The Erla Ironworks (German : Eisenwerk Erla) has its origins in one of the oldest hammer mills in the Upper Ore Mountains, which was first recorded in 1380 as the Hammer in der Erl, making the ironworks the oldest existing business in the German state of Saxony.
The ironworks lies in the valley of the Schwarzwasser river in the village of Erla in the borough of Schwarzenberg, immediately next to the Staatsstraße 272 and the railway line from Schwarzenberg to Johanngeorgenstadt, opened in 1883.
The emergence of the hammer mill is closely connected to the discovery of haematite on the Rothenberg mountain, which led to the establishment of the most important iron ore mine in the Kingdom of Saxony in the mid-19th century. The Erla Hammer Mill (Erlaer Hammer) was first mentioned in 1380 as the Hammer in der Erl, making the Erla Ironworks the oldest surviving business in Saxony. [1]
Among its earliest owners must have been members of the noble family of Berkas von der Duba. In 1430, William of Boskowitz from Bohemia is named as the owner of the mill. In 1434 it was purchased by von Tettau of Schwarzenberg. His successor, George William of Tettau rented the mill in der Erl in 1517 to hammersmith, Oswald Flemigk. Other owners were the hammer mill lords, Gregor Arnoldt (1550), Nikolaus Klinger and his son-in-law, Hans Rüdiger of Sachsenfeld (1626).
On 7 August 1650, the widower, Rosina Rüdiger, sold the debt-ridden hammer mill to Schwarzenberg town judge, Friedrich Röhling and her son, Hans Rüdiger. It was quickly rebuilt after its destruction in the Thirty Years' War, but destroyed again in August 1661 by a great flood. In 1806, mining commissioner (Bergkommissionsrat), Karl Heinrich Nitzsche from Obermittweida, bought the mill from the Reinhold brothers. He employed hammersmiths, hammer boys, carpenters and charcoal burners in two workshops. In 1836 the mill went into the hands of Carl Gotthilf Nestler from Wittigsthal and his son-in-law, Eduard Wilhelm Breitfeld, from Rothenhammer-Unterwiesenthal. The firm of Nestler & Breitfeld, which also owned the Siegelhof in Pöhla and the Arnoldshammer in Rittersgrün, thus expanded their holdings and, under its ownership, the hammer mill in Erla boomed. Around 1840, a steel rolling mill was added and the latest iron ore extraction techniques were introduced. Nestler & Breitfeld had an engineering works added by 1843, run by the Englishman, John Payne. From 1850, more buildings were erected and old facilities had to be renovated. Before a great fire in 1870 the Erla Hammer Mill consisted of 27 individual buildings, of which many were totally destroyed by the fire. By 1879, the most important parts of the ironworks had been rebuilt and even new residential quarters were built. But the furnaces were not reactivated; pig iron for the manufacture of ironmongery was now brought in from Westphalia and Silesia. The products from the factories in Erla were now iron and steel castings, machines, household tableware and black plate. [2] The construction of the Johanngeorgenstadt–Schwarzenberg railway by the Royal Saxon State Railways in 1883, which included the Erla Halt (Haltestelle Erla), facilitated the delivery of raw materials and dispatch of its end products. The factory owners had now specialised in machines for the paper industry. At the top was the die Nestler & Breitfeld GmbH. This later became an Aktiengesellschaft or joint stock company. In 1928, its majority shareholders became Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen, owner of the Zschopau Motor Works (DKW). During the Great Depression and a flood in 1931 iron production came to a stand still. At Nestler & Breitfeld, the parts for DKW engines were produced.
The Ore Mountains lie along 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 at 1,244 metres (4,081 ft) above sea level and the Fichtelberg in Germany at 1,215 metres (3,986 ft).
Aue is a small town in Germany at the outlet of the river Schwarzwasser into the river Zwickauer Mulde in the Ore Mountains, and has roughly 16,000 inhabitants. It was merged into the new town Aue-Bad Schlema in January 2019. Aue was the administrative seat of the former district of Aue-Schwarzenberg in Saxony, and is part of the Erzgebirgskreis since August 2008. It belongs to the Silberberg Town League
A hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works was a workshop in the pre-industrial era that was typically used to manufacture semi-finished, wrought iron products or, sometimes, finished agricultural or mining tools, or military weapons. The feature that gave its name to these workshops was the water-driven trip hammer, or set of hammers, used in the process. The shaft, or 'helve', of the hammer was pivoted in the middle and the hammer head was lifted by the action of cams set on a rotating camshaft that periodically depressed the end of the shaft. As it rose and fell, the head of the hammer described an arc. The face of the hammer was made of iron for durability.
Schwarzenberg is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, near the German–Czech border. The town lies roughly 15 km southeast of Aue, and 35 km southwest of Chemnitz.
Johanngeorgenstadt is a mining town in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, 17 km south of Aue, and 27 km northwest of Karlovy Vary. It lies in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, on the border with the Czech Republic, is a state-recognized health resort (Erholungsort), and calls itself Stadt des Schwibbogens. Its population decline since the 1950s has been extremely severe, falling from 45,000 residents in 1953 to only about one twelfth of that now.
Lauter is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony, Germany. It lies between the two towns of Aue and Schwarzenberg. It lies in the Ore Mountains, 4 km southeast of Aue, and 4 km northwest of Schwarzenberg, has about 4,700 inhabitants in an area of 21.55 km2 and belongs to the Town League of Silberberg. Since 1 January 2013, it is part of the town Lauter-Bernsbach.
The 140-kilometre-long road, the Silver Road is the first and longest holiday route in the German Free State of Saxony. Against the background of the importance of mining in the history of Saxony, the road links those sights and tourist attractions of the Ore Mountains and its foreland that relate to the centuries-old mining and smelting industries of the region.
Bernsbach is a village and a former municipality in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony in Germany that together with its constituent community of Oberpfannenstiel has roughly 4,700 inhabitants. Since 1 January 2013, it is part of the town Lauter-Bernsbach.
Breitenbrunn is a community in the Ore Mountains in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in the Free State of Saxony in Germany.
The Rockelmann is a mountain in the Ore Mountains in Saxony, southeastern Germany. It is south-southwest of Schwarzenberg. It formerly had two granite quarries, one of which was converted into an open-air theatre in the 1920s, the other into a Nazi arena (Thingplatz) in the 1930s, and is also the site of a memorial to soldiers killed in World War I; all three are within Rockelmann Park, which was laid out in the 1930s.
The Zwickau–Schwarzenberg railway is a main line railway in the German state of Saxony. It extends from Zwickau through the valleys of the Zwickauer Mulde and the Schwarzwasser via Bad Schlema and Aue to Schwarzenberg. It opened in 1858 and it is one of the oldest railways in Germany. It is now served by Regionalbahn trains, operated by Erzgebirgsbahn between Zwickau and Johanngeorgenstadt.
The Ore Mountain passes are crossings and passages over the crest of the Ore Mountains in Central Europe, over which tracks, roads, railway lines and pipelines run from the Free State of Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany to Bohemia in the Czech Republic and vice versa.
The Erzgebirgsbahn is a German railway company and a RegioNetz subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn. It operates in the Ore Mountains region of southern Saxony, near the towns of Chemnitz and Zwickau.
The Ore Mountain Mining Region is an industrial heritage landscape, over 800 years old, in the border region of the Ore Mountains between the German state of Saxony and North Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It is characterised by a plethora of historic, largely original, monuments to technology, as well as numerous individual monuments and collections related to the historic mining industry of the region. On 6 July 2019, the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of its exceptional testimony to the advancement of mining technology over the past 800 years.
The Kleiner Kranichsee is one of the most important raised bogs in the Ore Mountains of Central Europe. The bog straddles the German/Czech border; the part lying in the German state of Saxony has been protected since 1930, whilst the Czech part was declared a nature reserve in 1962.
Jugel is a division of the town of Johanngeorgenstadt in the German district of Erzgebirgskreis. This dispersed settlement is surrounded by woods, is divided into Ober- and Unterjugel and runs along the German-Czech border from the Lehmergrund to the crest of the Western Ore Mountains. In the vicinity lies the 980 metre-high Scheffelsberg. Jugel is a tourist destination for hikers and winter sportsmen.
Alexander Gerd Krauß is a German politician who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 2017 to 2021. From 2004 until 2017 he was a member of the Landtag of the Free State of Saxony.
Muldenhammer is a former subdivision of the town of Eibenstock in the Ore Mountains. It originated from an iron hammer forge, first mentioned in the 16th century and was abandoned in 1974 due to the construction of Eibenstock Dam.
Hundshübel is a village in Erzgebirgskreis district of Saxony, forming a subdivision of the municipality of Stützengrün in the Ore Mountains. It is located north of Eibenstock Dam on federal highway B 169.
Rittersgrün is a district of the municipality of Breitenbrunn/Erzgeb. in the Saxon Erzgebirge district. The scattered settlement with around 1600 inhabitants grew up around several hammer mills, which operated on the course of the Pöhlwasser from the 15th to the 19th century and were supplied with ore from numerous surrounding mines. Due to its location on an important Erzgebirge pass, the settlement was repeatedly plundered by passing mercenaries during the Thirty Years' War. After the decline of the hammer mill industry in the middle of the 19th century, the village's economy was dominated by cardboard and sawmills. In 2007, Rittersgrün was incorporated into Breitenbrunn/Erzgeb. Today, Rittersgrün is primarily known as an excursion and winter sports resort. The main attractions include the Saxon Narrow Gauge Railway Museum and a well-developed network of hiking trails.
