Berggeschrey

Upon hearing the news of rich silver deposits miners, traders, charcoal burners and vagabonds quickly poured into this, at that time, inhospitable area.

In order to settle the miners, who mostly came from the Harz Mountains,[2] they were exempt from the feudal obligations to their landlords and so were able to devote themselves entirely to their work.

In 1470, three hundred years after the First Berggeschrey, rich silver ore deposits were discovered in Schneeberg[2][3] and in 1491/92 on the Schreckenberg in present-day Annaberg-Buchholz.

It was at that time that the mining towns of Jáchymov (Sankt Joachimsthal), Annaberg, Buchholz, Schneeberg and Marienberg emerged.

Apart from silver and uranium, tin, iron, copper, arsenic, lead, cobalt, nickel, bismuth (Wismut), tungsten and zinc were mined in the Ore Mountains.

1522 depiction of the historic mining industry on Annaberg's mining altar
Parts of the Old Town of Johanngeorgenstadt had to be demolished and afforested in 1953 due to subsidence