Culture of the Ore Mountains

thumb|Using a nutcracker A nutcracker is a tool designed to open nuts by cracking their shells. There are many designs, including levers, screws, and ratchets. The lever version is also used for cracking lobster and crab shells.

German Christmas decoration comprising a pyramidal frame with candle holders and a central carousel with a rotor at the top driven by candles’ warm air, decorated with nativity scenes, angels, wise men, miners, forest scenes, etc.

decorative christmas toy, tool and figure of German origin

The Räuchermann (diminutive Räuchermännchen ; Erzgebirgisch: Raachermannel) is an incense smoker, the invention of toy makers in the Ore Mountains, used to burn down cone incense, known as Räucherkerzchen.

thumb|upright=1.3|A typical schwibbogen thumb|Bunter Erzgebirgischer Schwibbogen1 thumb|Lichterbogen Kunstguss Döhler

Erzgebirgisch (Standard ; Erzgebirgisch: ) is a (East) Central German dialect, spoken mainly in the central Ore Mountains in Saxony. It has received relatively little academic attention. Due to the high mobility of the population and the resulting contact with Upper Saxon, the high emigration rate and its low mutual intelligibility with other dialects, the number of speakers is decreasing.

thumb|upright|A spanbaum as the central column of a Christmas pyramid A spanbaum ("wood shaving tree"), variously referred to in English as a hand-shaved tree, wood chip tree or span tree, is a handmade ornamental tree which is usually part of a pyramid ornament. They are mainly manufactured in woodturning workshops in the Ore Mountains of Saxony in eastern Germany. Their method of production is known locally as Spanbaumstechen.

1972 film by Konrad Wolf

thumb|upright=1|Part of a Weihnachtsberg in the Manufaktur der Träume thumb|upright|A Buckelbergwerk with its doors opened and set up in the Keilberg (Schneeberg)|Keilberghaus near Schneeberg.