Four decades of the GDR also shaped the lives of people in the western Erzgebirge town of Aue. Extensive residential construction, the establishment and expansion of health and social services, education, and cultural life are characteristic of that time. Enterprises in mechanical engineering, metal processing, and the textile industry dominated the town's landscape. Additionally, the uranium mining by the Soviet-German joint-stock company Wismut, whose administrative center was in Aue, made the small town regionally known. The football team sponsored by SDAG Wismut also significantly increased Aue's recognition, which had already made a name for itself as a city of culture with the popular festival of song and dance and the widely known Erzgebirge ensemble. Museum director Ralf Petermann and local chronicler Lothar Walther highlight this in their illustrated book.