Schwarzenberg, Saxony

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Schwarzenberg
Coat of arms	Location
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Saxony
Admin. region	Chemnitz
District	Aue-Schwarzenberg
Town subdivisions	6
Mayor	Heidrun Hiemer (CDU)
Basic statistics
Area	46.25 km² (17.9 sq mi)
Elevation	468 m  (1536 ft)
Population	19,474  (31/12/2006)
- Density	421 /km² (1,091 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	ASZ
Postal code	08340
Area code	03774
Website	www.schwarzenberg.de Coordinates: 50°32′43″N 12°46′45″E / 50.54528, 12.77917

Schwarzenberg is the seat of the district of Aue-Schwarzenberg in Saxony’s Ore Mountains. The city is 850 years old. It lies roughly 15 km southeast of Aue, and 35 km southwest of Chemnitz.

[edit] Geography

The town lies at elevations stretching from 428.5 to 823 m above sea level, and is crossed by the river Schwarzwasser.

[edit] Constituent communities

The town has grown extensively over recent years by absorbing nearby communities. However the population has remained stable at approximately 20,000 inhabitants. Schwarzenberg consists of ten divisions within the town itself, known as Stadtteile, and five outlying centres, known as Ortsteile. The following centres have belonged to the town from the outset:

• Altstadt (Old Town, within the town’s old walls)
• Vorstadt/Bärenackerweg (settlement outside the old walls)
• Neustadt (newer development west of the Old Town, the new Town Hall’s location)
• Hofgarten (low-rise residential area built in the 1960s)
• Heide (low-rise residential area built in the 1970s)
• Rockelmann
• Sonnenleithe (precast concrete residential area built in 1981–1991)

These centres were formerly self-governing, but became part of the town through amalgamation:

• Sachsenfeld, Ober- (1913), Unter- (1919)
• Neuwelt (1919)
• Wildenau/Brückenberg (1920)
• Grünstädtel (1996)
• Bermsgrün (1999)
• Jägerhaus (1999) (hamlet lying in the forest on the road between Schwarzenberg and Sosa)
• Crandorf (1999)
• Erla (1999)
• Pöhla (2008)

[edit] Neighbouring communities

The communities that border on the town are Grünhain-Beierfeld in the northeast, Raschau in the east, Breitenbrunn and Sosa in the south and Bockau and Lauter in the west.

[edit] History

[edit] Founding

Schwarzenberg was first documented in 1282 as “civitas Swartzenberg”. The town’s beginnings, however, stretch back almost a hundred years before this. The Landesmuseum Dresden carried out digs in 1977 that unearthed, among other things, potsherds that could be dated to about 1200, leading to the conclusion that this area must have been settled earlier. The year 1150 has been estimated to be Schwarzenberg’s approximate year of its foundation, and it is on this basis that the town marked its 850th anniversary in 2000. Certain other sources suggest that the town was founded sometime before the turn of the first millennium, but these are deemed unlikely to be trustworthy. Whatever the truth is, Schwarzenberg is one of the oldest places in the region.

The Schwarzwasser is the most important river in Schwarzenberg.

[edit] Name’s origins

According to legend, Emperor Otto, whom the town also has to thank for its founding, so named the town, and the mountain on which it is built, because it looked that way to him (“Schwarzenberg” literally means “Black Mountain” in German). Even serious sources hold that the town drew its name from the area’s thick, dark tree growth that looks like a black mountain even from far away, making such a name origin at least plausible.

[edit] Townsite

Schwarzenberg’s skyline is dominated by the ensemble of church and palace, the latter having been built on an old castle’s foundation walls. This former castle can be considered one of the town’s first fortified buildings. The St.-Georgen-Kirche (church) on the other hand is clearly newer, having been built only in the late 17th century. With the help of the oldest known drawing of Schwarzenberg, a pen and ink work by Wilhelm Dilich from the late 1620s, one can get an idea of the town’s original appearance. At the end of today’s Oberen Schloßstraße rises the palace (Schloss), which was once built as a castle, and which, over the course of its history, has been expanded and remodelled many times. Right on the marketplace, at the other end of the aforesaid street, is found the Town Hall. The third conspicuous building in the town’s historic centre was the church, which became too small in the 17th century and was replaced by the St.-Georgen-Kirche. Beside the old church lay the graveyard on the site today known as the Unterer Markt (“Lower Market”). It was not long before it, too, became too small, and it was supplemented – and later wholly supplanted – by another graveyard outside the town’s walls. Already in Dilich’s drawing, nothing more is to be seen of the town’s walls. All that remains of them now is the names Oberes Tor and Unteres Tor (“Upper Gate” and “Lower Gate”).

Once the buildings within the town could no longer handle the steadily growing population, houses were built outside the town’s walls. In the aforesaid drawing, the first “suburban” buildings can already be seen beneath the church.

[edit] After the Second World War

After Germany’s surrender in the Second World War, Schwarzenberg remained, for historically unclear reasons, unoccupied at first. On 11 May 1945, several antifascist Schwarzenberg citizens took the initiative of filling the resulting power vacuum. This episode lasted only until 25 June 1945 when Soviet troops marched in. In 1984, the writer Stefan Heym coined the term “Republic of Schwarzenberg” in his novel Schwarzenberg, which was based on the episode. A lively accumulation of legends is bound up with this time. In 2004, the writer Volker Braun also treated the topic.

[edit] Religion

• Evangelical Lutheran parish of St.-George
• Evangelical Methodist parish
• Catholic parish “Holy Family”
• Parish of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

[edit] Population development

Development of population figures (from 1960, 31 December):

Source as of 1998: Statistisches Landesamt Sachsen

1 29 October
2 31 August

[edit] Mayor

Heidrun Hiemer, the Oberbürgermeisterin of Schwarzenberg, was born in 1952. At the mayoral election on 10 June 2001 the CDU representative got 52.9% of the votes.

[edit] Coat of arms

Schwarzenberg’s arms show the dragon slayer Saint George, who according to legend is held to have taken on the lindworm at the Totenstein (“Dead Man’s Stone”), which was a lasting threat to the townsfolk. While fleeing from the figure, Saint George is said to have tried to leap across the river Schwarzwasser on his horse, landing on the Ottenstein on the other side. It is furthermore said that his horse’s horseshoe print may still be seen in the river even today.

[edit] Town partnerships

• Wunsiedel, since 1990
• Nové Sedlo (Czech Republic), since 2006
• Borchen, since 2007

[edit] Culture and sightseeing

Often called the "Pearl of the Erzgebirge", Schwarzenberg’s main attraction is its historic centre.

• Palace with museum
• St.-Georgen-Kirche (built between 1690 and 1699)
• The Grenzlandfeierstätte (“Borderland Celebration Place”), dedicated in 1938, affords roughly 15,000 visitors seats for great cultural events as a Waldbühne (“forest stage”).
• Weiße Frau (“White Woman”) on Jägerhäuser Straße

View from the road to Jägerhaus: In the foreground the residential area of Heide, behind it in the middle of the picture the residential area of Sonnenleithe, on the right edge of the picture Beierfeld, on the left edge of the picture Bernsbach, on the horizon to the right, the Spiegelwald

[edit] Museums

• Museum Schloss Schwarzenberg
• Eisenbahnmuseum (railway museum)

[edit] Clubs

• FSV Blau-Weiss Schwarzenberg 1921 e.V.
• Modelleisenbahn-Club Schwarzenberg e.V. (model railways)
• Erzgebirgszweigverein Schwarzenberg

[edit] Regular events

• Fest alter Musik im Erzgebirge (“old music in the Ore Mountains”, since 1994)
• Schwarzenberger Ostermarkt (Easter market)
• Schwarzenberger Altstadt- und Edelweißfest (“Old Town and Edelweiss festival”, since 1993)
• Schwarzenberger Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market, since 1534)

[edit] Economy and infrastructure

From being a small industrial centre in East Germany, and home to two large companies, Foron and Formenbau Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg has lost most of its heavy industry over the last two decades. Only the latter company has stayed in business, and that as a subsidiary of the KUKA Corporation of Augsburg. Tourism is now the main industry, with the town being an excellent base for hiking tours during summer.

Through the town runs the Silver Road.

[edit] Education

Schwarzenberg has at its disposal four elementary schools (Neuwelt, Sonnenleithe, Heide and Crandorf) a middle school (“Stadtschule”), a Gymnasium (“Bertolt-Brecht-Gymnasium”) and a vocational school centre for economy and social welfare. There are also a school for students with learning difficulties, a special school for the mentally handicapped and a folk high school.

[edit] Famous people

[edit] Honorary citizens

• Hans Brockhage (b. 1925), designer and sculptor
• Harry Schmidt (1927-2003), woodcarver

[edit] Sons and daughters of the town

• Elisabeth Rethberg (1894–1976), singer
• Friedrich Emil Krauß (1895–1977), industrialist, bathtub and washing machine maker
• Kurt Weisflog (b. 1906), Member of the Reichstag
• Hans Brockhage (b. 1925), designer and sculptor
• Axel Köhler (b. 1960), countertenor and film director

[edit] Celebrities who have worked in town

• Louis Krauß (1862–1927), born in what is now the constituent community of Neuwelt, industrialist, bathtub maker
• Dr. iur. Ludwig Günther Martini (1647–1719), between 1672 and 1677 a jurist in Schwarzenberg, writer and later court official in Wernigerode.
• Ernst Schneller (1890–1944), from 1919 a teacher in the town, latter KPD Member of the Reichstag. His workplace, today’s Stadtschule Schwarzenberg, bore his name for more than 40 years
• Walter Hesse (1846-1911), county physician, unveiled Schneeberger Bergkrankheit as lung cancer, later fellow worker of Robert Koch
• Ricco Groß (b. 1970), many times world champion and Olympic medallist in biathlon, grew up here.
• Markus Beyer (b. 1971), boxer and former world champion in super middleweight, grew up here.

[edit] External links

• 

  Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

  Schwarzenberg, Saxony
• Internet presence of the Town of Schwarzenberg
• Internet presence of the Waldbühne Schwarzenberg

v • d • e Towns and municipalities in Aue-Schwarzenberg Aue | Bad Schlema | Bernsbach | Bockau | Breitenbrunn | Eibenstock | Grünhain-Beierfeld | Johanngeorgenstadt | Lauter | Lößnitz | Raschau-Markersbach | Schneeberg | Schönheide | Schwarzenberg | Sosa | Stützengrün | Zschorlau

This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.