Former iron ore mine at Sulzbach-Rosenberg, closed in 1974, with the listed steel headframe of the Annaschacht surviving as the sole above-ground relic of iron ore extraction in the city, now an open heritage site with a free permanent exhibition.
Grube St. Anna was an iron ore mine at Sulzbach-Rosenberg in the Oberpfalz, operated by the Eisenwerk-Gesellschaft Maximilianshütte (Maxhütte) to supply ore to its steel works at Rosenberg. Iron ore extraction around Sulzbach has a history of more than a thousand years. The modern underground workings date from the mid-nineteenth century: following the Maxhütte's purchase of ore fields at Sulzbach in 1859, a series of shafts were sunk directly in the ore body between 1871 and 1910, including the fields Etzmannsberg, Fromm, Karoline, and St. Georg, all reaching depths of approximately 130 metres and worked by the top-slicing (Bruchbau) method.
By the 1950s, as the ore reserves served by the older shafts approached exhaustion, the Maxhütte resolved to develop a new central extraction shaft outside the ore body. The Annaschacht was sunk from 1954, the headframe and surface buildings completed by 1958, and regular hoisting of iron ore commenced in 1962. Ore from St. Anna was transported directly to the Maxhütte blast furnaces by automated aerial ropeway.
The Annaschacht served as the central hoisting shaft connecting all the remaining Sulzbach ore fields. By 31 July 1974 the ore reserves were exhausted and the mine closed. At the time of closure, more than 20 million tonnes of iron ore had been extracted from the Sulzbach fields in total.
The steel headframe was listed as a monument in 2017. A free open-air heritage site and permanent exhibition around the headframe was opened on 31 July 2023, the 49th anniversary of the closure.
Iron ore had been worked at Sulzbach for more than a thousand years before the industrial period; the region has been described as the Ruhrgebiet des Mittelalters for its role in medieval iron production. The modern phase of intensive underground extraction began when the Eisenwerk-Gesellschaft Maximilianshütte purchased ore fields at Sulzbach from Graf von Poninsky in 1859. The fields acquired at that time included Etzmannsberg, Karoline, St. Anna, St. Georg, Delphin, and Eichelberg. Between 1871 and 1910 a series of shafts were sunk directly into the ore body across these fields, reaching average depths of approximately 130 metres. The extraction method was top-slicing (Bruchbau) — working from the bottom upwards — which caused progressive surface subsidence, forming numerous pits (Pingen) and collapse fields visible in the landscape. Because the old shafts were sunk within the ore body, substantial reserves in the structural safety pillars around each shaft had to be left unexcavated.
By the early 1950s, it was evident that the ore reserves served by the Klenzeschacht, then the principal hoisting shaft for the Etzmannsberg, Fromm, and Karoline fields, were approaching exhaustion. The decision was therefore taken to develop a new shaft — the Annaschacht, taking its name from the St. Anna ore field — sited outside the ore body, which would allow the safety pillars of the older shafts to be mined out. Construction of the Annaschacht began in 1954 with shaft-sinking; the headframe (Bockfördergerüst, a steel A-frame structure) and the principal surface buildings were erected by 1958. The shaft reached a depth of 110 metres to the base of the workings, and the surface hoisting installation was designed for a capacity of 2,500 tonnes per day.
Regular ore production through the Annaschacht commenced in 1962. This enabled the older Klenzeschacht to be decommissioned, and the safety pillar ore around it to be extracted. The Annaschacht served as the central hoisting shaft connecting all remaining active Sulzbach ore fields. Ore raised to the surface was transported directly to the Maxhütte blast furnaces at Rosenberg by an automated aerial ropeway, without intermediate processing; the ore was smelted as raw rock directly into pig iron. At the peak of post-war operations, the Maxhütte employed 833 workers in ore mining (as of 31 December 1968), out of a total group workforce of 8,906. By the 1960s, however, the economics of local ore extraction were deteriorating sharply: cheap imported ores from Sweden and Brazil were undercutting domestic production, and the costs of underground extraction were rising.
On 31 July 1974, the ore reserves of the Sulzbach mine were exhausted and the Annaschacht was closed. A ceremonial final shift was held in the shaft hall, and a mine tub — Der Letzte von St. Anna — was placed as a memorial. At the time of closure, over 20 million tonnes of iron ore had been extracted from the Sulzbach fields in total. The 2.5-kilometre-distant Eichelberg shaft, developed 1966–67, continued to work its own field until it too was closed in March 1977 when its ore reserves were exhausted, ending more than a thousand years of iron ore mining at Sulzbach-Rosenberg.
After closure, the Annaschacht surface buildings were used for some years by the IHK (Chamber of Commerce) as a training centre. The mine tub Der Letzte von St. Anna remained in the shaft hall until the training centre was vacated. In subsequent years, as the former shaft site was developed for housing, all remaining surface buildings were demolished except for the headframe. The headframe — described as the sole surviving above-ground relic of iron ore extraction in Sulzbach-Rosenberg — was listed as a monument (Industriedenkmal) in 2017. A heritage development project for the site received a Leader funding award totalling 135,000 euros towards total costs of 310,230 euros. A barrier-free outdoor exhibition site was laid out around the headframe, incorporating display boards on the mine's history and the work of the miners, significant large objects from the mine including a rollwagen (trolley) from the aerial ropeway and an Abteufkübel (sinking bucket), and a seating area formed from concrete elements shaped as the mining symbols Hammer und Schlägel. The former shaft-hall floor was preserved as a ground monument, with original track rails and post sockets retained in situ for guided tours. The Förderturm can be climbed during guided visits. The site was formally handed over to the public on 31 July 2023, the forty-ninth anniversary of the mine's final shift, at a ceremony attended by four surviving miners who had worked underground at St. Anna.