Lößnitz
Encyclopedia
Bergstadt Lößnitz sometimes also called Muhme (“Aunt”) for its age, is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis
, Saxony
, Germany
, and belongs to the Town League of Silberberg (Städtebund Silberberg). Its name comes from the Slavic
lesnice, meaning “forest place”.
lying nestled among wooded mountain ranges in a glen, roughly 432 m above sea level. It lies 4 km northeast of Aue
and 27 km southwest of Chemnitz
.
Lößnitz’s early history is somewhat speculative. A schoolmaster is mentioned as being in the town in 1304, for instance, leading to the inference that the Lößnitz Latin school was already there then. Likewise, the first known mayor
Hermann von Buten appears in the town’s history in 1372, leading to further speculation that there must have been a town hall by that time.
In 1382, Lößnitz was designated a Bergstadt and a year later the whole town burnt right down as far as the town mill that stood before the gates. In 1406, the Count of Schönburg acquired the County of Hartenstein and made Lößnitz its seat.
In 1542, the Reformation
was introduced. In 1601, the town hall portal appeared and the town hall remodelling was finished six years later. However, all of it was lost, along with the church, the parish building, the school and moreover 108 houses, in the “Rote Ruhr” (“Red Dysentery”, a name given this town fire). In the years that followed, the town also had to deal with sackings, the plague and yet another town fire.
In 1714, the Baroque
Hospitalkirche (“Hospital Church”) was consecrated. Town fires were nothing unusual in those days, and on 10 December 1806 it once again came to pass and among the buildings lost were, again, the town hall, the parish building and the school as well as the mediaeval St. Johanniskirche (church), the brewing
and malting house, 182 houses and 16 barns. The town sprang back from this, but only three years later, there was yet another fire, this one started by a lightning
strike. Of the 104 houses that were destroyed, 26 were ones that had already been rebuilt after burning down in the last fire. On 29 October 1826 the new church, Haupt- und Stadtkirche St. Johannis, was consecrated. There were later further fires in Lößnitz, whereby the Baroque Hospitalkirche was destroyed, too.
After jurisdiction over the town had been relinquished to the House of Schönburg, the Fürstlich Schönburgische Justizamt Stein (“Princely Schönburg Justice Office of Stein”) came into being in 1861, and that same year, the new Hospitalkirche was consecrated. When the Schönburg principalities were taken over by the Kingdom of Saxony
in 1878, Lößnitz was given a Kingdom of Saxony Amt court, which persisted until 1931.
In 1917, the bells at both the St. Johanniskirche and the Hospitalkirche were removed for war requirements, but only three years later, the former acquired three new bells. In 1939, a carillon
consisting of 23 bronze
bells was installed in the church’s spire.
On 20 April 1945, the town’s deputy mayor Rudolf Weber, who wanted to surrender the town to the Americans
without a fight, was shot by the Waffen-SS
. Between 1985 and 1992 there arose on the edge of town a great residential area
, where today almost half the town’s population lives.
In 1999 came the amalgamation of the community of Affalter.
and Aue, on which the lower railway station was built somewhat later, came into service. After the station was built came residential areas and industrial development, leading eventually to Niederlößnitz’s amalgamation with the Town of Lößnitz in 1898.
(the arms of the Castle Counts at Meißen, the town’s founders) on a yellow background. The cross is surrounded by three towers set on a stylized wall on a red background. The wall and towers refer to the town’s former formidable fortifications; the three towers symbolize the three former town gates.
.
, machine building, textile
refining and processing and metalware. Slate
mining around the town was also important for a long while. German Reunification
brought far-reaching changes in the region leading to the loss of a great deal of the local industry.
169 runs through the municipal area. The nearest Autobahn interchanges, with Bundesautobahn 72
, are in Hartenstein and Stollberg.
Lößnitz lies on the railway line between Chemnitz
and Aue (Zwönitztalbahn) and has two railway stations, called oberer Bahnhof and unterer Bahnhof – upper and lower stations. Trains are run by the Erzgebirgsbahn, a daughter operation of Deutsche Bahn AG. For local transport – in the case of buslines that serve Lößnitz – the fare structure of the Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen (“Middle Saxony Transport Association”) applies.
Erzgebirgskreis
Erzgebirgskreis is a district in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is named after the Erzgebirge , a mountain range in the southern part of the district which forms part of the Germany–Czech Republic border...
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and belongs to the Town League of Silberberg (Städtebund Silberberg). Its name comes from the Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
lesnice, meaning “forest place”.
Geography
Lößnitz is a small town in the western part of the Ore MountainsOre Mountains
The Ore Mountains in Central Europe have formed a natural border between Saxony and Bohemia for many centuries. Today, the border between Germany and the Czech Republic runs just north of the main crest of the mountain range...
lying nestled among wooded mountain ranges in a glen, roughly 432 m above sea level. It lies 4 km northeast of Aue
Aue
Aue is a small town in Germany at the outlet of the river Schwarzwasser into the river Mulde in the Ore Mountains, and has roughly 18,000 inhabitants. Aue was the administrative seat of the former district of Aue-Schwarzenberg in Saxony, and is part of the Erzgebirgskreis since August 2008...
and 27 km southwest of Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
.
Constituent communities
Lößnitz has six Ortsteile (constituent communities), namely Affalter (since 1999), Dittersdorf (since 1973), Grüna (from 1974 a constituent community of Affalter), Dreihansen (said to have been a self-standing community in 1791), Niederlößnitz (since 1898) and Streitwald (from 1939 a constituent community of Affalter).History
Lößnitz was founded by the Castle Counts (Burggrafen) at Meißen in 1170, and in a document from 1284 it was already described as a Civitas. The town’s first documentary mention, however, had already come in 1238, in which it was named as “Lesnitz the forest place”.Lößnitz’s early history is somewhat speculative. A schoolmaster is mentioned as being in the town in 1304, for instance, leading to the inference that the Lößnitz Latin school was already there then. Likewise, the first known mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Hermann von Buten appears in the town’s history in 1372, leading to further speculation that there must have been a town hall by that time.
In 1382, Lößnitz was designated a Bergstadt and a year later the whole town burnt right down as far as the town mill that stood before the gates. In 1406, the Count of Schönburg acquired the County of Hartenstein and made Lößnitz its seat.
In 1542, the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
was introduced. In 1601, the town hall portal appeared and the town hall remodelling was finished six years later. However, all of it was lost, along with the church, the parish building, the school and moreover 108 houses, in the “Rote Ruhr” (“Red Dysentery”, a name given this town fire). In the years that followed, the town also had to deal with sackings, the plague and yet another town fire.
In 1714, the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
Hospitalkirche (“Hospital Church”) was consecrated. Town fires were nothing unusual in those days, and on 10 December 1806 it once again came to pass and among the buildings lost were, again, the town hall, the parish building and the school as well as the mediaeval St. Johanniskirche (church), the brewing
Brewing
Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...
and malting house, 182 houses and 16 barns. The town sprang back from this, but only three years later, there was yet another fire, this one started by a lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
strike. Of the 104 houses that were destroyed, 26 were ones that had already been rebuilt after burning down in the last fire. On 29 October 1826 the new church, Haupt- und Stadtkirche St. Johannis, was consecrated. There were later further fires in Lößnitz, whereby the Baroque Hospitalkirche was destroyed, too.
After jurisdiction over the town had been relinquished to the House of Schönburg, the Fürstlich Schönburgische Justizamt Stein (“Princely Schönburg Justice Office of Stein”) came into being in 1861, and that same year, the new Hospitalkirche was consecrated. When the Schönburg principalities were taken over by the Kingdom of Saxony
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...
in 1878, Lößnitz was given a Kingdom of Saxony Amt court, which persisted until 1931.
In 1917, the bells at both the St. Johanniskirche and the Hospitalkirche were removed for war requirements, but only three years later, the former acquired three new bells. In 1939, a carillon
Carillon
A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord...
consisting of 23 bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
bells was installed in the church’s spire.
On 20 April 1945, the town’s deputy mayor Rudolf Weber, who wanted to surrender the town to the Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
without a fight, was shot by the Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
. Between 1985 and 1992 there arose on the edge of town a great residential area
Residential area
A residential area is a land use in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single family housing, multi-family residential, or mobile homes. Zoning for residential use may permit...
, where today almost half the town’s population lives.
In 1999 came the amalgamation of the community of Affalter.
Population development
The following population figures refer to 31 December of each given year.1982 to 1988
|
1989 to 1995
|
1996 to 2002
|
2003 to 2006
|
- Source: Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen
Niederlößnitz
Today’s constituent community of Niederlößnitz (“Lower Lößnitz”) was originally a farming village downstream from where the Aubach empties into the Lößnitzbach. The first known naming of the community goes back to 1497, when it was known as Niderlesenitzs. About 100 years later, the community counted 6 landowners. One estate was exempted from combat duty and served as the lordly hunting lodge. A. Schuhmann mentioned in 1820 in his Lexikon two flour mills and a paper mill. However, the paper mill, which had supposedly once been a hammerworks and a coin blank works, burnt down in 1808 and was never rebuilt. Towards the end of the 19th century, the railway line between ZwönitzZwönitz
Zwönitz is a town in the district Erzgebirgskreis, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 9 km south of Stollberg, and 24 km southwest of Chemnitz.- References :...
and Aue, on which the lower railway station was built somewhat later, came into service. After the station was built came residential areas and industrial development, leading eventually to Niederlößnitz’s amalgamation with the Town of Lößnitz in 1898.
Coat of arms
Lößnitz’s arms show a black Saint Andrew's crossSaltire
A saltire, or Saint Andrew's Cross, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross or letter ex . Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross....
(the arms of the Castle Counts at Meißen, the town’s founders) on a yellow background. The cross is surrounded by three towers set on a stylized wall on a red background. The wall and towers refer to the town’s former formidable fortifications; the three towers symbolize the three former town gates.
Town partnership
Since 1991 there has been a partnership with the Westphalian town of BorgholzhausenBorgholzhausen
Borgholzhausen is a town in the district of Gütersloh in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Teutoburg Forest, approx...
.
Buildings
- Old Town
- Parts of the former town wall (“Rösselturm”)
- Town Hall from 1601
- St. Johanniskirche with carillonCarillonA carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord...
. It consists of 23 bells from the ApoldaApoldaApolda is a town in central Thuringia, Germany, the capital of the Weimarer Land district. It is situated in the center of the triangle Weimar - Jena - Naumburg near the river Ilm, c. 15 km east by north from Weimar, on the main line of railway from Berlin via Halle, to...
bell foundry Franz Schilling Söhne for a carillon that was dedicated at Whitsun in 1939 by carillon master Bender, musical consultant for the Hitler YouthHitler YouthThe Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
from the Berliner ParochialkircheParochialkircheThe Parochialkirche is a Reformed church in the Klosterviertel neighbourhood of the Mitte borough in Berlin. The church, now a listed building, was built between 1695 and 1703, it is the oldest church in Berlin built as a Protestant place of worship. The church is now used and owned by the...
. It was to “proclaim the thankfulness that the German people owe their FührerFührerFührer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
and his movement”. The St. Johanniskirche is the largest neo-classical church in the oremountains.
Folk festivals and markets
- Weekly market every Thursday
- Dorffest Draffaller (village festival)
- Lößnitzer Salzmarkt (salt market, third weekend in June)
- Naturmarkt (in September)
- Christmas Market (Advent)
Economy
Lößnitz was over the centuries a regionally important economic centre with market rights. With widespread industrialization beginning about the year 1850, Lößnitz became one of the most important industrial centres in the western Ore Mountains. Important businesses were in shoemakingShoemaking
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...
, machine building, textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
refining and processing and metalware. Slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
mining around the town was also important for a long while. German Reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
brought far-reaching changes in the region leading to the loss of a great deal of the local industry.
Transport
The BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
169 runs through the municipal area. The nearest Autobahn interchanges, with Bundesautobahn 72
Bundesautobahn 72
is an motorway in Germany. Construction of the autobahn started in the 1930s, but was halted by the outbreak of World War II. Due to the division of Germany, a part of the autobahn lay in ruins until after German reunification.- Exit list :...
, are in Hartenstein and Stollberg.
Lößnitz lies on the railway line between Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
and Aue (Zwönitztalbahn) and has two railway stations, called oberer Bahnhof and unterer Bahnhof – upper and lower stations. Trains are run by the Erzgebirgsbahn, a daughter operation of Deutsche Bahn AG. For local transport – in the case of buslines that serve Lößnitz – the fare structure of the Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen (“Middle Saxony Transport Association”) applies.
Further reading
- Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR, Institut für Geographie und Geoökologie, Arbeitsgruppe Heimatforschung; Werte unserer Heimat; Heimatkundliche Bestandsaufnahme in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik; Band 31; Zwischen Zwickauer Mulde und Geyerschem Wald; Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1980.
- Schumann, A.; Schiffner, A.: Vollständiges Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon. Bände 1-18. Zwickau 1814-1833