Graefenthal

Basic data
State :	Thuringia
County :	Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
Management Community :	Slate mountains
Height :	400 m above sea level NHN
Area :	36.42 km 2
Residents:	1935 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	53 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	98743
Primaries :	036703, 036701 Lippelsdorf
License plate :	SLF, RU
Community key :	16 0 73 028
LOCODE :	DE 9GT
City structure:	8 districts
; City administration address :	Marktplatz 1 ; 98743 Graefenthal
Website :	www.graefenthal.de
Mayor :	Wolfgang Wehr
Location of the city of Graefenthal in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district

Gräfenthal is a country town in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district in Thuringia . The city belongs to the administrative community Schiefergebirge , which has its administrative seat in the municipality of Probstzella .

geography

The city of Graefenthal is located in a side valley of the Loquitz , a tributary of the Saale . Graefenthal is surrounded by the Thuringian Slate Mountains . The mountains in the region rise up to 800 m above sea level. NN and are wooded with spruce. Neuhaus am Rennweg is to the west of Graefenthal and Probstzella to the east . The Rennsteig runs about four kilometers south of the city.

Neighboring communities

Clockwise, starting in the north: Saalfeld / Saale , Probstzella , Ludwigsstadt , Tettau , Sonneberg and Neuhaus am Rennweg .

City structure

Gräfenthal is made up of eight districts:

history

The place was first mentioned in a document in 1288 . It is a foundation of the local noble family of the Lords of Graefenthal, who were wealthy in the surrounding villages and probably also built their first manor on the site of today's Wespenstein Castle. There is no reliable knowledge about this sex, but they should have received the fief directly from the Landgraves of Thuringia, as the surrounding Saalfeld Forest was one of the few larger contiguous territories in the immediate possession of the Landgraves .

After the Graefenthalers died out, the Meran counts of Orlamünde took over the property. This initially enfeoffed the Lords of Gräfendorf , but eventually used it as a residence themselves when they gradually lost their homeland in Orlagau to the Wettins . Increasing economic decline forced the Orlamünder 1394 Gräfenthal Castle with all associated places and rights to the Wettin fiefs and finally in 1426 sold to Duke Friedrich I of Saxony . In 1438 the Wettins sold this new acquisition to the Reichserbmarschalls von Pappenheim without giving up the feudal sovereignty. Their Graefenthal line ended with the death of Christoph Ulrich von Pappenheim on December 19, 1599. In 1621 Maximilian von Pappenheim sold the rule of Graefenthal to Duke Johann Philipp von Sachsen-Altenburg for 130,000 guilders . The Graefenthal office fell to the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg , and after the division of the inheritance in 1680 to Saxony-Saalfeld .

The Saigerhütte Gräfenthal existed from 1462 until 1635. As early as 1748 used the built in Gräfenthal Porcelain - Manufactory Unger, Schneider & Cie. its own porcelain brand.

Incorporations

The city reached its current size on April 9, 1994 through the incorporation of the municipalities of Lippelsdorf, Lichtenhain, Großneundorf, Gebersdorf and Buchbach.

Population development

Development of the population: (as of December 31st)

1994 to 1999 1994: 3.146 1995: 3,108 1996: 3.063 1997: 3.036 1998: 3,003 1999: 2,959	2000 to 2005 2000: 2,913 2001: 2,866 2002: 2,871 2003: 2,808 2004: 2,751 2005: 2,692	2006 to 2011 2006: 2,692 2007: 2,587 2008: 2,535 2009: 2,499 2010: 2,471 2011: 2,208	2012 to 2017 2012: 2,150 2013: 2,102 2014: 2,056 2015: 2,035 2016: 2,007 2017: 1,980	from 2018 2018: 1.963

Data source: Thuringian State Office for Statistics

politics

town hall

City council

The council of the city of Graefenthal consists of 12 council women and councilors.

Voluntary fire brigade of the unified municipality of the city of Gräfenthal / Citizens' Initiative for Justified Local Taxes (FFW / BI): 8 seats
Village associations (DV): 2 seats
CDU : 2 seats

(As of: local election on May 26, 2019)

Local election 2014:

FFW / BI: 8 seats
CDU: 3 seats
Village associations: 3 seats

Local election 2009:

Voluntary fire brigade of the Unified Municipality of the City of Gräfenthal / Citizens' Initiative for Justified Local Taxes (FFW / BI): 7 seats
Village associations (DV): 4 seats
CDU : 3 seats

mayor

Wolfgang Wehr has been mayor since July 1, 2018.

coat of arms

Blazon : “Divided by red over gold; Above the body of a looking Mohrin in a golden dress and a golden turban, below a leaping black lion with a red tongue. "The Mohrin comes from the crest of the coat of arms of the Marshal von Pappenheim, which consists of a growing Mohrin. (See also: Mohr ( Heraldry) #The Mohrin von Gräfenthal )

Buildings

Evangelical town church St. Marien and the old school (today inn / guesthouse)

Wespenstein Castle

Downtown

Wespenstein Castle
Border and Local History Museum in Graefenthal
City church , restored Art Nouveau painting in Thuringia
town hall
Railway viaduct
city Park
War memorial

Economy and Infrastructure

Graefenthal used to live from mining and the trade route Nuremberg - Leipzig. Iron and slate and alum were mined. Today there are mainly two plastic factories, a furniture factory and various small businesses in the city.

Graefenthal used to advertise with the slogan "Visit the summer resort Graefenthal in the Thuringian Forest."

traffic

Graefenthal is on the road from Neuhaus am Rennweg to Probstzella . Other roads lead to the districts Creunitz, Buchbach, Lichtenhain Sommersdorf, Gebersdorf and Lippelsdorf to Reichmannsdorf and Tettau . In the past, the city also had a railway connection to the Probstzella – Neuhaus am Rennweg railway line, which has now been closed on this section .

education

In Gräfenthal there is a primary and a regular school: the state primary school Gräfenthal and the state regular school "Christoph Ullrich von Pappenheim" Gräfenthal. There is also the AWO day care center "Blumenwiese" as well as two youth clubs and an AWO meeting place .

sons and daughters of the town

Julie Ludwig (1832–1894), writer
Auguste Ludwig (1834–1909), genre and portrait painter
Oskar Sembach (1856–1943), porcelain technician and entrepreneur
Ernst Stapelfeld (1864–1929), politician (SPD), member of the state parliament of Saxony-Meiningen
Karl Konrad (1881–1958), high school teacher and writer; lived in Graefenthal for a few years; used the dialect of the inhabitants in his translation of the book * I Was a Pirate "by Edward John Trelawny to characterize one of the characters
Georg Grosch (1895–1987), music educator, composer
Reinhard Höhn (1904–2000), constitutional and administrative lawyer during the National Socialist era
Helmut Lipfert (1916–1990), fighter pilot in World War II
Jörg Peter Kotthaus (* 1944), physicist
Christian Paschold (* 1949), sculptor, artist
Roland Resch (* 1951), former Minister of Education of the State of Brandenburg
Ines Paulke (1958–2010), pop musician
Axel Zitzmann (* 1959), ski jumper
Helge Zöllkau (* 1961), athletics trainer
Stefan Stannarius (* 1961), ski jumper

literature

Graefenthal . In: August Schumann : Complete State, Post and Newspaper Lexicon of Saxony. 3rd volume. Schumann, Zwickau 1816, pp. 391-397.
Gräventhal . In: Matthäus Merian : Topographia Superioris Saxoniae ( Wikisource )

Web links

Commons : Gräfenthal - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Another website about the city

Individual evidence

^ Population of the municipalities from the Thuringian State Office for Statistics ( help on this ).

^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke (ed.): New general German nobility lexicon . Volume 3: Eberhard - Graffen. Friedrich Voigt, Leipzig 1861, p. 618, Textarchiv - Internet Archive .

↑ Werner Mägdefrau : Thuringia in the High Middle Ages (= writings of the Wartburg Foundation Eisenach , 6th Wartburg Foundation, Eisenach 1989, pp. 88–89, ZDB ID 32783-9 ).

^ Johann Adolph von Schultes : Sachsen Coburg-Saalfeldische Landesgeschichte. Department 2nd self-published, Coburg 1820, p. 129 ff.

^ Robert E. Röntgen: Marks on German, Bohemian, and Austrian Porcelain. 1710 to the Present. Schiffer, Exton PA 1981, ISBN 0-916838-38-2 , pp. 119, 122, ( preview via Google books ).

^ Thuringian State Office for Statistics. Retrieved March 18, 2020 .

^ Elections in Thuringia. Retrieved March 18, 2020 .

^ City administration Graefenthal. Retrieved March 18, 2020 .

^ Georg Stift border and local history museum. Retrieved March 18, 2020 .

↑ School portrait. In: schulportal-thueringen.de. Retrieved April 22, 2016 .

^ City administration Graefenthal. In: graefenthal.de. Retrieved April 22, 2016 .

↑ Julie Ludwig ( Wikisource )

[Metadaten_Einwohnerzahl_DE-TH-1] Population of the municipalities from the Thuringian State Office for Statistics ( help on this ).

[2] Ernst Heinrich Kneschke (ed.): New general German nobility lexicon . Volume 3: Eberhard - Graffen. Friedrich Voigt, Leipzig 1861, p. 618, Textarchiv - Internet Archive .