History of Görlitz

Görlitz city arms

The documented history of Görlitz begins in 1071 when it was first mentioned as "villa gorelic" in a certificate from Heinrich IV. In the catchment area of ​​the Lusatian Neisse around Görlitz, however, there are traces of settlement that go back to the Bronze Age . In the course of its history, the city of Görlitz belonged to the rulers of Bohemia , Brandenburg , Saxony and Prussia .

Due to its location on two important trade routes, the place developed from a long-distance trading settlement that arose in the 12th century at the foot of a Bohemian castle to a prosperous and nationally important trading town. It experienced its first heyday, as the Görlitz old town , which is characterized by late Gothic , Renaissance and Baroque buildings, shows to this day, in the late Middle Ages and in the first early modern decades.

With the connection to the Prussian and Saxon railway network, industrialization began in Görlitz in the middle of the 19th century . To the south and west, the medieval town was late nineteenth expands residential and residential district. The building fabric of the city survived the Second World War with almost no damage. The eastern suburbs became part of Poland as Zgorzelec .

Origins of the city and bloom in the Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

The Görlitz local mountain " Landeskrone "

After the Germanic population abandoned the area of ​​eastern Upper Lusatia during the migration period in the 4th and 5th centuries , the area was not repopulated by Slavic groups until the late 7th and 8th centuries . In the second half of the 9th century the Besunzane are mentioned in a written source , whose comparatively small settlement area presumably reached from the Schwarzen Schöps to the Kwisa (Queis) or Bóbr (Bober) . In the sources of the 10th and 11th centuries, the region around Görlitz is included in the Gau Milska, the settlement area of ​​the Milzen people. The central castle complex was on the Landeskrone near Görlitz. According to recent archaeological research, it was probably created at the end of the 9th century or in the 10th century .

In the course of the 960s, the margrave of the Saxon East Mark Gero subjugated the Lusitzi and the Gau Selpuli in Lower Lusatia. It was not until 990 that Margrave Ekkehard I of Meißen was able to subjugate the Milzener in Upper Lusatia. However, the area was also in the area of ​​interest of the Piastic ( Poland ) and Premyslid ( Bohemia ) dukes. At the beginning of the 11th century, dynastic conflicts of interest finally resulted in protracted military conflicts. In connection with an army campaign that King Heinrich II undertook against Boleslaw I Chrobry in the summer of 1015 , Thietmar von Merseburg also mentions the conquest of a large urbs Businc by Bohemian troops. With some certainty this can be identified with the fortifications on the Landeskrone. Especially the names of the small and large Biesnitz (around 1300 "Bisencz") below the mountain probably go back to the designation Besunzane or Businc . Biesnitz is now a district of Görlitz.

First documentary mention and suburban development

In a document from King Henry IV from 1071, a “villa gorelic” appears for the first time in written records. The Slavic name means 'fire' or 'clearing point'. The mention is related to the donation of eight Hufen from the king's possessions in eastern Upper Lusatia to the Meißner cathedral chapter . It remains unclear whether this is a matter of area or eight manors in the area of ​​the “villa goreliz”, which Joachim Huth interpreted as part of a royal manor complex. With the help of the Hohenstaufen table goods directory, crown goods can actually be identified in Upper Lusatia. Mentioned are “Melza” and “Budesin”, each representing larger complexes of goods, with Melza being equated with Görlitz with reservation. As location the villa gorelic has Karlheinz Blaschke (1937 renamed in Wall Street) proposed the area of the upper and lower Brandgasse in Goerlitz Nikolai suburb. A few years after Görlitz was first mentioned, the area of ​​today's Upper and Lower Lusatia came under the rule of the Bohemian dukes and kings , who, with interruptions until 1635, were also the future lords of Görlitz as a pledge in 1075 and finally as an imperial loan in 1089 .

In the years around 1126, the Yzcorelik castle (munitio) was expanded by Duke Soběslav I along with other important castles on the border with Bohemia such as Přimda , Tachov and Glatz , as was the so-called Vyšehrad canon in his continuation of the Chronica Boemorum des Cosmas of Prague describes. For the year 1131 a rebuilding of the castle (castrum) Yzhorelik is reported. This complex is believed to be in the area of ​​the Vogtshof immediately to the west of the later Neisse crossing of the Via Regia , but archaeological excavations on the Vogtshof did not reveal any evidence that the area was settled before the 13th century. The presence of a Bohemian bailiff by the name of Florinus has been documented for the year 1238, who probably already resided at the Vogtshof in the northeast corner of the old town. Should the 1131 mentioned castle actually located in the city of Goerlitz, then a would namenskundlicher related to grove forest, an alley between St. Peter's and Neißstraße, manufacture, since the castle according to the Chronicle Cosmas also known Drenow , what as much as Walddorf 'means to have been known.

Based on the village settlement or the Bohemian castle, a merchant settlement probably developed in the middle of the 12th century. It was conveniently located on Steinweg, the intersection of Via Regia and Neisse-Talrand-Straße. With the Nikolaikirche it soon had its own church, initially still part of the parish of the Wenzelskirche in Jauernick . There are several indications that the Nikolaivorstadt was the actual nucleus of the city of Görlitz and not the area around the lower market. The street layout in Nikolaiviertel facing away from the city center and the close parceling out show a certain independence of the district. Likewise, the taxes on some houses, in particular a 1413 detectable pepper interest, and the fact that the Nikolaikirche outside the city walls was the main parish church of the city until the 15th century . It is also not to be assumed that the original course of the Via Regia took the steep ascent to today's old town and another steep descent to today's old town bridge. Rather, it is likely to have led through the Lunitz lowland to a ford north of Görlitz, at the former table bridge (opposite the current sewage treatment plant). The election of Nikolaus von Myra , the patron saint of merchants, as patron of the church speaks in favor of a merchant settlement in the Lunitztal.

Development to the legal city

Late Romanesque main portal of St. Peter's Church

From the interplay of written, archaeological and name-related sources, it can be concluded that around the year 1200 the merchants moved from the suburban settlement in the Lunitztal to the hill that today forms the Görlitz old town. The reason for this will probably have been, in addition to the protective location and the presumed construction of the Neisse bridge, above all the granting of city privileges, which no longer made the proximity to the lordly Vogtssitz, which they avoided when they settled in the Lunitztal, appear as a threat to their freedom . Based on the Vogtssitz, they built a planned urban layout around the Untermarkt, which stretched roughly between Nikolaiturm and Elisabethplatz and between Neisse and Brüderstraße.

The Fat, or Frauenturm, part of the historic Görlitz city fortifications

In 1253 Upper Lusatia fell to the Ascanians , who in 1268 separated eastern Upper Lusatia as the Land of Görlitz as a separate administrative and judicial district from the State of Bautzen . In the certificate of division, Görlitz is referred to as civitas , while Bautzen is expressly referred to as castrum et civitas . In order to make the created parts of Upper Lusatia appear equivalent, the castrum Landischrone was added to the Görlitz part of the country . Apparently there was no longer a castle in Görlitz by the second half of the 13th century. It is conceivable that it was handed over to the citizens by the Ascanian rulers before 1268 and used by them as a “stone quarry” for the expansion of the city carried out at that time.

In 1268 a newly founded Görlitz mint is mentioned in a document, which is supposed to alternate with an old mint in Bautzen every year.

In the middle of the 13th century, a Franciscan monastery was founded at the gates of the city - today's Dreifaltigkeitskirche was its monastery church. This also shows that the city had already achieved a certain level of prosperity at this time. A little later, the city was expanded to the west to the Reichenbacher Tower and thus almost doubled. For the first time in 1298 there is a city council with a mayor, twelve councilors and four lay judges . In 1303, the development of Görlitz into a city with full rights finally came to an end with the granting of city ​​rights based on Magdeburg law . Two years later, the records in the oldest Görlitz town book began .

Hotherturm, Vogtshof and the towers of the Peterskirche

Ascent to the trade center, guild battles, Hussites

Towards the end of the 13th century, Görlitz cloth weaving gained supraregional importance. At the same time, market and transit tariffs were acquired by the citizens and partially lifted and partially transferred to the city coffers. From 1319 to 1329 the city belonged to the Silesian Duchy of Schweidnitz-Jauer . In 1329 it was acquired by the Bohemian King John of Bohemia, who immediately confirmed the privileges of the city of Görlitz. In 1329/1330, the citizens of Görlitz were also granted market and coin shelves , the right to piles of salt and duty-free in all countries of the Bohemian crown from the Bohemian king ; In 1339 the right to stockpile for woad followed . In order for the city to the center of trade with the grown mainly in Thuringia was woad and the most important trading town between Erfurt and Wroclaw. In 1367 the brewing rights were added.

Already under Ascanian rule, in the first years of the 14th century, there was evidence of a Jewish community - at that time still a sure sign of the completed urban development process - which was probably one of the larger in the sphere of influence of the Margraves of Brandenburg. Their origins probably go back well into the 13th century. The Bohemian King John of Luxembourg also confirmed the settlement of the Jews in Görlitz and took them under his protection in a document. The Jewish community then developed rapidly. A synagogue was built before 1344, and in 1346 the community leaders Ickel and Salman, a functionary of the community known as “schoolmaster”, whose area of ​​responsibility has not yet been finally clarified, are mentioned.

On August 21, 1346 which was Lusatian League through the towns of Bautzen , Löbau , Zittau , Kamenz , Luban and Görlitz established to on behalf of the sovereign, the King of Bohemia Charles I, later German Emperor Charles IV. , The peace to true. To this end, the federal government received various sovereign privileges. The background to this development is the weak position of the Bohemian sovereign in Upper Lusatia , which helped the cities to achieve an almost autonomous position within the Bohemian feudal association. The Görlitz city wall and the defenses were further expanded. Around 1476 the city wall, the remains of which are still preserved today, had 21 towers.

Coat of arms of Johann von Görlitz , the only Duke of Görlitz

From 1377 to 1396 the city was the center of the Duchy of Görlitz, which Charles IV created for his seven-year-old son Johann , but was dissolved again after his death in 1396. In 1389 Johann permitted the expulsion of the Jews from Görlitz. Nevertheless, Görlitz was at the zenith of its economic and political power at the turn of the century, especially through the trade in woad and cloth. The population was around 8,000 people.

Inside, tensions arose again and again between the council and the guilds , which came to a head in bloody disputes. Görlitz was not an isolated case. Throughout the Holy Roman Empire, guilds rose against the councils ruled by the patriciate in the late Middle Ages , especially where the cities gained extensive autonomy and the council increasingly acted as authority. A peculiarity, however, is that the Görlitz patricians managed to keep privileges and political power firmly in their hands, while elsewhere often at least a formal co-determination of the guilds could be enforced.

The first major dispute between the Council and "community," reported the Görlitzer City Guide 1326. Here, the guilds had prevailed and forced the merchants, its acquired outside the town of goods to the higher floor to tax the city. Unrest broke out again in 1347, of which we only know that Emperor Charles IV personally interfered for the first time and called for calm.

The demands that the guilds repeatedly put forward up to the Great Cloth Makers' Uprising in 1527 are exemplified by a letter of complaint to Duke Johannes von Görlitz written around 1390 and handed down in the Annales Sculteti :

"[...] All who did the right thing at the place, dy bred and smacked and strived for doby other narunge and handicrafts, what sy customers ader what sy pretended, the sy ire in the dasz zu basz [the better] reaped and eu. gn. that to basz byzusteyn to velde ader wo yrs [be] dorfft. Do stunt dy stat bas and lak not in such large debts nor so delayed and pretuffed [in debt], as now the council dy narunge bunomen hot. [...] "

“ And [the council has] given the community ny keyn rechenunge ny han, where sy is hen do the good, the sy uff dy stat nemen, the do uncellly ecclesiastical feyl, the uwer gn. desz wondering when ir recognizes. [...] "

“ Do sy dy stat so awkwardly sums up and vorseczen ba all of the big solutions, dy sy nemen and genomes have arms and smells, that comes, lyber gn. gentleman, dovon, the sy syczen in the rate early with fründen and a swer [father-in-law] with two eydem [sons-in-law]. Dy handicrafts little busweret syn, and all ir alde right buenommen han, and uwer stat printed value of the rate with iren fründen and a teyl geherrysch [t] wol 20 jar. The kysen sy rotlute and sworn on all crafts, dy neither the council nor the injustice of statute do nothing, it ensy the myt of the council's sake. Dorunder Wert uwer stat pretends and pretends hard, as siczen sy with friends in the advice and sworn, dy sy kysen uff the craftsmen. We do that. gn. kunt. Wyl das, lyber herre, eu. gn. wyrs have to tolerate the eu. gn., as long as myt ynander and uwer stat domyt. "

- Annales Sculteti II p. 25

A letter of the council from 1369 addressed to the sovereign and emperor Charles IV reports on similar demands. It reports on a meeting of the guilds before the mayor and council as well as their demands for restriction of council power, brewing rights and other economic concessions. The reason for the long-standing disputes was the conquest and complete burning of the town of Neuhaus (Nowoszów), via which Waid was transported to the east, past the deposit in Görlitz. A large amount of atonement had been imposed on the cities for this act of violence, and the guilds now refused to stand up for a policy in which they did not participate. Several times the guilds and councils were presented to the emperor and his governors and it seems that the latter was temporarily inclined to meet some of the guilds' demands, even if they confirmed the council electoral by co-opting . During one of these visits, however, in 1372 a guildman stabbed councilor Frenzel Eisenhut. The offender was executed, the embassy of the guilds in the eight- placed and the Görlitzer craftsmen who played in one kind Secessio Plebis the city had left, had on their armor and weapons Hall deposit and pay a penalty. On August 17, 1373, the emperor finally notarized his power of attorney to “correct, punish and judge” for the council.

But after the death of Karl the guild movement started again. For 1390, Bartholomäus Scultetus passed on to us in his annals the letter from the guilds to Duke Johann von Görlitz, quoted in excerpts above. Here, too, a monetary claim by the sovereign played a role, just as in other cities in Upper Lusatia when unrest broke out at the same time. In order to raise the required amount, Johann set up a commission of two councilors and four craftsmen, which encouraged the guilds to make demands again. The city lord resided in the city from mid-1390 and even set up the council himself. In 1393 the council met with the estates of Upper Lusatia because of the riot. In 1405 he even had the craftsmen's quarters cordoned off in order to suppress another uprising. Because of the Hussite Wars and the subsequent armed conflicts, the conflicts between the council and the guilds finally subsided, but broke out again during the Reformation.

City coat of arms

During the Hussite Wars, Hussite armies stood twice in October and November 1429, and again in 1431 and 1432, before Görlitz and devastated the suburbs and the surrounding area. Unlike before Kamenz , Lauban and Löbau , which were besieged and stormed by them, they did not dare to siege the heavily fortified city, so that the part enclosed by the city walls remained almost intact. In 1433 Emperor Sigismund awarded the city ​​the "improved" city coat of arms, which is still in use today, for its services in the war, in which the citizens also took part by providing troops . It contains the double-headed black imperial eagle on a gold background, the white, double-tailed Bohemian lion on a red background and an imperial crown, which is shown above between the two halves of the coat of arms. In the same year, the emperor made an offer to take about twelve Jews and their families back into the city.

After two failed attempts in 1332 and 1335 and after disputes with the lords of the provincial crown, Wenzel von Biberstein and Johann I von Sagan , who bought the castle in 1437, the city of Görlitz acquired the castle with the villages of Kleinbiesnitz, Kunnerwitz and Neundorf for 600 marks in 1440 by the sons of the now deceased Johann I and had the old castle razed at the instigation of the Six Cities Association. From 1447 a quarry for basalt and granite mining was operated on the Landeskrone.

In the 15th century, after the death of Ladislaus Postumus , Duke of Austria , from the House of Habsburg , who ruled as King of Bohemia from 1453 to 1457 , Görlitz was involved in the clashes between the church and the nobility with Georg von Podiebrad , who was hostile to Kalixtine , King of Bohemia (1458–1471) involved, whereby it - in order to prevent the threatening apostasy from the king - came to the Görlitz powder conspiracy against the Catholic city council in 1466/68 , which, however, was betrayed and suppressed. Because of these tensions, the defenses of the city were strengthened and from 1467 to 1489 up to 200 men were again stationed on the state crown. The suburbs were also surrounded by a moat and palisade until 1477. This happened, as well as the stationing of troops on the state crown, to protect the city from the disputes over the Bohemian throne between the "heretic king" Georg von Podebrad and Matthias Corvinus , who was defeated by opponents of Podebrad in May 1469, also in Upper Lusatia and Silesia had been elected (counter) king of Bohemia (1469–1490).

Late Gothic portal at the town hall with the coat of arms of the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus

In this conflict, Görlitz and other Upper Lusatian cities and lordships turned away from Georg von Podiebrad, who had been declared a heretic, in 1467 and took the side of Matthias Corvinus, who finally became sovereign of Upper Lusatia from 1479 to 1490 after the Peace of Olomouc . The city of Görlitz had supported him with contingents during the war and had campaigned with the Upper Lusatian estates against supporters of Podiebrad in Upper Lusatia and Silesia. The most important undertakings in which Görlitz troops took part were probably the siege and capture of Hoyerswerda and the campaign against Duke Johann von Sagan . The stone coat of arms of Corvinus above the town hall steps is a reminder of this time as an expression of the favor of the city and the city's self-confidence.

In 1479 the Waidhaus and the building at Petersgasse 13 burned down due to a lightning strike. At that time the inscription "Nil actum credas, cum quid restabit agendum 1479" was attached to the Waidhaus, which is now on the gable.

In 1490 the citizens were called to provide workers for the construction of a "large roundabout in front of the Budissiner gates". The later so-called Kaisertrutz , as a bastion in front, was supposed to protect the vulnerable city wall from the fire of enemy artillery by firing flanking their firing positions. This is the last major modernization of the city fortifications. The city ​​could no longer follow the later developments of the fortress construction with its extensive and expensive bastions and tenailles , so that its walls offered only limited protection during the Thirty Years' War .

The Reformation

Via the extensive trade connections of the city and the students from Görlitz who were enrolled in Wittenberg and other universities, Reformation literature reached Görlitz as early as 1518. Likewise, on February 23, 1521, the council posted the papal bull of excommunication against Martin Luther on the gate of St. Peter's Church. As early as Corpus Christi 1520, the Meißner bishop had warned the council of the activities of the Lutherans, which he confirmed again in a circular of February 24, 1521. Nevertheless, this year, while the plague was raging in Görlitz and the councilors were taking themselves to safety in the country, Pastor Franz Rothbart began to preach Lutheran. He turned the Catholic city council against him, mainly because his sermons served as a fuel for the smoldering disputes between the council and the guilds. In 1523 Rothbart had to finally give up his office and he went to Breslau.

Rothbart's successor, Nikolaus Zeidler, who had been recommended to the council by the bishop, also changed himself to a representative of Lutheran doctrine by the time he took office. With its action against Rothbart, the council had also raised the Görlitz guilds against them to the highest degree, so that in 1525 they had to employ Franz Rothbart again. The council had already acquired the right to occupy the parish churches of Görlitz in 1502 from the Bohemian king, the city lord. In exchange for extensive financial concessions from the council, which took over the payment of the vicarious clergy, who were otherwise employed from the parish , and the concession to be able to preach at their own discretion, Rothbart promised to moderate his tone, especially against the council, and to make changes in the Carry out liturgy only in consultation with the latter. He also undertook to resign from office should he marry. On April 30, 1525, Rothbart finally held the first Protestant mass in Görlitz in front of 200 believers in the St. George's Chapel.

On April 27, 1525, a convention of the parish priests of the Archparochies of Görlitz, Reichenbach and Seidenberg met in Görlitz and decided not to pay taxes to the Bishop of Meißen, nor to recognize his jurisdiction. This convent was founded by the Bohemian King John of Luxembourg in the 14th century to hold soul masses twice a year for the deceased Bohemian rulers and subjects. The fact that the priests did not read soul masses in 1525 and decided to take the far-reaching steps mentioned above has often been seen as the quasi-official introduction of the Reformation in eastern Upper Lusatia. It is more likely, however, that the priests, taking advantage of the turmoil of the Reformation, merely continued a conflict that had existed since 1512 and was apparently only superficially decided by papal resolution about the increase in the episcopal taxes on them. This is also supported by the many clergymen present, who turned to the Protestant denomination only later and in some cases not at all.

A similar continuation of older lines of conflict, fueled by denominational differences (in the empire there were over 200 urban uprisings between 1521 and 1525 alone), is the failed drapery uprising of 1527. According to legend, a repentant conspirator set the clock on the so-called “ Mönch ”so that the conspirators came too early and fell into the hands of the guard. In fact, on the eve of the council elections on September 1st, the guilds met in St. They were primarily concerned with their participation in the council and the disclosure of the city's finances, wrapped in the slogan of a “Christian order, dorjnnen jsz go to the same”, but also about the attitude of Lutheran preachers and pastors.

St. Peter's Church summoned its spokesmen to the council and arrested some on the pretext of having formed secret councils. A small group of conspirators was formed to force the council to accept the demands and to release the prisoners. However, several citizens reported their intention to the council, which on September 6, a few hours before the planned uprising, had the house where they had stored their weapons searched. If the conspirators did not escape, they were executed; Peter Liebig, who owned the house in question, was quartered. Half a year later, the town hall was guarded by 100 mercenaries in order to prevent any new uprising.

The coat of arms, awarded in 1536, was in use until 1945

On October 2, 1536, Emperor Charles V awarded the " Johannes Haß , Mayor of Görlitz, adlung und wappen" with a certificate issued in Genoa

The pressure of the guilds and the increasing number of evangelical councilors consolidated the position of the Reformation over the course of time. The last Catholic Mayor of Görlitz died in 1544, Johannes Haß, to whom we owe a contemporary chronicle of Görlitz during the Reformation. With that, Franz Rothbart's marriage and his associated role as a pastor - the council was not supposed to accept a married priest until 1545 - was no longer a major setback for the evangelicals. In general, a form of the Protestant denomination developed in Görlitz, not only in relation to the question of priestly marriage, which retained numerous elements of the Catholic liturgy for a long time. A Protestant church book was adopted in 1539 and a spiritual ministry was formed to monitor the clergy, but above all the city appropriated the extensive church property as early as the 1520s, but the mass , epistle and gospel were read in Latin. At least the latter two were explained in German afterwards. The Sanctus was sung in Latin until 1553 and it was not until 1561 that early Latin masses were converted into sermons.

Such inconsistency can be explained on the one hand by the conflicting position of the council, but also by the ban on visits by Saxon visitors, which the sovereign and later Emperor Ferdinand I issued to remove Upper Lusatia from the influence of the Duke of Saxony . It is noteworthy that on the occasion of Ferdinand I's visit from May 25 to 28, 1538, the council succeeded in presenting Görlitz as a congregation firmly under the Catholic denomination, as Haß proudly reports. Under the surface staged by the council, however, Görlitz had long been largely Protestant, and currents began to develop that strived beyond the strict biconfessionalism of the empire. In 1539/40, the council cracked down on “Anabaptists” in the Görlitz area, while parts of the citizenry leaned towards the swing fields, in whose tradition Jacob Böhme was still standing. Finally, a circle of citizens who were inclined to Philipp Melanchthon around Bartholomäus Scultetus and the municipal high school in Görlitz even got the reputation of being a crypto-calvinist center.

The fact that, according to the diction of Protestant historiography, order returned to church relations is, contrary to expectations, not least the work of a Catholic clergyman. After the Augsburg religious peace of 1555 and the dissolution of the diocese of Meissen, the emperor and sovereign Ferdinand I set up an apostolic administration over the clergy of Upper Lusatia in place of the old archdeaconate of Bautzen. Its first administrator was the dean of the Bautzen cathedral monastery , Johann Leisentrit , who from then on was responsible under canon law for both Protestant and Catholic clergy. It was also he who, on the one hand, kept the Catholic areas of the two Upper Lusatian Cistercian convents and the Bautzen cathedral monastery in the old faith, on the other hand, influenced by the tolerance of humanism , for the appointment of evangelical priests ordained in Wittenberg Protestant areas. A comprehensive recatholization campaign by the Catholic sovereign did not take place, because on the one hand he was bound by the state constitution of Upper Lusatia, on the other hand he was dependent on the financial resources of the estates for the Turkish wars. Maximilian II promised even before his homage trip that the religious status quo in Upper Lusatia would not be affected.

In 1563 the last Franciscan monk handed over the monastery to the city, with the condition that a grammar school be set up here. Two years later the Augustum grammar school was opened in the former monastery.

Görlitz was hit by the persecution of witches from 1490 to 1564. Two men got into witch trials, but the death sentence against Niklas Weller in 1490 was not carried out. In Moys, two women got involved in a witch trial .

Changing urban development in modern times

Loss of city rights, Thirty Years War, city fires

View of the city of Görlitz from the east, 1575

In 1546 Görlitz, as a member of the Schmalkaldic League , was drawn into the Schmalkaldic War , which led to the Upper Lusatian Pönfall in 1547 . The Bohemian king took the inadequate support of the six-city federation as an opportunity to deprive the cities united in the federation of a large part of their possessions and privileges and also imposed high fines on the cities. Görlitz lost the high level of jurisdiction in and around the city, as well as all land holdings and the free council elections. The city became a crown domain. However, many possessions and privileges could be bought back in the following years, but the power of the cities in the Upper Lusatian "Estates Republic" was shifted in favor of the sovereign and the great noble families.

On April 30, 1556, a fire seized 40 houses in Nikolaigasse and its surroundings, including the Vogtshof and the Nikolaiturm .

In 1565 the first verifiable pictorial representation of the state crown was made; In 1568 the Meierhof on the Landeskrone was demolished.

Jakob Böhme (painted after his death)

The first descriptive work on German master singing appeared in the Fritsch print shop in Görlitz in 1571. It was written by Adam Puschmann, a Görlitz apprentice tailor who was among other things a student of Hans Sachs . The mathematician and geographer Bartholomäus Scultetus published the first map of Upper Lusatia in 1593.

In 1599 Jakob Böhme became a citizen of Görlitz. In 1612 he published his main work Aurora or the Dawn in the Rise . The dialectical elements of his mysticism contained therein made him a pioneer of classical German philosophy and the German national language.

After the lintel in Prague , of which the Upper Lusatian estates were informed on May 30, 1618, the Six Cities initially pushed for neutrality and resisted the Emperor's demand to raise troops in Upper Lusatia, but negotiated with the Protestant Union from July to November the recognition of their privileges and the granting of church self-determination. On August 16, 1619, they finally joined the Protestant Union. But when troops from the Electorate of Saxony marched into Upper Lusatia on the orders of the emperor, the resistance quickly collapsed. Görlitz now also came to the Elector of Saxony Johann Georg I , first as a pledge for his war costs. After he had changed sides in 1630, Görlitz was on October 30, 1633 by imperial troops under Wallenstein , who had his camp in Leopoldshain on the east Had hit the banks of the Neisse, stormed and plundered.

Siege and bombing of Görlitz, 1641 (contemporary engraving)

In 1635, Upper Lusatia was finally awarded as a fiefdom of the Bohemian Crown to the Electorate of Saxony as compensation - Johann Georg I was claiming 72 t gold war compensation against the emperor at that time. However, the Görlitz area remained a theater of war. From 1639 the city was occupied by Swedish troops under a Colonel Wancke. When he found out in March of the advance of the Saxon-Imperial troops, he and his 1,300 soldiers set up for defense. The suburbs with their more than 800 houses were "laid down", the city fortifications were reinforced with additional trenches and palisades, and additional loopholes were broken into the city walls. On July 25, 1641 the siege of the city began by over 10,000 soldiers with numerous artillery. A contemporary engraving shows the latter set up on the cemetery hill and the Töpferberg east of the Neisse. Without their own artillery, the Swedish troops had to give up the defense of the outdated fortifications after ten weeks and surrender. A roundabout on the south-eastern outskirts (today Upper Bergstrasse), which was particularly fierce during the siege, therefore kept the name "Swedish Ensign".

In addition to the devastation of the war, a fire broke out behind the town hall on August 26, 1642, and destroyed the northern part of the city between Peterstrasse and Fleischerstrasse. Also in the Nikolaivorstadt houses burned and again the Nikolaikirche burned. The latter was all the more bitter for the residents of the suburbs, which were still largely destroyed, as they had kept their belongings there. A total of 85 houses were destroyed. Almost the same area was again destroyed by flames on March 19, 1691, only this time the St. Since the suburbs had meanwhile been rebuilt, the number of houses destroyed was significantly higher at around 200. Together with another fire in 1717, which broke out in Peterstraße and spread to the west as far as the Holy Sepulcher , these are responsible for the fact that the northern part of Görlitz's old town is mainly characterized by the Baroque style.

Görlitz as part of the Electorate of Saxony

Map of the city of Görlitz and its suburbs around 1750

Copy of the Saxon post mile column on its historical location, today's Zgorzelecer Postplatz

In 1714, the grammar school director Samuel Grosser published the history of Upper Lusatia in German under the title Lusatian oddities .

Görlitz was devastated again by two more city fires on July 31, 1717 and April 30, 1726. When the city fire in 1717, as many as 403 and in 1726 another 164 houses were affected. On September 5, 1759, the rear buildings at Brüderstraße 8, 9 and 10, the entire Bäckergasse and half of Krischelstraße burned down. Another big fire in the city could be prevented, but 48 years later, in 1807, Görlitz was devastated again by a fire.

On September 7, 1757, during the Seven Years' War, the battle of Moys between Prussia and Austria took place southeast of the city .

Nevertheless, the city kept up with scientific developments. In 1779 the Upper Lusatian Society of Sciences in Görlitz was founded by Karl Gottlob von Anton and Adolf Traugott von Gersdorf. On April 10, 1811, an ornithological society was founded in Görlitz in the club bar "Blauer Löwe" on the Obermarkt .

A local press was also created. Dr. In 1799, Rothe published the first issue of the “Görlitzer Anzeiger”. The newspaper appeared every Thursday. 1803–1814 the name changed to "Neuer Görlitzer Anzeiger" with the editor. This was published by the Schirach bookstore at Brüdergasse 5.

In 1787, the city's first public oil-fired street lamp was installed. The Kaisertrutz also received "modern" oil lighting in addition to the remaining candle lighting.

A wooden refuge was built on the summit of the Landeskrone in 1782. The small observation tower followed in 1796.

Napoleon visited the city for the first time on July 17, 1807 , again on May 29, 1812, on the train to Russia . On December 13th, he hurried through the city in a sleigh on the journey to France, unrecognized. On April 20, 1813, Emperor Alexander I of Russia entered Görlitz. His ally, King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia, followed on April 23.

From 23 to 25 May and from 18 to 20 August, the French headquarters were on Obermarkt 29.

At that time Görlitz had 8,600 inhabitants and 1,100 houses.

Prussian period since 1815

Population increase, associations and militarization

Section of a map of the province of Lower Silesia

View around 1850

Through the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Görlitz and part of Upper Lusatia were added to the state of Prussia , and the Upper Lusatian Union of Six Cities ceased to exist. In the following year, the district of Görlitz in the province of Silesia was formed. Belonging to Prussia had a decisive influence on the political and social development of the city. On June 22nd, 1832, in accordance with the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, the first elections to the city council took place and a year later the Prussian town order was introduced. Gottlob Ludwig Demiani (1833 to 1846) became mayor . The gymnastics and rescue association was established in 1848. This made Görlitz the fourth Prussian city with a volunteer fire brigade . In 1868 a Görlitz branch of the General German Workers' Association was founded and on October 3, 1895, August Bebel , the founder of German social democracy, spoke in the concert hall.

On October 1, 1873, the town and district were separated. Görlitz thus became an independent city . In 1871 it had 42,732 and in 1880 50,147 inhabitants. After that, the city's population rose again sharply: in 1895 the city had 70,173 inhabitants, in 1910 it had 85,742.

With the affiliation to Prussia, the Jewish edict of 1812 came into force and Jews settled in the city again. In 1850 there were already 100 Jews living in Görlitz, most of them as retailers. A Jewish cemetery was laid out and a first synagogue was consecrated between Langenstrasse and Obermarkt in 1853, which was re-consecrated in 1870 after renovations. In 1890 the community again recorded 643 Jews, many of them manufacturers, merchants, lawyers and doctors. On March 7, 1911, the new synagogue was inaugurated with impressive Art Nouveau forms.

At the same time, there was greater militarization after Görlitz became a garrison town in 1830 . It was strategically located near the Austrian and Saxon borders (see map section).

The city magistrate decided to largely demolish the city fortifications. For example, the striking Neisse tower , which on the old view from 1575 stands directly on the Neisse, fell victim to the demolition . The Kaisertrutz was spared as one of the few components of the city wall. After a renovation in 1850, it served the garrison as a main guard, detention center and as a depot for war equipment. The unauthorized decision of the city magistrate under Mayor Jochmann brought the city a serious reprimand from the Prussian Ministry of War, because the city had suffered a loss of defense in the opinion of the ministry. As a punishment, the city was obliged to build barracks for a crew of 600.

With the completion of the "Jägerkaserne" in 1859, the soldiers of the 1st Silesian Jäger Battalion No. 5, who had previously lived in private quarters, moved into it on April 30 of the same year . This battalion was the first Prussian to enter the city in 1830. Among other things, it was also involved in the German War in 1866 at the Battle of Königgrätz . Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia , the leader of the First Army in the German War, set up his headquarters in Görlitz from June 13 to 22, 1866.

Obermarkt with Kaiser Wilhelm monument

The 4th Greek Corps marched across the Obermarkt with active participation of the population

On August 4, 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War , the Jäger Battalion stationed in Görlitz captured the first French cannon. This was set up in 1874 between the Kaisertrutz and the theater. One year after this conquest, on June 2, 1871, the Jäger battalion returned from the war. The cannon came to the imperial parade on the Obermarkt in great honor. This took place on the occasion of Wilhelm II's first visit on May 18, 1893. On this day, the equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I , who had visited Görlitz on September 14, 1882, was unveiled on the Obermarkt in his presence . As early as September 1896, Kaiser Wilhelm II stayed in Görlitz again on the occasion of the imperial maneuver . His most famous guest was Tsar Nicholas II. The city took over the accommodation of the international maneuvering guests and the troops of over 11,000 men during the troop exercise of the V Army Corps. This cost the city a sum of 50,000 marks. The emperor granted the Lord Mayor of Görlitz the right to wear a chain of office. The then head of state paid his last visit to the city on November 28, 1902 to open the Upper Lusatian memorial hall ("Hall of Fame").

With the mobilization of the German troops for the battles of the following World War I , the troops in the Görlitz garrison were also ordered to the front. On August 6, 1914, the regiment marched across Berliner Strasse to the train station amid great cheers from the population. The Landsturm also left the city on August 9th. Shortly after the beginning of the First World War, the first Russian prisoners of war came to a newly established prisoner of war camp east of the Neisse. The Russian prisoners were soon followed by the English, French and even Arabs. A curiosity is the internment of the 4th Greek Army Corps between 1916 and 1919. The 6500 soldiers were deported from the Macedonian front and interned in Görlitz, which was unique in Germany. After that, over 200 soldiers settled in the city and started families.

Post building Postplatz 1 (year of construction 1897–1899)

Numerous public buildings were rebuilt, for example the royal district court . It was given a new building on Postplatz. Another example on the Postplatz is the post office opposite the court, the Prussian coat of arms above the main entrance still testifies to the Prussian era. Some street names were also renamed, for example Neumarkt was renamed Wilhelmsplatz, Sommerstrasse was renamed Moltkestrasse and Klosterstrasse was renamed Bismarckstrasse. However, the cityscape expanded not only through civil, but also military buildings. The already mentioned “Jägerkaserne” in the old town was followed in 1896 by a more modern building, the “New Barracks” (since 1938 “Courbière Barracks”) on Defiance Village Street (today: Armii Krajowej in Zgorzelec) in the eastern part of the city. Two more barracks followed by 1936: the "Kleist barracks" (1935) on Kleiststrasse (today: Bohaterów II Armii Wojska Polskiego in Zgorzelec) also in the east of the city and the "Winterfeldt barracks" in Moys on the Elsa-Brandström- Street (today: Elizy Orzeszkowej in Zgorzelec-Ujazd).

industrialization

Neisse Viaduct in Görlitz

First station building in Görlitz, here around 1860

Industrialization was initially hesitant and was based on pre-industrial drive technologies. The Bauer cloth factory was founded in 1816, as were other industrial companies, initially in the Neisse area, because of the water drive possible there. In 1837, however, the first steam engine started operating in the Bergmann und Krause cloth factory in Görlitz . The wagon construction , which is still one of the largest industrial companies in the city, was founded in 1828 by Christoph Lüders .

But there was some competition between the transport systems. The zigzag path was laid out on the Landeskrone in 1844 and a restaurant was built. A road to the summit was laid out in 1859. The buildings in the settlement received a gas supply and a water pipe in 1913.

With the completion of the Dresden – Görlitz railway line , the continuation on Prussian territory to Breslau via the Neißeviadukt and the opening of the station , Görlitz received a connection to the Prussian and Saxon railway network. This was followed by the opening of the Silesian Mountain Railway in 1865 , the Berlin-Görlitzer Railway in 1867, and eight years later the Görlitz-Reichenberger Railway (today Liberec ). The railway line to Buchholz (Krischa / Tretta) did not follow until May 31, 1905. Within the city, the horse dominated as a means of propulsion. The first two lines of the horse-drawn tram were built in 1882. Their final stop was the station forecourt. On December 1, 1897, the city received an electric tram that replaced the horse-drawn tram. This used lines I (Untermarkt-Schützenhaus), II (Ringbahn), III (Rauschwalder Straße - Moys), IV (Postplatz-Landeskrone).

On August 1, 1889, the main post and telegraph office was finally inaugurated. In 1897 the municipal fire brigade was brought into being. The first power station in Görlitz went into operation in 1886, and local telephony was opened on August 15, 1886. On July 6, 1910, the first electric street lighting was installed.

Other industrial companies settled here. The Landskron brewery was founded in 1869 . On December 1, 1880, the Görlitz slaughterhouse was opened. From May 14th to September 27th, 1885, the industrial and commercial exhibition took place in Görlitz between Landeskronstraße and Krölstraße on what was then Dresdener Platz, today's Lutherplatz . The exhibition comprised 25,000 m² of exhibition space and offered space for 1,424 exhibitors.

In 1888 the machine works Roscher was established, which was relocated to the road to Rauschwalde in 1897.

In 1898 construction work began on the Strasbourg Passage , which lasted ten years.

The Mattke & Sydow chocolate and confectionery factory was founded on April 1st, 1894 at Mittelstrasse 6. Initially, a candy factory was operated with a staff of 15 workers. The company expanded and in March 1899 the company moved into the new factory building on Pomologische Gartenstrasse.

Two years later, the Hugo Meyer company was founded to manufacture camera lenses, which moved to Biesnitzer Strasse in 1902.

View over the area of ​​the Lower Silesian Trade Exhibition 1905

The Lower Silesian trade exhibition, around the Upper Lusatian Hall of Fame , which was newly inaugurated in 1902 , took place on approximately 163,900 m² of exhibition space. 11,400 exhibitors presented their exhibits to around 1.5 million visitors.

On March 22, 1906, the Görlitzer Tourist Association was founded, which tried to use the emerging tourism.

In order to meet the need for private financing, the first municipal savings bank opened in 1851. On August 13, 1887, the Görlitzer Konsum-Verein was founded in the “Goldener Löwe” restaurant.

Emerging culture and science

The Natural Research Society was founded in 1823 on the basis of the Ornithological Society founded in 1811. In 1824, Kölbing compiled a first list of the plants in the state crown. In 1827 the "Treatises of the Natural Research Society of Görlitz" appeared for the first time. In 1858 the Naturforschende Gesellschaft zu Görlitz laid the foundation stone for a new museum building on Marienplatz . The building opened on October 26, 1860. In 1859 the foundations of the old castle were exposed. In 1888 the Society for " Anthropology and Prehistory of Upper Lusatia" was founded.

The girls' community school was opened at the fish market in 1838. The Upper Lusatian Song Festival took place on the state crown in 1850. In 1851 the city ​​theater was opened with Schiller's "Don Carlos". In 1861 the festival of the Upper Lusatian gymnastics clubs took place on the Landeskrone. On November 1, 1873, the Association of Friends of Music was founded. The " Silesian Music Festival " was brought into being in 1876 by Count Bolko von Hochberg . On October 27, 1910, the city ​​hall became the venue for the music festival.

In 1907 the city library opened on Jochmannstrasse. In 1911 a new medium was introduced - the cinema. The Wilhelmtheater became the Union Theater, which from then on performed light plays and vaudeville.

Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism

In 1921, the Waggonbau founded by Johann Christoph Lüders became WUMAG ( Waggonbau und Maschinenbau-Aktiengesellschaft ). The first double-deck car was built by WUMAG in 1936. The airfield opened in 1925. However, this could only be approached by small aircraft.

Görlitz expanded and incorporated the suburb of Rauschwalde in 1925 and Moys in 1929. In 1927 Georg Wiesner replaced the previous mayor Georg Snay and held this office until 1931. He was succeeded by Wilhelm Duhmer , who applied for early retirement in December 1933 because he was hit by the National Socialist dictatorship. He was followed by a number of National Socialist Lord Mayors until the end of the war.

After the seizure of power by the Nazi Party , the 118th was SA Brigade settled in the city. Due to the voluntary resignation of his office as Lord Mayor Wilhelm Duhmer was replaced on May 18, 1934 by the NSDAP local group founder Konrad Jenzen . On June 30, 1935, the "Frontkämpfersiedlung" was inaugurated on the Rabenberg. The newly built barracks on Hermsdorfer Straße sworn in their first recruits on November 7th. After some restructuring of the units stationed here, the 30th Infantry Regiment was established in Görlitz in 1936.

The painter, writer and engraver Johannes Wüsten ( KPD ) had to emigrate to the Czech Republic and later to France . In 1940 the Gestapo arrested him in Paris . Wüsten died in 1943 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison .

When the Nuremberg Laws were passed on September 15, 1935, persecution and discrimination increased in Görlitz as well. Many Jews left the city. Shortly afterwards, the Görlitz registry office began to record all Jews and “ mixed race ” and the new authority of the health department “heritage and race maintenance” began its work. The community Posottendorf- Leschwitz was renamed Weinhübel , Nickrisch became Hagenwerder . The Slavic place and street names should be deleted in this way.

In 1937 the entire station forecourt was redesigned and the Gestapo arrested around one hundred members of the anti-fascist resistance group "Peter" between April and June. These arrests were followed by high treason trials in Berlin , Görlitz and Breslau . The “Antikominternzug” stopped in Görlitz and thousands of its residents visited the traveling exhibition on the subject of “World Enemy No. 1 - Bolshevism” on the Obermarkt. On July 8th, the Görlitz radio station went into operation in the Ständehaus . A branch was in Reichenbach .

Meanwhile, the regime maintained its idea of ​​history. A "Golden Book" was created in 1936, and extensive renovation and restoration work began on the Untermarkt in 1938, such as B. the pavement, arcades and facades of the arcades. On March 12th, a joyful rally took place on Friedrichsplatz on the occasion of the annexation of Austria . The Klingewalde settlement was completed in April and offered space for 28 families. On June 1st, the redesigned “large meeting room” in the town hall was handed over . Significantly, the synagogue was missing from the monumental painting by the Görlitz painter Arno Henschels .

On June 19, the inauguration of the monument erected at the Ständehaus for the soldiers of the former Görlitz garrison who fell in World War I took place. From October 8th, the 30th Infantry Regiment was involved in the occupation of the Czech Republic in the Sudeten area, Braunauer Ländchen. On November 9th, during the Reichspogromnacht, Jewish shops were devastated and there were terrible attacks on Jewish citizens. Görlitz Jews were deported to concentration camps. The " Aryanization ", the illegal expropriation and transfer of Jewish property, began. The attempt to set fire to the synagogue was thwarted by the fire brigade's fire fighting operation. So it has remained a memorial to that dark chapter in the city's history to this day.

A traffic road was built around the square on the Obermarkt in 1939. Electric lanterns were installed, and the artificial fountain was set up between the Schwibbogen and the tower of the Trinity Church. Wilhelmsplatz was also redesigned. A cultural week for the entire Silesian region took place in February. The May 17th census recorded 93,669 residents. There were 136 so-called religious Jews among them . The census also served as the organizational preparation for their deportation.

Görlitz in the Second World War

The Second World War began with the attack on Poland on September 1st . The Infantry Regiment 30 Görlitz / Lauban took part in the war from the beginning. But even in the run-up to the war, it participated in the invasion of the Sudetenland after the Munich Agreement . It crossed the previous border to Czechoslovakia in Tuntschendorf on October 8, 1938 , but returned to Görlitz on October 21, 1938. During World War II it was used in Poland , Belgium , France and the Soviet Union . On May 2, 1945 it went down in the fighting for Berlin. 2,800 were killed in fighting, 1185 remained missing, 765 were so badly injured that they also died from it.

On September 7, 1939, the first 1,800 Polish prisoners of war arrived in Görlitz. They first had to set up a transit camp on Leopoldshainer Chaussee in Görlitz-Moys (today Ujazd ), in which up to 8,000 prisoners of war were interned. In October the 30 hectare site became the main camp (Stalag) VIII-A and was already fully occupied with 15,000 Polish prisoners of war in mid-1940, when the first of 40,000 French and 8,000 Belgian prisoners of war arrived. At times 20,000 Soviet, 2,500 British, 6,000 Italian and 1,800 American prisoners of war were also interned. At the beginning of 1945, 16,668 Soviets, 14,960 French, 4,085 Belgians, 1,748 Slovaks, 1,641 Italians, 1,576 Yugoslavs and 37 Poles were registered in the camp by the Wehrmacht.

The Görlitz subcamp was established in Biesnitz in 1944 . As early as 1943, due to a lack of workers, Jewish prisoners and prisoners of war from Stalag VIII-A had been used for forced labor. In 1943, almost 50% of the workforce at WUMAG alone were forced laborers. A total of 6,751 forced laborers were counted at Görlitz companies on October 1, 1944.

On May 31, 1940 Otto Engelhardt-Kyffhäuser's exhibition “The Great Trek” was opened in the Ständehaus. Thematically she devoted herself to the resettlement of the Galician Germans from Volhynia . Before 1933 the painter gained an excellent reputation as a landscape painter, portraitist and draftsman. In National Socialist Germany he served himself, among other things, with the aforementioned exhibition and the later exhibition 'With man and horse and carriage ...'.

On August 14th, the first British aerial bombs fell on Görlitz. They hit the WUMAG factory premises and claimed two lives and 20 injured. As of December, 299 children from endangered areas were housed in Görlitz.

In January and February 1941, 67 roll calls and general meetings of the NSDAP as well as 12 major events were intended to maintain and strengthen the morale of the Görlitzers in war. On January 15, Olivier Messiaen's “ Quatuor pour la fin du temps ” premiered at Stalag VIII-A . Messian was interned here in 1940/41.

From September 1st, the Jews of Görlitz also had to wear the yellow Star of David with the black imprint "Jew". They were banned from emigrating from Germany from October 1st. In December the last Görlitz Jews were deported to the Tormersdorf forced labor camp near Rothenburg . In 1942/43 they were taken to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and the Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps. On September 17, 19 employees died in a major fire in WUMAG's wagon construction department in Brunnenstrasse.

In July 1942, most of the monuments and bells were dismantled and brought to the freight yard as armaments scrap. From September onwards, the holdings of the council archives, the municipal art collections, the estate archive, the archive and the library of the Upper Lusatian Society of Sciences, as well as ecclesiastical property in manors, mostly east of the Neisse (e.g. in the Joachimstein Abbey in Radmeritz ) were evacuated . Parts of the holdings are still missing today, others are in the fund of the University of Wroclaw .

On September 29th, the play Iphigenie von Delphi was performed in the city theater in the presence of the Nobel laureate and poet Gerhart Hauptmann on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

After the proclamation of "total war" by Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , all resources were used for the war. The war itself also became more and more present in the cityscape. On September 3rd, pupils from the grammar school and the Schlageterschule, today's vocational school center, were called up to serve as flak helpers in Berlin and Dessau . At the same time, the construction of fragmentation trenches began on Elisabethplatz, Nikolaigraben and Sechsstädteplatz . In December, extinguishing water ponds were completed on Demianiplatz and Sechsstädteplatz.

Under the code name Nautilus, Görlitz was on the target list of the British Bomber Command along with 91 other cities and was classified as particularly flammable and not insignificant in terms of war economics. On March 31, 1944, a mosquito of the 544th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron flew over the city and photographed the combustible parts of the city. It is not clear why the city was spared from a bombing.

The city theater was closed on August 14th. The artists went on the "war mission on the home front". In October, the Volkssturm lists recorded all men between the ages of 16 and 60 who were not conscripted into the Wehrmacht . In December, the first treks of refugees arrived with Transylvanian Saxons and “ ethnic Germans ” from the Banat (Romania) .

In 1945, streams of refugees from Silesia, some of whom were housed in emergency and private quarters, crossed the city. In February Görlitz was the target of the Red Army units advancing as part of the Lower Silesian Operation , but they were turned back a few kilometers from the city on February 17th and pushed back a few kilometers in the Battle of Lauban at the beginning of April . It was not until February 18 that the order to evacuate the city was issued. Of the former population of almost 100,000, just under 30,000 remained. Bombing and gunfire by Soviet low- flying aircraft resulted in several deaths. On March 8th, Joseph Goebbels spoke in the town hall in order to exploit the marginal gain in land near Lauban, where he spoke the following day, for propaganda purposes. On March 30th, Görlitz was declared a fortress. The population feared the destruction of their city in the last days of the war, but the advance of the 1st Ukrainian Front against Torgau took place north of Görlitz, mainly via Niesky and Spremberg. A side thrust by the 2nd Polish Army in the rear of the Görlitz front section was repulsed on April 19 near Kodersdorf, so that Görlitz remained in the hands of the Wehrmacht until the surrender. From May 6, Görlitz was under sporadic Soviet artillery fire. Mayor Hans Meinshausen as well as NSDAP officials and activists fled the next day. The town hall and the Görlitz towers were prevented from being blown up. However, all of the Neisse bridges were blown up by the retreating Wehrmacht units.

Görlitz since 1945

post war period

After the liberation from the Nazi regime, Görlitz was part of the Soviet zone of occupation . Many people from the Sudetenland or Silesia sought refuge in the city. Since Görlitz was unable to cope with these crowds, a famine broke out.

On May 10, 1945, the Soviet city commandant, Colonel Guard Nesterow, appointed a magistrate under Lord Mayor Alfred Fehler , who, however, died on August 13 of the effects of typhoid fever . By order of Nesterov, the city administration organized a children's festival in the city hall garden on May 20th. The tram started operating again on June 2nd. The first edition of the newspaper “Announcement for Görlitz City and Country” appeared on June 7th and three days later, on June 10th, the city theater reopened its doors. The city issued its own postage stamps from June 13th. On July 9th, Görlitz and the western part of the former administrative district Liegnitz were incorporated into the state of Saxony. On August 28, the state administration of Saxony declared the city and district of Görlitz to be an emergency area. In August alone, 945 people died, especially children and the elderly.

On June 21st, the expulsion of the German population from the eastern part of the city ( Zgorzelec ) began. The city administration decided that they should continue to be treated as Görlitzers, not as displaced persons.

Local groups of the KPD, SPD , DDP , LDP and the CDU were formed in June and July .

From August 15 to December 7, Walter Oehme was Lord Mayor.

On October 30th, 38 factories in Görlitz were confiscated on the orders of the Soviet military administration on the grounds that they belonged to Nazi and war criminals.

On December 1st, 27 streets and squares such as B. Adolf-Hitler-Strasse to Berliner Strasse . In addition to Karl-Marx-Platz , there were other names of streets after communist and socialist personalities as well as resistance fighters against the Nazi regime. Next to Friedrich-Engels- Strasse and Rosa-Luxemburg- Strasse you can still find Karl-Marx- Strasse today . There is also a monument to the Scholl siblings in the form of a street. On November 14th, the city theater was named Gerhart Hauptmanns.

The Görlitzer Culture Week took place from March 24th to March 31st, 1946. On March 31, the local groups of the SPD and KPD were forced to merge to form the SED . On May 1, 1946, there was the first free May rally on the Obermarkt since 1932. In the municipal elections on September 1, the SED received 26 seats, the LDP 16 and the CDU 8 seats in the city parliament.

The Kaisertrutz served as an exhibition space for art

On April 5, the Görlitz / Löbau association was formed to redevelop the Berzdorf-Tauchritz lignite district. In September work began in the new Volksbad am Weinberg . Many Görlitzers were involved in its construction as part of the National Reconstruction Works (NAW).

From July 4th to 18th, 209 companies took part in an industrial and commercial exhibition. The municipal art collection in Kaisertrutz was reopened on October 29th .

The districts of Görlitz and Weißwasser were merged to form the district of Weißwasser-Görlitz in January 1947 , and in the course of the year the district headquarters changed from Weißwasser to the centrally located town of Niesky . In 1947, the Soviet administration transferred many large Görlitz companies, including wagon construction, to public ownership . On August 25, the polyclinic at Konsulplatz 3 was opened with eight specialist departments.

From February 23 to March 6, 1948, the trial of the guards of the former Leschwitz concentration camp , including commandant Ernst Krüger, took place in the Humboldthaus. Former Mayor Dr. Meinshausen , and the last NSDAP district leader, Dr. Malitz , were sentenced to death during the trial in the town hall from April 6-22 for crimes against humanity . On September 12th, on the occasion of a day of remembrance for the victims of fascism, the memorial was unveiled on Wilhelmsplatz, which was then called Karl-Marx-Platz.

Görlitz in the GDR

Interior view of the old HO department store

On October 7, 1949, the year the GDR was founded , Weinhübel and Klingewalde were incorporated and the city grew to 101,742 inhabitants. 1952 Biesnitz was added to the city area.

The first express train wagons for the Deutsche Reichsbahn were completed on January 21 at VEB Waggonbau Görlitz . The Natural History Museum at Marienplatz reopened on April 22nd. On November 14th, the city administration took over the administrative tasks from the Soviet headquarters .

On June 23, 1950, the then largest HO department store in the GDR opened in the former Karstadt on Demianiplatz. The Prime Ministers of the German Democratic Republic and the People's Republic of Poland , Otto Grotewohl and Józef Cyrankiewicz , signed the Görlitz Agreement on July 6th in the former Upper Lusatian Hall of Fame in Zgorzelec. In it, the Oder-Neisse border was set as the state border between the two countries.

On October 11th, the President of the GDR, Wilhelm Pieck , visited Görlitz. He spoke to around 50,000 people on the Obermarkt, then Leninplatz. The first new apartments on Reichertstrasse were handed over on December 19.

The Stadium of Friendship next to the Volksbad was inaugurated on November 13, 1951. On the same day, the memorial was unveiled in the Jewish cemetery in memory of the victims of the Biesnitzer Grund concentration camp .

On February 28, VEB Waggonbau Görlitz handed over the first double-decker cars to the Deutsche Reichsbahn. By 1984, the company had produced around 4,000 of the wagons, which were also coveted abroad.

The recreated Justitia on the steps of the town hall was unveiled on April 30th. The original was one of the outsourcing losses. In July, the VEB capacitors factory started production on the Uferstraße. On July 23, Görlitz was incorporated into the Dresden district.

June 17, 1953 and its consequences

The defendants Egon Gericke (left), assault and state peace book, one year and nine months in prison; Werner Herbig , five years in prison.

Musselminna fountain on the Postplatz

On June 17, 1953 , as in many other cities in the GDR, an uprising broke out. In contrast to other cities, Görlitz succeeded in temporarily setting up new organs of power that had already started negotiations with the deposed city administration. Employees of VEB Waggonbau LOWA Görlitz protested early in the morning . Many employees from other companies joined the strikers on their way to Leninplatz , today's Obermarkt, as well as housewives, pensioners and high school students. The aim was to confront the mayor. A one and a half hour rally followed at lunchtime, organized by an inter-company strike committee and attended by over 30,000 people. This ultimately gave the impetus to change the local power structure. It was decided to dismiss the mayor and the town hall was occupied. The SED district leadership and the State Security Building (MfS) were also seized by the people. A total of 417 political prisoners in the correctional facility on Stalinplatz and the prison on Untermarkt were released by the rebellious people. The strike continued and an unarmed vigilante group was launched. Another rally was to take place in the afternoon. A 20-member committee from all walks of life was put together to coordinate and lead the further measures for the change of power.

Until 2 p.m., in addition to the town hall and the SED district leadership, the FDJ district leadership, bars of the National Front , the Society for German-Soviet Friendship in Görlitz, the local seat of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany , the district registration office of the Kasernierte People's Police (KVP), the district court , the HO department store and the editorial staff of the Sächsische Zeitung . Symbols of the previous government such as busts, banners and pictures, but also files, were thrown out of the windows of the institutions. The committee repeatedly called on the population to be non-violent. At 2 p.m., a state of emergency was imposed on the Dresden district and thus also on Görlitz . After the uprising was put down by reinforcements from the KVP and the Stasi, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested. The head of the Görlitz MfS district office, Johannes Niesner , was relieved of his office after the incidents. In the trials after June 17th, long prison terms were pronounced against the " ringleaders ". Many of the prisoners left the GDR after the end of their prison term and immigrated to the FRG.

In 1956 the city hospital took on its status as a district hospital. The first trains between Poland and the GDR crossed the built viaduct on July 2nd. On October 1st of the following year, the bridge of friendship was opened for motor traffic. From January 1, 1972, it became possible to travel between Poland and the GDR without a passport or visa . During this time, the residents of Görlitz and Zgorzelec began to make contacts for the first time. Eight years later, in 1980, the GDR closed the borders again for fear of the Polish Solidarność movement.

Meridian stone of the 15th degree of longitude

In 1961 the meridian stone was placed near the town hall in memory of the first manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin . This should mark the course of the 15th degree of longitude through Görlitz. However, recent measurements have shown that the 15th meridian runs 137 m east of the stone.

Between 1961 and 1966, Poland returned the majority of the archival material that had been relocated during the war to the Council Archives. From June 12th to 20th, 1971, Görlitz celebrated its 900th anniversary. Amiens (France) and Molfetta (Italy) became twin cities

In 1975 the social housing subsidy began in Görlitz. The first of 1,100 new residential buildings were built in Rauschwalde. One year later, the foundation stone for the largest new building area was laid in Königshufen. In 1986, 6,000 apartments were handed over in the Königshufen development area, which was connected to the tram network a year later.

By the 1980s, the old buildings in Görlitz's old town had fallen into disrepair. Instead of renovating these buildings, the decision was made to invest in new residential projects, such as the prefabricated housing estates in Königshufen and Weinhübel. The outskirts of the city grew rapidly while the inner city degenerated. At the end of the 1980s, the building fabric of the old and inner city was so dilapidated that drill holes were drilled into the facades to attach explosive charges.

Due to the reunification , however, this plan was discarded and generous plans for the redevelopment of the city were decided. The Hessian state capital Wiesbaden made a particularly large number of investments in its partner city Görlitz. The then Lord Mayor of Wiesbaden, Achim Exner , was made an honorary citizen of the city of Görlitz on the basis of these services .

German reunification and the present

The new old town bridge between Görlitz and Zgorzelec

After the GDR joined the FRG in the course of German reunification , renovation work began on the old and inner city in order to turn Görlitz into a cultural center and a tourist town . Since then, the so-called “ old town million ” has also been transferred to the city's account. The former chairman of the German Foundation for Monument Protection , Gottfried Kiesow , described Görlitz as “the most beautiful city in Germany”. With the renovation of the old buildings, they also began to dismantle the block buildings.

On February 26, 1993, the grammar school on Klosterplatz was given its traditional name Gymnasium Augustum (Gorlicense) . From September 3rd to 5th, 270,000 visitors and 700 clubs celebrated Saxony's Day in Görlitz. In addition to 1,300 individual events, a large parade took place.

In 1994 the municipalities Deutsch Ossig , Hagenwerder , Tauchritz and Schlauroth were incorporated into the independent city of Görlitz.

On May 5, 1998, the city councils of the German city of Görlitz and the neighboring Polish city of Zgorzelec proclaimed the European city "Görlitz / Zgorzelec". As a sign of togetherness, the old town bridge, which was rebuilt on a historic site, was inaugurated on October 20, 2004 .

Already in 2001 they applied together for the title of “ European Capital of Culture 2010 ”. In this competition in 2006 the competitor city Essen , which represented the entire Ruhr area , was defeated in the final .

As part of the Saxon district reform , on August 1, 2008, the district-free city of Görlitz was merged with the Lower Silesian Upper Lusatia district and the district of Löbau-Zittau to form the district of Görlitz . The district office first moved into the Jägerkaserne and in 2013 the completed district administration building opposite the train station .

literature

• Karlheinz Blaschke : Contributions to the history of Upper Lusatia. Collected Essays. Oettel, Görlitz 2003, ISBN 3-932693-59-0 .
• Karlheinz Blaschke: The beginnings of the city of Görlitz. In: Peter Johanek (Ed.) With the collaboration of Uwe John: Stadtgrundriß und Stadtentwicklung. Research on the development of central European cities. Selected essays by Karlheinz Blaschke. (= Urban research: series A, representations. Volume 44.) Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-412-06897-7 , pp. 329–341.
• Walter von Boetticher : Sculteti e libris rerum gestarum Grolicensium. In: New Lusatian Magazine. Volume 91, 1915, pp. 161-197.
• Richard Jecht : Movements of the Görlitz craftsmen against the council until 1396. In: New Lausitz magazine. Volume 84, 1908, pp. 110-127.
• Richard Jecht: The Upper Lusatian Hussite War and the Land of the Six Cities under Emperor Sigmund , Görlitz 1911, pp. 227, 283, 327.
• Richard Jecht: War and fire difficulties and their consequences for Görlitz buildings. In: New Lusatian Magazine. Volume 93, 1917, pp. 144-158.
• Walter Jecht: New investigations into the founding history of the city of Görlitz. New Lusatian magazine. Volume 95, 1919, pp. 1-62.
• Ernst-Heinz Lemper : Görlitz and Upper Lusatia in the century of the Reformation. In: Erich Donnert (Ed.): Europe in the early modern times. Festschrift for Günter Mühlpfordt. Volume 1. Böhlau, Weimar 1997, pp. 281-300.
• Lutz Mohr : The Hussites in Upper Lusatia with special consideration of their campaigns in the years from 1424 to 1434 . Special edition No. 2/2014 of the series: History and stories from Neusalza-Spremberg. Greifswald and Neusalza-Spremberg 2014
• Christoph Waack: Görlitz / Zgorzelec . Ed .: Peter Haslinger et al. (=  Historical-topographical atlas of Silesian cities / Historyczno-topograficzny atlas miast śląskich . Volume 1 ). Herder Institute, Marburg / Wrocław 2010, ISBN 978-3-87969-361-0 ( herder-institut.de ).
• Alfred Zobel: The beginnings of the Reformation in Görlitz and the Prussian Upper Lusatia. Parish Association of Protestant Congregations, Görlitz 1925.
• Theodor Neumann : History of Görlitz. With a view and a site plan of the city. Görlitz 1850 ( e-copy ).
• Theodor Neumann : Magdeburg Weisthümer from the originals of the Görlitzer Rathsarchives . Görlitz 1852 ( e-copy ).

Web links

• Urban development of Görlitz / Zgorzelec multimedia in the historical-topographical atlas of Silesian cities
• History of Görlitz in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
• Website of the city of Görlitz
• Greeks in Görlitz 1916–1919

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Richard Jecht: History of the City of Görlitz, Volume 1 . 1st edition. Verlag des Magistrates der Stadt Görlitz, 1934, p. 5 f .
2. ↑ Jasper von Richthofen: Besunzane - Milzener - Sorbs. In: Jasper von Richthofen (ed.): Besunzane, Milzener, Sorben. The Slavic Upper Lusatia between Poles, Germans and Czechs. (Series of publications of the municipal collections for history and culture Görlitz NF 37). Görlitz 2004, p. 7. Earlier research assumed a Slavic settlement as early as the middle of the 7th century. see Joachim Herrmann (ed.): The Slavs in Germany . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1985, p. 30 ( publications of the Central Institute for Ancient History and Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR , Vol. 14).
3. ↑ Joachim Bahlcke (Ed.): History of Upper Lusatia. Dominion, society and culture from the Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century . Leipziger Univ.-Verl., Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-935693-46-X , p. 55 f.
4. ↑ Jasper von Richthofen: The state crown near Görlitz - an important Slavic fortification in eastern Upper Lusatia . In: Work and research reports on the preservation of monuments in Saxony . Vol. 45, 2003, p. 282.
5. ↑ Joachim Bahlcke (Ed.): History of Upper Lusatia. Dominion, society and culture from the Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century . Leipziger Univ.-Verl., Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-935693-46-X , pp. 55f. For the background to the fighting that lasted from 1002 to 1031 see: Herbert Ludat: An Elbe und Oder around the year 1000. Sketches on the politics of the Ottonian empire and the Slavic powers in Central Europe. Böhlau Verlag, Weimar 1995, ISBN 3-412-11994-6 , p.
6. ↑ "Namque Othelricus quandam urbem magnam, Businc dictam, petiit, et in ea non minus quam mille viros absque mulieribus et liberis capiens, incendit eandam, et victor remeavit." - Robert Holtzmann (ed.): The Chronicle of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg and their Korveier revision . Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin 1935 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica 6. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum. Nova series 9 ), p. 842, dmgh.de
7. ↑ Richard Jecht: First mention of Upper Lusatia. - The Gau Besunzane and the urbs Businc are equal to the places Biesnitz and the Landeskrone. - Where was Sciciani? In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin Vol. 97, 1921, pp. 188–199. Alternatively, Berthold Bretholz : Studies on Cosmas of Prague (1st part). In: Neues Archiv , 34, 1909, p. 677f., Digizeitschriften.de Bzenec in Moravia identified with Businc. On the other hand, the archaeological evidence speaks in favor of the state crown, see Jasper von Richthofen: The state crown near Görlitz - an important Slavic fortification in eastern Upper Lusatia . In: Arbeits- und Forschungsberichte zur Sächsische Bodendenkmalpflege , 45, 2003, p. 293. Such a report is missing in Bzenec, see Josef Poulík: The Latest Archaeological Discoveries from the Period of the Great Moravian Empire. In: Historica , 1, 1959, p. 62.
8. ↑ Document No. 246 of December 11, 1071 in: Dietrich von Gladiss (Ed.): Diplomata 17: The documents of Heinrich IV. (Heinrici IV. Diplomata). Part 1: 1056-1076 Berlin 1941, pp. 311-313 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
9. ↑ Joachim Huth : The settlement history basics and requirements for the city development of Görlitz and Löbau . In: Letopis vol. 18 issue 2, p. 216f.
10. ↑ Manfred Kobuch: To determine the location of the commercial courtyards of the Hohenstaufen table goods directory in the Meissnian brand area . In: Lutz Frenzke (ed.): German royal palaces. Contributions to their historical and archaeological research Vol. 4. Pfalzen - Reichsgut - Königshöfe . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1996, ISBN 3-525-35436-3 , pp. 356-368. In contrast, Joachim Huth takes that as BUDESIN called complex the 1,018 mentioned by Thietmar of Merseburg, west of the Elbe suspected Titibutzin equivalent, so only Melza scattered in Upper Lusatia royal Villikationen Joachim Huth called, see:. The settlement historical fundamentals and Requirements for the development of Görlitz and Löbau . In: Letopis vol. 18 issue 2, p. 210.
11. ^ Karlheinz Blaschke: Contributions to the history of Upper Lusatia. Collected essays . Oettel, Görlitz 2003, ISBN 3-932693-59-0 , p. 213.
12. ↑ Joachim Bahlcke (Ed.): History of Upper Lusatia. Dominion, society and culture from the Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century . Leipziger Univ.-Verl., Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-935693-46-X , p. 59.
13. ^ "Eodem tempore quasdam munitiones Bohemi reaedificaverunt, quae slavice Przimda, Yzcorelik, Tachow appelantur." - Rudolf Köpke: Cosmae chronica Boemorum . In: Georg Heinrich Pertz (Ed.): Chronica et annales aevi Salici . Monumenta Germaniae Historica 11. Scriptores 9. Hahn-Verlag, Hanover 1851, Unchanged reprint Hiersemann-Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-7772-6313-3 , pp. 1–209, 843–846, here p. 133, line 29 -30. dmgh.de Josef Emler (Ed.): Cosmae Chronicon Boemorum cum continuatoribus (Fontes rerum Bohemicarum T. 2). Prague 1874, reprint Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim et al. 2004, ISBN 3-487-12666-4 , p. 205, lines 4-6
14. ↑ "Interea trans currente tempore dux Sobezlaus ad radicem cuiusdam villae nomine Tachow in finibus Mesko castrum aedificavit, quod ex nomine adiacentis villae appellavit; aliud quoque aedificavit in partibus Milesko iuxta flumen Niza, appellavitque nomine Yzhorelik, quod antea et Drenow vocabatur. “Rudolf Köpke: Cosmae chronica Boemorum . In: Georg Heinrich Pertz (Ed.): Chronica et annales aevi Salici . Monumenta Germaniae Historica 11. Scriptores 9. Hahn-Verlag, Hanover 1851, Unchanged reprint Hiersemann-Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-7772-6313-3 , pp. 1–209, 843–846, here p. 137 line 2 –6. dmgh.de
15. ^ Günter Rennebach: Archaeological investigations on the Görlitzer Vogtshof . In: Contributions to prehistory and early history, Vol. 2. Work and research reports on the preservation of soil monuments in Saxony. Supplement 17 . Verl. D. Wiss., Berlin 1982, pp. 299-314.
16. ↑ Walter Jecht: New studies on the founding history of the city of Görlitz . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin , vol. 95, p. 21.
17. ^ Karlheinz Blaschke: Contributions to the history of Upper Lusatia. Collected essays . Oettel, Görlitz 2003, ISBN 3-932693-59-0 , p. 213ff.
18. ^ ^{A b} Karlheinz Blaschke: Contributions to the history of Upper Lusatia. Collected essays . Oettel, Görlitz 2003, ISBN 3-932693-59-0 , p. 223f. Ernst-Heinz Lemper: Burgberg and Neisse crossing. Remarks on the historical topography of Görlitz . In: Uwe John, Josef Matzerath (ed.): Regional history as a challenge and program. Karlheinz Blaschke on his 70th birthday ( sources and research on Saxon history 15 ). Verl. D. Saxon. Akad. D. Knowledge zu Leipzig, Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-515-07212-8 , pp. 109-122.
19. ↑ Joachim Bahlcke (Ed.): History of Upper Lusatia. Dominion, society and culture from the Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century . Leipziger Univ.-Verl., Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-935693-46-X , pp. 80f.
20. ↑ Gustav Köhler (Ed.): Codex Diplomaticus Lusatiae superioris 1. Vol. Görlitz 1856, No. 58, pp. 92–95. Online edition
21. ↑ In the Ascanian rulership, in the middle of the 13th century, there was a change from a city policy based on the establishment of market settlements ( castra cum oppido ) to the establishment of cities without a castle complex ( civitas ). In 1295 the lordly castle in Rathenow was handed over to the citizenship and demolished in the course of the granting of town charter (Winfried Schich: Berlyn, Struzberch, Vrankenvorde ... et alia loca plurima exstruxerunt. On the construction of the towns in the Mark Brandenburg in the 13th century. In : Wilhelm Janssen, Margret Wensky (Hrsg.): Mitteleuropäisches Städtewesen in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. Dedicated to Edith Ennen. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-412-06099-2 , pp. 135f.) A similar approach is conceivable for Görlitz.
22. ↑ Walter Haupt: Saxon coinage . 1st edition. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin, Berlin 1974, p. 31 .
23. ↑ Introductory to the content and scope of the Görlitz city books: Paul Rehme: Stadtbuchstudien . In: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History . German Department. 37, 1916, pp. 1-93, esp. Pp. 2-26. The stocks that are still preserved today have, however, shrunk considerably due to losses due to outsourcing during the Second World War.
24. ^ Richard Jecht: History of the city of Görlitz. Vol. 1 Part 1 General history of the city of Görlitz in the Middle Ages . Görlitz 1934, p. 43f.
25. ↑ Gustav Köhler (Ed.): Codex Diplomaticus Lusatiae Superioris Vol. 1 . Görlitz 1856, No. 196, 199, 203.
26. ↑ Gustav Köhler (Ed.): Codex Diplomaticus Lusatiae Superioris Vol. 1 . Görlitz 1856, no.205, 222, 233.
27. ↑ Richard Jecht: History of the city of Görlitz. Vol. 1 Part 1 General history of the city of Görlitz in the Middle Ages . Görlitz 1934, p. 107f.
28. ↑ Peter Views: Unrest in the corporate society 1300-1800 . Oldenbourg, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-486-54901-4 ( Encyclopedia of German History Vol. 1), pp. 8f., 53f.
29. ^ Richard Jecht: Movements of the Görlitz craftsmen against the council until 1396 . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin vol. 84, 1908, pp. 111f.
30. ↑ printed in: Richard Jecht: Movements of the Görlitz craftsmen against the council until 1396 . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin vol. 84, 1908, pp. 124ff.
31. ^ Reprint of the letter handed down in the Annales Sculteti for the year 1343 in: Richard Jecht: Movements of the Görlitzer craftsmen against the council until 1396 . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin vol. 84, 1908, p. 112ff.
32. ^ Richard Jecht: Movements of the Görlitz craftsmen against the council until 1396 . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin vol. 84, 1908, pp. 117f.
33. ^ Richard Jecht: Movements of the Görlitz craftsmen against the council until 1396 . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin vol. 84, 1908, p. 119.
34. ^ Richard Jecht: Movements of the Görlitz craftsmen against the council until 1396 . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin vol. 84, 1908, p. 121ff.
35. ↑ ^{a b} Richard Jecht: War and Fire Distress and their Forlgen for Görlitz Buildings . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin vol. 93 (1917), pp. 145f.
36. ↑ Richard Jecht: The Upper Lusatian Hussite War and the Land of the Six Cities under Emperor Sigmund , Görlitz 1911, pp. 227, 283, 327.
37. ^ Richard Jecht , History of the City of Görlitz, page 197 f .; Self-published by the author, Görlitz 1922
38. ↑ W. v. Boetticher: B. Sculteti e libris rerum gestarum Grolicensium . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin , Vol. 91, 1915, p. 182.
39. ↑ W. v. Boetticher: B. Sculteti e libris rerum gestarum Grolicensium . In: Neues Lausitzisches Magazin , Vol. 91, 1915, p. 164.
40. ↑ Katja Margarethe Mieth, Marius Winzeler: The coat of arms of King Matthias Corvinus at the Görlitz town hall - subtle gesture of homage and urban self-portrayal . In: New Lusatian Magazine. NF 11 (2008), p. 23ff.
41. ↑ Inge Küken, Lothar Küken: You worked in Silesia: important personalities on the old cultural routes "via regia" and "Niedere Strasse" . Senfkorn, 2004, p. 26.
42. ↑ Manfred Wilde : The sorcery and witch trials in Electoral Saxony . Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2003, p. 507.
43. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 5 .
44. ^ Official Journal of the Prussian Government in Liegnitz 1873, p. 250
45. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 5 f .
46. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 10 .
47. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 5, 8 f .
48. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 14 .
49. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 30 .
50. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 41 .
51. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 46 f .
52. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 52 f .
53. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 86 f., 91 .
54. ^ Hermann Schwiebert: Chocolate and sugar factory Mattke and Sydow. Website DeichSPIEGEL - the online magazine from Bremerhaven, September 1, 2011, accessed on May 1, 2021 . 
55. ↑ Why Görlitz city fathers are afraid of a Torah scroll. In: Spiegel Online . Retrieved June 6, 2010 . 
56. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 106 f., 111 .
57. ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 112 .
58. ^ Peter Wenzel: War damage 1945 in Görlitz . In: Preservation of monuments in Görlitz . No. 11 . Verlag Gunter Oettel, Görlitz, Zittau 2002, p. 31–37 , here p. 31 .
59. ↑ Cf. Eberhard Berndt: The battles for Weißenberg and Bautzen in April 1945. Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1999, pp. 8 ff, 91 ff. М. Зварцева, 3-я гвардейская танковая. Москва́ 1982, pp. 227-234. Walther Nehring : The battle for Lauban. In: German Soldier Yearbook. 1970, p. 52 ff.
60. ↑ Hans Joachim Übersaer: Görlitz. 1945 1946 . Ed .: News Office of the City of Görlitz. Hoffmann & Reiber, Görlitz 1946, p. 17 .
61. ↑ Ronny Kabus: "... I cry for my father every day". In the hands of Stalin and the SED . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2011, ISBN 978-3-8423-3102-0 , pp. 85 ( books.google.de ).
62. ↑ Roger Engelmann : Popular uprising against the SED state - an inventory for June 17, 1953. ISBN 978-3-525-35004-1 .

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