Stamp 61 / Harzer Grauwacke Rieder

The Rieder graywacke quarry is located between Gernrode and Ballenstedt above the village of Rieder.

The extrac­tion of greywacke in the Eulen­bach val­ley near Rieder goes back to a small quar­ry of the Reich Labor Ser­vice in 1935. At the end of the 1960s, the VEB Natursteinkom­bi­nat Halle-Sen­newitz relo­cat­ed its pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty here from Teich­grund near Ballenstedt. 

The mod­ern plant for crush­ing and clas­si­fy­ing was built in 1992 by the cur­rent oper­a­tor of the high-grade chip­pings plant, Mit­teldeutsche Baustoffe GmbH. Most of the pro­duc­tion is sold with­in a radius of up to 40 km. 

Because 800,000 tons leave the plant every year, the reserves of high-qual­i­ty greywacke in the Eulen­bach Val­ley deposit will soon be exhaust­ed. A final oper­at­ing plan reg­u­lates the sub­se­quent renat­u­ra­tion. How­ev­er, the plant for crush­ing and clas­si­fy­ing will con­tin­ue to oper­ate and be sup­plied with raw mate­r­i­al from anoth­er deposit by means of a con­vey­or system. 

The quar­ry is already home to many rare ani­mal species that are par­tic­u­lar­ly wor­thy of pro­tec­tion, includ­ing the largest native owl, the eagle owl. As video footage shows, the shy lynx has also been roam­ing the site at night for some time now. 

The Harz Region­al Asso­ci­a­tion, togeth­er with the oper­a­tor of the quar­ry, the Harzk­lub Zweigvere­in Bal­len­st­edt and the AFG Harz, has erect­ed a view­ing plat­form with a dis­play board.

The short­est access route begins near But­t­lar’s grave at the park­ing lot with the field kitchen on the B 185 Bal­len­st­edt — Mägde­sprung. From the park­ing lot, cross the main road and fol­low the path towards Huber­tushöhe. Descend via a nar­row zigzag path to the small Sieber­stein pond, cross the dam, climb a short ascent to a wide for­est path lead­ing up from the Selke­tal­stieg, which leads slight­ly uphill to the stamp box with the viewpoint. 

N51.71355 E11.17952