ABSTRACT
The Ore Mountains in Saxony were among those regions of central Europe that, like Tyrol or the Harz Mountains, had played an important role as silver suppliers since the late Middle Ages. Since the end of the fifteenth century, a succession of urban communities had sprung up to house the miners, and these grew rapidly. While Freiberg dated from the twelfth century, Schneeberg, Annaberg, Marienberg, and some twenty other mining settlements now joined it. Often miners were only allowed to work short hours, and many were forced to rely solely on charity from the 'miners' guild fund to survive until they came 'to better times'. The 'miners' guild had become an important means of social support in such situations. It had been established in the fifteenth century as a religious and social organization for the purpose of prayer and mutual assistance. Social divisions between miners and the authorities became notably confrontational in the early eighteenth century.
