A warm welcome to the Mining Museum Shaft Klettwitz. We are happy that you are paying us a visit.

The shaft Klettwitz originated in the years 1964�to 1966 and had the task to lower the groundwater in the perimeter of the large open-cast mine Klettwitz. So the shaft wasn't a�pit for raw material mining in the�classical sense but served to drain the masses of�soil above the brown coal, the so-called overburden.���

Image Copyright: M.Vogt

For that two vertical shaft pipes were drilled in two months into the 2nd brown coal seam up to depth of 63m.�From there miners drilled horizontal lengths into the brown coal. One part of these lengths is visible at the open-air terrain next to the�Klettwitzer shaft.

The lengths constructed by the miners are different to those of driving length and bog lengths. While the driving lengths were used to mine soil and coal with underground carriages, the bog lengths were used to collect the groundwater.� The groundwater run inside the lengths to the lowest points and were then from there pumped up. This way the soil situated above the brown coal was drained and prepared for open-cast mining.

The lengths reached distances of several kilometres and were dug over with the progressing of the open-cast mining.�The Klettwitzer shaft was closed in 1981 and filled in. After the restoration in the year 2000 the community runs the above ground parts of the shaft as mining monument.

Opening Times Schacht Klettwitz


from 20.06.2004 every 2nd Sunday in the time from 10am � 12nn as well as by telephone arrangement with Herr R. Warlich, Tel.: 0 35 75 4 / 13 15