Industry and the Environment @museum.de

In this room, you’ll come across both: one of the region’s largest and most popular nature reserves – and heavy industry, belching smokestacks and pollution.

Thale was a place of remarkable contrasts: on the one hand, there was the industrial site with up to 22 active smokestacks, and on the other hand, the idyllic town of Thale and the Bode Valley.

From 1863 onwards, the Zehnpfund Hotel stood opposite the railway station. In the early days, it provided accommodation for some 200 guests to enjoy the peace and quiet of the Bode Valley. The 19th century German novelist and poet Theodor Fontane stayed in Thale on several occasions. In 1868, he was still enthusing about the "holiday tranquillity" in this little place. But when he returned fifteen years later, he noticed how much the plant had meanwhile come to dominate the place.

His novel "Cécile", published in 1886, includes an amusing description of the peculiar atmosphere in the place where he had once spent his holiday:

"The large balcony of the ‘Zehnpfund Hotel ' was barely half occupied in the [...] morning, and only a dozen or so people were contemplating the landscape spread out before them, which did not lose too much of its charm as a result of the blazing forges and columns of smoke from an adjoining factory. For the constant breeze came from the direction of the plain and drove the thick smoke towards the mountains. Mixed in with the prevailing silence, there was, should one choose to disregard the plashing of the River Bode, merely a distant pounding and clattering and, close by, the twittering of a few swallows, which shot past in a zigzag as they flew towards a grassy area in the park in front of the balcony."

In the next chapter, he introduces a pair of tourists from Berlin, who comment in disbelief on the state of affairs:

"In the newspapers, there’s an advertisement that appears every week and says: 'Thale, climatic health resort'. And now, look at these smokestacks! Well, by all means; smoke acts as a preservative, and if we hang about here in the fumes for a couple of weeks, we'll end up as smoked ham."

The sheet metal works and Harz tourism coexisted peacefully for several decades. But as the works continued to expand, the mood tipped. The Zehnpfund Hotel had to close. The building served as the local town hall from 1922 to 2003.