The Mountain Monk in Sankt Andreasberg
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| Geographic Coordinates: 51° 44' 32.61" N, 10° 32' 50.95" E 51° 42' 10.44" N, 10° 30' 54.27" E 51° 42' 59.95" N, 10° 29' 36.49" E 51° 42' 24.75" N, 10° 31' 36.41" E 51° 42' 46.61" N, 10° 30' 58.07" E 51° 40' 54.70" N, 10° 29' 58.10" E 51° 42' 30.33" N, 10° 31' 25.11" E |
I. The Bergmönch (“Mountain Monk”) is known in Sankt Andreasberg as well. He was a real monk and wanted to establish the mines, but he failed to do so. He started to build the Rehberger Graben ditch which brings all the waters to the mines in Andreasberg, and was close to finishing it, but finally went bankrupt. After his death, his obsession with mining did not let him rest. Thus, he was seen at the Wäschegrund valley, before the Treibholz forest, at the Dammbach stream, and at the Samson Pit, which is perhaps the deepest shaft on Earth. But everywhere he went, the miners later found ore. Thanks to these discoveries, the mines of Andreasberg were founded, which are the richest in the entire Harz mountains. The Mountain Monk was a count by birth, and when he was seen as a ghost, he wore a miner’s waistcoat, a rear leather, and a lamp. The lamp never went out, even if the wind was blowing so strongly that it ripped out the trees.
II. Once, the Mountain Monk approached a bird catcher in the Sperrlutter valley at night with his lamp. The bird catcher thought that he was a miner, and said: “Can you give me some tallow? As you can see, my light is about to go out.” Then the Mountain Monk gave him some tallow from his pit lamp. This burned for a day and a night, and then it was pure silver.
III. One Sunday, the Mountain Monk appeared in miner’s clothing to an artisan’s apprentice who was waiting for his senior artisan. The boy believed him to be his boss, and thus followed him into the mine until his tallow light had been used up. Then the miner put a piece of calcite in his lamp, and then it burned again. The miner did not speak, but they spotted a lot of ore while they were in the mine together. After some time, they once again reached the spot from which they had started their trip. Then the miner vanished.
But it turned out to be the case that the apprentice had followed him for thirty years. None of the people he had worked with were still around, and the house in which he had lived was inhabited by strangers. But his light burned without end until he sold it to someone else at one point. Then it no longer burned, and when the buyer returned it to the apprentice, it did not burn for him, either.
IV. It was in the year 1849, when the Mountain Monk was last seen. Back then, the Andreaskreuz mine was supposed to be shut down, or at least be operated with far fewer people. Then the Mountain Monk showed himself in the Wäschgrund and walked until the Matthias Schmidt mountain, which is where the seam of the Andreaskreuz leads to. This took place over the course of four weeks, and many people went there in the evening between nine and eleven o’clock in order to see him. Since then there has been ore in the mine again, and the pit is back in full business.