Johanngeorgestadt, Germany/johanng381
Previous | Home | NextThe sign reads: "1789 - A New Element - Uranium. In the immediate vicinity is the Georg Wagsfort Mine, which was operating starting since 1670. Although a total of 265 kilograms of fine silver was extracted, this is never enough to cover the costs. Fame had to wait until a small amount of ore was procured in which the Berlin chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovered uranium in 1789. In 1819 in Johanngeorgenstadt the first uranium ore was processed for the color [yellow used in glasses and porcelain]. But the major significance of uranium became apparent with the discovery of radioactivity. Between 1946 and 1958, uranium production was carried out by SAG WISMUT [Sowjetisch-Deutsche Aktiengesellschaft Wismut, translated as Soviet-German Bismuth Corporation, a euphemistic way of stating the Soviets were exploiting the area for its uranium], which altered and exploited the Johanngeorgenstadt community in many ways. [A great deal of the old mining town had to be torn down 1953-1960 of the mining damage] Fortunately there is still much left here to remember of the mining past." Under the drawing of the house: "Mining house of Georg Wagsfort Mine, 1928. Destroyed by the flood of 1931."
