Grube Sauberg Ehrenfriedersdorf · Sachsen · Germany

The Ehrenfriedersdorf tin district occupies the Sauberg, a hill in the Erzgebirge above the valley of the Wilisch. Tin working from alluvial stream deposits, known as Seifen, is attested from the tenth or eleventh century. Underground extraction of tin and silver ore had begun before 1300, and a church document of 1293 referring to a mining tithe confirms the significance of the activity by that date. In the early fifteenth century annual production reached approximately 3,000 Zentner of tin, making Ehrenfriedersdorf the most important mining town in the Erzgebirge. The Berggrabenbrüderschaft, founded in 1338 and still active, is regarded as the oldest surviving miners' fraternal association in Europe.

Between 1536 and 1570 the Tiefer Sauberger Stolln, a drainage adit 2.2 kilometres in length, was driven at valley-floor level to improve underground dewatering and allow working to extend to depths of 100 metres. Around 1540, the Ehrenfriedersdorfer Radpumpe — a water-powered pump described by Georgius Agricola in his foundational text De re metallica libri XII of 1556 — was built underground. The pumping principle employed in this machine remained the dominant technology for underground water management in European mining until the nineteenth century. In 1568 the preserved body of a miner, Oswald Barthel, was found underground after being buried for some sixty years; the discovery became part of local legend under the name Die lange Schicht von Ehrenfriedersdorf.

The mine experienced successive periods of prosperity and decline over the following centuries, with the seventeenth century bringing particular difficulty. A serious accident on 24 December 1769, in which six miners died from gas in the Reicher Silbertrost Stolln, gave rise to the local tradition of the Mettenschicht, a miners' vigil held on Christmas Eve.

The nineteenth century brought considerable economic instability and repeated changes of ownership. The Sauberger Haupt- und Richtschacht, the main production and direction shaft, was sunk in 1857. In 1876 rail haulage was introduced underground. During the First World War the Kriegsmetall AG took on the mine as lessee, exploiting tin and wolframite for the armaments industry. In 1920 the municipality of Ehrenfriedersdorf acquired the Ehrenfriedersdorfer Vereinigt-Feld-Fundgrube (EVFF), which was then closed and its processing plant dismantled in 1922.

In 1936 the Sachsenerz Bergwerks AG, acting under the autarky policy of the German Reich, restarted operations and built what was at the time described as the most modern ore dressing plant in Europe. This plant was dismantled and transported to the Soviet Union as reparations in 1945. By 1948 a newly discovered ore body in the Nordwest-Feld had been opened up, and production resumed under state management. From 1961 the mine was incorporated into the East German Kombinat structure; in 1968 it was formally attached as the Betriebsteil Grube Sauberg (VEB Zinn- und Spatgruben Ehrenfriedersdorf). A second shaft, Schacht 2, was completed on 1 July 1966. Its headframe remains standing and serves as the visible landmark of the site today. Underground locomotive haulage was introduced from 1959. In the 1970s the Nordwest- and Westfelder were opened up by fresh development drives, and from autumn 1979 the Greifenstein-Stolln was driven to connect a further ore body; by 1984 this had been linked underground to the main workings via the fifth level.

On 3 October 1990 the last ore car — referred to as der letzte Hunt — was raised, and production ceased permanently. The mine had become uneconomic because continuously declining world tin prices meant that ore revenues no longer covered production costs even with substantial subsidy. Lower levels were allowed to flood in a controlled manner, sealed with concrete plugs, while the second level was preserved as the basis for a visitor installation. Original working places and machines on that level were retained largely unaltered. Work on converting the Tiefer Sauberger Stolln for visitor use was carried out between 1997 and 1999, permitting the introduction of the electric mine train Saubergexpress in 1998.

The visitor mine opened officially in 1995. In 1996 a GmbH was formed in partnership with the municipality. In 1999 the mine joined the Zweckverband Sächsisches Industriemuseum. From 1997 to 2020 a therapeutic station for respiratory conditions operated underground, exploiting the exceptionally clean air. In 2000 the remains of a wheel chamber were discovered, and after conservation work a replica of the Ehrenfriedersdorfer Radpumpe was installed in the original chamber; it has been in operation for visitors since 2007. The site was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Montanregion Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří designation in 2019. The headframe of Schacht 2 remains the principal visual landmark of the site, visible from the town below.