Boxberg (Upper Lusatia)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Municipality Boxberg / OL
Coordinates: 51 ° 24 ′ 15 ″  N , 14 ° 34 ′ 40 ″  E
Height : 129 m above sea level NN
Residents : 1333  (Dec. 31, 2008)
Postal code : 02943
Area code : 035774

Boxberg , in Upper Sorbian Hamor , is the eponymous district of the East Saxon community Boxberg / OL in the Upper Lusatian district of Görlitz . The place, which is part of the official Sorbian settlement area, is the administrative seat and with around a quarter of the population it is also the most populous part of the municipality.

geography

Boxberg is located in the northern part of the municipality, south of the Boxberg power plant named after it . Federal highway 156 runs between Boxberg and the power station, bypassing the Nochten open-cast mine in an easterly direction and bypassing Bärwalder See south-west of Boxberg on its way to Uhyst in a westerly direction. The Schwarze Schöps , which shortly before received the White Schöps , flows through Boxberg and a little later flows into the Spree near the northwestern town of Sprey . To the northeast is Nochten , namesake of the opencast mine and the neighboring erratic boulder park .

The next largest cities are Weißwasser in the northeast, Niesky and Görlitz in the southeast, Bautzen in the southwest and Hoyerswerda in the west.

history

Boxberg (view towards the southwest): The original division into two parts is still clearly visible. On the left you can see part of the new housing estate and the Bärwalder See in the background .

The village of Boxberg on the banks of the Schöps originally consisted of two round hamlets , one on each side. This typical Slavic form of settlement was expanded by German settlers as part of the eastward expansion . On September 9, 1366, the hammer zu Boksberg is mentioned in a confirmation document from Duke Bolko II von Schweidnitz-Jauer , which is the first known documentary mention of the place. This iron hammer , located on the united Schöps , in which local lawn iron ore deposits were processed, belonged to the Muskau rule , whose sphere of influence extended to the Schöps line, so that only the northern part of Boxberg and the neighboring Eselsberg belonged to the rule area.

In 1511 the Upper Lusatian towns decided to take action against Peter von Horn on Klein Düben , who was accused of robbery . They gathered their riders on a Saturday during the fair in Boxberg, “ that since the grenitz dises [Görlitzer] soft picture . “Horn was not found in Klein Düben and the story first stalled, later forgotten.

In the plague year 1632 the Boxbergers were forbidden to bury their plague dead in the cemetery in Nochten . The neighboring parishes Loop and Merzdorf also refused to be buried. In Klitten , a separate cemetery was made available to the Boxbergers, which was the reason for the change from the Nochten to the Klitten parish. It was not until 1888 that Boxberg was parried back to Nochten.

The Saxon Elector Johann Georg I camped in Boxberg in 1634 on his way from Spremberg. In the following year he was able to win the two margravates of Lusatia for the electorate in the Peace of Prague .

After the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) came to an end and the battered Upper Lusatia was no longer a theater of war in the mid-forties, the new man on Muskau, Kurt Reinicke von Callenberg , had various manorial businesses rebuilt, including the Boxberger Eisenhammer. In addition, a new sawmill was built in Boxberg. About twenty years later, Kurt Reinicke II. Reichsgraf von Callenberg was faced with the problem that an economic depression caused little sales and cheap iron imports continued to depress sales, which brought the stately smelting works to a standstill. After these problems subsided, Johann Alexander Reichsgraf von Callenberg had the hammer, the iron of which was further processed in the ironworks at Keula , enlarged in 1721.

As a result of the struggle of the Kingdom of Saxony on the French side during the Napoleonic Wars , it had to cede a large part of its land to Prussia , whereby Boxberg was placed under the administration of the Prussian province of Silesia in 1815 . As a result of the necessary administrative reform, Boxberg was incorporated into the newly founded district of Rothenburg in the following year .

At the request of Prince Friedrich of the Netherlands , who had been Muskau's landlord since 1846, the Heidestrasse Muskau –Boxberg– Lieske (now B 156 ) was expanded into a road by the Prussian state , with a simultaneous commitment to maintenance payments .

When the iron hammer's profitability sank in the 1860s, the prince shut it down. He justified this step with the statement: “In Boxberg they make iron out of my gold!” Traugott Hermann Graf von Arnim , owner of the estate since 1883, had a wood grinding shop set up in the empty building of the ironworks in 1885, which the Köbeln paper mill produces 300 tons a year Supplied wood pulp.

With the introduction of the districts , the division of Boxberg into two parts was noticeable. Boxberg, part of Muskau was subordinated to the district of Reichwalde, the district court in Muskau was responsible for it, while Boxberg, part of Jahmen , formerly belonging to the Reichwalde manor, was subordinated to the district of Jahmen . The Niesky district court was responsible for legal matters. It was not until 1929 that the two rural communities merged to form the rural community of Boxberg.

Wire rope works (1985)

Hermann Schellenberg from Dresden bought the disused wood grinding shop in 1939 and converted it into a wire rope factory.

Towards the end of the Second World War , fighting came to Boxberg in April 1945. After the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the Oder and Neisse on April 16, the troops of the 5th Guards Army and the 2nd Polish Army were at Klitten on April 19, and Boxberg was fought over on the 21st. The Wehrmacht was able to advance in a southerly direction, but the region remained contested, so that by April 26, around 70% of the buildings in Boxberg, including the forestry and the school founded in 1815, had been destroyed.

In January 1953, a new school was inaugurated on the site of the former forestry, which the children from the neighboring communities of Nochten and Kringelsdorf also attended. An agricultural production cooperative (LPG) was only founded on March 21, 1960 as part of the “socialist spring”. This type I LPG "Schöpstal" was later merged with a neighboring cooperative, in 1973 animal and plant production were separated.

A late medieval stone cross stood on the way to Kringelsdorf until 1965. According to a legend, two young people are said to have bet that one would hit the other with his rifle from the village tavern. After he shot his friend, he is said to have been obliged to put up this atonement cross.

On October 3, 1968, the foundation stone for the construction of the power plant was laid. In order to be able to accommodate the construction workers and later the power plant workers, a prefabricated housing estate with over 1000 apartments was built in advance, which was supplemented by a club restaurant and a department store, among other things. A heated swimming pool, a second kindergarten and a new school complex were subsequently completed. A cinema, in which two screenings were shown from Sunday to Thursday, was operated until May 31, 1990.

On January 1, 1974, the village of Sprey , which was a bit out of the way on the county boundary, was incorporated.

The secondary school, since May 8, 1980 " Wladimir-Komarow -Oberschule", was attended by students from the entire Schöpstal community, ie from the communities of Boxberg, Kringelsdorf, Nochten, Reichwalde and Wunscha with its districts Publick and Schadendorf . Only the students from Sprey attended the Uhyster school.

With the commissioning of units 13 and 14 (1978 and 1980), the Boxberg power plant achieved an installed capacity of 3520 MW. This made it the largest power plant in the GDR and the largest thermal power plant in Europe based on lignite. During this time around 20% of the GDR's energy production came from him.

The wire rope factory stopped production in 1993. Two years later, the production building of the wire rope works, the Schöps bridge and the weir system were declared technical monuments .

Population development

year Residents
1825 274
1863 367
1871 456
1885 348
1905 281
1925 344
1939 369
1946 356
1950 356
1964 406
1971 2160
1988 2862
1991 2801
1993 3047
1999 1991
2002 1672
2008 1333
italics: Boxberg and Sprey

The Urbarium the Muskau from 1552 mentions two Lehngutsbesitzer and nine for the Muskauer share of Boxberg Häusler . By 1630 the number of farms almost doubled, three farmers and 17 cottagers were named. When Lusatia was a theater of war in the second half of the Thirty Years War, Boxberg was also badly affected. The three farmers were also named in 1647, but with the destruction of the iron hammer, the livelihoods of most of the cottagers were deprived, of whom only four were named. The remaining 13 cottages were in desolation.

The rebuilding of Boxberg after the war took place relatively quickly, even if the old size was not reached. In 1699, two fiefdom owners and 14 cottagers lived in the Muskau part. In 1782 two more cottagers and in 1810 a third more cottagers were recorded, so a total of two tenant owners and 17 cottagers.

The portion still belonging to the Reichwalde manor in 1777 seems to have been smaller than the Muskau portion, because in 1777 four farmers, 25 cottagers and four desolate inns were named for the entire place.

In the Prussian census in 1825, the taxable economies took a back seat and all residents were counted equally. Boxberg had 274 inhabitants at that time, the number of which rose to 456 by the time the empire was founded in 1871. After that, a clear decline can be observed, so that in 1905 only 281 inhabitants were counted.

In Boxberg, a large German population can be identified earlier than in other places in the area due to the Eisenhammer. In 1863 only 111 of the 367 inhabitants were Sorbs and even after the population decline, Arnošt Muka could still make up 100 Germans among the 337 inhabitants in the 1880s. This corresponds to the Sorbian population of 27% (1863) and 70% (around 1880).

The population increased again by 1910. In that year, 142 inhabitants lived in the Jahmer proportion, 135 in the Muskau proportion and 43 in the Boxberg manor district , the Muskau proportion. This corresponds to 178 inhabitants in the entire Muskau proportion and 320 inhabitants in total. By 1939, the number of inhabitants in the now united Boxberg rose to 369.

During the Second World War, the community had 36 victims; 32 refugees and six resettlers from the former German eastern areas found shelter in Boxberg after the war. After the population was below the pre-war level in 1946 and 1950, it rose to 406 by 1964. The population growth also affected the linguistic situation in town. In 1956, Ernst Tschernik determined that the Sorbian-speaking population in the municipality of Boxberg was only 7.8%, including only one young person.

Boxberg grew rapidly in the following years due to the construction of the power plant and the newly created settlement. Seven years later, the number was more than five times as high with 2160 inhabitants, and by 1988 the community had grown to 2862 inhabitants, of which about 100 lived in the Sprey district.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall , Boxberg had to contend with a decline in the number of employees in the power plant and thus also with a steady migration, which resulted in a sharp decline in the population. In 1993 and 1994 there was a short-term increase in which Boxberg had around 3000 inhabitants, but the number of inhabitants fell below the 2000 mark by 1999, and a further decline to 1333 inhabitants was recorded by 2008.

Place name

Municipal coat of arms

The German name can be traced for the first time as Boksberg in 1366 . It developed through Bocsberge (1407), Boxberge (1408), Poksperk (1418), Bokesberge (1422), Bocksbergk (1510), Bochsberg (1511), Pockhßbergkh (1552) and Buxberg (1597) to Boxberg (1791) . It is not clear whether the name is derived from a roebuck, as it is also depicted in the coat of arms, or whether a reinterpretation from Pochsberg that refers to the hammer mill has taken place. A derivation from the Bock equipment cannot be ruled out.

The Sorbian name is given as Hamory (plural) in 1800 and Hamor in 1843 . Similar to Borkhamor ( Burghammer ) or Nowy Hamor ( Neuhammer near Rietschen), it is derived directly from the hammer mill.

The official German name of the community has been Boxberg / OL since 1999 , that of the district is Boxberg / OL OT Boxberg . The addition to the name of the community, which is intended to enable a clear designation compared to other places of the name Boxberg , is chosen based on history. At the end of the 19th century, in the phase of increasing industrialization, places in the Prussian part of Upper Lusatia in particular gave themselves this addition to show that, despite the Silesian administration, they are not in Lower Silesia but in Upper Lusatia. Evidence of this development are the names of Reichenbach / OL , Rothenburg / OL and Weißwasser / OL, for example

traffic

Boxberg had a train station on the Uhyst – Boxberg line . This is shut down. Today the place can be reached via the train stations in Uhyst and Klitten on the railway line Węgliniec – Falkenberg / Elster .

Sources and further reading

literature

  • From the Muskauer Heide to the Rotstein. Home book of the Lower Silesian Upper Lusatia District . Lusatia Verlag, Bautzen 2006, ISBN 978-3-929091-96-0 , p. 259 f .
  • Hermann Graf von Arnim, Willi A. Boelcke: Muskau. Jurisdiction between the Spree and the Neisse . Ullstein publishing house, Frankfurt / M, Berlin, Vienna 1978.
  • Robert Pohl : Heimatbuch des Kreis Rothenburg O.-L. for school and home . Buchdruckerei Emil Hampel, Weißwasser O.-L. 1924, p. 191 ff .

Footnotes

  1. ^ Boxberg in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
  2. ↑ Von der Muskauer Heide zum Rotstein , p. 259
  3. ↑ von Arnim, Boelcke: Muskau. P. 599
  4. ^ Ludwig Elle: Language policy in the Lausitz . Domowina-Verlag, Bautzen 1995, p. 255 .
  5. ↑ Ernst Eichler , Hans Walther : Oberlausitz toponymy - studies on the toponymy of the districts of Bautzen, Bischofswerda, Görlitz, Hoyerswerda, Kamenz, Löbau, Niesky, Senftenberg, Weißwasser and Zittau. I name book (=  German-Slavic research on naming and settlement history . Volume  28 ). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1975, p. 36 .

Web links

Commons : Boxberg / OL  - Collection of images, videos and audio files