Glückauf (alternative spelling ''Glück auf''; also, as an exclamation: ''Glück auf!'') is the traditional German miners' greeting. It describes the hope of the

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

s: ''"es mögen sich Erzgänge auftun"'' ("may lodes f orebe opened") which is short for ''"Ich wünsche Dir Glück, tu einen neuen Gang auf"'' ("I wish you luck, open a new lode"), because, when mining for ore, without prospecting, no-one could predict with certainty whether the miners' work would lead to a reward. The greeting also expressed the desire that miners would return safely from the mine after their shift. Today it is still a common form of greeting in the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

region of eastern Germany and in the Ruhr area, specifically Bochum, which is home to the

German Mining Museum __NOTOC__ The German Mining Museum in Bochum () or DBM is one of the most visited museums in Germany with around 365,700 visitors per year (2012).Auskunft der Pressestelle des DBM, 12 September 2013 It is the largest mining museum in the world,

(''Deutsches Bergbau-Museum'').

Emergence

The greeting emerged in the Saxon

towards the end of the 16th century, when the miners still entered and left the mines on foot using ladders (''Fahrten'') or

man engine A man engine is a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in Mining, mines to assist the miners' journeys to and from the working levels. It was invented in Germany in the 19th century and was a prominent feature o ...

s (''Fahrkunst''). That meant that, after a typical 10-hour shift, the miner often had a challenging and dangerous 2 hours of climbing ahead of him, something that they believed needed a degree of luck to negotiate safely. If he slipped (''fahrtlos''), he fell down the shaft. The result was that at that time (16th to 18th centuries) fatal accidents were very common, and not just when entering or leaving the mine. It was often the case that friends on the next shift, who had been greeted on the way out, were left in the mine.

Historical usage

The miner's greeting was already being used before 1700, being artistically employed in the old miner's song '' Glück Auf, der Steiger kommt''; it thus became part of the folksong repertoire. Mines were also named after the greeting, such as the Zeche Glückauf-Tiefbau, Zeche Glückauf Barmen or Zeche Glückaufsegen. By 1890 at the latest the greeting was widespread among German-speaking

speleologist Speleology () is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their composition, structure, physical properties, history, ecology, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorpholog ...

s (cave explorers) and is still the most common form of greeting in that community today. It is particularly commonly used when entering the cave.

Related terms

* In

air travel Air travel is a form of travel in vehicles such as airplanes, jet aircraft, helicopters, hot air balloons, blimps, Glider (aircraft), gliders, Hang gliding, hang gliders, parachuting, parachutes, or anything else that can sustain flight.

the corresponding greeting, ''Glück ab!'', is used in German. This is today the official greeting of German-speaking

parachutist Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For hu ...

s and also the official

battle cry A battle cry or war cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group. Battle cries are not necessarily articulate (e.g. "Eulaliaaaa!", "Alala"..), although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religio ...

of the

airmobile Air assault is the movement of ground-based military forces by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, such as helicopters, to seize and hold key terrain that has not been fully secured, and to directly engage enemy forces behind enemy ...

forces of the German ''

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

''. * '' Glück zu!'' is the traditional greeting of

miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...

s in German-speaking lands. * ''Glück tief!'' is a derived, but only regional greeting used by

caver Caving, also known as spelunking (United States and Canada) and potholing (United Kingdom and Ireland), is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is the scientific ...

Student culture

With the emergence of student culture in the 1800's student associations linked to mining related fields of study incorporated the 'Glück Auf' greeting as part of their identity. Most notable would be the 'Mijnbouwkundige vereeniging'https://mv.tudelft.nl/ from the

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

References

External links