EDIT: I added a video! 10/01/2009
Harz Excursion
Every Wednesday the 12th year students in my school have a class called a Seminarfach. The main assignment of this sort of course is a 10-20 page paper due at the end of the term. Each Seminarfach focuses on a specific topic ranging from the environment to german language to geology. A Seminarfach also travels to a relevant location in an effort to accumulate primary sources for the research paper.
As a full-fledged German student I also participate in a Seminarfach. I chose Geschichte des Regions Harz. (History of the Harz region) We traveled last week with the geology Seminarfach to the Harz region.
We left early Monday morning and traveled first to the Rammelsberg Mine in Goslar.
Rammelsberg Mine
Although now inactive, Rammelsberg was an active mine for over 1000 years and over 30 million tons of dirt was removed in search for copper, zinc and other assorted metals and minerals. The highlight of the tour was the three underground water wheels which powered the mining machinery before the introduction of steam. Each was constructed above ground, tested, taken apart and reconstructed under ground. They have a diameter of over 12 meters (that’s almost 40 feet for you imperial folks) and require about 25 liters of water to start moving.
Below is a video of the mine in action.
Sorry it’s so squeaky. My camera doesn’t do video well.
Your's Truly in Rammelsberg (which way is out?)
We then took a quick walk through the town of Goslar.
View of Goslar from the KaiserPfalz
Mediaeval Imperial Palace (Kaiserpfalz)
The Streets of Goslar
That evening we stayed in the exquisite luxury lodgings of Jugendherberge Torfhaus, the youth hostel in Torfhaus.
The next day we visited a quarry, a stalagmite and stalactite cave and a few dams. In order to accommodate the power needs of the mines the river were dammed. Below is one of the more modern dams:
A large dam in the Harz Region (sorry for the terrible stitching job)
On Wednesday we visited two more mines, one in Samson and another silver mine. After that we boarded the bus and traveled back to Neustadt am Rübenberg. I was glad I had a chance to spend some time with people from school and see another part of the country. I also had a chance to learn some new vocab:
Bergwerk: Mine
Bergman: Miner
Steinbruch: Quarry
Mäckes: McDonalds
Hope you enjoyed the pictures.
-MEK
