The above-ground facilities of the shaft Kaiser Wilhelm II.
For this purpose, hydroelectric facilities were built in the shafts of existing mines. The water collected in the Upper Harz ponds was led through both the Upper Harz Water Management System and the shaft where it was transported by means of six turbines at 360 meters depth. The two remaining mines, the Rammelsberg Mine in Goslar and Hilfe Gottes in Bad Grund, were supplied with the generated electric energy by the so-called Harz Ring Main. The small pit, established in 1880, has the second oldest iron transportation frame in Germany.
The above-ground facilities of the shaft Kaiser Wilhelm II. once a central hoisting and man-hoist shaft of the lead and zinc ore mining in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, prove that with the foreseeable end of the Upper Harz Mining the facilities of the Upper Harz Water Management started being used for the generation of electric energy.
The depot of Harzwasserwerke GmbH, which maintains the Upper Harz Water Management System, is located on the site of the shaft Kaiser Wilhelm II. The mining area with its opened shaft hall and hauling engine house is freely accessible, visitors can inform themselves by means of message boards or take a tour with the electronic information and guidance system called “e.guide EMIL” (can be borrowed in the Upper Harz Mining Museum). The exhibition in the shaft’s reconstructed washhouse, which used to be a dressing hall, provides a good overview of the Upper Harz Water Management.