Frohnauer Hammer

On 28 October 1491, Caspar Nietzel discovered a deposit of silver ore on the Schreckenberg mountain, not far from the mill.

The most notable representative at the meeting of the founding commission in Frohnau was Ulrich Rülein von Calw, the master builder of Annaberg.

Even its new owner did not have the luck to make it an economic success, the turmoil of war forcing him to give the operation up in 1631.

From 1632, the place was used as a copper hammer mill, until its new owner left the business in 1642 probably due to the hardships of the Thirty Years' War that continued to drag on.

Its new proprietor, Gottfried Rubner, an Annaberg merchant, had the place converted into an iron hammer mill by 1660 for 740 gulden that made iron strips, armour and shovels in order to satisfy the demand for ironmongery in the economic boom that followed the war.

Its owner, the smith Johann Klauß, was able to quickly rebuild the facility, however, which suggests it was a thriving business.

Following its closure, local historians and museums strove to preserve the hammer mill because it was one of the few in Germany that had largely retained the original technology of the 17th century.

At the same time an association, the Hammerbund was founded, headed by Amtshauptmann von Welck, which attempted to buy the facility.

After the end of the Second World War the site was taken over by the Saxon state government, but further measures to protect the monument had to be cancelled due to a lack of finance.

As a result, the firm of SDAG Wismut bought the building and used it as a store and canteen for research mine shaft No.

Following the closure of Wismut's business, there were frequent changes of owner including the Dresden University of Technology, the Saxon State Government and the city council of Karl Marx Stadt.

Technical data: The hammer was used until 1983 in the VEB stamping and forging works unit in Brand-Erbisdorf.