The Freiberg Area
The mining- and university town Freiberg is situated in the heart of Saxony between Chemnitz and Dresden at the foot of the Erzgebirge. Our town looks back at more than 800-years of history starting with the legend about the discovery of silver ore. In the 12th century carters found silver ore along their way to Bohemia and so the development of the free mining began.
In the high Middle Ages Freiberg was the largest town in the district Meißen and is regarded as the first free mining town of Germany; as the mother of all mining towns.
In 1765 also the first mining academy in the world was founded in Freiberg.
The mining in Freiberg and surroundings ended in the 20th century. The extensive tunnel systems now serve the mining academy for education and research.
After the re-union in Germany, Freiberg stated an example for restructuring
the Saxon economy. During the GDR-time, the old silver town was dominated by
the metallurgical industry. Today there are residing High Tech enterprises,
which mostly emerged from the former company VEB Spurenmetalle Freiberg. They
displace or continue the developing of the old technologies. Subsidiaries of
worldwide operating corporate groups now produce electronic, solar and optoelectronic
grade Wafer in Freiberg, which so became part of the "Saxon Silicon Valley".
Freiberg succeeded in what many other towns of the new federal states can only
dream of: busy industrial areas with processing industry whose products are
needed in the whole world for computers, telecommunication and modern production
methods. Freiberg continues writing Saxon industry history.