Frohnauer Hammer

The Frohnauer Hammer is an historic hammer mill in Frohnau, a village in the municipality of Annaberg-Buchholz in the Ore Mountains of southeast Germany. The mill is an important witness to proto-industrial development in the Ore Mountains. Of the once-numerous hammer mills only three others remain working in Saxony: the Dorfchemnitz Iron Hammer Mill, the Grünthal Copper Hammer Mill and the Freibergsdorf Hammer Mill.

In 1907 the Frohnauer Hammer Mill on the Sehma river became the first technical monument in Saxony. The museum complex includes the hammer mill itself, an exhibition of forged artefacts, a hand forge, a mechanical "Christmas hill" (Weihnachtsberg) and a bobbin lace room.

The Frohnauer Hammer goes back to the 15th century when it was mentioned as a corn mill with four millstones. On 28 October 1491, Caspar Nietzel discovered a deposit of silver ore on the Schreckenberg mountain, not far from the mill. That same year, mining courts (Berggerichte) were held for the first time in the mill gardens. On 21 September 1496, a decision was made in the rooms of the mill to found the New Town on the Schreckenberg (Neustadt am Schreckenberg), later St. Annaberg. The most notable representative at the meeting of the founding commission in Frohnau was Ulrich Rülein von Calw, the master builder of Annaberg.

In 1498, the young mining town was given minting rights (Münzrecht). The mill was therefore expanded in the same year into a mint, in which the Schreckenberger, a well-known silver coin, was minted. The mint was soon moved to Annaberg in 1502, however. Around 1590, the mill was closed and fell into ruins. In 1611, it became an oil mill, processing flax, with an adjoining scissor grinding works. But by 1616, there were plans to convert the mill into an iron hammer mill. This was not achieved, however, until 1621. Due to the debasement of coins as a consequence of the Thirty Years' War, Prince-Elector John George I took over the mill and had it turned into a silver hammer mill. But this mill only worked for two years and was then closed. It was not worth turning it back into an iron hammer mill, so the prince-elector sold it in 1629 to a scissorsmith. Even its new owner did not have the luck to make it an economic success, the turmoil of war forcing him to give the operation up in 1631. From 1632, the place was used as a copper hammer mill, until its new owner left the business in 1642 probably due to the hardships of the Thirty Years' War that continued to drag on. The building then stood unused for twenty years after its conversion and it was not until 1657 that it came to life again. Its new proprietor, Gottfried Rubner, an Annaberg merchant, had the place converted into an iron hammer mill by 1660 for 740 gulden that made iron strips, armour and shovels in order to satisfy the demand for ironmongery in the economic boom that followed the war.

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