Former Nazi Mine (KK)
This is no ordinary ruin. Sauersack is a chilling monument to wartime history, the Nazi machine, and human suffering, which has been swallowed up by the wilderness of the Ore Mountains for over 80 years.
It all began in 1940. Nazi Germany desperately needed tin for its arms industry, so the Berlin-based company Zinnbergbau Sudetenland decided to build a modern underground mine and a giant ore processing plant right here.
Alongside the mine, a prisoner-of-war camp (part of Stalag XIII B) was built. The camp housed up to 500 Soviet prisoners and about 150 French prisoners, along with Italians and Poles. In addition to the prisoners, as many as 200 skilled German workers and a few Czech craftsmen worked there.
In 1947, a final decision was made. All valuable machinery and technology were transported to Příbram. The shafts were sealed with concrete, and the mine was deliberately flooded with groundwater.
The skeleton of the processing plant is indeed monumental, but the concrete is crumbling after decades of harsh winters. Watch out for protruding fittings and unexpected holes in the floor. The same applies to the surrounding area, which is full of peat bogs.