Last updated The dam of the Middle Kellerhals Pond, a Kunstteich in the Upper Harz Water Regale
A Kunstteich (plural: Kunstteiche) is an historic German term for a man-made lake or pond associated with the mining industry and its technology. These ponds were created by the construction of barriers, typically dams and embankments, and were used to supply hydropower and water to the mines. Water stored in the reservoir was used for a variety of purposes. It was used to turn water wheels that in turn drove the various mechanical devices used in mining in earlier centuries, such as man engines. It was also used to produce power and drain the mines, or in the processing of ore. In principle, all Kunstteiche are small dam and reservoir installations. The oldest working dams in Germany are Kunstteiche.
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef or placer deposit. These deposits form a mineralized package that is of economic interest to the miner.
A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. It may arise naturally in floodplains as part of a river system, or be a somewhat isolated depression. It may contain shallow water with marsh and aquatic plants and animals.
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aquaculture, and navigability. Hydropower is often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect water or for storage of water which can be evenly distributed between locations. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. The earliest known dam is the Jawa Dam in Jordan, dating to 3,000 BC.
Water is supplied to and transported away from the ponds either above ground in artificial channels (Kunstgräben) or underground through so-called Röschen, small channels in the mine galleries. If the water from Kunstteiche is used in the smelting (Verhüttung) of ore they may be called Hüttenteiche or "smelter ponds".
An ore is a natural occurrence of rock or sediment that contains sufficient minerals with economically important elements, typically metals, that can be economically extracted from the deposit. The ores are extracted at a profit from the earth through mining; they are then refined to extract the valuable element, or elements.
The Revierwasserlaufanstalt Freiberg or RWA Freiberg, was a historical water management system that delivered driving water to the Freiberg mines in the German state of Saxony. Today the system is used to supply drinking and industrial water and is operated by the Saxony State Reservoir Office.
The Ore Mountains or Ore Mountain Range in Central Europe have formed a natural border between Saxony and Bohemia for around 800 years, from the 12th to the 20th centuries. Today, the border between Germany and the Czech Republic runs just north of the main crest of the mountain range. The highest peaks are the Klínovec, which rises to 1,244 metres (4,081 ft) above sea level and the Fichtelberg.
The Upper Harz refers to the northwestern and higher part of the Harz mountain range in Germany. The exact boundaries of this geographical region may be defined differently depending on the context. In its traditional sense, the term Upper Harz covers the area of the seven historical mining towns (Bergstädte) - Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Andreasberg, Altenau, Lautenthal, Wildemann and Grund - in the present-day German federal state of Lower Saxony. Orographically, it comprises the Harz catchment areas of the Söse, Innerste and Grane, Oker and Abzucht mountain streams, all part of the larger Weser watershed.
Otfried Wagenbreth, Eberhard Wächtler: Der Freiberger Bergbau: Technische Denkmale und Geschichte. 2nd edn., Springer Spektrum Deutscher Verlag für Grundstoffindustrie, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1988, ISBN978-3-662-44763-5.
Wilfried Ließmann: Historischer Bergbau im Harz. 3rd edn., Springer Verlag, Berlin and Heidelberg, 2010, ISBN978-3-540-31327-4.
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.
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The Rammelsberg is a mountain, 635 metres (2,083 ft) high, on the northern edge of the Harz range, south of the historic town of Goslar in the North German state of Lower Saxony. The mountain is the location of an important silver, copper, and lead mine, the only mine which had been working continuously for over 1,000 years when it finally closed in 1988. Since 1992, the visitor mine of Rammelsberg has become a UNESCO World heritage site.
The Oderteich is an historic reservoir about seven kilometres northeast of Sankt Andreasberg in the Upper Harz in central Germany. It was built by miners from St. Andreasberg in the years 1715 to 1722 and, today, is an important component of the water supply network known as the Upper Harz Water Regale. Moreover, for 170 years, from the time it was completed to the end of the 19th century, the Oderteich had the largest dam in Germany. The dam lies at a height of 725 m above NN by the B 242 federal highway, about a kilometre west of its intersection with the B 4.
The Upper Harz Water Tunnels are part of the Upper Harz Water Regale - a network of reservoirs, ditches, tunnels and other structures in the Harz mountains of central Germany. The German term Wasserlauf refers to the underground element of the network of watercourses used in the historic silver mining industry of the Upper Harz. This network of ditches and tunnels was used to supply the mines with headrace waters for their water wheels from the 16th century onwards. In the system of the Upper Harz Water Regale there are over 35 such tunnels with a total length of about 30 km.
The Upper Harz Ponds are found mainly around the mining town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld and the nearby villages of Buntenbock and Hahnenklee in the Upper Harz mountains of central Germany. There are around 70 ponds in total, both large and small. They were built by the miners of the Upper Harz, mostly between the 16th and 18th centuries, and are important components of the cultural monument known as the Upper Harz Water Regale - a network of dams, ditches, ponds and tunnels that was built to supply much-needed water power for the mining industry in the Harz mountains. Today the Water Regale is being proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About half the dammed ponds are classified today as reservoirs, but they have now become characteristic features of the Upper Harz and are home to some extremely rare plant and animal species.
The Upper Harz Water Regale is a system of dams, reservoirs, ditches and other structures, much of which was built from the 16th to 19th centuries to divert and store the water that drove the water wheels of the mines in the Upper Harz region of Germany. The term regale, here, refers to the granting of royal privileges or rights in this case to permit the use of water for mining operations in the Harz mountains of Germany.
Mining in the Upper Harz region of central Germany was a major industry for several centuries, especially for the production of silver, lead, copper, and, latterly, zinc as well. Great wealth was accumulated from the mining of silver from the 16th to the 19th centuries, as well as from important technical inventions. The centre of the mining industry was the group of seven Upper Harz mining towns of Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Sankt Andreasberg, Wildemann, Grund, Lautenthal und Altenau.
The Silberteich is a man-made reservoir, of a type called a Kunstteich, and lies on the upper reaches of the Brunnenbach stream between Braunlage and Sankt Andreasberg in the Harz Mountains of Germany. It was built as part of the historic Upper Harz Water Regale.
The Roter Bär Pit in Sankt Andreasberg in the Upper Harz is an iron ore mine that was worked from about 1800 until the 1860s. Today it is operated as a show mine under the name of Roter Bär Pit Educational Mine by the Sankt Andreasberg Society for History and Archaeology. The name Roter Bär means "Red Bear".
Silberhütte is a village in the borough of Harzgerode in the district of Harz in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Its name means "silver works", a place where silver ore is smelted.
A Kunstgraben is a type of man-made water channel that was once used by mines to drive the water wheels needed for power, mine drainage and a host of other purposes. The term is German. Similar ditches supplying water mills in England are called leats.
Within the Lower Harz region are still many traces of the historical water management facilities used by the mining industry. In addition to water-carrying ditches and ponds, there are also long-abandoned ditches and dry pond beds. The Lower Harz Pond and Ditch System, which forms the major part of these old water management facilities, lies in the central Lower Harz, almost entirely within the borough of the present-day town of Harzgerode.
A Rösche is a German mining term that refers inter alia to a gullet (Wasserseige), a trench for draining water in the lower part of a mine gallery. In order to keep the actual gallery entrance (Stollenmundloch) free and guard against backflooding the Röschen were, in many cases, extended to below the entrance or led even further away, underground, to the nearest stream or river.
The Glasebacher Teich was an artificial reservoir or Kunstteich laid out near the village of Straßberg in the Harz Mountains of Germany for mining purposes. With a capacity of about 300,000 m³ it was the second largest pond in the Lower Harz. It impounded the Glasebach stream.
The Frankenteich is an old reservoir in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. It was constructed in 1716 under the direction of mining director (Bergwerksdirektor), Christian Zacharias Koch, for the mining industry and is the largest pond in the Lower Harz. Since 1901 it has supplied drinking water to the village of Straßberg. It impounds the Rödelbachgraben, which discharges into the Selke in Straßberg. A mining ditch runs past the foot of the dam from the Kiliansteich which, like the Frankenteich, belongs to the heritage area designated as the Lower Harz Pond and Ditch System.
The Siebengründer Graben is a mining ditch that was constructed in 1903/1904 in the Lower Harz in central Germany. Today, it is dry.
The Neugrabenflöße, was a roughly 18 km long Kunstgraben dating to the 17th century. It enabled the rafting of timber for the mining and smelting industries in the Ore Mountains of eastern Germany. It ran from the River Flöha near Fleyh (Fláje) to the Freiberger Mulde near Clausnitz in the Ore Mountains.
The Graben Tour is a mining history footpath in the north of the former district of Freiberg in the German Free State of Saxony. It follows the course of an old mining water channel, in the valley of the Bobritzsch, from Krummenhennersdorf to Reinsberg.
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