200-Meter Smokestack at the Halsbrücker Smelting Works Near Freiberg (1889) This enormous chimney stack (“Hohe Esse”) was built in 1889 to pump smoke higher into the atmosphere – and thus slightly farther away from local residents, who were making claims about the harmful effects of air pollution. The smokestack was part of a vast smelting works whose other buildings can be seen here. The Halsbrücker works were located near Freiberg, the most important mining town in the Kingdom of Saxony and home to a famous mining academy.