Geraberg
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Geraberg
Rural community of Geratal
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| Height : | 440 m |
| Area : | 15.05 km² |
| Residents : | 2312 (December 31, 2017) |
| Population density : | 154 inhabitants / km² |
| Incorporation : | 1st January 2019 |
| Postal code : | 99331 |
| Area code : | 03677 |
Geraberg in the Ilm district , Free State of Thuringia , is a district of the rural community Geratal and is located on the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest , about 40 km south of the state capital Erfurt , at 400 to 500 m above sea level. NN. The former municipality was created in 1923 through the merger of the previously independent towns of Gera and Arlesberg . In the local dialect the place is called Giere , following an older phonetic form of the original place name Gera.
geography
Geographical location
Geraberg is located in the valley of the Zahmen Gera at the confluence of the Körnbach at an altitude of about 450 meters. The Thuringian Forest begins southwest of the village . To the north of the village lies the 496 meter high Geschwendaer Berg, to the south Geraberg borders directly on Elgersburg.
Neighboring places
Clockwise, starting in the north: Angelroda , Martinroda , Elgersburg , Gehlberg , Graefenroda , Geschwenda
geology
Geologically, Geraberg lies in the border area between the igneous rocks of the Thuringian Forest and calcareous Zechstein deposits on the edge of the forest mountains and the foreland made up of red sandstone and shell limestone . Mainly spruce and pine grow on the light soils , on the heavier mixed and deciduous forests. This results in a varied vegetation . The mountains of the Thuringian Forest rise in the immediate vicinity of the village to over 900 meters.
climate
Geraberg has a balanced climate in almost all seasons . Only in autumn is it sometimes very rainy or even downright storms; otherwise it is usually very sunny in Geraberg. Pure air, intense sunshine and germ-free water promote relaxation for visitors and guests. The favorable climatic conditions and the aromatic air prove to be particularly suitable and beneficial for heart, asthma and throat sufferers.
history
The place was first mentioned in a document in 1246 in a deed of donation that speaks of a "vineyard in Gera". It was mentioned as a Henneberg property from 1351 . The inhabitants were engaged in mining, forest work and agriculture. The tradition of mining ( iron ore ) goes back to the year 1351, when a document first mentioned "iron mine". A first hammer mill is mentioned in 1378 . In 1437 the lords of Witzleben were given feudal rights and patronage rights, which they retained until the 19th century. The Reformation was introduced in Geraberg in 1530. The Arlesberg district was first mentioned in 1569 when a forester's house was built there, about two kilometers west of Gera. When the Counts of Henneberg died out, Gera and Arlesberg came under joint administration by the Ernestine and Albertine Wettins in 1583. In 1660 they came to the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha , to which the places belonged until the state of Thuringia was founded in 1920.
The Braunsteinmühle technical monument in the Arlesberg district commemorates mining around Geraberg : Manganese ore mining began in 1665 and continued until the middle of the 20th century. The first mention of the brown stone mill concerns the year 1855. Here a Mr. Diemar, who operated his brown stone mines on Mittelberg, operated this mill as ore processing. As in many places where water was used as a source of energy, a paper mill was built in Geraberg in 1631 in addition to sawmills, hammer and stamp mills. A second paper mill was built on the site of the old hammer mill in 1710. The current village church was built in 1750 in the baroque style. In 1879 the Neudietendorf – Ilmenau railway line was built to promote trade and industry. Geraberg did not get a train station until 1910.
The porcelain industry settled in the place at the end of the 19th century. In 1873 the manufacture of clinical thermometers began . Many people worked in this new industry. The best-known company was the Geraberg thermometer factory with almost 2000 employees in 1990. The tradition of the thermometer industry is maintained by the first German thermometer museum in town.
Another major employer was Just & Co. It was founded in 1874 as an oHG and manufactured suitcases, bags and leather goods. In 1909 it was converted into a GmbH , and in 1923 finally into a stock corporation . Major shareholders were Johanna Lorenz born until 1945. Just from Geraberg (approx. 35%) and Elsbeth Metzler born. Just from Ilmenau (approx. 25%). The factory site was located near the Geraberg train station, remains can still be seen there today.
In 1923 Gera and Arlesberg were combined to form the new municipality of Geraberg. The name was chosen to enable a better differentiation from the East Thuringian city of Gera . In the first mayoral elections after the local association, the KPD won 8 out of 11 seats in the local council and provided the mayor. This illustrates the nationwide "shift to the left" that Thuringia experienced after the inflation crisis of 1922/23. Geraberg had belonged to the Arnstadt district since 1922 .
In May 1923 the so-called Marxist Work Week took place in Geraberg , in which Marxist personalities such as Karl Korsch and Georg Lukács took part.
Due to the war situation, the "Institute for Frontier Areas of Medicine" - a camouflage facility for plague research - was to be built in Geraberg in January 1945 on the instructions of Heinrich Himmler under Kurt Blome . Blome and his team from Nesselstedt near Posen , where this facility was previously located, had to flee from the Red Army. In addition to his family, Blome took important documents, some scientific equipment, and special containers in which his plague cultures were located. When Thuringia was occupied by American troops in April 1945, an area in Geraberg with unfinished research buildings fell into their hands.
During the GDR era, there was a children's holiday camp in Geraberg .
When the Arnstadt district was dissolved in 1952, the place came to the Ilmenau district , to which it belonged until 1994. Since then, Geraberg has been part of the Ilm district created in 1994 .
In 1992 the Geratal administrative association was founded, with its headquarters in Geraberg. On January 1, 2019, Geraberg merged with other municipalities to form the rural municipality of Geratal.
The large multi-purpose hall in the center of the village ("Geratalhalle") was inaugurated in 1995.
Population development
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Data source from 1994: Thuringian State Office for Statistics
politics
(District) mayor and district council
Holger Frankenberg (FWG Ilm-Kreis / Geraberg) has been the local mayor since the local elections in Thuringia on May 26, 2019. Together with ten other members, it forms the local council.
Heinz Hertwig (FDP, later CDU) was honorary mayor of Geraberg from 1994 to 2004, before Günther Irrgang (FWG Ilm-Kreis / Geraberg) followed from 2004 to 2019, most recently as mayor of the district.
coat of arms
The coat of arms was approved on December 5, 1994 by the Thuringian State Administration Office.
Blazon : “In gold, a green mountain covered with a golden Passion Cross raised on three steps, on which there is a green spruce on both sides; Above in the main shield a fallen blue corrugated rafter.
The municipality of Geraberg emerged and got its place name from the connection between the former settlements of Gera and Arlesberg. The talking elements are a stylized mountain and an angled wave bar in the coat of arms. The wave bar stands for the former district of Gera and for the location of the community on the watercourse of the same name. The characteristic angulation of the wavy bar illustrates the etymological origin of the name Gera from ahd.gero = the angle. The two spruce trees symbolize the two districts and refer to the location of the place in the wooded area on the northern slope of the Thuringian Forest. The golden high cross on a threefold golden base comes from an old seal of the parish of Geraberg and symbolizes the Geraberg church.
The coat of arms was designed by the heraldist Frank Diemar .
Local partnerships
Geraberg maintains partnership relationships with the communities
- Lahnau (Hesse)
- Morbach (Rhineland-Palatinate)
- Pont-sur-Yonne (France).
Economy and Infrastructure
Up until 1990, thermometer production was decisive for the economy in Geraberg . Around 2,000 people found work at the VEB Thermometerwerk Geraberg during the GDR era. After the fall of the Wall in 1990, today's company Geratherm emerged from the thermometer factory and is located in the industrial park at the motorway exit between Geraberg and Geschwenda. A first thermometer factory was founded in Geraberg in 1886 as a branch of the Thuringian glass instrument factory Alt, Eberhardt & Jäger from Ilmenau .
traffic
The direct connection of Geraberg to the A 71 has resulted in a significant improvement in the transport infrastructure. A new industrial park is being built directly at junction 19 Gräfenroda (Geraberg). Geraberg is located on the former B 88 and on the Erfurt – Ilmenau railway line .
Established businesses
A hardware store, a supermarket, two bakeries, two butcher shops, drugstores, pharmacy, savings bank, post office, hairdressers and many small shops as well as numerous craftsmen and medium-sized companies represent trade and commerce in Geraberg.
education
At the state regular school in Geratal in Geraberg, pupils in grades 5 to 10 from Geraberg, Geschwenda, Elgersburg, Martinroda and Heyda are taught.
Public facilities
Geraberg is the seat of the Geratal administrative community.
Culture and sights
Thanks to its location, Geraberg is particularly interesting for hikes and excursions in the Rennsteig area .
- The following excursion destinations in the immediate vicinity of Geraberg can be reached on foot on the well-marked hiking trails:
- Elgersburg Castle
- the high waiting
- the Mönchhof forest restaurant
- the chamber holes
- the decorations
- the Veronikaberg and the Reinsberge .
- The Thuringian Climate Trail begins at the car park at the train station . This 6.08 km long circular hiking trail is equipped with 21 display boards on weather and climate topics. Furthermore, two large thermometers can be viewed, which use different physical principles for temperature measurement.
- The well-signposted Braunsteinweg leads through the Jüchnitzgrund in the Arlesberg district and provides information on the history of manganese mining in the valley at various points. 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.
societies
There are over 20 registered associations in Geraberg. The largest clubs are the sports club SV 08 with around 250 members, the music club Geraberg , the singing club “Liederkranz Geraberg”, the sport fishing club and the Geraberg Carneval club (GCV).
Monuments and museums
In Geraberg, the church of St. Bartholomew , the Braunstein mill and the thermometer museum are particularly worth seeing . Special tours and events are held on the annual Open Monument Day .
Sports
The sports club SV08 Geraberg e. V. with its six departments (soccer, bowling, volleyball, handball, table tennis, minstrels) and more than 250 members enables young and old to be active in sport. The facilities in the Geratal Sports Park - grass and artificial turf, bowling alley, tennis facilities and a beach volleyball field in the modern, solar-heated swimming pool (renovation 2001) - and the Geratal Hall, offer excellent conditions for this in both summer and winter. In addition, if there is snow from Geraberg, there are good ski hiking opportunities in the Thuringian Forest.
The footballers have been playing with the neighboring town of Geschwenda in the game association (SpVgg) Geratal since April 12, 2010. In the 2012/13 season he was promoted to the Thuringian League.
Regular events
The herring festival is celebrated every year on Sunday, one week after Pentecost . The history of this folk festival goes back to the early 19th century. After an interruption of over 30 years, this festival has been celebrated again with music, dance and games since 2003.
Personalities
- Johann Matthias Gesner (1691–1761), founder of the University of Göttingen, married the pastor's daughter Elisabeth Eberhard in Geraberg in 1718
- Mario Röser (* 1966), professional soccer player at FC Carl Zeiss Jena, lives in Geraberg and coach of the 1st team and the B-Juniors of SpVgg Geratal
- Bettina Lamprecht (* 1977), actress
Individual evidence
- ↑ ALSOS Mission, Interrogation of Blome, Director of German BW Activities, July 30, 1945, NARA RG 319 Records of Army Staff, Box 22a, Files of the Nuremberg Trials, A56-60, p. 4666
- ↑ Erhard Geißler: Biological warfare in the Third Reich . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 1993, ISBN 978-3-593-34988-6 .
- ^ A b Egmont R. Koch, Michael Wech: Code name artichoke - The secret human experiments of the CIA . Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-442-15281-0 , pp. 43-44 .
- ↑ Erhard Geissler : Biological weapons - not in Hitler's arsenals . LIT Verlag, Münster 1999, ISBN 3-8258-2955-3 , p. 534 ff .
- ↑ Thuringian Law and Ordinance Gazette No. 14/2018 p. 795 ff. , Accessed on January 1, 2019
- ^ Source for Schwarzburgische and Saxon places: Johann Friedrich Kratzsch : Lexicon of all localities of the German federal states . Naumburg, 1843. Available online from Google Books . Source for Prussian places: Handbook of the Province of Saxony. Magdeburg, 1843. Available online at Google Books
- ^ Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. Population figures. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).
- ↑ Population development since 1989 (TLUG) ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 18 kB)
- ↑ Municipality of Geratal: Official Journal, Volume 1, No. 12-14 June 2019, accessed on 30 August 2019 .
- ^ Thuringian State Office for Statistics: Elections in Thuringia, mayoral elections in Geraberg. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
- ^ New Thuringian Wappenbuch Volume 2, page 11; Publisher: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Thüringen eV 1998 ISBN 3-9804487-2-X
