Silberhütte (Braunlage)

Silver hut City of Braunlage Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 42 ″  N , 10 ° 30 ′ 13 ″  E
Height :	approx. 440 m
Postal code :	37444
Location of Silberhütte in Lower Saxony
View from the east of the district

View from the south of the district

Old silversmiths

Silberhütte was originally a district of the formerly free mountain town of Sankt Andreasberg and has belonged to the town of Braunlage since the merger of the place on November 1st, 2011 . The place name goes back to the silver smelter, which was located there until 1912 and smelted the ores from the Sankt Andreasberg mines.

According to Ließmann (2003), the ores obtained were smelted here soon after the start of the Sankt Andreasberg silver mining. These naturally have an increased arsenic content. The hut was located at the confluence of the Waschegrundbach in the Sperrlutter - so there was enough water power to drive the ironworks machines. Not only the smelters working here were heavily polluted with emissions. Already in old traditions there is talk of massive nuisance from the poisonous, arsenic-containing smoke from the smelter, which moved into the city in unfavorable weather conditions and temporarily drove the people living there to flight.

The first smelter at this location is documented around 1550. At the beginning of the Thirty Years' War the hut was sold and demolished. After silver mining flourished again in the 1680s, a larger smelter was built, which - rebuilt and expanded several times - was in operation until 1912.

In 1836 the responsible mining authority allowed the construction of a separate arsenic plant on the site of the Silberhütte. In addition to the white poison meal, arsenic glass was also produced. Dealing with the fine dust poison was very problematic. The ironworkers were only sent into the chimneys to sweep the arsenic with a damp cloth in front of their faces - hardly any worker was willing to do so without a special bonus. A contemporary report by the smelter Seidensticker reports: "The poison meal produced cannot be weighed because it would cause disproportionately high costs and would endanger the health of the workers more than the rest of the arsenic work put together."

Closure of the silver smelter

Around 1900 considerations were made to close the silver smelter, but this was initially neglected out of consideration for the employees. After the Samson mine was closed , foreign ores from overseas were initially smelted until the final closure was completed in 1912. With this delay, the loss of jobs in Sankt Andreasberg should be buffered. The land and the buildings were sold to woodworking and other businesses with the condition that jobs were to be created. In the following years, however, it became apparent that this requirement could not be met. The majority of the silver smelter was bought by Rudolph Alberti, a member of the commercial council, who temporarily operated the Harz works "Glück Auf" at this location, which was shut down in 1929. In the same year, the timber works and box factory, which had also been located on the site, were shut down.

Metallwerke Silberhütte / Schmiedag AG

In the course of 1934, the Federstahl AG Kassel bought the land and real estate of the Harz factories "Glück Auf". In addition, other properties and real estate were bought from the timber works and box factory St. Andreasberg GmbH, the Prussian forest administration, the company CF Hertwig and the Albrecht couple. In October of the same year, Federstahl AG Kassel relocated its headquarters to Sankt Andreasberg and changed its name to Metallwerke Silberhütte GmbH. The start of operations was announced as early as November 1934. Initially, however, major construction work was necessary, which dragged on for more than a year; There was brisk construction activity in autumn and winter 1935. The management report for 1935 states that in Plant I, which was located on the site of the former Harz works "Glück Auf", hunting cartridges and in Plant II, which was located in the premises of the former timber and box factory, steel boats should be produced. Plant III, which was formed from the properties of the CF Hertwig company, was leased to the Schmiedag company in Hagen / Westphalia.

Production started in 1936. Plant I produced infantry ammunition for the standard rifle of the Wehrmacht, Plant II produced loading strips for rifle ammunition and Plant III was leased to Vereinigte Gesenkschmieden AG (Schmiedag), which produced bullet cases for artillery ammunition. In July 1935 44 workers and employees were employed who carried out the renovations and new buildings. A year later, when production started, there were already 143. The number of employees continued to rise in the following years, with 336 in July 1937 and 348 in July. In 1938, 16,562,000 “drawn products” were manufactured in Plant I, and in 1940 the plant was expanded to include an air raid shelter and laboratory building. In Plant II, where production also started in 1936, "strip iron products" were manufactured from 1937 onwards, and there are no longer any references to steel boat production. In 1938 there were 8,900,000 of these "band iron products" that had been produced. Investments were also made in Plant II in 1940 when a low-voltage machine was purchased.

With the start of the war, production and weekly working hours were increased and two-shift operation was introduced. As a result of the war, the production numbers continued to increase, although the number of pieces required by the army was not achieved, with the exception of a few months. The need for labor increased, so that from 1942 Soviet forced laborers were deployed. The production of the loading strips was relocated to Plant I in order to build RAD barracks on the site in which the forced laborers were housed. In addition, residents of Sankt Andreasberg were conscripted and skilled workers drafted by the Wehrmacht were brought back.

On April 1, 1945, the workforce totaled 1,141 people, including 374 blue-collar workers, 36 salaried employees and 731 foreigners. The district of Silberhütte was taken by the US Army on April 14th without a fight and the forced laborers were freed. However, they were interned a short time later in the same camp as before and transported away on June 20, 1945 as a unit. The facilities were looted after April 14, 1945. The dismantling of the remaining systems was completed before 1950. The properties were then used for industrial purposes.

Army Mountain Training Camp (AMTC) of the British Rhine Army (BAOR)

The Army Mountain Training Camp (AMTC) of the British Army on the Rhine was located on the site of Plant II until 1990 . The camp offered space for a maximum of 200 people. Here, BAOR soldiers were trained in various skills such as skiing , mountaineering and climbing as well as survival techniques.

Environmental pollution from the smelter operation

In 2004, a study by the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (LAVES) on heavy metal pollution in red deer and roe deer in the Silberhütte area found high concentrations of lead and cadmium in the liver and kidney and z. Partly also found in the muscles. However, the arsenic, antimony and mercury residues in muscles and organs were only small. The levels of cadmium in the organs exceed the residue levels of the EU contaminants regulation z. T. considerably. However, this regulation does not apply to meat and edible tissues from game. The investigation report is among others in the Lauterberg and Riefensbeek forest offices.

In 2005, the Lauterberg Forestry Office in Lower Saxony had around 6,000 t of contaminated hazardous waste disposed of from the site above the Silberhütte - dump material from the ironworks and contaminated floors as well as residues from flue gas ducts and chimneys. The materials were highly contaminated with arsenic and heavy metals. After the hut was closed, the buildings were simply destroyed and remained in place. Investigations of the area revealed that the area had to be redeveloped. Excavators removed the contaminated material. Then the excavated area was covered with unpolluted soil and a loose layer of mountain meadow hay was spread in order to prepare for reforestation. The district of Goslar as the licensing authority and the Lower Saxony Forestry Office Lauterberg as the owner of the area also made provisions for water protection in the planned water protection area “Pöhlder Becken”.

literature

• Frederik Kunze: Investigations into the use of forced labor in armaments factories in Sankt Andreasberg-Silberhütte . Göttingen 2010 (Bachelor thesis at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen).

• W. Ließmann: Poison meal from the Upper Harz - For the production of arsenic at the St. Andreasberger Silberhütte in the 19th century. In: B. Schlegel (ed.): Industry and people in southern Lower Saxony - from the 18th to the 20th century. (= Series of publications AG Südniedersächsischer Heimatfreunde. 16). Mecke Printing and Publishing, Duderstadt 2003.

• M. Rudolph: Lauterberg removes arsenic. In: Forest information. Lower Saxony State Forests, Braunschweig October 2005.