Abzugsrösche der Fundgrube Gesellschafter Zug

Siebenschlehener Pochwerk

Useful Information

Location:	Lindenauer Str. 22, 08289 Schneeberg. (50.587851, 12.623079)
Open:	17-APR to OCT Thu-Sat 10-17, last admission 16. [2025]
Fee:	Adults EUR 3, Pupils EUR 2, children (0-5) free, Students EUR 2, Families (2+2) EUR 8. Groups (12+): Adults EUR 2.50, School Pupils EUR 1.50. [2025]
Classification:	Cobalt Mine
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Technisches Museum Siebenschlehener Pochwerk, Lindenauer Str. 22, 08289 Schneeberg, Tel: +49-3772-22636, Tel: +49-3772-22446. pochwerk@schneeberg.de
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1854-1855	Rösche built.
1929	Pochwerk shut down.

Geology

The ore veins in the area are polymetallic hydrothermal veins, which are generally rich in silver, but also in many other ores including cobalt, zink, iron, copper, and uranium. In this area the amount of cobalt side minerals is rather high.

Description

This page is intended to describe a show mine, namely the Abzugsrösche der Fundgrube Gesellschafter Zug (water canal of the Fundgrube Gesellschafter Zug mine). This is not a proper name, but rather a description, and one that requires considerable explanation. First, the location: in the town of Schneeberg, in the suburb Neustädtel, there is the Gesellschafter Zug, which refers to an area with a cluster of ore-bearing gangues that were mined in a large number of small mines. A large number of buildings from this mining era have been preserved and restored, including the Siebenschlehener Pochwerk, which is now open as a technical museum. Despite its close connection to mining, we would not list the Siebenschlehener Pochwerk Technical Museum if it did not also have a show mine aspect. This is the so-called Abzugsrösche, a 204-metre-long tunnel that served as an underground channel for transporting water.

In the language of the miners in the Ore Mountains, a Rösche is an underground water channel, which, unlike an adit is not a drainage tunnel, is not primarily intended for drainage, but for transporting water to a place where it is needed. In the 19th century, extensive restructuring took place in the Schneeberg mining industry. This made it possible to feed water from the Filzteich water supply into the Lindenauer. Until then, the Fundgrube Gesellschafter Zug mine had used a horse-powered winding machine as its hoisting system. This was now replaced by a water-powered turbine winding machine. The necessary water was supplied via the Rösche. The tunnel was also used to transport the mined ore to the crushing plant, where it was crushed for smelting.

The central showpiece of the mining museum is the fully functioning crushing plant. It consists of the crushing plant building with annexes, two outbuildings, the so-called cobalt chambers, the foreman’s house, the artificial ditch including the outlet to the miners’ pond and the surge tank to the wheel room, as well as the miners’ pond including the pond dam. The Siebenschlehen crushing plant is probably the most important monument to cobalt mining. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.

The Fundgrube Siebenschlehen was first mentioned in 1495. From the 16th to the 19th century, the Schneeberg district was the world's largest source of cobalt ore. Cobalt was used to produce the famous cobalt blue, a blue pigment that was mainly used in ceramics and porcelain. This made the site an important economic factor for the entire region. However, this came to an end in the 19th century when the ore deposits were more or less depleted.

The Siebenschlehener Pochwerk was used to process the mined ore. Pure ore is only found in small quantities; most of the ore mined had a cobalt ore content of only 1 % to 20 %. Before it could be sold, however, it had to be brought to nearly 100 %. Most of this work took place in the crushing mills, where the ores were crushed until they had the required fineness. The set ores were crushed dry to a grain size of 3 to 5 mm, and the crushed ore was crushed to a fine slurry. During the subsequent screening process, the dry crushed ore was ‘washed’; the technical term “washing” refers to the separation of ore from waste rock. The finely crushed slurry was applied to so-called Herde (‘stoves’), where the ore was separated from the waste material. Over the centuries, various types of these stoves were developed, both movable and immovable. The waste from the stoves washing was sold as building or scouring sand. Originally, the stamp mill foreman’s apartment was located on the first floor of the main building. As the living conditions above the processing plant were very poor due to the noise, a separate foreman’s house was finally built around 1830.

To operate the stamp mill, an approx. 600 m long ditch was dug in the Lindenauer Valley (originally also for the Gesellschafter stamp mill). In 1838, the Lower Lindenauer Pond was built to better regulate the amount of water used for stamping.

The museum is an open-air museum around the stamp mill. In addition to the various above-ground facilities, buildings and machines, it also includes a mining nature trail. This trail features over 50 models of mining houses and mining facilities, most of which are still in their original condition. Here, visitors can experience the entire mining landscape on an entertaining hike.