Kongsberg

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coat of arms map
Coat of arms of the Kongsberg commune
Kongsberg (Norway)
Kongsberg
Kongsberg
Basic data
Commune number : 3006
Province  (county) : Viken
Administrative headquarters: Kongsberg
Coordinates : 59 ° 40 ′  N , 9 ° 39 ′  E Coordinates: 59 ° 40 ′  N , 9 ° 39 ′  E
Surface: 793.09 km²
Residents: 27,723  (Feb 27, 2020)
Population density : 35 inhabitants per km²
Language form : Bokmål
Postal code : 3610-3617
Website:
traffic
Railway connection: Sørlandsbanen
politics
Mayor : Kari Anne Sand  ( Sp ) (2015)
Location in the province of Viken
Location of the municipality in the province of Viken

Kongsberg ( Norw. "Königsberg") is a city and municipality in Viken , Norway . 27,723 people live in it on 792 km² (as of February 27, 2020). The city lies on the banks of Numedalslågen .

View of Kongsberg between 1890 and 1900

history

Silver mining in Kongsberg in the 17th century

The town owes its existence to the discovery of the silver mine at Numedalslågen in 1623. Founded on May 2, 1624 by King Christian IV , it quickly developed into the largest mining town in Norway.

Christian IV had German miners come from the silver mines in the Erzgebirge and Harz Mountains to develop the deposits. In addition, German miners came to Kongsberg from other Norwegian mines. Adolf Friedrich von Grabow from Saxony was appointed the first mining captain. The pits had German names. The services were first held in German, and only later in Danish. The German miners wore their own miners' costume and were organized in the form of the German Knappschaft . Work was carried out according to the German mining regulations. At that time Kongsberg looked like a small piece of Germany in Norway.

Entrance to the King's Pit

During the heyday, around 4,200 employees worked in the Kongsberg silver mines . In 1686 the Royal Mint was moved from Akershus to Kongsberg. In 1757 a mountain seminar was founded, the first technical university in Norway.

The town received market rights in 1802. The mining in the old pits was stopped in 1805. After new silver deposits were discovered, operations began again in 1816. In the 1830s, about 10 percent of the Norwegian state budget was financed from the revenues of the silver mines. Up to the final cessation of silver mining in 1957, a total of around 1,350 tons of pure silver had been produced.

coat of arms

Blazon : In green a two-faced silver man, holding up a golden sword in his right hand and holding a golden scale in the other

economy

When the state-owned Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (KV) (German: Kongsberg Waffenfabrik) was founded in 1814 , the city received a new industrial focus, which not only supplied the Norwegian state with weapons. It was not until 1987 that the arms factory, which is said to have violated the COCOM guidelines on arms exports and was facing bankruptcy, was closed. It was split into several smaller companies and partially privatized. The Kongsberg Group (Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace og Kongsberg Maritime) and Kongsberg Automotive Holding (FMC Technologies og Kongsberg Automotive) emerged from it. As a result, Kongsberg has now become a high-tech location where more than 6,000 engineers and other highly qualified specialists work. Its operations include technologies for the space and aircraft industry, shipping, for motor vehicles and offshore systems for oil and gas production. The city is also home to the Norwegian State Mint and a technical college (optics, computer science, engineering and political science) with more than 800 students.

Culture

The international Kongsberg Jazz Festival has been held every July since 1964 .

Sports

Kongsberg is home to many well-known Norwegian ski jumpers and snowboarders. The town is a well-known ski resort with a chair lift and several ski lifts. The slopes have an altitude difference of about 400 meters. There are a total of seven trails that are lit at night. The city has an 18-hole golf course and a motor sports center for autocross, motocross, go-kart and speedway.

Twin cities

Attractions

  • Kongsberg Kirke from 1761, the largest and best preserved Norwegian baroque church with a Gloger organ from 1765
  • Kongsberg Skimuseum , founded in 1987, with numerous exhibits by Norwegian ski jumpers like Birger Ruud , but also German athletes like Helmut Recknagel
  • Lågdalsmuseum , an open-air museum with buildings and facilities from the historic mining era
  • Museum of the Royal Mint with coinage from silver from 1628 to the present day
  • Norwegian Mining Museum with a large collection of finds from the silver mines and exhibits on the history of silver mining
  • Kongsberg silver mine , show mine with underground facilities and an accessible mine for the former mining in Kongsberg

Personalities

Well-known people born in Kongsberg include Morten Harket , singer of the band A-ha , the composer Christian Sinding and the ski jumper Sigurd Pettersen .

See also

literature

  • Hans-Heinrich Hillegeist: Emigration of Upper Harz miners to Kongsberg / Norway in the 17th and 18th centuries . In: Hans-Heinrich Hillegeist and Wilfried Ließmann (eds.): Technology transfer and emigration in the area of ​​the Harz mining industry. (= Harz-Forschungen, Volume 13), pp. 9-48. Verlag Lukas, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-931836-56-8
  • Kongsberg Turistservice (ed.): Kongsberg regions . Kongsberg 2011
  • Ferdinand Leix: Detailed description of the Kongsberg mining industry in Norwergen near Sanct Christiana . 1820 ( digitized version )
  • Fritz Petrick: Norway - From the beginning to the present . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2002, ISBN 3-7917-1784-7
  • Ralph Tuchtenhagen : Small history of Norway. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58453-4 .

Web links

Commons : Kongsberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Kongsberg  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. Statistisk sentralbyrå - Befolkning