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On May 1st, 2022, the new, modern permanent exhibition of the Granite Mining Museum Königshainer Berge will open. In the beginning there were only ideas. And an innocent question. Then the grants came.  

"You support so many projects in the region, don't you have some money for us?" - sometimes the biggest changes begin with an innocent question. And that's how it was in the case of the Koenigshainer Berge granite mining museum .

The question was asked by Anja Köhler, who is responsible for that museum. She asked Michael Kretschmer, then in the Bundestag for the constituency of Görlitz, now Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony. Coincidentally, he took part in a hike that led Anja Köhler through the Königshain mountains.  

Mr. Kretschmer was very open and wanted to hear a specific project proposal. After a few months, an employee of the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media contacted Anja Köhler, and then the notification of the grant came from the Federal Office of Administration.

A grant notice paves the way for further funding, and so there were notices of LEADER funding , from the European Regional Development Fund with the support of the Neisse Euroregion and from the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony . The Friends of the Museum provided generous support. The municipality of Koenigshain , which took on the application for funds for the Koenigshainer Berge granite mining museum as part of the development program for rural areas in the Free State of Saxony (LEADER guidelines), helped enormously in realizing what was initially a small idea.

not a classic museum with its location in the Koenigshainer Berge nature reserve So why should the exhibition content be presented in the traditional way? Since 1999, the Koenigshainer Berge granite mining museum has belonged to the Schlesisch-Oberlausitzer Museumsverbund gGmbH . And: the Schlesisch-Oberlausitzer Museumsverbund gGmbH, whose managing director Sven Mimus was from 2016 to 2021, has always tried to break new ground in its museums.

This is exactly what should happen here now.
In the future, the museum objects will – quite naturally – stand next to functional models, augmented reality applications and virtual reality visits to working quarries. The heavy technology is supplemented by contemporary art, which deals with the topic of quarrying and the quarrying industry and some of which was specially made for the permanent exhibition. And: Participation is required, because our future visitors can actively participate in the exhibition; be it in the design of the museum fence with street art, supported by the street artists Sokar Uno (Berlin) and ArtTourette (Dresden) or through the creative design of "paving stones" made of plastic.

On May 1st, 2022, the Königshainer Berge granite mining museum will open its doors again after being closed for a year and a half, in order to bring the hard work of the stone workers back into people's consciousness. The brake track and cable crane function models await numerous visitors from near and far together with the paving hall, engine shed and quarry.  

Come by and see for yourself - we look forward to seeing you!

Heartfelt, 

Anja Koehler and Sven Mimus