Berka / Werra
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Berka / Werra
City of Werra-Suhl-Tal
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| Height : | 193 m above sea level NHN |
| Area : | 8.05 km² |
| Residents : | 1399 (Jan. 1, 2019) |
| Population density : | 174 inhabitants / km² |
| Incorporation : | 1st January 2019 |
| Postal code : | 99837 |
| Area code : | 036922 |
Berka / Werra is the largest district and the administrative seat of the city of Werra-Suhl-Tal in the Wartburg district in Thuringia , which was formed on January 1, 2019 from the previously independent rural town of Berka / Werra and other communities.
geography
Berka is located in the far west of Thuringia, directly on the state border with Hesse . The location extends on the right, eastern bank of the Werra . In terms of nature, Berka is located in the Berka-Gerstung basin of the Salzunger Werrabergland , in the middle Werra Valley, on the edge of the Richelsdorf Mountains . The highest point in the Berka district is the Hohe Rod mountain ( 319.6 m above sea level ), the location itself is between 210 and 240 m above sea level. NN . Below the city, the second order Suhl flows into the Werra.
Berka has an area of 7.94 km², the total area with the city districts was last 56.93 km². The district borders on the municipality of Gerstungen in the north, Herda and Auenheim-Rienau in the east and Dippach and Dankmarshausen in the south . To the west is the Obersuhl district of the Hessian community Wildeck .
Geology and mineral resources
Berka / Werra is located in the center of the Berka-Gerstung basin. This wide basin is surrounded by mountain ranges: in the south-west the Seulingswald , in the south the foothills of the Vorder Rhön , in the east the foothills of the Thuringian Forest and in the north the Richelsdorf Mountains . From a geological point of view, the place lies in the geological formation Trias , the middle red sandstone . Substantial potash deposits are located underground in the Werra potash district , which used to be mined in the Alexandershall shaft near Dippach and Abteroda and to this day near Heringen. Above ground, for example, sandstone and gravel were extracted from the Hohe Rod and Eichelberg .
history
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middle Ages
At the beginning of the 9th century Berka was first mentioned in a document as Berchaho in the list of goods Breviarium Sancti Lulli , the goods lent by Archbishop Lullus († 786) of Mainz for the monastery Hersfeld von Freien . The monastery had eleven Hufen and twelve yards here. In 1016 the hunting and forest rights (wild bans) were donated by Emperor Heinrich II to the Hersfeld Abbey . The place Berka was in the area of this wild ban . In the meantime, the abbey had a small moated castle built in nearby Hausbreitenbach - called the Breitenbach permanent house - and set up the first administrative seat of this area (Vogtei) in it, to which the village of Berka also belonged. Because of Berka's rapid economic development, the bailiwick and administration were later moved to Berka, which has since been protected by its own fortifications (the lower gate is still preserved) and a fortified church.
From 1239 there are traces of the Berka ministerials from Hersfeld . From 1283 landgrave customs law and 1284 landgrave court seat in Berka. In the 14th century the Wettins intended to raise the towns of Berka and Dankmarshausen to the status of a town with imperial permission. The Frankensteiner sold their property in 1330 in Berka / Werra with other property to the Counts of Henneberg on the Krayenburg . The Thuringian landgraves concluded a contract with the abbot of Hersfeld in 1354, according to which the house and office of Breitenbach was jointly administered with the village of Berka. The Thuringian, later Saxon bailiff had his seat in Hausbreitenbach, later Gerstungen , the hersfeld resident lived in Berka / Werra.
The striking tower of today's church was built in 1439. On the height southeast of Berka, the so-called Gehülfsberge, the chapel of St. Mariä und Salvatoris , mentioned in a document in 1407 and 1515 , used to stand .
Reformation and early modern times
As early as the middle of the 15th century, Berka was transferred to Hessian pledges. In 1521 Luther stopped at the inn '' Zum Stern '' on the journey from Worms to Wittenberg and met Abbot Krato von Hersfeld here . Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse occupied the place during the German Peasants' War and then moved on to Eisenach, where a certain Jakob Töpfer, peasant leader from Berka, was executed on the market square with other peasant leaders. The town had to pay heavy fines for supporting the rioters. Philip I forcibly carried out the Reformation in 1527 , and in 1539 Hessian and Electoral Saxon councils met in Berka in border disputes and Reformation matters. In 1543 the Landgrave of Hesse ordered a house inspection to examine the economic condition of the newly acquired parts of the country. During the Schmalkaldic War , the dreaded military leader, Duke of Alba , stayed in the village for a short time in 1547, before continuing his campaign to Saxony with the battle of Mühlberg on the Elbe. In 1553 the Hessian landgrave ordered a military muster of the male residents.
17th century
The place is secured by its location on the high bank of the Werra and by three gates. In the direction of the Frauensee there is an extensive border barrier - the Berkaer Landwehr . During the Thirty Years' War Pappenheim set up camp in the immediate vicinity of the city on his way to Hesse, while the town hall served as his quarters. Later, almost the entire city was burned down by imperial troops. The town hall was not rebuilt until 1667. The inhabitants fled into the thorn hedge and the Croatian hedge . By hunger, the effects of war and the plague , Berka was almost depopulated at the end of the war.
The last burning of the witches took place at the court square on the corridor border to the neighboring village of Herda in 1660, when Anna kitchen master from Herda fell victim. Since 1700 the tourist traffic on the streets around Berka has increased enormously, the first post office (operator: Thurn und Taxis) is opened. The economic basis of the place was trade, on the Werra there were two mills and a tannery quarter .
18th century
The region of the middle Werra valley was split up into numerous small territories under the sovereignty of the Hessian and Thuringian sovereigns until the 18th century. After numerous border inspections, an extensive exchange of territory was carried out in 1742, in which case Berka and some neighboring villages finally fell to the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach . Also during the Seven Years' War Berka suffered badly due to its location on important thoroughfares, above all the population had to pay pecuniary claims over and over again.
19th century
Between 1806 and 1813 the French Emperor Napoleon stopped several times in Berka, in 1813 he is said to have had lunch at the “Zur Post” inn while on the run. After a description of the country Berka was in 1816 as a "with all municipal rights-equipped market town called". After 1830 the economic situation of the population deteriorated noticeably, the reason often mentioned is said to have been the chaussing and relocation of Frankfurter Straße via Marksuhl. As a result, numerous residents tried their luck as emigrants to the USA . It was not until 1847 that Berka received the long-awaited town charter and a town coat of arms , at the same time town regulations were drawn up. The residents founded a vigilante group in 1848 , which was soon disbanded after the revolution. The foundation stone for the first school was laid in 1851.
The city is the birthplace of the philologist Georg Bippart (born 1816). In 1850 Bippart became an associate professor of philology in Jena , then joined the Roman Catholic Church and in 1858 became a professor at the University of Prague . In 1855 the men's choir was founded in Berka. The need for school education was recognized by the population and therefore a second and third school building was built in 1863.
Half-timbered houses in the old town
Town houses in the old town
The old brewery
From the early days to the Weimar Republic
With the establishment of the Berkaer brewery, the first industrial enterprise was created. The Alexandershall potash mine near Dippach was put into operation in 1903, and construction of the Vacha-Gerstungen railway line , which was completed in 1907, began at the same time . The period of inflation and the post-war years brought hardship, misery and unemployment to Berka's population. In the city, which then had 1,300 inhabitants, there were at times 123 unemployed. The social and political tensions also had consequences in Berka. With the establishment of associations one tried to promote the cultural life in the place. The first Berka women's choir was founded in 1922, and hiking and sports clubs were formed.
Period of National Socialism, World War II and the post-war period
After the rise of Nazi rule , a resistance group was formed in Gospenroda around the communist Jakob Gerlach, who printed and passed on educational pamphlets about fascism . During the grating action in August 1944, the chairman of the KPD local group, Willi Vock , resisted the threat of arrest, was shot and died in 1945 as a result of his injuries. A plaque near the town hall commemorates him. During the Second World War , 77 women and men had to do forced labor in the farms of Berka and the surrounding areas .
In the last days of the war the Werra bridge was blown up and the direct connection to the Berka / Werra train station and the neighboring communities of Obersuhl and Gerstungen was interrupted. A memorial stone in the cemetery commemorates the numerous dead in the war and the victims of fascism with the words: The dead admonish! .
In October 1945, the school reopened on the orders of the Soviet military administration . Lessons were resumed where possible, hampered by a lack of teachers. In 1946 the kindergarten was reopened and the town band was founded. On September 8, 1948, the first municipal council election of the post-war period was held.
Berka's development in the GDR
Under the political conditions of the GDR, the Berka population also experienced a radical change in their living conditions: The entire development during the GDR period was characterized by Berka's location close to the inner-German border , from 1952 the place was in the 5-kilometer exclusion zone , which brought restrictions.
The 1950s
In 1950 the National Front was founded and the first (state) trading facility HO was opened.
In the course of the administrative reform in the GDR , the Eisenach district , to which Berka belonged, was dissolved on July 25, 1952 and Berka was assigned to the newly formed Eisenach district . In 1953, a branch of the Eisenach music school was set up in the “Alter Stern” inn.
The workers' housing cooperative (AWG) was founded in 1957, and it created around 100 apartments. But there was also private residential construction: in 1956, home construction began on Heinrich Zille -Weg. The ration cards were abolished in 1958. In the same year the folk art ensemble Berka / Werra was founded, a new sports field was developed and the kindergarten was expanded by adding a central library.
As employment opportunities increased, the first after-school care center became necessary in 1959. The reform of school education in the GDR relied on polytechnical training in schools. The school was converted into a polytechnic high school . On April 1, 1959, the first youth consecration took place in Berka / Werra as well as the first socialist naming . In the same year the village club and the village academy were founded in Berka.
The 1960s and 1970s
The beginning of the socialist restructuring of agriculture was connected with the establishment of the first LPG in 1960 - the forced collectivization of the predominantly peasant population in the neighboring towns led to a movement of refugees across the nearby inner-German border . This ended in 1961 with the construction of the wall . From 1962, Gerstungen and Berka were provided with an expanded bus route network in order to be able to serve the workplaces and shaft systems distributed in the region on time. The Berka dairy was expanded to include a cheese production department in 1968 . The establishment of a new production site for the Treffurt cigar factory and a production facility for VEB Kombinat Fahrzeugelektrik Ruhla began in 1970. The open-air swimming pool, which the population had longed for, was completed and handed over in 1968. With its plastic swimming pool, it was a specialty in the Eisenach district.
A meeting point and central lunch supply was created in the Zur Post restaurant for the growing number of senior citizens and retirees . The multi-purpose building on the sports field was expanded in 1977 and received a bowling facility. In 1977 the subsidiary of VEB Elektrotechnik Eisenach was established, and in 1978 the production facility of the Berka dairy was expanded.
The Berka / Werra community association was formed in 1978, it consisted of 11 communities and had 12,250 inhabitants. The total area was 106.7 km², of which 52.03 km² were designated as agricultural land. Rooms were provided in the former Alexandershall mine for apprenticeship training; up to 560 students from the 5 schools of the community association were looked after here every year. The construction work on the hall of the Berkaer Felsenkeller was completed.
The 1980s
At the POS Berka / Werra a youth wind orchestra was founded in 1981, in which the youngsters for the town band were educated and educated. To promote sport, the new school sports hall was handed over on September 1, 1983. For the first time in many years, storks nested again in Berka / Werra, and in 1985 they even raised two young. In 1985, construction of the first row houses began in the Heinrich Zille -Weg development area . During a renovation carried out in 1985, old documents in the tower button of the listed lower gate were found, supplemented and carefully reinstalled.
1990s and present
With the elimination of the inner German border, the restoration of the traffic routes to Hesse and the completion of the motorway including the junction at Untersuhl , Berka / Werra had very convenient transport connections after the reunification of Germany and was therefore included as a service and logistics center in the regional planning of the Wartburg district. A modern shopping and supply center as well as an industrial area were built on the outskirts.
Berka became the seat of the Berka / Werra administrative association founded in 1994 . At the same time, the previously independent communities Fernbreitenbach , Gospenroda , Herda, Horschlitt and Vitzeroda were incorporated into Berka, and Wünschensuhl was added in 1995 .
As part of the Thuringia regional reform in 2018 and 2019 , the municipalities of Berka / Werra, Großensee, Dankmarshausen and Dippach agreed to submit an application to the Free State of Thuringia for a merger to form the city of Werra-Suhl-Tal on January 1, 2019, and the Berka / Werra administrative community dissolve. The Thuringian state government included the project in the second law for the voluntary reorganization of municipalities belonging to the district, which was passed by the Thuringian state parliament on December 13, 2018 and came into force at the turn of the year 2018/19.
coat of arms
A seal from the 17th century shows three towers standing close together with a noticeably elevated central tower; the towers have been the same height since the beginning of the 19th century. They are interpreted as the three former city gates. The crosses on the towers could indicate belonging to the Hersfeld monastery. The city's coat of arms was awarded when it was granted city rights in 1847; later changed in the tincture. In 1972 the city coat of arms was "updated": the crosses were removed from the towers, and the now divided coat of arms was split again in the lower part and provided with the symbol of the miner and the symbol of the Werra.
Culture and sights
church
The church in Berka / Werra is located on the southern outskirts on the high bank of the Werra. The church consists of the July tower built in 1439 with an octagonal dome with four corner turrets ( five-button tower ) and the nave, newly built in 1616. The choir on the ground floor has a cross vault from the 15th century. The nave was kept in the Renaissance style. The baroque pulpit and the painted wooden barrel ceiling are richly decorated. The Wahnes family of church painters, who were active in the region, lived in Berka / Werra and also painted the church in Untersuhl. The church was provided with further towers and walls and was considered a fortified church . The fortifications were removed with the construction of Dippacher Strasse in the 19th century.
The old star
The late Gothic house in the city center was Berka's oldest inn. His most important visitor was Martin Luther , but kings and sovereigns also stayed here. The building has a stone base and a half-timbered tower with a pitched roof. In the 18th century, the Hessian administrative building was housed in it, the inn was relocated to the new building of the Golden Star , which was opened in 1764.
Stork bakery
The richly decorated half-timbered house near the town hall, known as the stork bakery, was also an office building and originally served administration and trade. From 1354 to 1742 the Hessian bailiff, and from 1648 the Hessian bailiff, who jointly administered the Berka office with the Saxon bailiff von Hausbreitenbach, was housed there. The pharmacy was later located there. The Berka city pharmacy , now on display in the Thuringian Museum in Eisenach , is the original equipment from the 19th century.
Lower gate
Of the three traditional gates, only the lower gate in the north of the old town was preserved.
politics
Former city council
The city council in Berka / Werra last consisted of 16 council members.
- CDU : 5 seats
- Free Community of Voters (FWG): 11 seats
(As of: local elections on May 25, 2014 )
Former mayor
In the mayoral election on April 22, 2012 , eight candidates ran. René Weißheit (Free Voters Community Berka) achieved a voter turnout of 37.8% 1150 votes and thus 92.7 percent of the valid votes cast.
Economy and Infrastructure
Berka / Werra has very favorable transport connections and was therefore intended as a service and logistics center in the regional planning of the Wartburg district. The industrial areas Auf der Dornenhecke in Berka / Werra and An der Straße between Berka and Herda were created. With the development plan "Am Eichelberg", planning rights were created for a future area of 3 hectares of industrial area and 16 hectares of industrial area.
Local businesses
- H. Leiter GmbH - empties logistics including beverage bottle sorting system
- a production and sales location of Model GmbH, Bad Bentheim
- Hasselmann GmbH, civil engineering
- Wina.G Windkraftanlagen GmbH
- Hydropower plant Berka / Werra
tourism
Due to the tourist infrastructure, Berka is a possible starting point for relaxing hikes, e.g. B. on the Sallmannshäuser Rennsteig and water hikes on the Werra. The place is connected to the Werratal cycle path and the themed hiking path in the green belt biotope network along the state border.
traffic
The nearest junction 36 ( Gerstungen ) of the A4 is in Gerstungen, two kilometers away. A section of the Thuringian Railway Eisenach - Bebra has stops at Gerstungen station and in Obersuhl. The former train station in Berka / Werra was located on the Gerstungen – Vacha railway line, which is still used today for freight traffic, and was shut down and dismantled after the Second World War because of its location near the border.
The following bus lines run by the Wartburgmobil transport company and its partners go to Berka / Werra :
| line | Driving distance |
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| L-52 | Eisenach - Marksuhl - Berka / Werra - Dippach - Dankmarshausen - Großensee |
| L-61 | Bad Salzungen - Dorndorf - Berka / Werra - Dippach - Dankmarshausen |
| L-64 | Gerstungen - Berka / Werra - Horschlitt - Vitzeroda |
| L-65 | Gerstungen - Berka / Werra - Dippach - Dankmarshausen - Großensee |
Personalities
- Johannes Bippart (1768–1841), merchant, manufacturer, landowner and member of parliament
- Friedrich Koch (1813–1872), philologist and grammarian
- Georg Bippart (1816–1892), classical philologist, professor
- Paul Schäfer (1881–1962), gynecologist and university professor
- Herbert Wilhelm (* 1922), economist
literature
- Reiner Guth: 786 to 2011. 1225 years of Berka on the Werra . From the beginning to the present (chronicle). Printing works Erb, Geisa 2010, p. 344 .
- City administration (publisher): Festschrift 1200 years Berka / Werra . 1986.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Facts and figures on the Berka / Werra district. City of Werra-Suhl-Tal, accessed on May 28, 2019 .
- ↑ Statistical Yearbook
- ^ Thuringian Land Survey Office Wartburgkreis and District Free City Eisenach , Erfurt 2002, ISBN 3-86140-250-5
- ^ Geyer, Jahne, Storch: Geological sights of the Wartburg district and the independent city of Eisenach . In: District Office Wartburgkreis, Lower Nature Conservation Authority (Hrsg.): Nature conservation in the Wartburgkreis . Booklet 8. Printing and publishing house Frisch, Eisenach and Bad Salzungen 1999, ISBN 3-9806811-1-4 , p. 105-108 .
- ↑ Ortschronik of the municipality Herda
- ↑ Thuringian Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists and Study Group of German Resistance 1933–1945 (ed.): Heimatgeschichtlicher Wegweiser to places of resistance and persecution 1933–1945, series: Heimatgeschichtliche Wegweiser Volume 8 Thüringen, Erfurt 2003, p. 318 , ISBN 3-88864-343-0
- ^ Thuringian ordinance on the dissolution of the communities Fernbreitenbach, Gospenroda, Herda, Horschlitt and Vitzeroda and their incorporation into the town of Berka / Werra of February 16, 1994 (GVBl p. 288)
- ^ Rüdiger Schwanz: Mayors seal the city of Werra-Suhl-Tal , Thüringer Allgemeine , March 29, 2018, accessed on January 2, 2019
- ↑ Thuringian Law and Ordinance Gazette No. 14/2018 p. 795 ff. , Accessed on January 2, 2019
- ^ Hartmut Ulle Thuringian Wappenbuch - Arbeitsgemeinschaft Genealogie eV (editor).
- ↑ Head Conservation Schleiff: Das Fachwerk des Eisenacher Land In: Heimatblätter des Eisenacher Land EP-Report 2, S. 39, ISBN 3-924269-94-7
- ↑ Local elections in Thuringia on May 25, 2014. Elections of the community and city council members. Preliminary results. The regional returning officer, accessed on May 27, 2014 .
- ^ Result of the mayoral election 2012 in Berka / Werra, Stadt. (No longer available online.) Office of the Regional Returning Officer, April 22, 2010, formerly the original ; accessed on April 23, 2012 : “Entitled voters: 3702; Voters: 1398; Turnout: 37.8%; Invalid votes 153; Valid votes 1245. "
- ↑ Data source: http://www.bundesfirmenregister.de
