Treasures & Tragedies

Power and wealth, ground-breaking technical innovations, but also the exploitation of people and nature cast light and shadow on the mining industry.

People have been mining in the Ore Mountains for three and a half millennia. The exhibition illustrates how mining shaped the region; how knowledge was handed down and new technologies were developed; how mining destroyed the envi­ronment; and how people stuck together in solidarity to endure the harshest of conditions. It tells the story of the wealth and beauty that mining made possible, but also how it brought despair and death to many. Not everything belongs to the past – investors are once again exploring deposits. The exhibition therefore also asks what lessons we can learn from the history for the sake of our future.