iron ore found in  the town of Lerbach (Part of Osterode am Harz)

On Saturday, April 5 (2025), the general meeting of the ‘Förderkreis Königshütte Bad Lauterberg e.V. ‘support group kings’ hut) will take place at the Hotel Riemann in Bad Lauterberg. As in previous years, the general meeting will start at 3 pm with a public lecture. Our first chairman, Mr. Hans-Heinrich Hillegeist, will give this lecture, entitled “On the trail of historic Harz ironworks".

What do you know about iron? For getting in the mood, here comes some - not all-encompassing - background information:

Iron is a naturally occurring chemical element with the element symbol Fe (Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. The element has an atomic mass of 55.845 and belongs to the group of metals. Iron is the fourth most common element in the earth's crust, it is not radioactive and it is solid at room temperature. The melting point of iron is 1538 °C, the boiling point 3000 °C. Iron is a base metal. When the metal comes into contact with moist air, there is a change in structure and colour, this process is called corrosion, we all know it as rust.

On earth, iron is mostly found in various ores and iron minerals. The inner core of the earth probably consists of an alloy with an iron content of 80 %. 

Iron is also an essential trace element for all living beings, i.e. it is absolutely necessary for life, both for plant and animal life. In mammals, iron is an important basic building block of blood; it is present in the form of haemoglobin in the red blood cells and is necessary for the transportation of oxygen.  The daily requirement of iron for an adult is between 10 and 15 mg. Many plant-based foods contain iron. Spinach certainly springs to mind, where a misplaced comma once led to many children being fed spinach because of its supposedly high iron content. But what people probably didn't know at the time was that spinach (iron content 38 mg/kg) contains substances (such as oxalic acid) that inhibit the absorption of iron in the body. But the consumption of dairy products also ensures that iron is poorly absorbed in the intestine. Coffee, black tea and red wine also enables the absorption of iron. In contrast, vitamin C promotes the absorption of the trace element. But that's just a side note.

Back to iron as an ore:

The discovery of iron extraction from iron ore (in this case red ironstone) and charcoal (for smelting) is attributed to the Hittites, an early Indo-European tribe that settled in the Near East in the 2nd millennium. The discovery was made around 1,400 B.C. The Hittites carefully guarded this knowledge of iron smelting as a secret.

After the decline of the Hittite Empire around 1,250 BC, this knowledge spread to the west and east (towards Central Europe and Persia and India respectively).

But even before people in various cultures learned to extract iron from the ore found on earth, they used meteoric iron, also known as celestial iron, which was already known before the actual “Iron Age”.

The relatively late use of iron in most cultures around the world was due to the difficulty of processing it.  The complicated smelting process, in which the iron is extracted from the ore, requires knowledge of the correct technique. The iron must also be processed once it has been extracted from the ore before tools can be made from it.

Now a little more information about iron in Europe today:

Around 800 BC, the use of iron finally replaced the use of bronze in Central Europe. The Celts were the bearers of the new culture (Hallstatt period). The word “isaron”, which the Celts and Germanic tribes knew in common, became “iron” in German, “iron” in English and “iarann” in Irish. The exact origin of the Latin term “ferrum” is not yet known.

 Incidentally, iron was one of the seven metals of antiquity and was assigned to Mars, the god of war, by the Romans.

Today, iron is also used in electrical engineering due to its magnetic properties. For example, heavy iron cores are installed in transformers to strengthen and concentrate the magnetic field.

With the public lecture, Mr. Hillegeist leaves the support group. He will relinquish his position as first chairman on the date of the general meeting. However, he will remain loyal to the support group as Honorary Chairman. Many members have been friends with him for a long time.

Visitors are cordially invited to attend his lecture “On the trail of historic Harz ironworks”.

 As already mentioned, the lecture starts at 3 pm. However, Mr. Hillegeist will remain loyal to the support group as Honorary Chairman. Many members of the support group have been friends with him for a long time.

 Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

This piece of iron ore is called Jaspis, with inclusions of quartz

Dear visitors of our website,

due to the missing upgrade of our website, which unfortunately could not be done yet, the dates of our guided tours can no longer be displayed. The upgrade has been delayed due to technical and financial problems. We are sure we can offer the calendar function again by the end of the year.

Our guided tours will continue to take place every Tuesday from 15:00 to 17:00 until the end of October (29.10.). Our volunteer guides will meet you at 15:00 at the hut fountain. 

From November onwards, guided tours will take place on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. The last tour of this year will take place on December 27, because the fourth Tuesday falls on December 24 and our volunteer guide is also busy with Christmas preparations.

Best regards

Gudrun Grzyb

Support group of (Koenigshuette) kings’ hut Bad Lauterberg e.V. (e.V. = registered association), Secretary

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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.

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The Open Monument Day is approaching and will take place this year on Sunday, September 8.  The kings’ hut will also be opening its doors again.

Due to scheduling difficulties of our volunteer members who offer guided tours, only two guided tours will be offered this year. However, we have once again been able to secure Pastor Schmidt from the Paulus congregation in Bad Lauterberg, who will be offering an open-air church service at 11 am. He writes about the thoughts on which his sermon is based:

'In wisdom lies strength

The embers of the furnace gave birth to the iron. - The embers of the grill give birth to the sausage. Changing times. Then and now. What was work like in the past and what is it like today? Times with many workers and few jobs are now followed by a time characterized by many jobs, few skilled workers and AI.

On Open Monument Day, work becomes a museum: on Sunday, September 8, a church service at 11:00 a.m. on the grounds of the kings’ hut in Bad Lauterberg will explore these observations.’

Due to the changed start of the service - 11 am instead of 10 am in previous years - the first guided tour will begin at 12 noon. Visitors to the church service can therefore also take part in this first tour. The second tour starts at 3.30 pm. Both tours start in front of the machine factory near the hut fountain.

We have once again been able to find a number of tradespeople who want to present their old crafts. Ms. Kiebach from the St. Andreasberg Lace Making Centre will be demonstrating the art of lace making, and visitors will also be able to try it out for themselves.

Ms. Seyferth from the ‘Manyways Family Centre’ in Bad Lauterberg will be offering activities with children together with helpers.  

Children can once again take part in making their own money boxes and take part in puzzle tours.

Model maker Ludwig will be showing (electrically powered) historical models, as he did in May on International Museum Day, and

a wood carver will show what can be carved from deer antlers. And ... other historical techniques will be on display.

We have also been able to attract new show casters, who will be demonstrating their art (participation is encouraged) from 2 p.m. in the usual place, the dispatch hall in front of the Formhaus. But we don't want to give everything away, just this much:

 Ullrich Schäfers from the district of Northeim has once again confirmed that he will be alternating with the duo David & Heart, who will be playing country music.

The crew in the hut tavern will be serving coffee, cake and cold drinks from 11 a.m. and the crew at the barbecue stand in front of the Iron-magazin will be serving bratwurst, currywurst and steaks from 12 noon. In addition to cold drinks such as water and cola, the barbecue stand also serves a hearty beer.

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