Tharandt Forest
Encyclopedia
The Tharandt Forest is a landscape in the centre of the German Free State of 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....

 and lies southwest of the forest town of Tharandt
Tharandt
Tharandt is a municipality in Saxony, Germany, situated on the Weißeritz, 9 miles southwest of Dresden, on the Dresden-Reichenbach railway.It has a Protestant Church, a hydropathic establishment, and the oldest academy of forestry in Germany, founded by Heinrich Cotta in 1811 together with its...

, south of the town of Wilsdruff
Wilsdruff
Wilsdruff is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, with 13,743 inhabitants. It is situated 14 km west of Dresden . Near Wilsdruff there is a facility for high power broadcasting, the transmitter Wilsdruff....

, roughly between the cities of Freiberg
Freiberg
-Places:* Freiberg, Saxony, Germany** Freiberg , Saxony, Germany** Freiberg subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp* Freiberg am Neckar, Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany...

 and Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. Administratively it is fully part of the borough of Tharandt today and bears a legally-protected strapline
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 with the text: Tharandter Wald – schönster Wald Sachsens ("Tharandt Forest - Saxony's most beautiful forest"), which goes back to the tourist advertisements of the 1920s.

History

In the 12th century the village of Warnsdorf existed for a short time in the middle of the forest by the water-rich Warnsdorf Spring of the Triebisch
Triebisch
Triebisch is a river of Saxony, Germany.-See also:*List of rivers of Saxony...

 river. The foundations of a large Roman site from the 13th century were discovered in the neighbouring village of Grillenburg which, then as now, was completely surrounded by the forest. Several routes run through the forest, including the Princes' or Lords' Way
Saints' Way
The Saints' Way is a long-distance footpath in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.The footpath runs from Padstow in the north to Fowey in the south, a distance of 26 miles . The path is well marked and guide books are available....

. During the Early Modern Period
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...

 the forest was a hunting ground for the territorial princes (Grillenburg Hunting Lodge) and was also a source of timber and charcoal for mining (charcoal burning) and the residence city of Dresden (timber rafting
Timber rafting
Timber rafting is a log transportation method in which logs are tied together into rafts and drifted or pulled across a water body or down a flatter river. It is arguably the second cheapest method of transportation of timber, next after log driving...

). Forest glassworks are also discernible near Hetzdorf (Glasergrund) and Hartha
Hartha
Hartha is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km west of Döbeln, and 12 km north of Mittweida....

 (Glasbruch). The beekeepers and forest keepers (collectively called Zeidler) that settled in Fördergersdorf and Hartha supplied honey and beeswax. And artificial ponds are still used today to farm fish.

In the early 18th century in the Tännichtgrund bottom near Naundorf in the Tharandt Forest was the hideaway of the notorious robber, Lips Tullian
Lips Tullian
Lips Tullian is a comic series written by Jaroslav Weigel and drawn by Kája Saudek in 1972. The series was published by the popular Czechoslovak weekly magazine Mladý svět...

 and his Black Guard (Schwarzen Garde). Tullian was feared throughout Saxony. His lair is stilled recalled by the Lips Tullian Rocks (Lips-Tullian-Felsen) named after him and the old Thieves' Chamber (Diebskammer).

Around 1800 the forest had been seriously reduced by logging and was reforested by Johann Heinrich Cotta on scientific principles. The Tharandt Forest thus became a model for the concept of sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management uses very broad social, economic and environmental goals...

 that was born out of necessity. This resulted in the formation of the forestry academy and the botanical forest garden
Forstbotanischer Garten Tharandt
The Forstbotanischer Garten Tharandt , also known as the Sächsisches Landesarboretum, is an arboretum maintained by the Dresden University of Technology...

s in Tharandt.

From the 18th century the forest was used as a place of recreation by middle-class families, especially from Dresden. These included such well-known personalities from the sciences and arts as Heinrich Ernemann and Eva von der Osten
Eva von der Osten
Eva Helga Bertha von der Osten was a German soprano. She was born in Helgoland, the daughter of actor Emil von der Osten and Rosa von der Osten-Hildebrandt ....

, who established their summer residences here. During the Nazi era Saxony's Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...

and state huntsmaster, Martin Mutschmann
Martin Mutschmann
Martin Mutschmann was the Nazi Region Leader of the state of Saxony during the time of the Third Reich.-Biography:...

, used the Grillenburg hunting lodge as the headquarters of the Saxon Hunting Court (Sächsischen Jägerhof). Its guest house, the Neues Jägerhaus, also used by him and acted during the GDR period as a VdN convalescent home, known as Elsa Fenske, for victims of faschism.

The entire forest was a recreation area
Recreation area
A recreation area is a type of protected area designated in some jurisdictions. In the United States, National Recreation Areas are administered by several different agencies. They typically do not meet the strict guidelines to become national parks. In U.S...

 for many years and was signed by volunteers from the Cultural Association of the GDR who also laid out a nature trail. As a contiguous and easily accessible natural region the Tharandt Forest continues to act as a recreation area for the population of the surrounding area and its visitors. There are educational trails and paths for hiking, riding and cycling. Coaches and sleds are permitted on several routes.

The region around the Tharandt Forest has been represented since 1997 by the Tharandt Forest Queen (Tharandter-Wald-Königin), a new one being appointed every two years and who is presented and crowned at the traditional choir gathering, the Chortreffen am Tharandter Wald by the Tharandt Forest Tourist Association (Verkehrs- und Verschönerungsverein "Tharandter Wald" e.V.).
The Tharandt Forest is a landscape in the centre of the German Free State of 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....

 and lies southwest of the forest town of Tharandt
Tharandt
Tharandt is a municipality in Saxony, Germany, situated on the Weißeritz, 9 miles southwest of Dresden, on the Dresden-Reichenbach railway.It has a Protestant Church, a hydropathic establishment, and the oldest academy of forestry in Germany, founded by Heinrich Cotta in 1811 together with its...

, south of the town of Wilsdruff
Wilsdruff
Wilsdruff is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, with 13,743 inhabitants. It is situated 14 km west of Dresden . Near Wilsdruff there is a facility for high power broadcasting, the transmitter Wilsdruff....

, roughly between the cities of Freiberg
Freiberg
-Places:* Freiberg, Saxony, Germany** Freiberg , Saxony, Germany** Freiberg subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp* Freiberg am Neckar, Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany...

 and Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. Administratively it is fully part of the borough of Tharandt today and bears a legally-protected strapline
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 with the text: Tharandter Wald – schönster Wald Sachsens ("Tharandt Forest - Saxony's most beautiful forest"), which goes back to the tourist advertisements of the 1920s.

History

In the 12th century the village of Warnsdorf existed for a short time in the middle of the forest by the water-rich Warnsdorf Spring of the Triebisch
Triebisch
Triebisch is a river of Saxony, Germany.-See also:*List of rivers of Saxony...

 river. The foundations of a large Roman site from the 13th century were discovered in the neighbouring village of Grillenburg which, then as now, was completely surrounded by the forest. Several routes run through the forest, including the Princes' or Lords' Way
Saints' Way
The Saints' Way is a long-distance footpath in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.The footpath runs from Padstow in the north to Fowey in the south, a distance of 26 miles . The path is well marked and guide books are available....

. During the Early Modern Period
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...

 the forest was a hunting ground for the territorial princes (Grillenburg Hunting Lodge) and was also a source of timber and charcoal for mining (charcoal burning) and the residence city of Dresden (timber rafting
Timber rafting
Timber rafting is a log transportation method in which logs are tied together into rafts and drifted or pulled across a water body or down a flatter river. It is arguably the second cheapest method of transportation of timber, next after log driving...

). Forest glassworks are also discernible near Hetzdorf (Glasergrund) and Hartha
Hartha
Hartha is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km west of Döbeln, and 12 km north of Mittweida....

 (Glasbruch). The beekeepers and forest keepers (collectively called Zeidler) that settled in Fördergersdorf and Hartha supplied honey and beeswax. And artificial ponds are still used today to farm fish.

In the early 18th century in the Tännichtgrund bottom near Naundorf in the Tharandt Forest was the hideaway of the notorious robber, Lips Tullian
Lips Tullian
Lips Tullian is a comic series written by Jaroslav Weigel and drawn by Kája Saudek in 1972. The series was published by the popular Czechoslovak weekly magazine Mladý svět...

 and his Black Guard (Schwarzen Garde). Tullian was feared throughout Saxony. His lair is stilled recalled by the Lips Tullian Rocks (Lips-Tullian-Felsen) named after him and the old Thieves' Chamber (Diebskammer).

Around 1800 the forest had been seriously reduced by logging and was reforested by Johann Heinrich Cotta on scientific principles. The Tharandt Forest thus became a model for the concept of sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management uses very broad social, economic and environmental goals...

 that was born out of necessity. This resulted in the formation of the forestry academy and the botanical forest garden
Forstbotanischer Garten Tharandt
The Forstbotanischer Garten Tharandt , also known as the Sächsisches Landesarboretum, is an arboretum maintained by the Dresden University of Technology...

s in Tharandt.

From the 18th century the forest was used as a place of recreation by middle-class families, especially from Dresden. These included such well-known personalities from the sciences and arts as Heinrich Ernemann and Eva von der Osten
Eva von der Osten
Eva Helga Bertha von der Osten was a German soprano. She was born in Helgoland, the daughter of actor Emil von der Osten and Rosa von der Osten-Hildebrandt ....

, who established their summer residences here. During the Nazi era Saxony's Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...

and state huntsmaster, Martin Mutschmann
Martin Mutschmann
Martin Mutschmann was the Nazi Region Leader of the state of Saxony during the time of the Third Reich.-Biography:...

, used the Grillenburg hunting lodge as the headquarters of the Saxon Hunting Court (Sächsischen Jägerhof). Its guest house, the Neues Jägerhaus, also used by him and acted during the GDR period as a VdN convalescent home, known as Elsa Fenske, for victims of faschism.

The entire forest was a recreation area
Recreation area
A recreation area is a type of protected area designated in some jurisdictions. In the United States, National Recreation Areas are administered by several different agencies. They typically do not meet the strict guidelines to become national parks. In U.S...

 for many years and was signed by volunteers from the Cultural Association of the GDR who also laid out a nature trail. As a contiguous and easily accessible natural region the Tharandt Forest continues to act as a recreation area for the population of the surrounding area and its visitors. There are educational trails and paths for hiking, riding and cycling. Coaches and sleds are permitted on several routes.

The region around the Tharandt Forest has been represented since 1997 by the Tharandt Forest Queen (Tharandter-Wald-Königin), a new one being appointed every two years and who is presented and crowned at the traditional choir gathering, the Chortreffen am Tharandter Wald by the Tharandt Forest Tourist Association (Verkehrs- und Verschönerungsverein "Tharandter Wald" e.V.).
The Tharandt Forest is a landscape in the centre of the German Free State of 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....

 and lies southwest of the forest town of Tharandt
Tharandt
Tharandt is a municipality in Saxony, Germany, situated on the Weißeritz, 9 miles southwest of Dresden, on the Dresden-Reichenbach railway.It has a Protestant Church, a hydropathic establishment, and the oldest academy of forestry in Germany, founded by Heinrich Cotta in 1811 together with its...

, south of the town of Wilsdruff
Wilsdruff
Wilsdruff is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, with 13,743 inhabitants. It is situated 14 km west of Dresden . Near Wilsdruff there is a facility for high power broadcasting, the transmitter Wilsdruff....

, roughly between the cities of Freiberg
Freiberg
-Places:* Freiberg, Saxony, Germany** Freiberg , Saxony, Germany** Freiberg subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp* Freiberg am Neckar, Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany...

 and Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. Administratively it is fully part of the borough of Tharandt today and bears a legally-protected strapline
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 with the text: Tharandter Wald – schönster Wald Sachsens ("Tharandt Forest - Saxony's most beautiful forest"), which goes back to the tourist advertisements of the 1920s.

History

In the 12th century the village of Warnsdorf existed for a short time in the middle of the forest by the water-rich Warnsdorf Spring of the Triebisch
Triebisch
Triebisch is a river of Saxony, Germany.-See also:*List of rivers of Saxony...

 river. The foundations of a large Roman site from the 13th century were discovered in the neighbouring village of Grillenburg which, then as now, was completely surrounded by the forest. Several routes run through the forest, including the Princes' or Lords' Way
Saints' Way
The Saints' Way is a long-distance footpath in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.The footpath runs from Padstow in the north to Fowey in the south, a distance of 26 miles . The path is well marked and guide books are available....

. During the Early Modern Period
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...

 the forest was a hunting ground for the territorial princes (Grillenburg Hunting Lodge) and was also a source of timber and charcoal for mining (charcoal burning) and the residence city of Dresden (timber rafting
Timber rafting
Timber rafting is a log transportation method in which logs are tied together into rafts and drifted or pulled across a water body or down a flatter river. It is arguably the second cheapest method of transportation of timber, next after log driving...

). Forest glassworks are also discernible near Hetzdorf (Glasergrund) and Hartha
Hartha
Hartha is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km west of Döbeln, and 12 km north of Mittweida....

 (Glasbruch). The beekeepers and forest keepers (collectively called Zeidler) that settled in Fördergersdorf and Hartha supplied honey and beeswax. And artificial ponds are still used today to farm fish.

In the early 18th century in the Tännichtgrund bottom near Naundorf in the Tharandt Forest was the hideaway of the notorious robber, Lips Tullian
Lips Tullian
Lips Tullian is a comic series written by Jaroslav Weigel and drawn by Kája Saudek in 1972. The series was published by the popular Czechoslovak weekly magazine Mladý svět...

 and his Black Guard (Schwarzen Garde). Tullian was feared throughout Saxony. His lair is stilled recalled by the Lips Tullian Rocks (Lips-Tullian-Felsen) named after him and the old Thieves' Chamber (Diebskammer).

Around 1800 the forest had been seriously reduced by logging and was reforested by Johann Heinrich Cotta on scientific principles. The Tharandt Forest thus became a model for the concept of sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management uses very broad social, economic and environmental goals...

 that was born out of necessity. This resulted in the formation of the forestry academy and the botanical forest garden
Forstbotanischer Garten Tharandt
The Forstbotanischer Garten Tharandt , also known as the Sächsisches Landesarboretum, is an arboretum maintained by the Dresden University of Technology...

s in Tharandt.

From the 18th century the forest was used as a place of recreation by middle-class families, especially from Dresden. These included such well-known personalities from the sciences and arts as Heinrich Ernemann and Eva von der Osten
Eva von der Osten
Eva Helga Bertha von der Osten was a German soprano. She was born in Helgoland, the daughter of actor Emil von der Osten and Rosa von der Osten-Hildebrandt ....

, who established their summer residences here. During the Nazi era Saxony's Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...

and state huntsmaster, Martin Mutschmann
Martin Mutschmann
Martin Mutschmann was the Nazi Region Leader of the state of Saxony during the time of the Third Reich.-Biography:...

, used the Grillenburg hunting lodge as the headquarters of the Saxon Hunting Court (Sächsischen Jägerhof). Its guest house, the Neues Jägerhaus, also used by him and acted during the GDR period as a VdN convalescent home, known as Elsa Fenske, for victims of faschism.

The entire forest was a recreation area
Recreation area
A recreation area is a type of protected area designated in some jurisdictions. In the United States, National Recreation Areas are administered by several different agencies. They typically do not meet the strict guidelines to become national parks. In U.S...

 for many years and was signed by volunteers from the Cultural Association of the GDR who also laid out a nature trail. As a contiguous and easily accessible natural region the Tharandt Forest continues to act as a recreation area for the population of the surrounding area and its visitors. There are educational trails and paths for hiking, riding and cycling. Coaches and sleds are permitted on several routes.

The region around the Tharandt Forest has been represented since 1997 by the Tharandt Forest Queen (Tharandter-Wald-Königin), a new one being appointed every two years and who is presented and crowned at the traditional choir gathering, the Chortreffen am Tharandter Wald by the Tharandt Forest Tourist Association (Verkehrs- und Verschönerungsverein "Tharandter Wald" e.V.).
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