Open Monument Day 2022

Ilona Ecke from Walkenried shows the technique of spinning

On this year's Open Monument Day, the Königshütte Industrial Monument once again opened its doors to several buildings to give visitors a glimpse into the past. This year's motto ‚ Culture track‘ was also taken into account, with guided tours of the site starting at 11 a.m., with an insight into the foundry building, a look into the machine factory and a visit to the Südharzer Eisenhüttenmuseum (South Harz Ironworks Museum). Visitors could fortify themselves with coffee and cake in the hut tavern - the cakes were donations from the citizens of Bad Lauterberg, and we would like to thank Manuela Lunk - from the Facebook group the people of Bad Lauteraberg help each other‘ - who again actively supported us. – In front of the iron magazine, visitors could enjoy a barbecue.
We were able to recruit many (art) craftsmen for this day, and we attached great importance to the fact that work was done by hand in the truest sense of the word, of course in accordance with the motto 'Kultur.Spur. In our opinion, old crafts from earlier times belong to the Open Monument Day, just as the obligatory show casting whitch is part of it and started at 2 p.m. in the foundry hall. Old techniques that already existed in the Middle Ages could be marvelled at. The world of Rumpelstiltskin, who was spinning straw into gold,  and Sleeping Beauty came to life, Mrs. Ilona Ecke, in a dress based on the Middle Ages, spun yarn with a hand spindle as well as with a spinning wheel and ... Ulrich Genehr showed how chair seats are woven. In keeping with the ambience, barrel organ player Ulrich Schäfer was there again. Of course, that was not all. There was also jewellery (e.g. made of amber) and work with wool. But also a few new techniques were shown. In the factory house, Sigrid Bähr showed paper works in the encaustic technique - this is an artistic painting technique in which colour pigments bound in wax are applied hot to the painting surface, as Wikipedia, the online library, told us in advance.
All exhibitors came from the district, that was important to us. Of course, the children were not neglected, there was an information rally for the older ones, for the smaller ones a bouncy castle was kindly provided by the specialist clinik Muschinski from Bad Lauterberg, the child protection agency and the Manyways Family Centre offered hands-on activities for children. At the sewing meeting point in the foctory building, there were home-made sewn and knitted items, where one or the other gift could be found and perhaps even a first Christmas present.

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