Glückauf is the traditional German miners' greeting. It describes the hope of the miners: "es mögen sich Erzgänge auftun" which is short for "Ich wünsche Dir Glück, tu einen neuen Gang auf", 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 Mountainsregion of eastern Germany and in the Ruhrarea, specifically Bochum, which is home to the German Mining Museum.
Emergence
The greeting emerged in the Saxon Ore Mountains towards the end of the 16th century, when the miners still entered and left the mines on foot using ladders or man engines. 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, he fell down the shaft. The result was that at that time 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 speleologists 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 the corresponding greeting, Glück ab!, is used in German. This is today the official greeting of German-speaking parachutists and also the official battle cry of the airmobile forces of the German Bundeswehr.
