Eilenburger Bergkeller

The mountain cellars in Eilenburg are the largest tunnel system in Saxony that has been excavated in loose rock . It is located on the high bank of the Mulde in Eilenburg-Berg and has a cellar under much of the district. The circumstances of the origin could not yet be clearly clarified. The age of the structure could not yet be determined exactly, although the oldest corridors are likely to be at least 800 years old. The cellars, which are constantly being expanded, have been used in various ways over the years and can now be viewed on guided tours. The Eilenburger Bergkeller in its entirety is a registered cultural monument in the list of monuments of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Saxony (object number: 08974086).

history

Today there are two theories about the origin of the mountain cellars. One assumes that German castle men had a network of escape routes built below today's Eilenburg Castle in the 10th century . Another theory suspects monks as builders who are said to have used the cellars as protection and escape routes. A boulder with the engraved year 1198 allows the age to be determined to be at least 800 years. In any case, monks used the secret tunnels until the 16th century . The mountain cellars were discovered by the people of Eilenburg in connection with the events of the Reformation in the city. This began the centuries-old use as a storage facility for the urban brewing industry, which in the meantime consisted of more than 300 home breweries. During this time, the expansion took place so that a total of 44 main and secondary cellars could now be used. With the industrialization of the brewery trade in the middle of the 19th century , marked by the founding of the Eilenburger Vereinbrauerei by Richard Landsperger ( Landsperger Brewery ), there was another expansion as a production and storage facility. Older aisles were now used by butchers from Eilenburg to store their goods and to grow mushrooms .

The global economic crisis meant the end for the Eilenburg large breweries and the tunnels were empty for several years. In the last years of the Second World War , the generously expanded halls were used as the production site for the Eilenburger Motoren-Werk , which manufactured aircraft parts for the Wehrmacht's air force on behalf of the Junkers-Werke in Dessau . Mostly forced laborers were employed. In April 1945 the original function of the mountain cellars became necessary again. Around 4,500 people sought protection there during the American artillery bombardment. The little use for mushroom cultivation and meat storage after the war justified the forgetting and increasing neglect of the building. In March 1989 the Eilenburger Bergkeller was placed under monument protection at the request of an individual . After German reunification in 1990, funds from the city and the Free State of Saxony could be used to maintain and renovate the facility. Since then, several cavities have had to be filled for safety reasons, but a total of 50 main and secondary cellars have been preserved.

Silver treasure find 1994

On June 6, 1994 at around 8:50 a.m., two workers from the Leipzig mountain rescue service discovered an unlocked stoneware bottle in one of the corridors, which was apparently filled to the brim with coins. At around 9 a.m., the workers first informed the mayor of Eilenburg at that time, Herbert Poltersdorf ( CDU ), who then went to the place where it was found, retrieved the bottle and brought it to his office in the town hall . Poltersdorf then informed the State Office for Archeology of Saxony and the Eilenburger editorial team of the Leipziger Volkszeitung . The mayor opposed the instruction of the state office to leave the content untouched, believing that the find was the property of the city of Eilenburg. In the presence of the journalist Frank Pfütze, he emptied the bottle on his desk so that he could take more meaningful pictures. Due to the actions of the workers and the mayor, important information such as the original location and the order in which the coins were put into the bottle could no longer be reconstructed.

Bottle and contents

The stoneware bottle from Waldenburg is around 21 centimeters high. It is flattened on four sides and has simple grooves all around and a single-line roller stamp pattern. The contents and the external appearance of the bottle suggest that it was dated to the second half of the 16th century.

The vessel contained 612 silver coins and around 400 grams of sand. The oldest coin is a Meissen groschen from the reign of Margrave Friedrich III. (1349–1381), the most recent coins are two groschen each from the Duke of Münsterberg-Oels and the Duke of Mansfeld from 1612. The coins come from almost the entire Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . A closure of the bottle could not be found. The large amount of sand also indicates that the bottle did not have one.

owner

Who the silver treasure once belonged to could not be determined. It is possible that it was the savings pot of a wealthier employee of one of the breweries, such as a master brewer or warehouse keeper . The origin of the coins from across the empire also suggests that they might have been the fortune of a merchant .

After the find in 1994, the city of Eilenburg, represented by its mayor Herbert Poltersdorf, briefly claimed the silver treasure. As a result, there was a brief legal dispute with the State Office for Archeology, represented by the State Archaeologist Judith Oexle . Since the Eilenburg coin treasure find is a movable cultural monument, the treasure shelf applies according to Section 25 of the Saxon Monument Protection Act , according to which the find is clearly to be granted to the Free State of Saxony. The newly elected mayor Hubertus Wacker ( Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ) then handed the coin treasure over to the responsible monument authority . The bottle and some coins are in the permanent exhibition of the Eilenburg City Museum. The other coins are kept closed to the public in the State Office for Archeology in Dresden.

investment

The Eilenburg mountain cellars have not yet been explored in their entirety. Some of the corridors run on three floors one above the other. A large part of the mountain cellars is located south of Bergstrasse below Friedrichshöhe. This has been largely renovated and can be walked on as part of guided tours. The entrances to it are in Kellerstrasse and at the Friedrichshöhe stairs. The corridors, which vary in height and width, and some of the barrel vaults that still exist, are lined with hand-painted bricks. The corridors are round and ogival as well as tubes. They are being marketed as film sets by the city of Eilenburg through the Central German Media Fund. The older parts of the mountain cellar north of the Bergstrasse under the castle are not accessible. The temperature in the mountain cellars is around six to eight degrees Celsius all year round.

Additional information

• The mountain cellars of Eilenburg on the sides of the city of Eilenburg
• Hanna Thurecht: The Eilenburger Bergkeller and the silver treasure in: Yearbook for Eilenburg and the surrounding area , Eilenburg 2013 (technical work)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hanna Thurecht: The silver treasure of Eilenburg in: Der Sorbenturm , Volume 10, Eilenburg 2013, page 69 ff.
2. ↑ Bergkeller Eilenburg on the pages of the Central German Media Fund (MDM) (accessed on January 7, 2014)

Coordinates: 51 ° 27 ′ 31.7 "  N , 12 ° 37 ′ 23.4"  E