On Sunday, 17 May, International Museum Day will once again be celebrated. - Incidentally, International Museum Day was established in 1977. - The Executive Committee and Advisory Board of the support group kings’ hut cordially invite you to join in, as the kings’ hut industrial heritage site will once again be taking part and opening various doors, not just those of the ironworks museum.

The theme of this year’s International Museum Day is: Museums as Bridge Builders. Can museums build bridges? Whether you answer this question in the affirmative is up to you. It is too complex to answer in two or three sentences.

On the grounds of the kings’ hut Industrial Heritage Site, the day begins at 10 am with an open-air service.  Although he is now retired, Pastor Schmidt has kindly agreed to lead the service; he will be accompanied musically by the Waiting Room Jazz Band from Herzberg. (This is not their first time taking part.)

There will be two guided tours on the day; details will be announced in good time, and they will start as usual at the hut fountain. During the tours, visitors will also be given a glimpse inside the machine factory, about whose history our member, Klaus-Peter Weinreich, has a great deal to tell.

Café hut tavern opens at 11 am, serving coffee, cake and non-alcoholic drinks. From 12 noon, there will be a barbecue in front of the iron store, where you can also enjoy a proper beer. We have managed to keep prices stable. Live music will be provided.

We at the support group once again have secured several exhibitors who will present their work or products: a beekeeper and various craftspeople. Unfortunately, the kinetic artist Detlef Haensel  has cancelled. Mr. Ludwig, who has exhibited models of historical steam engines in recent years, has also cancelled. The models of frame saws will be back again. These frame saws were originally manufactured at the Kings’ Hut (Koenigshuette) foundry and have delighted many visitors in recent years.

And… most importantly: of course, the demonstration foundrymen are back to show how a cast piece is made. Naturally, they don’t use iron; it would take far too long for such a cast piece to be ready, not to mention the high temperatures required. Our young team of demonstration foundry workers will start their first session at 11 am. The venue, the warehouse of the formerly private kings’ hut, is signposted, as are the other attractions. Large banners show the way. Oh, and you’re allowed to take home the castings you’ve made yourself.

A second round of the demonstration casting begins at 2 pm. Taking part is practically a must, not just for children, but for adults too.

New this year is an exhibitor bringing along wines and liqueurs – feel free to have a taste. The same goes for the beekeeper mentioned above.

Of course, we haven’t forgotten the children: they can have their faces painted, make a money box under supervision, and much more. And… they can once again take part in the treasure hunt with the Brocken Gang, which takes them around the grounds of the industrial monument. As a thank you for taking part, they can collect a certificate from the hut tavern

There is another special feature: this year, the Harz Hiking Badge is celebrating its 20th anniversary. – Many of you will no doubt have already read about this in the local press. – To mark this anniversary, the organisers have set up a whole series of new stamp points, and the first ones have already been inaugurated. A stamp point has also been set up on the grounds of the kings’ hut industrial heritage site. It is clearly visible and easily accessible near the sign for the Geopark. It will be inaugurated on International Museum Day. It is not just hiking enthusiasts who can look forward to the new stamp. – A special booklet has been published for the anniversary stamps.  If the Harz Hiking Badge’s anniversary stamps are removed after a year, the same applies to the stamp at kings’ hut, unless… a vote at the end of the year shows that the majority of hikers are in favour of the stamp at the kings’ hut industrial monument being included in the full set of hiking stamps for the Hiking Badge.

The Executive Committee and Advisory Board of the support group of the kings’ hut look forward to seeing you there.

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A model is almost ready for casting. It shows a foundry worker during casting. The inscription means ‘Kings' hut, Bad Lauterberg’, Bad Lauterberg is the town, where you find the Kings’ Hut.

 kings' hut from above

On 11 April, the general meeting of our support group took place, as always, at our member establishment, the hotel/restaurant Riemann in Bad Lauterberg. The general meeting began punctually at 3 pm … with a lecture by our chairman, Mr Christian Mühl. He spoke about the architectural history of the Koenigshuette (kings’ hut). He reported that there had already been a predecessor on the site of the Koenigshuette(kings’ hut), the Süssenhütte – named after its owner, Joachim Süsse.  The Süssenhütte had come into fiscal (state) ownership in 1617 and had been closed down in 1623/24.

In 1731, the Mining Office in Clausthal (Clausthal was still an independent town at the time), had decided to build a new ironworks.

There were four construction phases: naturally, the first phase spanned the period after 1733 and lasted approximately 10 years. During this first construction phase, among other things, the blast furnace building with two blast furnaces was built,  the lower hammer mill, several coal sheds, the factor’s house, two smelter (residential) houses and other buildings such as a slag crushing plant were built. Today, of the buildings on the ironworks site, only the factor’s house and one of the residential houses remain. Of the first blast furnace works, only the  functional model as a replica can be found in the museum.

The first site plan of the smelting complex was drawn up in 1740.

The second phase of construction then began in 1815. This period saw the construction of the  machine factory and the iron store. In 1822, the moulding house was built, in 1830, the blast furnace works and the foundry hall were rebuilt, and the Scholmwehr dam was also renewed, like the first one, it was again constructed using timber. This was followed in 1834 and 1840 by two rolling mill buildings.

After the Battle of Langensalza, when the Kingdom of Hanover had lost the war, the area became Prussian. As a state-owned ironworks, the Koenigshuette (kings’ hut) was no longer required and was sold.

the Koenigshuette (kings’ hut) was taken over by a general partnership comprising Carl Anton Peters, Ludwig Holle and Wilhelm Hertzer and the third phase of construction took place.

In 1872, major changes took place on the Koenigshuette (kings’ hut) site – the two hammer mills were demolished. One had stood on the site of today’s mill, and the second opposite, on the site of today’s gardens. The mill mentioned above was built. A pattern house was build between the mould shop and the foundry; this is where the models for casting were stored. The foundry hall was also renovated.

The next phase of construction began around 1950: the foundry was expanded, and since then the Gothic structure has only been visible from the inside. The site was extended to include the rolling mill buildings, giving it a new appearance from the outside.

In the course of privatisation, the former tasting house was given a new function, but subsequently fell into disrepair before the support group, founded in 1983, took over the site and the badly dilapidated building on a long-term lease and had it converted into a museum.

So much for the lecture, which was repeatedly enriched with personal anecdotes by Mr Mühl, who lived in one of the residential buildings during his childhood.

After a short break, the general meeting began. Among other things, the report included the number of visitors who participated to the guided tours last year: 786 visitors attended 38 public and 26 special tours.

In addition, three members of the support group were honoured for their long-standing membership: for 40, 35 and 30 years of membership. Unfortunately, only one of those being honoured had made his way to the general meeting. The member, Mr. Schnibbe, accepted his certificate and a floral greeting with great pleasure. 

Our members will be informed of the detailed (non-public) results of the general meeting via  the protocol.

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On behalf of the Executive Board and the Advisory Board, I wish all visitors to our website a happy Easter and good health.

Easter bonfires are lit everywhere on Easter Saturday or Easter Sunday. Such fires have been lit in spring for three millennia, originally to mark the spring equinox in March. Jumping over the fire is meant to symbolically shake off all the illnesses and misfortunes of the past year and leave them behind in the fire. The ancient Persians celebrated such fires at their New Year festival, which was held at the spring equinox in March. The Celts, Germanic tribes and Romans were also familiar with this custom.

Tomorrow, no doubt, many children will once again be searching for Easter eggs and Easter bunnies – no doubt made of chocolate. Many families have been hanging Easter eggs in trees and bushes for several weeks now. Here in Göttingen, we have a so-called ‘roundabout tree’; it no longer stands in the roundabout on the way to the motorway slip road (B27), but next to it. At Christmas it is decorated with baubles, at Easter with eggs. But you can also find such an Easter tree in the Harz region at this time of year: at the Rehberger Graben. The egg is a symbol of fertility, new beginnings and rebirth. In Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, decorated eggs were found in graves, a reference to beliefs about death and rebirth.

We are also looking forward to spring, the awakening of nature and sunnier days.

I wish you all a happy Easter once again, in good health and surrounded by the people you love, be they family or friends.

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                                           Easter-decorated fir tree at the ‘Rehberger Graben’ (Rehberg dig)

The fifth day of the still young year 2026 is almost over, the first of you must surely already be back at work, the children are going back to school. The members of the Executive Board wish you all a good start to this year and that you can now start 2026 well rested.

Winter currently has the whole of Germany firmly in its grip, so we hope that you have survived the onset of winter well and without damage so far and wish you that it stays that way.

Radio and television reported full cross-country ski trails, pistes and toboggan runs in the winter sports resorts, including the Harz, for the first weekend of this year. Even in the other areas, which usually don't get as much snow, snowmen could once again be built, and many children were eager to do so.

We hope that you continue to get through this snowy time safe and sound.

A children's song goes: Neighbour's children have built a snowman ...

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