History of the city of Naila
The history of the town of Naila in Upper Franconia begins with the settlement of the northern forest by the Celts in the 7th century AD. Important stages in further development were the founding of the city, mining and industrialization.
Early, up to the 10th century
The first inhabitants of the area around Naila be Celts believed. Clues are u. a. the place names Kemlas and Marlesreuth, which according to statements by linguists should be of Celtic origin. At the edge of the center of Naila, 24 ceramic shards were found during drilling in the ground, which could be dated to the years 600-900 AD based on a radiocarbon dating of the surrounding charcoal. Since iron slag was also found in these shards, which also originates from this time, this would mean that there was a producing and therefore settling population based on mining in the Naila area even before the actual settlement by German tribes.
Subsequently, the area around Naila was populated by Slavs in the years 850 to 1000 as part of the Bavaria Slavica . This is indicated by some place names that are of Slavic origin, such as Döbra (cf. Czech dobrá: good), Premeusel bei Presseck (cf. Polish przemysl and Czech přemysl: plow, reshape) or Tschirn (Czech černý: black). However, the Slavic settlement was not as dense as the later colonization promoted by the Bamberg bishops , as a result of which the remaining Slavs were Christianized and assimilated.
German settlement, approx. 11-14th centuries century
The first wave of settlers from the Franconian and Thuringian area on the other side of the nearby Rennsteig in the Naila area is believed to have occurred around the year 1000. They cleared the forest and operated fields and arable farming on the developed areas. It is not certain which noble family Naila founded. Above all, the Radecker and their ancestors, the Lords of the Green , who are mentioned in the first documents about Naila, come into question. The earliest known Naila was at the confluence of the Dreigrünbach and the Culmitz. Approx. Between 1200 and 1300 there was the second major wave of settlement by German tribes, which produced many of the smaller towns around Naila and resulted in a denser network of settlements.
First documented mentions, approx. 14. – 15. century
There is evidence that Naila played a role in legal transactions between the Bamberg monastery and various noble families as early as 1333 . Naila is documented for the first time in documents of the Bailiffs von Weida from 1343. The oldest of these documents did not mention the name Naila, but referred to the place as "Neulins". The translation into New High German is as follows:
“We, Heinrich the Elder and Heinrich the Younger, Bailiffs von Weida and all of our heirs publicly confess in this present letter that we lend and have lent our dear faithful, Hans von Weißelsdorf and Konrad the Radecker and all of their heirs Judgment on the village of Neulins and everything that goes with it, with all the rights than we had and when we also lent it to the aforementioned Konrad the Radecker and do not want to do him any wrong with deceit [...] We will give a testimony about this to them this letter, sealed with our two seals that hang on it, which was given after God's birth thirteen hundred years later in the forty-third year, the next day after Erhardt. "
Since the documentary mentions increased from then on, one can assume that Naila had a strong population growth in the period up to 1400 AD. The name village suggests that it must have had a considerable size as early as 1343. Froschgrün was first mentioned in a document in 1398, when Kunemund and Petzold von Dobenck received a fiefdom in Froschgrün from the burgrave on March 26th. Naila was now titled “dorff zum Newlein” on the certificates.
Elevation to the city, early 15th century
The St. Vitus Church in Naila mentions an arbitration award from 1435 to settle the dispute between the church caretakers in Naila and the pastor in Steben because of the donations made for the church. The St. Vitus Church was a predecessor of today's Protestant town church.
In 1454, Margrave Johann IV of Brandenburg-Kulmbach raised Naila to the rank of town. The coat of arms, which is still valid today, except for small changes, was determined. There were no privileges associated with the award of the coat of arms. Naila must have been so rich that it was able to raise the amount of money it needed to buy a coat of arms. At that time, Naila was a market with a mayor and council, so it had an urban constitution. Markets, especially annual fairs and cattle markets, stimulated trade and secured the town's income. Associated with this was probably the right of the citizens to mulze, brew and tavern. The alleged wealth of the place could have had its cause in the flourishing of the mining industry.
Development and importance of mining activities from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 18th century
In July 1456, Margrave Albrecht Achilles issued an order for the Berckwerck over the Kupferfletz zu Neylen . In 1466 there were reports of a hammer mill and in 1471 attempts to mine ore in Nailaer pits.
On October 5, 1471, Wilhelm von Wildenstein was enfeoffed by Bamberg's Bishop Georg I von Schaumberg with the ban on judging the blood during the entire enfeoffment of Wildenstein Castle . The power of the Wildensteiners based in Naila is likely to have reached its peak during this time. During this time the village transformed from an agricultural community into an industrially oriented market. In an old mining chronicle about the year 1477 it says that at that time Naila had grown so high through its copper and iron mines that it could almost compete in size with the city of Hof.
In 1502, the Hofer Landbuch recorded 28 estates, 9 estates, 2 courtyards, 1 half-yard, 1 little house and 1 wild house, as well as the Selbitzmühle, the Culmitzmühle, the Weinrichshammer, the bathing room, the early mess house and the church as margravial property in Naila 2 noblemen's seats with 20 occupied goods belonging to the Lords of Wildenstein.
In the 15th century the main thriving industries were mining and metallurgy ; Copper and iron ores were mined until the middle of the 18th century. The Nailaer Bergwerke are grouped around the Hofer Berg. The more valuable, but also more expensive because of the constant ingress of water, were in the Selbitzgrund, while the others were at about the same level as the road to today's residential area Lindenpark and to Rodesgrün.
The copper mines located in Selbitzgrund owe their value to a copper ore mine , which resulted in a rich yield. It has been reported that even solid copper has been found there. Both works had biblical names because of their value, which was recognized at an early stage. The Reicher King Solomon mine , named after King Solomon , was located to the right of Hofer Strasse, roughly where the Naila textile plant is located today. To the left of the street, roughly on the site of the old Paetzel & Sell building and part of the sports field of the Free Gymnastics Association, was the Queen of the Arabian Empire .
The Wilder Mann iron mine was one of the most productive . It was named after the coat of arms of the city of Naila. There was the Upper Wild Man and the Lower Wild Man . The shafts of the Upper Wild Man were roughly at the location of the district hospital. Below that, to the left of the street, was the Untere Wilde Mann. Both plants produced a rich spate iron stone, which often included lumps of copper ore. The Upper Wild Man was the more productive work.
To the right of Hofer Strasse, about across from the district hospital, behind the Wildemannshalde, where the ore was heaped up, was the Weiser Mann mine, which was also operated on iron . The Sankt Jakob mine was located southeast of it on the slope of the Eschenbach . It was also operated on iron, but like the wise man it did not acquire any greater importance. The name is likely to have been chosen in honor of the apostle James .
The mine opened in 1755 on the Schelmenacker (today Park and Villa Seyffert) for the extraction of copper was named after the reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546), but it had to be closed again a short time later. Mining played a major role in the city's prosperity until the early 18th century. In its wake, u. a. Shoemaking and weaving major industries; these branches of trade produced the equipment necessary for the miners. In order to protect the copper mines in Selbitzgrund from constant water ingress, the Selbitz river bed was moved from the eastern to the western side of the valley between 1691 and 1695. The river bank was also protected against flooding with a dam.
16th and 17th centuries - Reformation and Thirty Years War
Between 1518 and 1523 Naila became an independent parish. The Reformation was introduced in 1529.
In 1626 Naila and the church burned down completely. Between 1632 and 1634, Naila was attacked and sacked several times during the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War. During the turmoil of the war, the rectory was rebuilt in 1639 and the church from 1640–1654. In 1646 the Naila shoemakers received their guild regulations. In the second half of the 17th century, other guilds were founded. In 1683 a mining authority was established. In 1685 Huguenots , who had been expelled from France because of their faith, founded a Reformed community. The revival of mining activity after the destruction at the beginning of the century provided an economic boom. There is evidence of a rectorate school for 1699.
End of mining, 18th century
In 1716 142 houses and eight guilds were documented in Naila. In the 40s of the 18th century, the mining reached its final climax. The marble bridge over the Selbitz was built in 1765 and completed three years later. In 1792 Naila briefly became Prussian together with the Margraviate of Brandenburg-Bayreuth / Culmbach .
19th century: Naila becomes Bavarian, industrialization begins
In 1810 Naila became Bavarian with the eastern parts of Franconia . Two years later a Bavarian regional court was set up. The Naila police station is located in the former district court building. In 1818 Naila was promoted to town with a mayor, third-class magistrate and community council. Construction of a new district office building began in 1825. Today this building is used as the town hall. The first postal expedition was set up in 1848. The last efforts to revive the mining industry in Naila were made around 1858 , but in 1859 the order was made to stop.
The great fire of August 3, 1862, in which almost the entire city was destroyed, was a deep cut in urban development. But as early as 1871 today's Protestant church was consecrated.
The newly laid out cemetery was inaugurated in 1881, and around this time industrial textile and shoe production began in Naila. Naila has been the seat of the Franconian Forest section of the German and Austrian Alpine Association since 1883. This later became the Franconian Forest Association .
On June 1, 1887 Naila was connected to the Hof-Marxgrün railway line. With the rail connection, industrialization in Naila got a big boost. A strong medium-sized industry with a focus on textile and shoe manufacturing developed. Important companies were the Seifert & Klöber shoe factory, founded in 1884, and the C. Seyffert colored weaving mill, which opened in 1895 and already had 600 looms in 1914.
The first Nailaer Zeitung appeared in 1897. One year later, in 1898, the first telephone system followed. The railway network was expanded by extending the existing connection from Hof to Bad Steben.
20th century
In 1901 a connection to neighboring Thuringia was created with the Höllentalbahn and from 1910 the branch line to Schwarzenbach am Wald branched off in Naila . Of these lines, only the Hof – Naila – Bad Steben line is still in operation. The municipal power station was inaugurated in 1909. The Naila infrastructure was expanded considerably at the beginning of the 20th century.
Before the First World War , in 1914, the Franken shoe factory was established . In the same year the AOK Naila was founded. The war brought the city nearly 130 dead and missing. In 1920 Froschgrün was incorporated, which had previously grown into the city of Naila. The economy also picked up again. In 1921 a porcelain factory started operations in Naila. In the same year eleven barns burned down on the main road. The newly laid out municipal cemetery was inaugurated in 1923, and a year later the post office was built opposite the train station. Street names were introduced in 1928. Until the Second World War , Naila was an economic center in the Franconian Forest, not least because of the good rail connections. This was documented in 1931 with the opening of the Franconian Forest Museum. An example of the importance of the Naila industry at that time was the Seifert & Klöber shoe factory, later called the Panda shoe factory. In 1934 it had 1,000 employees and produced 3,000 pairs of shoes a day. This made it the largest shoe factory in Bavaria. The shoes were sold under the brand name Wohlauf .
At the end of the Second World War, SS men drove a column of prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp past the village on a death march , nine of whom were slain. In the municipal cemetery on Albin-Klöber-Strasse, where they are buried, a memorial stone commemorates these victims of fascism . Almost 200 Nailaers died in the war, and numerous soldiers were missing. On April 14, 1945 around 5:30 p.m., the city was occupied by American troops without a fight. The US army had taken up position with armored spearheads on Lichtenberger Strasse and sent a civilian named Hans Hoffmann to the town hall. He should find out if Naila is being defended. Hoffmann brought the news to the Americans that the city could be occupied without a fight. After the occupation, Naila became a provisional garrison base for the US armed forces. After the border was drawn, an important sales market, Thuringia, was lost. In the years up to 1948, numerous refugees and displaced persons came, especially from the Sudetenland .
The economy and industry in Naila recovered quickly after the war. a. with the LIBA machine factory, which was inaugurated two years after the end of the war and enjoyed a very good reputation as a training facility for textile engineers. In 1966 the 16th company of the 32nd Telecommunications Regiment of the Luftwaffe moved into the newly built Frankenwald barracks to monitor the airspace of the nearby inner-German border and the American unit was withdrawn.
In the same year, the Selbitz regulation was completed, and the Culmitz and Dreigrünbach were also covered within the urban area. The open-air swimming pool at Dreigrünbachgrund was completed in 1969 and construction of the grammar school began a year later . As part of the regional reform in Bavaria , Culmitz was incorporated on July 1, 1971. 1 July 1972 Naila came together with the district Naila in the district court . In 1977 work began on the new Frankenhalle building. The Martinsberg Children's Village was inaugurated in 1981 and the municipal stadium in 1983. In 1984 the inauguration of the BMX track followed , which was later converted into a skate park .
After the opening of the border on November 9, 1989, visitors from the GDR in Naila received a welcome fee of over DM 11 million . This also had a positive effect on the retail trade in Naila, as many Thuringians used the first point of contact in the west for shopping and the neighboring Vogtland was still quite structurally poor. To counteract the first signs of the demographic problem, a senior citizens' foundation was inaugurated in 1990. After decades of prosperity, Naila reached its economic peak in the 1990s. The Panda shoe factory, formerly Seifert & Klöber, ceased production in 1991, and in 1992 the Frankenwald barracks was dissolved. The task of monitoring the airspace near the inner-German border was dropped. In 1993 the city of Naila received the status of a medium-sized center in the Upper Franconian East planning region . In 1994, goods traffic on the railway lines to Bad Steben and Schwarzenbach am Wald was discontinued and the Naila railway counter was closed. After the opening of the city library in 1996 and the skatepark in 1998, the textile factory C. Seyffert went bankrupt in 1999 , which was continued as Textilwerk Naila GmbH and finally ceased production in 2003.
literature
- Willi and Reinhard Feldrapp: Naila - then and now , 2005, Atelier Feldrapp
- Sabine Raithel, Reinhard Feldrapp: Frankenwald , 1997, Verlag Fränkischer Tag, ISBN 3-928648-30-6
- Reinhard Feldrapp: Frankenwald with environment , 1991, Wir-Verlag Walter Weller, ISBN 3-924492-57-3
- Hans Knopf, Reinhard Feldrapp: Naila , 1986, Oberfränkische Verlagsanstalt Hof, ISBN 3-921615-71-2
- Daniel Künzel: Naila in National Socialism 1933-1939. Published in the Archive for the History of Upper Franconia, 93rd Volume, 2013, ISSN 0066-6335
- Friedrich, Birgit: Naila and his industry , 1985, Oberfränkische Verlagsanstalt Hof
- Bavarian State Chancellery: Our Naila district , around 1970, Bavarian State Center for Political Education , Munich
- Nice, Dr. JG A: History of the city and the district of Naila , 1863, Helmbrechts
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b frankenpost.de: Roots are in the guild system , Naila department, October 18, 2007
- ↑ a b Wilhelm Volkert (Ed.): Handbook of the Bavarian offices, communities and courts 1799–1980 . CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-09669-7 , p. 530 .
- ↑ Memorial sites for the victims of National Socialism. A documentation , volume 1. Federal Agency for Civic Education , Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-89331-208-0 , p. 177