Dark Mountains
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Dark Mountains
City of Friedrichroda
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| Height : | 477 m |
| Area : | 7.57 km² |
| Residents : | 1426 (Dec. 31, 2006) |
| Population density : | 188 inhabitants / km² |
| Incorporation : | December 1, 2007 |
| Postal code : | 99894 |
| Area code : | 03623 |
 View over the local situation to the church
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Finsterbergen is a district of the city of Friedrichroda in the Thuringian district of Gotha on the northern slope of the Thuringian Forest . The state-approved climatic health resort has around 1500 inhabitants and an area of 7.5 km².
history
Finsterbergen was first mentioned in a document in 1141 as the outbuilding of the Reinhardsbrunn monastery . The place emerged as a settlement center around the village pond. Descendants of the first settlers can be assumed in the names that are strongly represented today, such as Oschmann, Faulstich, Frank, Gessert, Hildebrandt, Pfauch and Ortlepp. Finsterbergen belonged to the domain of Count Ludwig the Bearded , who resided on the Schauenburg near Friedrichroda. In 1114 the Reinhardsbrunn Monastery, founded in 1086, bought large parts of the country from Ludwig's possession for 40 silver marks. Finsterbergen thus became a monastery village.
Since the 15th century, copper ore and silver mining in the Thuringian Forest was heavily promoted by the Wettin rulers . Systematic “mute” was made for ore veins even in gorges and remote mountain valleys. Such a mining attempt can also be confirmed in the source area of the Leina, not far from the fire control pond . The mine comprised two tunnels, which are now buried, of which, barely 200 meters away, on the bank of the stream, a stamping mill operated with wooden waterwheels for crushing the ores, as well as an associated smelting furnace with slag heaps as well as ditches and reservoirs to drive the waterwheels.
In the course of the Peasants' War in 1525, the peasants rose up against the monasteries and destroyed the Reinhardsbrunn monastery, among others. Duke Johann the Steadfast declared the assets of the destroyed monastery to be princely property, founded rent offices and built a new administration in the areas. Since then Finsterbergen has belonged to the ruling office of Reinhardsbrunn , which from 1640 belonged to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha , from 1672 to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and from 1826 to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha .
During the Thirty Years' War there was only one looting of the place, in 1647 there was an incursion of 400 Swedish horsemen who plagued the place, which had grown to 55 farms. The war also resulted in an increase in wolves and other predators that could endanger the herds of the Finsterberg farmers. In several driven hunts, wolves, bears and lynxes in the vicinity of Finsterbergen were almost extinct.
The baroque Trinity Church dates from the 17th century. An independent Protestant parish has existed in Finsterbergen since 1926; it was previously associated with Altenbergen.
Parts of the forests around Finsterbergen belonged to the forest ownership of seven villages from the northern foreland of the Thuringian Forest from the late Middle Ages until 1945 - the basis was the so-called free forest justice. In the 19th century, the community of Finsterbergen led long-term lawsuits against the ducal administration in order to preserve the free use and entry of the forests. A game damage lawsuit was conducted and won, and extensive arable and pasture areas came into the possession of the village as compensation.
In the Reichstag elections of 1877 in Finsterbergen, 56 of the 131 possible votes were cast for the Social Democratic Labor Party. Politically organized clubs emerged alongside sports and music clubs. In 1889, the Finsterbergen savings and loan fund for workers and the needy was established as an aid association.
The community owes the creation of numerous viewpoints, shelters, hiking trails and sights in the town to the Finsterbergens beautification association, which was founded for the common good. In the summer of 1888, the place welcomed the first holiday guests. In 1894 there were 300 guests, in 1900 1,500 guests and in 1913 around 4,000 guests, most of whom stayed for a week. The mountain hotel was built by the innkeeper of the Zur Tanne inn to accommodate the spa guests .
In the last years of the Weimar Republic , Protestant pastors who were in opposition to the German-Christian movement in the Thuringian Church met here and founded the Finsterbergen working group , which later became part of the Wittenberg Bund and joined the Confessing Church .
From 1934 the house "Felsenstein" was the seat of the regional farmers' council of Thuringia, a sub-organization of the Reichsbauernrat within the Reichsnährstand . The owner was the foundation "Thuringian farmers thanks Finsterbergen". At least six regional farmers' days (until December 1938) were held here under the chairmanship of the regional farmers' leader Rudi Peuckert and the managing director of the regional farmers' council Fritz Gareiß, and from February 27 to March 1, 1939 the meeting of the speakers, the chairmen of the honorary councils and the managing directors of all Germans took place State farmers' councils. During the Second World War ten prisoners of war from France and Belgium had to do forced labor in the sawmill Frank and at the Gessert company and Serben at the Rodius Schmedding & Co. company . Twelve forced laborers from Poland and the Soviet Union were employed in the sawmill and in the Heinrich Oschmann & Söhne trucking business. In a wooded area near the Vierpfennighaus , in the Birkenheide area, a mass grave commemorates 15 Wehrmacht soldiers who were shot by SS men at the end of the Second World War , on April 7, 1945 , because they wanted to voluntarily go into captivity. In addition, another 15 Wehrmacht soldiers fell in a relatively large forest area, along Langebergstrasse, during battles with the advancing Americans.
On July 1, 1950, the previously independent community of Engelsbach was incorporated.
On Christmas Eve 1982, through the mediation of Horst Kurt Greim , a television service of the ZDF from the GDR was broadcast for the first time from Finsterbergen , which was received as a historical sign of the bond between East and West.
On December 1, 2007 Finsterbergen was incorporated into Friedrichroda. In this context, many streets were renamed in order to avoid duplication of names with streets in Friedrichroda.
Economy and Infrastructure
The residents of Finsterbergen were still known throughout the country as carters in the 19th century . When the carting business was increasingly displaced with the expansion of the railroad, numerous families made doll parts by working from home . Finsterbergen was also known for its own traditional costumes that were worn at festivities.
In the valley floor of the Leina, the power of the mountain stream was the reason for the construction of several hammer mills and sawmills, these were merged into modern businesses - a carpentry, a sawmill and a bus and haulage company are now on site.
The misery of these homeworkers inspired Martin Andersen Nexø , who stayed in Finsterbergen in the winter of 1910/11, to write the novel “The Doll”.
tourism
Today Finsterbergen is a much-visited resort and also has a small local museum, several guest houses, three large hotels, a riding stables and a swimming pool. The Zur Tanne and Zur Linde hotels are located in the center of the village on Rennsteigstrasse . The Felsenstein Kurhaus, built in 1873 on the heights of the Dinsterberg , was demolished in 1972, and the FDGB vacation home “Wilhelm Pieck” with 250 beds was built on the same site by 1976 . After the fall of the Wall, it was modernized and changed ownership and name several times. Since 2002 it has been called the Tannhäuser Hotel Rennsteigblick .
traffic
Bundesstraße 88 Eisenach - Ilmenau runs three kilometers northeast of Finsterbergen . The next motorway junction is Gotha-Boxberg , about 14 km to the north.
The bus lines 844, 845 and 852 of the regional transport association Gotha connect Finsterbergen mainly with Friedrichroda (distance: 7 km) and the district town Gotha (distance: approx. 20 km).
The next regional and tram connection is at Friedrichroda station , the next long-distance station is Gotha on the Thuringian Railway .
Attractions
- The Trinity Church in Finsterbergen dates from 1662.
- A memorial stone recalls the tradition of the annual singers' meeting.
- The local museum
- Especially in the upper part of the village you will find some newly renovated pension buildings from the early days around 1900.
- In the Leinagrund below the village there is a remarkable bridge from 1857 on Totenweg .
- In the townscape one encounters old well basins in several places. The water supply was particularly problematic for the residents in winter.
Trinity Church
Music memorial stone
Local museum
Bridge on the Totenweg
Hotel Rennsteigblick
Personalities
- Bert Sumser (1913–2009), athletics trainer
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ In the history of the Duchy of Gotha from 1753, it is noted on page 146: “Down on this mountain lies the village of Finsterbergen; ... it is a very old village. At least it will be in the above cap. II § 5 not. cited Diplomate Marcolfi Anno 1141 already named viculus Disterberc or the village Disterberc. "
- ↑ Herbert Mehnert: On the trail of an old smelter at the Brandleiteteich near Finsterbergen . In: Kulturbund, Kreisverband Gotha (Hrsg.): Der Friedenstein . April issue. Gotha 1957, p. 61-62 .
- ↑ a b c Herbert Kühr, Hans Bleckert: Friedrichroda, Tabarz, Finsterbergen . In: Tourist Wanderatlas . VEB Tourist Verlag, Leipzig 1978, p. 7-10 .
- ↑ Bundesarchiv Berlin (BArch), R 16 I, No. 2126.
- ↑ Thuringian Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime - Bund der Antifaschisten, Study Group of German Resistance 1933–1945 (Ed.): Local history guide to sites of resistance and persecution 1933–1945 . Series: Heimatgeschichtliche Wegweiser Bd. 8 Thuringia . Erfurt 2003, p. 84, ISBN 3-88864-343-0
- ^ StBA: Changes in the municipalities in Germany, see 2007
- ↑ Martin Andersen Nexö - Life. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011 ; Retrieved February 11, 2012 .
