Huthaus

Mine Administration Building


A Huthaus is the central administrative building of a mine. It often contained a prayer room, served as a store for clothes and tools, was an administration building, material store, kitchen and workshop. The name is derived from Hutmann, the mine or shift supervisor or foreman, who usually lived in the Huthaus.

The name Huthaus is common in the Ore Mountains in Germany, as well as in many areas where miners emigrated from the Ore Mountains. In areas with a different mining tradition, however, the name Zechenhaus was common. It is a term from the miners' language, and the building also has characteristic mining-related features. The small turret or a rider with a bell is typical. This bell was used to call the miners to their shift and announce the end of the shift.

However, other functions of the building are not so strongly reflected in the architecture but are typical of a Huthaus. The building had a weather vane and a clock, an important piece of infrastructure. On the ground floor was the Hutstube, which was an administrative office where the mine books were kept, payrolls were made and operating results were calculated. The Betstube (prayer room) was a substitute for a chapel, had an altar and organ and was used to pray to St Barbara before entering the mine. The Gezähestube was the place where the miners' lights and Gezähe (tools) were kept. In smaller mines, other tasks were housed in the Huthaus. For example, the Erzniederlage (ore storage), where the processed ore was stored until it was transported away. The Bergschmiede (mine forge) was also sometimes located in the Huthaus. In mines that were far away from the nearest settlement, the miners spent the night in a dormitory in the Huthaus during the week. The head miner, if it was not the Hutmann, was also sometimes housed here.

In smaller mines, the Huthaus was usually located near the shaft or the tunnel mouth. In some cases, the shaft or gallery even ended in the Huthaus, so the Huthaus sat on the entrance to the mine, so to speak. In larger mines, it was simply part of the surface facilities, which also included a headframe, mine forge or ore processing plant.

A Hutmann (Huther, Hütmann, Huttmann, Hüttmann) was a miner who worked as a mine supervisor for the mine. The name comes from hüten or behüten (herding, preserving), he was an overseer and had very extensive duties, a responsible post that was also associated with various privileges. One of these was the free flat, usually on the lower or upper floor of the Huthaus, a better wage, no hard physical labour and permission to sell drinks and food to the workforce.


This is a German miners' term, even native speakers do not understand this term if they are not miners. However, it is used in numerous descriptions of German show mines. As far as we know, there are no similar terms in other languages, actually we could not find similar buildings in other mining areas. So this is quite specific for central European mining. That's the reason why we were not able to translate the term, so we generally use the German term. That's not a new problem, countries like Sweden, the Czech Republic, and others have hired German miners from the Ore Mountains, and as a result German miners' terms have become Swedish and Czech miners terms.