Saxon Mining Office

The Saxon Mining Office (German: Sächsisches Oberbergamt) is the executive authority for mining rights in the German state of Saxony. It is also responsible for all non-metallic mineral resources on the terrain of the former East Germany.

Based on discoveries of silver in 1168, Freiberg developed into the centre of Ore Mountain and Saxon ore mining. A mining office (Bergamt) and master miner (Bergmeister) was mentioned here in 1241. Freiberg mining law (Bergrecht), first laid down in writing in 1307, was subsequently adopted in many other European mining regions.

In 1470 rich silver finds in the Ore Mountains (at Schneeberg Annaberg-Buchholz and Marienberg) resulted in a new (the second) berggeschrey or silver rush. The mining industry expanded rapidly and in the wake of this growth, a single mining administration was gradually set up in Albertine Saxony during the early 16th century. The Annaberg mining regulations (Bergordnung) enacted in 1509 by George the Bearded superseded the Freiberg Mining Law and established until the 19th century, a substantial basis for Central European mining law. The date of foundation of the Mining Office was 1 July 1542, thus the Saxon Mining Office is the oldest mining authority in Germany.

The Mining Office (known since the mid-17th century as the Oberbergamt or "Head Mining Office") gradually emerged in a long historical process that began in the mid-16th century. This process had begun to establish a statewide mining administration (initially across the Duchy, but from 1547 across the Electorate of Saxony) under Duke Moritz with the commissionin of Simon Bogner as mining advocate (Bergvoigt) and Hans Röhlings as the mining office manager (Bergamtsverwalter) on St. Matthew's Day, 21 Sep 1545. This process of establishment concluded with the appointment of Hans Röhlings' son, Markus Röhlings, as the senior master miner (Oberbergmeister) of the Albertine Electorate of Saxony in 1554.

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