The Freiberg Mining Academy was founded on 21 November 1765. Its establishment can be seen as a measure by the Saxon government to boost the economy after the "Augustan Age" and the Seven Years' War (1756-63) by increasing the utilisation of domestic raw materials in order to overcome the high national debt at the same time. Training and research at the new institution was and still is characterised by the close link between theory and practice. The institution soon gained a reputation as one of the world's leading mining science teaching and research centres. Established in 1765, the Bergakademie is now regarded as the oldest mining science university in the world. Following its example, numerous other mining academies were founded, e.g. in St. Petersburg, Russia (1773), Almadén, Spain (1777) and Mexico (1792). It was and is home to scientists who have influenced the development of mining science and technology worldwide. The two elements germanium and indium were discovered here. Since its foundation, TU Bergakademie Freiberg has attracted students from all over the world, including Alexander von Humboldt and the discoverers of other chemical elements, such as Fausto and Juan José d'Elhuyar (tungsten) and Manuel Andrés del Río (vanadium).

In 2015, the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology celebrated its 250th anniversary; more on the history of the Bergakademie: Science on site. Images of the past and present of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. 2nd edition, Freiberg 2007

Friedrich Anton von Heynitz, Saxon Mining Commissioner General and member of the State Economic, Manufactory and Commerce Deputation, together with Freiberger Oberberghauptmann Friedrich Wilhelm von Oppel submitted a proposal on 15 November 1765. On 15 November 1765, he proposed to Prince Regent Xaver, who was in Freiberg, that a fund financed from state funds be made available for the establishment of a geometric drawing school and a metallurgical and chemical school in Freiberg. For Saxony, which had been economically devastated as a result of the Seven Years' War, a reforming measure was planned to raise the level of education of the civil servants entrusted with specific tasks. The proposal therefore fitted in well with the Restoration Commission's reform concept. Just six months later, lectures could begin and the "Berg Academy" was born.

Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817), the most important scholar at the Bergakademie in its early days, brought order to the world of minerals and rock strata. He was appointed as a teacher at the Bergakademie in 1775. Werner is regarded as the founder of geognosy, the study of the structure and construction of the earth's solid crust, which can be described as the forerunner of geology. He laid the foundations on which mineralogy and geology could develop as independent sciences.

Exactly 250 years ago, Werner published a groundbreaking work that still has an impact today. In 1774, a book on mineral identification was published with the full title Von den Äußerlichen Kennzeichen der Fossilien. To this day, researchers use very similar catalogues of the sensually perceptible properties of minerals,

Werner's theory of mineralogical characteristics is 250 years old

Werner attracted such important personalities as Alexander von Humboldt, Franz Xaver von Baader, Leopold von Buch, Friederich Mohs and Robert Jameson . Under the influence of his students, a scientific society was founded in England in 1808, the Wernerian Natural History Society, whose members dedicated themselves to a broad spectrum of scientific research, including mineralogy, botany and entomology.

Under Werner, the Bergakademie Freiberg developed into an internationally esteemed and recognised mining science centre with worldwide appeal.

The Mineralogische Sammlung im Werner-Bau is closely associated with the name Abraham-Gottlob-Werner.

With August Wilhelm Lampadius (1772-1842), the people of Freiberg saw the light. The professor was the first on the European continent to install a gas lantern on his house in Fischergasse in Freiberg and developed the principle of gas lighting to such an extent that it could be used for the first time in an industrial plant. In order to promote practical teaching, Lampadius set up a chemical-metallurgical university laboratory at the Bergakademie in 1796/97.

In 1886, Clemens Alexander Winkler (1838-1904) isolated the chemical element germanium when a difference repeatedly occurred in the chemical analysis of a mineral, thus confirming the periodic table of elements developed by Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907), who had predicted an element with the properties of germanium in his list with "ekasilicon". The chemist Hieronymus Theodor Richter (1824-1898) and the physicist Ferdinand Reich (1799-1882) had already discovered the metal indium in 1863. It was given its somewhat misleading name because of its characteristic indigo blue spectral line.

The Winkler Collection contains around 1,400 inorganic chemical preparations, most of which were synthesised in the second half of the 19th century. The collection goes back to Clemens Alexander Winkler, who produced most of the samples himself at the Bergakademie. The original of the rare mineral argyrodite, from which Winkler isolated germanium in 1886, can also be found here. The collection was enriched by gifts such as the gallium sample from its discoverer Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838-1912).

Winkler Collection

Chemical elements were also discovered by former students of the Bergakademie, such as tungsten (1783) by the brothers Juan José (1754-1796) and Fausto d'Elhuyar (1755-1833) and vanadium (1801) by Andrés Manuel del Río (1764-1849).

One of the more curious facts about the history of the Freiberg Mining Academy is the dungeon, which was in use from 1851-1872 and can still be visited today. In the historic detention room, students were imprisoned here, for example, for not handing in books or receipts, and later for more serious offences such as insulting teachers or fellow students or arguments with Freiberg night watchmen. The longest punishment recorded in the dungeon book was 14 days. In the 20 years of its existence, however, only 48 students were punished with detention.

The historical detention room for students at the Bergakademie is the only surviving detention room at a German technical college or technical university. It was used around the middle of the 19th century and documents everyday student life at the time with its numerous murals and inscriptions.