The History Association already existed before the Mining Museum in the Upper Harz.
In 1884 an Upper Harz local group of the Harz Association for History and Antiquity was founded in the two mining towns of Clausthal-Zellerfeld. It was the basis for the foundation of the "Upper Harz Museum in Zellerfeld" in 1892. The Association always stood inseparably behind the District Museum of the former District of Zellerfeld.
With the constitutional aim of reopening the Upper Harz Museum, which had closed during the First World War, the Association was re-founded in the year 1924. The "Upper Harz History and Museum Association" (OGMV) has therefore existed for almost 100 years as the association that protects the comprehensive tangible and intangible heritage in the western Upper Harz.
Based in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, from 1926 to December 2013 the Association was responsible for the management and running of the Upper Harz Mining Museum (OBM) through a contract with the local authority; since 2014 the museum has been managed by the Foundation Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System (UNESCO World Heritage in the Harz). This change was a consequence of the listing of the Upper Harz Water Management System as UNESCO World Heritage, which is asministered centrally for tourism by the foundation.
In addition to providing non-material and financial support to the Museum, the Association has a wide range of activities according to its constitution. The central focus is, on the one hand, scientifically-based research into Upper Harz mining as well as economic and social history, and on the other hand providing suitable care for numerous historic monuments of the Upper Harz mining history, both buildings and landscape features.
In addition to the "classical" work of a history association, the OGMV regards itself as a representative of the heritage "mining", also in political discussions involving the touristic utilization and the financing of museum locations.
The OGMV currently (2021) has around 300 members. The Chairperson since July 2021 is Barbara Diederich.
Adress: Bornhardtstraße 16, 38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld
Telephone: +49 5323 98950
By the way ...members of the Upper Harz History and Museum Association have free admission to the Upper Harz Mining Museum.
