According to legend, the first to discover a silver ore vein on the Dreibrüderhöhe on the Marienberg plateau were three brothers from Italy. The most important passages were the "Eleonore Morgengang", "Young Three Brothers Morgengang" and the "Bauer Morgengang" with a length of more than 3 km. The ores of the gritty-blended lead ore formation led to the name "Kiesholz" in the adjacent forest. The first pits here were the "Himmlische Sackpfeiff" (1538) and "Himmelfahrt", "Christi", "Weyntrauben", "St. Johannes", "Fucker Gesellschaft Fundgrube" and "St. Donath".
Until 1800, the water was removed from the pits by the "Felber Stollen", which was installed in the Herbstgrund near Gehringswalde. After that, the mine water was diverted 60 m deeper to Selva via the "Neuglücker Stolln". In the vicinity of the "Junge Drei Brüder" mine, foreign trades became active on loaned treasure trove fields and founded the "Holländer" (1770), "Holländische Glück" (1773) and "Neu Holland" (1774) mines.
In 1821, the new trade union "Alte Drei Brüder" took over the mining fields, but consolidated it in 1855 with the "Father Abraham" mine in Lauta, which means that the entire mining area was transferred to the Marienberger Silberbergbau AG.