Upper Harz

The Emperor William Shaft (German: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Schacht or Schacht Kaiser Wilhelm II.) was the central hoisting and man-riding shaft of the lead and zinc mine in Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Upper Harz in central Germany. It was sited on the Burgstatt Lode (Burgstätter Gangzug). The surface installations were located in the borough of Clausthal on No. 24 Erzstraße, near the present-day mining institute of the University of Technology.

The Upper Harz Water Regale (German: Oberharzer Wasserregal, pronounced [ˌoːbɐhaːɐ̯tsɐ ˈvasɐʁeɡaːl]) is a system of dams, reservoirs, ditches and other structures, much of which was built from the 16th to 19th centuries to divert and store the water that drove the water wheels of the mines in the Upper Harz region of Germany. The term regale, here, refers to the granting of royal privileges or rights (droit de régale) in this case to permit the use of water for mining operations in the Harz mountains of Germany. The Upper Harz Water Regale is one of the largest and most important historic mining water management systems in the world. The facilities developed for the generation of water power have been placed under protection since 1978 as cultural monuments. The majority are still used, albeit nowadays their purpose is primarily to support rural conservation (the preservation of a historic cultural landscape), nature conservation, tourism and swimming. From a water management perspective, several of the reservoirs still play a role in flood protection and the supply of drinking water. On 31 July 2010 the Regale was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site affiliated with the Mines of Rammelsberg and the Historic Town of Goslar because of its importance in the development of mining techniques and testimony to the medieval history of ore mining.The water system covers an area of roughly 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi) within the Lower Saxon part of the Harz, the majority of structures being found in the vicinity of Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Hahnenklee, Sankt Andreasberg, Buntenbock, Wildemann, Lautenthal, Schulenberg, Altenau and Torfhaus.

The Jägersbleeker Teich in the Harz Mountains of central Germany is a storage pond near the town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the county of Goslar in Lower Saxony. It is one of the Upper Harz Ponds that were created for the mining industry. The reservoir lies in the Upper Harz within the Harz Nature Park. It is located around 3.5 km east-southeast of the quarter of Clausthal. Its water surface lies at 586.5 m above sea level (NN), it has a retention capacity of 380,000 m³ and its dam is 13.65 m high. A little below the Jägersbleeker Teich is another pond, the Fortuner Teich. The history of the Jägersbleeker Teich goes back to around 1670.Near the southeastern end of the dam is a refuge hut for hikers named after the forestry official (Forstamtmann), August Weppner, called the August Weppner Hut, inside which is checkpoint no. 127, Weppner Hütte, Jägersbleeker Teich, of the Harzer Wandernadel hiking network.

The Upper Harz Mining Museum (German: Oberharzer Bergwerksmuseum, pronounced [ˌoːbɐhaːɐ̯tsɐ ˈbɛʁkvɛʁksmuzeːʊm]) is a museum of technological and cultural history in Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Harz mountains of central Germany. It is one of the oldest technological museums in Germany and concentrates on the history and presentation of mining in the Upper Harz up to the 19th century.

The Huttaler Widerwaage is a small reservoir that is a part of the Upper Harz Water Regale, an old mining water management system in the Harz Mountains of Germany that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The reservoir lies east of the mining town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld. It is designed to feed water from the Huttal river during times of low water to the reservoir pond of the Hirschler Teich and, during times of high water, to handle the overflow of water from it.

Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The town hosts the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort is located in the Upper Harz at an altitude between 390 and 821 m above sea level.

The Clausthal University of Technology (German: Technische Universität Clausthal, also referred to as TU Clausthal or TUC) is an institute of technology (Technische Universität) in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Lower Saxony, Germany. The small public university is regularly ranked among the Top German universities in engineering by CHE University Rankings. More than 30% of students and 20% of academic staff come from abroad, making it one of the most international universities in Germany. The university is best known for the prominent corporate leaders among its former students. As of 2011, five of the 30 leading companies within the German stock index had alumni of TUC on their management board, with two of them as CEO.

Oberharz (German pronunciation: [ˈoːbɐhaːɐ̯ts]) is a former Samtgemeinde ("collective municipality") in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was situated in the western part of the Harz, approx. 15 km southwest of Goslar. Its seat was in the town Clausthal-Zellerfeld. It was disbanded in January 2015, when its member municipalities merged into the town Clausthal-Zellerfeld. The Samtgemeinde Oberharz consisted of the following municipalities: Altenau Clausthal-Zellerfeld Schulenberg im Oberharz Wildemann

The Schalke is a mountain, 762 m above sea level (NN), in the Upper Harz in the German state of Lower Saxony. It lies in Goslar district north of Clausthal-Zellerfeld and west of Schulenberg. From 1959 there was a French listening post on the summit, which was supplemented in 1968 by a 64 m high concrete tower. This tower stood empty from 1993 and was demolished on 11 October 2002; the entire facility being removed in September 2003. Other listening posts in the Harz were located on the Wurmberg and the Stöberhai. Towers that still exist include those on the Ravensberg and the Bocksberg, the latter not far from the Schalke. The observation tower, which was about 10.5 m high, stood about 50 metres southeast of the listening post until 2002 and, following the demolition of the latter, was moved back to its original site on the summit. However it only has good views towards the east and south. The view extends from the Brocken past the Wurmberg and Hanskühnenburg to Clausthal-Zellerfeld. Next to the tower stands a shooting hut belonging to the Harz Club and stamp checkpoint no. 125 which is part of the Harzer Wandernadel hiking trail network. The tower is the oldest (built 1892, restored 1992) of four steel observation towers belonging to the Harzklub in the Harz. A road, closed to private cars, runs from the Auerhahn Inn on the B 241 federal highway up to the Schalke. There are also long hiking trails from Zellerfeld and Goslar and a short, steep footpath from Mittelschulenberg past the Lower Schalke Pond and Festenburg, two parishes in Schulenberg, up to the Schalke.

The Bocksberg is the local mountain for the village of Hahnenklee in the borough of Goslar in the German state of Lower Saxony. It lies southeast of this spa village in the Harz mountains and is 726 m above sea level (NN). It was from here that a 1,350 m (4,429 ft) long bobsleigh and racing toboggan run was laid in 1928, which had to be closed for technical and financial reasons in 1970. Although this mountain lay in the British Zone after the Second World War, the US Army operated a relay station here for their radio traffic between Frankfurt and Berlin. Its red and white transmission mast is used today for mobile telephone communications. It projects above the surrounding trees and is visible from a long way off. On the summit of the Bocksberg there is a restaurant and a wooden observation tower that was built in 1976.

The Polsterberg Pumphouse (German: Polsterberger Hubhaus) is a pumping station above the Dyke Ditch in the Upper Harz in central Germany which is used today as a forest restaurant. As part of the Upper Harz Water Regale it was built in the 18th century and was used to lift the water needed in Clausthal for the mining industry from the Dyke Ditch (Dammgraben) to the level of the highest pond, the Hirschler Pond. Aside from this water hoist, the Dyke Ditch supplied, and still supplies, water over ditches and tunnels to the Hausherzberg Ponds and the Lower Peacock Pond (Unterer Pfauenteich). The problem was however, that, as it happened, the most productive silver mines in the Upper Harz mining region, the Caroline Pit and the Dorothea Pit, were high up in the mountains and could only be supplied with water power from the Hirschler Pond. The motive force for the wooden piston pumps was won in the Polster valley below by two water wheels. The headrace for these water wheels was brought via the Heller Valley Ditch (Hellertal Graben) from the Heller valley and from the Fortune Pond over its Bottom Ditch (Grundgraben), but frictional losses and poor efficiencies meant that a considerable amount of headrace water was required in order to lift just a few litres of water from the Dyke Ditch. These wheels transferred their output power over 260 and 560 m long flat rods made of wood to the pumping station on the Polsterberg hill. In the pumping station the water from the Dyke Ditch was pumped 8 m higher and fed into drinking troughs from which it was then further transported via the Hutthal Ditch and Huttaler Widerwaage to the Hirschler Pond, or via the Jägersbleek Tunnel and Ditch. The Polsterberg Pumphouse also acted as living accommodation for the master pumper and the ditch keepers, as well as a bar (Schankstube). At the beginning of the 20th century the wooden structures were replaced by electrically-drive pumps; the original can still be seen in the pumphouse by the ditch. Today the building is listed. It is purely run as a restaurant and is a popular destination for walkers from Altenau and Clausthal-Zellerfeld. Like the nearby Sperberhai Dam House it lies on the Harz High Road, the B 242.

The Bärenbrucher Teich ("Bärenbruch Pond") is an historic reservoir in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. It lies east of Buntenbock near Clausthal-Zellerfeld. It belongs to the Upper Harz Ponds, that were originally laid out to supply water power for the Upper Harz mines. Its retaining capacity is 186,000 m³ and its barrage is around 7 metres high. The history of the Bärenbrucher Teich goes back to 1634. The water of the Bärenbrucher Teich can be channelled along the Bärenbruch Ditch (Bärenbrucher Wasserlauf), laid in 1948, through a sequence of six water tunnels and intermediate ditches to the Rosenhof, where it was used to supply power to the Rosenhof Pit and, later, the Ottiliae Shaft Power Station. Another drainage outlet is the normal bottom outlet, which discharges water into the Ziegenberger Teich located immediately below it. Today the Bärenbrucher Teich is normally operated as a spillway basin, that is, the bottom outlets are closed and water simply flows over the spillway into the Ziegenberger Teich. There is a Harzer Wandernadel hiking checkpoint (no. 137) in the refuge hut at the eastern end of the dam.