History
The Döhlener Becken, a narrow Permian coal basin running east-west between Potschappel and Döhlen southwest of Dresden, was the site of coal working from at least the sixteenth century, when Duke Moritz granted an extraction privilege to the ducal official Hans Biener in 1542. Small-scale private working intensified after 1743 when landowners were confirmed in their right to mine coal on their own properties, leading to the emergence of some thirty small enterprises. The coal fields within what would become the Zauckerode estate changed hands repeatedly; by the 1780s the Schönberg family controlled the principal holdings, but their limited capital prevented the deeper sinking and pumping equipment that the geology demanded.
The decisive step came on 1 January 1806, when the Saxon state purchased the Schönbergsche Steinkohlenwerke together with the manorial estates of Döhlen and Zauckerode and the rights to the Potschappel coal fields for a consideration of 425,000 Taler. The new enterprise was placed under the direction of Carl Wilhelm von Oppel, with day-to-day management in the hands of the factor Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Lindig. It operated initially as the Königlich Sächsische Steinkohlenwerke im Plauenschen Grunde, later as the Königlich Sächsisches Steinkohlenwerk Zauckerode, and after 1918 as the Staatliches Steinkohlenwerk Zauckerode. The new Kunstschacht and Wilhelmschacht were sunk in 1806; in June 1809 the Neuer Zauckeroder Kunstschacht followed. In 1810 Lindig developed the first wet coal washing process in European mining, which became a lasting contribution to processing technology. The first steam engine to operate in Saxon mining was installed in 1818 by Maschinendirektor Christian Friedrich Brendel on the Neuer Zauckeroder Kunstschacht; it entered service on 4 May 1820.
On 31 July 1817 the construction of the Tiefer Elbstolln drainage tunnel was ordered. This was completed on 5 November 1836 when the last section between the seventh and eighth Lichtlöcher was broken through. The tunnel continues to drain the historical workings to the left of the Weißeritz to the present day.
In 1832 sinking began on the Friedrichschacht on Zauckeroder Flur; following the death of Carl Wilhelm von Oppel in November 1833 it was renamed the Oppelschacht in his honour. On Niederhermsdorfer Flur the Albertschacht was brought back into use from an old private shaft in 1835. With the appointment of Bernhard Rudolf Förster as first director of the new centralised directorate in November 1871 the enterprise entered a period of active technical development and international collaboration. Approval for a new double-shaft installation, the Königin-Carola-Schacht, was granted on 22 May 1872 and the first sod cut on 3 June. The flight pioneer Otto Lilienthal visited the colliery repeatedly between 1876 and 1878 in connection with trials of a coal-cutting machine, developing his own patented design; his Schrämmaschine was purchased by the works for 750 Mark in April 1878. In August 1882 the first electric mine locomotive in the world to operate in continuous service, the Grubenlok Dorothea built by Siemens and Halske, was placed in service in the fifth main level of the Oppelschacht over a distance of 620 metres, replacing horse haulage.
The last major shaft sinking of the enterprise began at the König-Georg-Schacht in Weißig on 15 September 1902; at a final depth of 575 metres it was the deepest shaft in the district.
Following the abdication of Friedrich August III in 1918 the enterprise continued as the Staatliches Steinkohlenwerk Zauckerode. Under the law of 30 January 1924 it was transferred retroactively to 1 April 1923 to the state company Aktiengesellschaft Sächsische Werke (ASW) under the name Steinkohlenwerk Freital. The new administration under Oberbergverwalter A. Wolf rationalised operations, closing uneconomic working places and nearly halving the workforce between 1924 and 1928 while maintaining roughly constant output. Following the Second World War, from 1 June 1946 the surviving shafts and plant were placed under the Industrieverwaltung I Steinkohle. From 17 October 1947 to 29 June 1948 the SDAG Wismut leased the Oppelschacht with all its buildings and personnel for uranium prospecting, designating it Schacht 94. From 1 July 1948 the works passed to the VEB Steinkohlenwerk Freital in the VVB Steinkohle Zwickau. On 28 August 1958 it was renamed VEB Steinkohlenwerk Willi Agatz. In 1959 the Königin-Carola-Schacht in Döhlen and the Arthur-Teuchert-Schacht (the post-war successor shaft to the Oppelschacht) in Zauckerode were both closed when their reserves were exhausted.
In 1968 all the above-ground and underground plant and personnel of the hard coal enterprise were transferred to the SDAG Wismut for the extraction of uranium-bearing coal (Erzkohle). This activity was brought to an end in 1989. Decommissioning and remediation of the SDAG Wismut workings in the Döhlener Becken was carried out by the Wismut GmbH between 1990 and 2001; in 1995 the shaft tubes were filled and the principal water management pumping was switched off, after which the underground workings were allowed to flood.
At the Oppelschacht site in Zauckerode, the headframe of the former Gittersee Schacht 2 was re-erected in 2001 as a technical monument. The former coal office building adjacent to the Oppelschacht site now serves as Freital's public library and two local associations.