Halle and the salt
Salt, once a gift from the gods, is still an indispensable part of life today.
The body needs six grams of white gold every day to function properly. Yet only five percent of the salt mined worldwide finds its way into our everyday lives as food. The remaining 95 percent is used by industry to produce plastics, among other things. Halle (Saale) owes its rich, above-ground salt deposits to the fact that more than 65 million years ago, a geological fracture occurred in the Halle area.
Layers of rock broke up in a wide strip and led to the Halle marketplace fault. During the uplift of the north-eastern clod, layers of Zechstein pushed out of the depths, which led to a brine upwelling and thus to the escape of brine (salty water) in today's city area.
After the early use of salt springs in the Bronze Age, four medieval brine fountains near the market square fault are historically attested.
The Gutjahrbrunnen fountain in Oleariusstraße is the last evidence of Halle's salt works in the "Thale zu Halle" and bears witness to this salty history. Halle salt is still produced today according to the old model by the Halloren, the Halle salt boilers, at the former Royal Prussian salt works founded outside the city in 1721.
The history of salt in Halle will be brought to life for locals and tourists in a lively and informative way from the end of 2025 once the construction work on the Saline Island has been completed. Further information here: Link to the salt museum.
Halle is one of the most important saltworks of the Middle Ages. The salt springs were granted to the Moritz Monastery in Magdeburg, which later became the archbishopric, by Emperor Otto I in 961. As a place of medieval salt production, the "Thal zu Halle" was thus the property of the Archbishops of Magdeburg.
In the early Middle Ages, the archbishop gave Solgut as a fief to the so-called Pfänner. This gave them the right to boil the brine mined in the valley into salt in specially built huts.
There were over 100 boiling pots on the medieval Thalsaline, which was located in the area of today's Hallmarkt. Production there was in the hands of the salt workers, who were known as Halloren in Halle. The Halloren brotherhood still maintains the rich tradition of Halle's salt workers today.
The Pfänner owe their prosperity and power to salt.
In1276, they joined together to form the Hallesche Pfännerschaft and formed a powerful urban upper class.
In1491, the Halloren in the Thal formed their own brotherhood, limited to their professional group. After protracted power struggles between the Pfänner in the 14th and 15th centuries, the importance of the Pfänner dwindled with the increasing decline of the Thalsaline and the establishment of a Royal Prussian salt works outside the city in the 18th century.
The brotherhood of Halloren, founded in 1491, has survived the times and still maintains the rich tradition of Halle's salt workers today.
