Abstract

The Ore Mountains [Erzgebirge] ran along the border between the Kingdom of Saxony, in Germany, and the Bohemian territories of the Habsburg Empire. Silver mining in and around the city of Freiberg had been a great source of wealth for the Saxon state long before the nineteenth century. But as smelting works grew larger and more numerous during the course of that century, environmental damage occurred and citizens filed claims for state compensation. Among the worst polluters were the smelting works in Halsbrücke and Mulden, near Freiberg. One of the works had a woefully inadequate 60-meter smokestack. (An image of a 200-meter smokestack, erected in 1889, is included in this volume.) In 1855, the Saxon state parliament formed a commission to investigate compensation claims. After visiting the Halsbrücke and Mulden sites, the members of the commission designated four “damage zones” [Schadensgebiete]. Compensation to pollution victims varied according to their proximity to the plants. The table below shows that compensation payments from 1855 to 1867 amounted to almost 137,000 Thaler.

Yearly Sums Paid to Those Claiming Damages from Air Pollution near Freiberg in Saxony (1855–67)

Source

Compensation for Damage from Smelting Plant Smoke

Year

Total sum [in Thaler]

Halsbrücke smelting works

Mulden smelting works

1855

4,884

4,481

403

1856

5,520

4,722

798

1857

5,552

4,231

1,321

1858

5,413

3,789

1,624

Voluntary supplementary payment

980

725

255

1859

6,449

5,049

1,400

1860

9,774

7,229

2,545

1861

12,722

8,622

4,100

1862

9,809

6,965

2,844

1863

8,746

6,746

2,000

1864

14,383

10,620

3,763

1865

10,015

7,690

2,325

1861-65 Supplementary payment for forest damages

24,785

1,479

23,306

1866

8,426

6,176

2,250

1867

9,181

7,124

2,057

Total

136,639

85,648

50,991

Source: Jahrbuch für das Berg- und Hüttenwesen im Königreich Sachsen (1890), Table 1; reprinted in Franz-Josef Brüggemeier, Das unendliche Meer der Lüfte. Luftverschmutzung, Industrialisierung und Risikodebatten im 19. Jahrhundert. Essen: Klartext, 1996, pp. 171.

Translation: Erwin Fink