Arlesberg (Geratal)

Arlesberg Rural community of Geratal Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 45 ″ N , 10 ° 49 ′ 34 ″ E
Height :	455 m above sea level NN
Incorporation :	1923
Incorporated into:	Geraberg
Postal code :	99331
Area code :	03677
	Arlesberg, southern entrance to the village, the Jüchnitz in the foreground

Arlesberg is a district of Geraberg in the rural community of Geratal in the Ilm district in Thuringia .

location

Arlesberg lies on the edge of the Thuringian Forest at the exit of the Zahmer Gera from the mountains. The 651 meter high Arlesberg to the west bears the same name as the place . To the south of Arlesberg, on the other side of the Geratal, is the Hohe Warte (765 meters). The old village center of Arlesberg lies, protected from flooding, on the north-western slope of the valley in the area of today's Bergstrasse / Dr.-Mohr-Strasse. Arlesberg was on federal highway 88 until it was rerouted . The Geraberg school camp is located south of the village in Jüchnitzgrund .

history

Was first mentioned in Arles mountain in 1503. The village later took an upswing by various mines under the Arles Mountain, where in addition to manganese and fluorspar was promoted. The brown stone mill on the Zahmen Gera was used for processing . At the same time, the place now also expanded along the valley on Gehlberger and Geraer Strasse. A separate cemetery was also created above the village, while the parish church in Geraberg was visited for worship.

The place in the Black Forest office belonged to various Ernestine duchies , most recently from 1826 to 1918 to the duchy of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha . In 1923 the villages of Gera below and Arlesberg above were merged to form the new municipality of Geraberg. In the 20th century, industrialization in Arlesberg picked up speed and in 1886 the Ilmenau company Thüringische Glasinstrumentenfabrik Alt, Eberhardt & Jäger founded a factory in Arlesberg. This was further expanded under the name Thermometerwerk Geraberg during GDR times and became the largest employer in the area. Sports fields and the Geraberg swimming pool were built in their neighborhood. After reunification, the factory was closed and the largest successor company, Geratherm , moved to the industrial area north of the village. The old factory was demolished.

Geraberg became a district of the rural community Geratal on January 1, 2019.

Other important company foundations were:

1874: Just & Co. AG, a suitcase and box factory. In 1887 an annex and cutting mill were built on the Jäger thermometer factory. Five years later, a fire destroyed large quantities of the inventory and machines, although the fire department was able to save the thermometer factory. The merchant Just from Leipzig bought 844 ares of land on the Arnstadt-Ilmenau railway line, built in 1879, in 1895 for 250,000 marks and had a three-story house built a year later on Elgersburger Strasse. The new factory with 30 employees was built nearby. In 1906 Just took over the set-up costs of 400 marks for a children's institution. In 1911 he donated 5,000 marks for a nurses' station. In 1915, during the First World War , Just delivered knapsacks, rucksacks and cartridge pouches for a 1,000-man war battalion every two weeks. After the war, Just delivered to England and Holland. A factory kitchen was set up in the factory around 1930. After a number of company conversions, the company was converted into VEB Thüringer Kofferfabriken Geraberg / Geschwenda in 1972 and joined the Schmalkalden Sports Equipment Combine in 1976 . In the fall of 1990 production was stopped and two small companies tried to continue the traditional production. 1992 is done processing by the Trust .
1882: Hugo Eger, porcelain factory. Around 1882 the porcelain workers Kaufmann, Meusinger and Siptrott founded a small porcelain factory, which was closed and sealed two years later due to payment problems. In the course of 1885 the factory was sold twice, the last to a Carl Riemann from the Schierholzschen porcelain factory in Plaue , where he worked as a head lathe operator. (See below: 1896: FC Riemann) In 1886 Riemann and Günther owned the factory, and in 1890 Eduard Wagner joined them. The factory employed around 50 people at the time. Günther left the company in 1895 for reasons of age, while Wagner became the sole owner in 1896 after Riemann left the company. Riemann (see below) had founded his own factory. In 1908 Wagner died, his widow sold the factory for 100,000 marks to the factory owner Hugo Eger, who enlarged the factory in 1911 and employed mostly pieceworkers. Electric power was generated for the first time in 1920 with the installation of a turbine. By 1930 the number of employees increased up to 160. From 1933 onwards exports fell due to the Nazis, so that by the end of the Second World War only 40 workers were employed. In 1943, 18 Polish and Russian forced laborers were added. After the company was transformed into a general partnership in 1944 , the owner Hugo Eger jun. and Hermann Merkel, the company was transferred to the state of Thuringia in October 1948. In 1949 the workforce was 136 workers. In 1950 it was incorporated into Plant II of the VEB Porzellanwerk Gehren . In 1973 the plant was closed and production and the Riemannsche were relocated to Ilmenau.
1896: FC Riemann, porcelain factory. The factory owner Carl Riemann, son-in-law of Friedrich Wilhelm Günther, who had previously worked with Eduard Wagner from Ilmenau, founded his own new factory in 1896, which, however, he handed over to his two sons-in-law in 1909 at a time of difficult business. In 1916 - the two owners were called up for military service - the factory was closed and reopened after the war in 1919. In 1944, the then owner Frankenberg died and the factory was taken over by his son-in-law Walter Müller, a locksmith. In 1945 production was resumed with the approval of SMAD , and in 1949 it became public property. In 1950 the company had 71 employees and the factory was attached to the VEB Porzellanwerk Gehren . In 1973 the entire production was relocated to the new porcelain factory in Ilmenau ( Henneberg porcelain ) and the porcelain factory in Geraberg was closed. The workforce was taken to Eichicht (12 km away) in buses several times a day at the start of the shift . In 1977 the old production facility and in 1991 the former porter's house, which was last used as a bus stop, were demolished.

Manganese ore mining

The mountain range south of the village contains ores and minerals as crevices in various porphyries . Already in the middle of the 14th century (1351) there was iron stone mining on the Mittelberg (mountain between Jüchnitz and Zahmer Gera) . In 1665 the first documented mentions of manganese ore mining in the Arlesberg district were made. This mining gave the area its importance. In 1855 the Braunsteinmühle first appeared on the letterhead of E. Diemar (Braunsteinwerk). Around 1860, the main mining period, around 400 people were working in around 140 pits. The largest pits had tunnels between 600 and 1000 m in length. After a further high in production between 1915 and 1924, mining came to a standstill in 1931, but was revived in 1936. In 1949 manganese ore mining ended with the closure of the Heinrichsglück mine . The total production is estimated at 75,000 to 100,000 t. The high quality of the ores extracted at that time in around 100 manganese veins made the former Arlesberg mining area important worldwide. In addition, the manganese mining and its use in the course of the historical development of the district and its mines is an important indicator of the early industrial history.

In the 20th century the mining of fluorspar and barite began in the valley of the Zahmen Gera, this mining ended in 1958. The Braunsteinmühle processed imported ores until 1982.

Attractions

The well-signposted Braunsteinweg leads through Arlesberg and Jüchnitzgrund, which provides information on the history of manganese mining in the valley by means of information boards. It begins at the roundabout Gehlberger Strasse / Geraer Strasse / Elgersburger Strasse, where an old sandstone crusher stands on a small plateau. It was in operation from 1935 to 1960 for the production of plaster and wall sand. The original location was near the mountain brewery .
Braunstein mill
Braunstein hiking trail from the Gehlberger Straße roundabout to the Mönchhof Waldgasthaus