Own
The Eigen or Eigensche Kreis is an area in southern Upper Lusatia around the city of Bernstadt .
It comprised the territory between the Great Nonnenwald in the north, the Small Nonnenwald in the south and the monastery forest in the east, in which the seven villages Altbernsdorf , Schönau , Berzdorf , Dittersbach , Kunnersdorf , Kiesdorf and Neundorf were, all of which also had the suffix "on one's own ”. Initially, Deutsch-Paulsdorf was also part of it, which was sold to the Lords of Gersdorf in the 14th century.
All of the Eigen's villages are so-called Waldhufendörfer and have German names, which indicates a planned settlement in the course of the German East Settlement ; Nevertheless, there are also signs that Sorbian settlement began much earlier . The interest register of the St. Marienstern monastery in 1374 shows a very strong differentiation of peasant taxes, which is atypical for Waldhufendörfer. These can be interpreted as signs of settlement by Sorbian farmers as early as the 12th century. The farms with the highest taxes, especially since in the villages they are almost exclusively in the center of the village, in some cases also near a castle rampart, can therefore possibly be interpreted as the first settlement centers. This was followed by other Sorbian and later German settlers, who were endowed by the German landlords with increasingly favorable tax obligations. The characteristic settlement form of the Waldhufendörfer emerged in a process that lasted until the 19th century, in which the farmers gradually moved their farms to their respective parcel.
After the founding of the St. Marienstern Monastery, it acquired the above-mentioned inheritance and property from the property of the Lords of Kamenz and Schönburg until 1285 .
The term Eigenscher Kreis developed from the administrative district formed from it, the Klostereigen . Until the abolition of the lordship in 1852, the property was under the monastery.
Today's administrative community Bernstadt / Schönau-Berzdorf corresponds approximately to the area of the Eigenschen Kreis. The town of Berzdorf had to give way to the Hagenwerder open- cast lignite mine in the 1980s . The Berzdorfer See opencast mine is now in its place .
literature
- Frank Nürnberger (ed.): Upper Lusatia - beautiful home . Oberlausitzer Verlag, Spitzkunnersdorf 2004, ISBN 3-933827-42-6
- Joachim Huth : The Slavic pre-settlement of the Eigenes circle . In: Lětopis (B) 9 (1962).
- Joachim Huth: On medieval settlement processes in the Sorbian-German contact zone of Upper Lusatia, illustrated using the example of Dittersbach on the Eigen . In: Lětopis (B) 11. Bautzen 1964.
- Joachim Huth: The Meißner diocese register from 1495 - a source for the settlement and rule history of Upper Lusatia . In: Lětopis (B) 15. Bautzen 1968.
- Joachim Huth: Slavic settlements and castles in the Eigen district . In: AFB 11/12 (1963).