aerial photo from the industriel monument Koenigshuette (kings' hut)

September 14 is Open Monument Day. This year's motto is:

Valuable: totally unaffordable or irreplaceable

The Koenigshuette (King's Hut) – Support Group is participating again and is opening many doors of the industrial monument.

Perhaps when you visit the Koenigshuette (King's Hut), you will have time and leisure to think about what you can say about the motto in relation to the Koenigshuette (King's Hut). Priceless – does this refer to the monetary value needed to maintain such an industrial monument? Or is it irreplaceable?  In other words, what can this industrial monument tell us that is so important that its preservation should not be questioned? Feel free to share your opinion with us in the hut tavern or the barbecue stand.

The church service, which takes place at 10 a.m. before the opening of the Open Monument Day, ties in with the mining tradition. Before the miners went down into the mine, there was always a church service in which they prayed for intercession for the day, safe working conditions, and rich yields.

From 11 a.m., the volunteer members will be there for visitors, offering coffee and cake after the church service or as a second breakfast. Visitors can take part in guided tours and immerse themselves in the eventful history of this industrial monument.

Exhibitors will demonstrate their crafts, model builders will show off their skills, and the models are replicas of steam engines and other machines that function just like their originals.

Traditionally, Kings’ hut  hosts a glassblowing demonstration, and there are plenty of activities for children. Café hut tavern serves coffee, cake, and cold drinks, and from noon onwards, there is a barbecue in front of the iron warehouse. There is also hearty beer to accompany the steaks, bratwurst, and other fare.

The whole event will be accompanied by music from Heiko Wiedemann, who is well known in and around the city of Bad Lauterberg. 

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iron ore found in  the town of Lerbach (Part of Osterode am Harz)

On Saturday, April 5 (2025), the general meeting of the ‘Förderkreis Königshütte Bad Lauterberg e.V. ‘support group kings’ hut) will take place at the Hotel Riemann in Bad Lauterberg. As in previous years, the general meeting will start at 3 pm with a public lecture. Our first chairman, Mr. Hans-Heinrich Hillegeist, will give this lecture, entitled “On the trail of historic Harz ironworks".

What do you know about iron? For getting in the mood, here comes some - not all-encompassing - background information:

Iron is a naturally occurring chemical element with the element symbol Fe (Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. The element has an atomic mass of 55.845 and belongs to the group of metals. Iron is the fourth most common element in the earth's crust, it is not radioactive and it is solid at room temperature. The melting point of iron is 1538 °C, the boiling point 3000 °C. Iron is a base metal. When the metal comes into contact with moist air, there is a change in structure and colour, this process is called corrosion, we all know it as rust.

On earth, iron is mostly found in various ores and iron minerals. The inner core of the earth probably consists of an alloy with an iron content of 80 %. 

Iron is also an essential trace element for all living beings, i.e. it is absolutely necessary for life, both for plant and animal life. In mammals, iron is an important basic building block of blood; it is present in the form of haemoglobin in the red blood cells and is necessary for the transportation of oxygen.  The daily requirement of iron for an adult is between 10 and 15 mg. Many plant-based foods contain iron. Spinach certainly springs to mind, where a misplaced comma once led to many children being fed spinach because of its supposedly high iron content. But what people probably didn't know at the time was that spinach (iron content 38 mg/kg) contains substances (such as oxalic acid) that inhibit the absorption of iron in the body. But the consumption of dairy products also ensures that iron is poorly absorbed in the intestine. Coffee, black tea and red wine also enables the absorption of iron. In contrast, vitamin C promotes the absorption of the trace element. But that's just a side note.

Back to iron as an ore:

The discovery of iron extraction from iron ore (in this case red ironstone) and charcoal (for smelting) is attributed to the Hittites, an early Indo-European tribe that settled in the Near East in the 2nd millennium. The discovery was made around 1,400 B.C. The Hittites carefully guarded this knowledge of iron smelting as a secret.

After the decline of the Hittite Empire around 1,250 BC, this knowledge spread to the west and east (towards Central Europe and Persia and India respectively).

But even before people in various cultures learned to extract iron from the ore found on earth, they used meteoric iron, also known as celestial iron, which was already known before the actual “Iron Age”.

The relatively late use of iron in most cultures around the world was due to the difficulty of processing it.  The complicated smelting process, in which the iron is extracted from the ore, requires knowledge of the correct technique. The iron must also be processed once it has been extracted from the ore before tools can be made from it.

Now a little more information about iron in Europe today:

Around 800 BC, the use of iron finally replaced the use of bronze in Central Europe. The Celts were the bearers of the new culture (Hallstatt period). The word “isaron”, which the Celts and Germanic tribes knew in common, became “iron” in German, “iron” in English and “iarann” in Irish. The exact origin of the Latin term “ferrum” is not yet known.

 Incidentally, iron was one of the seven metals of antiquity and was assigned to Mars, the god of war, by the Romans.

Today, iron is also used in electrical engineering due to its magnetic properties. For example, heavy iron cores are installed in transformers to strengthen and concentrate the magnetic field.

With the public lecture, Mr. Hillegeist leaves the support group. He will relinquish his position as first chairman on the date of the general meeting. However, he will remain loyal to the support group as Honorary Chairman. Many members have been friends with him for a long time.

Visitors are cordially invited to attend his lecture “On the trail of historic Harz ironworks”.

 As already mentioned, the lecture starts at 3 pm. However, Mr. Hillegeist will remain loyal to the support group as Honorary Chairman. Many members of the support group have been friends with him for a long time.

 Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

This piece of iron ore is called Jaspis, with inclusions of quartz

view from above to the area of the kings' hut during a 'international museums day'

The International Museum Day takes place on May 18 this year. This International Museum Day was established in 1978. “With International Museum Day, museums around the world draw attention to their role in society. As an important means of cultural exchange, they not only take responsibility for our cultural heritage, but also promote understanding, tolerance and diversity worldwide,” This is what you can read on the website of the Museum association. The support group kings hut takes part in International Museum Day again this year and opens several doors to take a look behind the scenes.

The day on kings’ hut begins with a church service at 10 a.m., accompanied by music from the 'Waiting Room Jazzband' from Herzberg.

There is a colorful program from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. From 11 a.m., show casters will demonstrate how iron was cast in the past. Aluminium is used here. Casting iron would go beyond the scope of one day and the temperatures required to cast iron are far too high. Children and adults can take part in the casting process - with the exception of the casting itself - and take the cast pieces home with them. A second round starts at 2 pm.

The café hut tavern opens at 11 a.m. - coffee, tea and cake await visitors (as well as cold drinks, of course), and from 12 noon there will be a barbecue in front of the striking iron magazine. A hearty beer is also available here. As a special feature, you can also order a soup named soljanka here.

The two guided tours with a visit to the South Harz Ironworks Museum offer an insight into the eventful history of the kings’ hut; they start at 1:30 p.m. and at 3 p.m.

Visitors can marvel at working models of historical steam engines and frame saws on the site.  - Frame saws, such as those used in joineries, were also produced at the kings’ hut. The models on display are based on original drawings from the kings’ hut company.

A beekeeper will also be showing his products, and a lady will be demonstrating the ancient art of spinning. This is just a small selection from the program of the support group.

We have also come up with something for the children: they can once again solve a puzzle with the Brocken Gang, and the children's church also offers activities for children. But that's not all, there are other hands-on activities, not just for children. Let yourself be surprised.

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Dear visitors to our website,

     The board of the support group kings’ hut  wish all visitors of this website a peaceful 2025. We hope you stay healthy and optimistic.

Let's take a look back at the past year: we hosted two open days: International Museum Day on May 19 and Open Monument Day on September 8. Both events were well attended, with several guided tours respectively offering information on the history of the industrial monument and having an insight into a number of buildings. Coffee, cake and a Barbeque , and a number of exhibitors offered interesting things. There was also background music. The highlight of both events was, of course, the show casting. Here, the respective casting teams showed how a model was turned into a plaque or similar. In September, a young casting team organized the show casting, which was well received not only by the youngest visitors, who were delighted and enthusiastic about equipping the moulds and were alowed to take their own piece home with them. It went without saying that the actual casting was done by the professionals.

Last year, we were able to offer 36 public tours and 22 special tours, and the monthly regulars' table was also well attended.

In November, there was a trip to the iron works of Ilsenburg, which was attended by nine members. – The Iron-works of Ilsenburg is much older than the Koenigshuette (king’s hut); it was founded in 1530 by Count Botho of Stolberg and, like the Koenigshuette (king’s hut), has had an eventful history with intermittent closures and reopenings. Like the Koenigshuette (king’s hut), it was initially a fiscal ironworks and later a privately operated ironworks. - Our members were warmly welcomed by the local association, received an excellent guided tour and enjoyed stimulating discussions. We hope that there will be a return visit this year, time will tell.

The plan for this year is to restore the grave cross of Dr. Benjamin Ritscher. The grave cross is located in the mountain cemetery in Bad Lauterberg, below the cemetery chapel.  Doctor Ritscher opened the cold-water bath in Lauterberg in 1839 (at that time without the title 'bath'), you could say he was a kind of predecessor to Pastor Kneipp. The grave cross of Dr. Rischer was cast at the iron works Koenigshuette (king’s hut), this is why we – the support group - feel responsible for the repair/restoration of the grave cross. 

Stay healthy, dear reader and visitor to our website. We wish you a successful 2025.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)