west, by the Elster Mountains and other Saxon parts of the Vogtland . South(east) of the Central and Eastern Ore Mountains lies the North Bohemian Basin and, immediately east of that, the Bohemian Central Uplands which are separated from
8736-456: The names Böhmischer Wald , Beheimer Wald , Behmerwald or Böhmerwald were used, in Czech the name Český les . The last-mentioned names are used today for the mountain range along the Czech Republic's southwestern border ( see: Bohemian Forest ). From earlier research, other names for the Ore Mountains have also appeared in a few older written records. However, the names Hircanus Saltus ( Hercynian Forest) or Fergunna , which appeared in
8840-405: The north of the Ore Mountains, west of Chemnitz and around Zwickau lies the Ore Mountain Basin which is only really known geologically. Here there are deposits of stone coal where mining has already been abandoned. A similar but smaller basin with abandoned coal deposits, the Döhlen Basin , is located southwest of Dresden on the northern edge of the Ore Mountains. It forms the transition to
8944-575: The other hand, the assembly of Pangaea created huge arid inland areas subject to temperature extremes. The Lopingian Epoch is associated with falling sea levels, increased carbon dioxide and general climatic deterioration, culminating in the devastation of the Permian extinction. While macroscopic plant life appeared early in the Paleozoic Era and possibly late in the Neoproterozoic Era of the earlier eon, plants mostly remained aquatic until
9048-588: The range. The highest elevation on the Saxon side is the 1,215-metre-high Fichtelberg , which was the highest mountain in East Germany . The Ore Mountains contain about thirty summits with a height over 1,000 m above sea level (NN) , but not all are clearly defined mountains. Most of them occur around the Klínovec and the Fichtelberg. About a third of them are located on the Saxon side of
9152-401: The rock record as shown by the presence of trilobite -dominated fauna. Since then evidence of complex life in older rock sequences has increased and by the second half of the 20th century, the first appearance of small shelly fauna (SSF), also known as early skeletal fossils, were considered markers for the base of the Paleozoic. However, whilst SSF are well preserved in carbonate sediments,
9256-479: The short, but apparently severe, late Ordovician ice age. This cold spell caused the second-greatest mass extinction of the Phanerozoic Eon. Over time, the warmer weather moved into the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician and Silurian were warm greenhouse periods, with the highest sea levels of the Paleozoic (200 m above today's); the warm climate was interrupted only by a 30 million year cool period,
9360-591: The southern edge of the Dresden Basin . North of the Ore Mountains the landscape gradually transitions into the Saxon Lowland and Saxon Elbeland . Its cultural-geographical transition to Saxon Switzerland in the area of the Müglitz and Gottleuba valleys is not sharply defined. The highest mountain in the Ore Mountains is the Klínovec (German: Keilberg ), at 1,244 metres, in the Bohemian part of
9464-502: The state, however, was prohibited by the Prince-electors under threat of severe punishment or even death. Towards the end of the 19th century, mining slowly declined again. Drainage costs increased, from the mid-19th century, led to a steady decrease in yield, despite sinking of deeper galleries ( Erbstollen ) and the expansion of ditch and tunnel ( Rösche ) systems for supplying the necessary water for overshot wheels from
9568-592: The third century BC and the first century AD. Demand for tin created a large and thriving network amongst Mediterranean cultures of Classical times . By the Medieval period, Iberia's and Germany's deposits lost importance and were largely forgotten while Devon and Cornwall began dominating the European tin market. From the time of the first wave of settlement, the history of the Ore Mountains has been heavily influenced by its economic development, especially that of
9672-554: The top of the food chain. Earth's second Phanerozoic mass extinction event (a group of several smaller extinction events), the Late Devonian extinction , ended 70% of existing species. The Carboniferous is named after the large coal deposits laid down during the period. It spanned from 359–299 million years ago. During this time, average global temperatures were exceedingly high; the early Carboniferous averaged at about 20 degrees Celsius (but cooled to 10 °C during
9776-418: The unprofitability of the entire Ore Mountain silver mining industry. This situation was not altered even by short-term discoveries of rich deposits in various mines nor the state's purchase of all the Freiberg mines and their incorporation into the state-owned enterprise, Oberdirektion der Königlichen Erzbergwerke , founded in 1886. In 1913, the last silver mines closed and the company was disbanded. Mining in
9880-484: The upper reaches of the mountains. Since a large part of the precipitation falls as snow , in many years a thick and permanent layer of snow remains until April. The ridges of the Ore Mountains are one of the snowiest areas in the German Central Uplands . Foehn winds, and also the so-called Bohemian Wind may occur during certain specific southerly weather conditions. As a result of the climate and
9984-519: The uranium production facilities were commandeered for the development of nuclear weapons. After the American atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in 1945, Soviet experts searched for evidence of the German nuclear energy project to support Soviet atomic bomb development . Shortly thereafter, the processing of uranium ore for the Soviet Union began in the Ore Mountains under the code name SAG Wismut ,
10088-399: The vicinity of newly discovered ore deposits. Typical examples are the towns of Marienberg , Oberwiesenthal , Gottesgab ( Boží Dar ), Sebastiansberg ( Hora Sv. Šebestiána ) and Platten ( Horní Blatná ). Economically, however, only silver and tin ores were used. From that time, the wealth of Saxony was built on the silver mines of the Ore Mountains. As a metal used for coinage, silver
10192-480: The west, basalt as remnants in the Plešivec (Pleßberg), Scheibenberg , Bärenstein , Pöhlberg , Velký Špičák ( Großer Spitzberg or Schmiedeberger Spitzberg ), Jelení hora ( Haßberg ) and Geisingberg as well as gneisses and rhyolite ( Kahleberg ) in the east. The soils consist of rapidly leaching grus . In the western and central areas of the mountains it is formed from weathered granite. Phyllite results in
10296-521: The world. Trace fossils reflect the complexity of the body plan of the organism that made them. Ediacaran trace fossils are simple, sub-horizontal feeding traces. As more complex organisms evolved, their more complex behaviour was reflected in greater diversity and complexity of the trace fossils they left behind. After two decades of deliberation, the ICS chose Fortune Head , Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland as
10400-426: Was a time of dramatic geological, climatic, and evolutionary change. The Cambrian witnessed the most rapid and widespread diversification of life in Earth's history, known as the Cambrian explosion , in which most modern phyla first appeared. Arthropods , molluscs , fish , amphibians , reptiles , and synapsids all evolved during the Paleozoic. Life began in the ocean but eventually transitioned onto land, and by
10504-548: Was grouped with the western part of major units 421 and 423 to form a new major unit, the Western Ore Mountains ( Westerzgebirge ), the eastern part of major units 421 and 423 became the Central Ore Mountains ( Mittelerzgebirge ) and major units 422 and 424 became the Eastern Ore Mountains ( Osterzgebirge ). The current division therefore looks as follows: The geographic unit of the Southern Slopes of
10608-517: Was minted on site in the mountain towns into money. The Joachimsthaler coins, minted in the valley of Joachimsthal , became famous and gave their name to the medieval coin known as the Thaler from which the word " dollar " is derived. After the end of the Hussite Wars , the economy in Bohemia, which had been disrupted by the conflict, recovered. In the 16th century the Ore Mountains became
10712-539: Was most likely in the polar regions during the early Paleozoic. The breakup of Pannotia was followed by the assembly of the huge continent Gondwana ( 510 million years ago ). By the mid-Paleozoic, the collision of North America and Europe produced the Acadian-Caledonian uplifts, and a subducting plate uplifted eastern Australia . By the late Paleozoic, continental collisions formed the supercontinent of Pangaea and created great mountain chains, including
10816-431: Was regularly cut off from the outside world. The upper Ore Mountains was therefore nicknamed Saxon Siberia already in the 18th century. The fault block mountain range that climbs from northwest to southeast, and which enables prolonged rain to fall as orographic rain when weather systems drive in from the west and northwest, gives rise to twice as much precipitation as in the lowlands which exceeds 1,100 mm on
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