Treasures & Tragedies

Power and wealth, pioneering technical innovations, but also the exploitation of people and nature cast light and shadow on mining.

Mining has been practised in the Ore Mountains for three and a half millennia. The exhibition shows how mining has shaped the region, how knowledge has been passed on and technology developed, how the environment has been destroyed and how solidarity has withstood the most adverse conditions. It tells 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. That is why the exhibition also asks what we can learn from history for our future.