Dear visitors to our website,
The board of the support group kings’ hut wish all visitors of this website a peaceful 2025. We hope you stay healthy and optimistic.
Let's take a look back at the past year: we hosted two open days: International Museum Day on May 19 and Open Monument Day on September 8. Both events were well attended, with several guided tours respectively offering information on the history of the industrial monument and having an insight into a number of buildings. Coffee, cake and a Barbeque , and a number of exhibitors offered interesting things. There was also background music. The highlight of both events was, of course, the show casting. Here, the respective casting teams showed how a model was turned into a plaque or similar. In September, a young casting team organized the show casting, which was well received not only by the youngest visitors, who were delighted and enthusiastic about equipping the moulds and were alowed to take their own piece home with them. It went without saying that the actual casting was done by the professionals.
Last year, we were able to offer 36 public tours and 22 special tours, and the monthly regulars' table was also well attended.
In November, there was a trip to the iron works of Ilsenburg, which was attended by nine members. – The Iron-works of Ilsenburg is much older than the Koenigshuette (king’s hut); it was founded in 1530 by Count Botho of Stolberg and, like the Koenigshuette (king’s hut), has had an eventful history with intermittent closures and reopenings. Like the Koenigshuette (king’s hut), it was initially a fiscal ironworks and later a privately operated ironworks. - Our members were warmly welcomed by the local association, received an excellent guided tour and enjoyed stimulating discussions. We hope that there will be a return visit this year, time will tell.
The plan for this year is to restore the grave cross of Dr. Benjamin Ritscher. The grave cross is located in the mountain cemetery in Bad Lauterberg, below the cemetery chapel. Doctor Ritscher opened the cold-water bath in Lauterberg in 1839 (at that time without the title 'bath'), you could say he was a kind of predecessor to Pastor Kneipp. The grave cross of Dr. Rischer was cast at the iron works Koenigshuette (king’s hut), this is why we – the support group - feel responsible for the repair/restoration of the grave cross.
Stay healthy, dear reader and visitor to our website. We wish you a successful 2025.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)