Helbra

Basic data
State :	Saxony-Anhalt
County :	Mansfeld-Südharz
Association municipality :	Mansfeld Grund-Helbra
Height :	236 m above sea level NHN
Area :	9.26 km 2
Residents:	3986 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	430 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	06311
Area code :	034772
License plate :	MSH, EIL, HET, ML, SGH
Community key :	15 0 87 205
LOCODE :	DE ZAH
Address of the ; municipal administration:	At the hut 1 ; 06311 Helbra
Website :	www.gemeinde-helbra.de
Mayor :	Alfred Böttge ( SPD )
Location of the community of Helbra in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz

Helbra is a municipality in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz in Saxony-Anhalt . The municipality is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Mansfelder Grund-Helbra .

geography

Geographical location

Helbra is about seven kilometers northwest of Lutherstadt Eisleben and about six kilometers southeast of Mansfeld .

Helbra, aerial photo (2018)

Expansion of the municipal area

Helbra is a relatively small municipality with its 9.26 km², due to this small size and the larger extent of the village Helbra it has a medium-high degree of urbanization. By far the largest share of the area of the municipality has arable land and fields, followed by the share of settlement area. Another corresponding proportion is covered by forest area. The exact numbers can be found in the table below. The proportion of the water surface is small, since apart from a few rivulets, which were not counted, there is only one small body of water.

Area according to type of use	Total area in ha	Share in the area of the municipality
Settlement area	316.9	34.5%
Forest and meadows	106.3	11.6%
Fields and fields	502.8	52.6%
Water surface	6.3	0.7%

Source : geoportal.de, the information is freely measurable.

Neighboring communities

Neighboring communities are Klostermansfeld and Benndorf in the north, Lutherstadt Eisleben in the east, Hergisdorf in the south and Ahlsdorf in the west.

history

The community was first mentioned in a document in 1155.

The name of the place was probably due to its location between Mansfeld and Eisleben. At this point you had made half the distance and also the ascent from Eisleben through the thieves' chamber. So you were halfway to your goal, in Mansfeld dialect “helb ra”. This is how the place name came about, the place itself is now called "Hälwer" in Mansfeld dialect.

Helbra's history over the past 150 years was very much shaped by industrialization ( ironworks , copper slate mining , mining railway ). Hardly anything of that can be seen today; only those familiar with history can explain the traces. The regional specialist literature on this subject is informative. After termination and relocation in the direction of Sangerhausen, the industry is in decline. The largest operation was the August-Bebel-Hütte , the largest and last raw copper smelter in the GDR (probably also in Germany). Here the ore from the Mansfeld pits, which mostly contained just 1.5% copper, was processed into raw copper stone (approx. 60% copper). This was then processed into the purest copper in Hettstedt (formerly the copper-silver smelter). At the turn of 1990 the hut was closed. A landmark of Helbra, the Lange Heinrich (the approx. 90 m high chimney), was also blown up.

A tram line, the so-called union railway, ran between Eisleben and Hettstedt until 1922. The flat connection across the Grunddörfer allowed this route. This connection was discontinued in 1922 due to high maintenance costs. Today only the embankments between Ziegelrode and Helbra and between Helbra and Klostermansfeld (Sommerweg) are reminiscent of this tram route. The only remaining bridge is in the area of the Neptun-Bad in Helbra (passage to the gas station).

politics

Lehbreite settlement

Art Nouveau villa

Former municipal office

Municipal council

According to the local elections on August 30, 2009, the municipal council consists of 16 people. The local elections in 2009 led to the following result with a turnout of 37.5%:

Party / list	Share of votes	Seats	+ / -
CDU	36.2%	6th	- 1
FWH	20.6%	3	+ 2
The left	20.1%	3	± 0
SPD	17.9%	3	± 0
Individual applicants	5.2%	1	± 0

mayor

The honorary mayor Alfred Böttge was elected for the first time on June 26, 1994; he was confirmed in office in 2001, 2008 and 2015.

coat of arms

The coat of arms was approved on July 22, 1993 by the Halle regional council.

Blazon : "In silver, on a black floor, three green linden trees with a black trunk, the middle linden tree partially covering the sides."

flag

The flag of the municipality of Helbra shows the colors green - silver (white).

Town twinning

A partnership has existed since 1990 with the municipality of Finnentrop from North Rhine-Westphalia .

View of the village of Helbra

Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Stephen

Roman Catholic Church of St. Barbara

Culture and sights

Museums

Homeland and mining nature trail , with a Malakow tower and the still intact Schmidschacht.

Buildings

The Protestant St. Stephen's Church with a 1000 year old tower and a remarkable inner entrance door: this is not cut to size with a saw, but healed.
Evangelical rectory.
Remains of mining facilities such as the Schmid shaft
The Catholic Church of St. Barbara .
Bad Anna and Neptunbad

Regular events

The brass music festival of the Mansfeld region takes place every 2 years on the last weekend in June. In the years in between, the summer festival is celebrated on Bad Anna.

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

To the federal highway 180 , which connects Eisleben and Hettstedt , it is 4 km to the east.
Helbra is on the Berlin – Blankenheim railway line . From here, trains ran over the Wipperliese to Wippra until mid-2012 ; however, since mid-2012 the trains have only been running between Klostermansfeld and Wippra. Passenger trains no longer stop in Helbra.
In Helbra is the intersection of the important historical trade route between Eisleben via the thieves' chamber (steep and winding ascent) via Klostermansfeld to Hettstedt and the connection between Volkstedt via the Grunddörfer via Wimmelburg to Eisleben.

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the church

Wilhelm Spielberg (1826–1890), member of the Reichstag and Landtag
August Hermann Spielberg (1827–1886), architect
Robert Eimler (1891–1960), major general
Heinz Schwitzke (1908–1991), author and editor
Paul Steinbrück (1911–1994), physician
Fritz Schenk (1930–2006), publicist and journalist
Rolf Dach (* 1934), youth functionary (FDJ) and GDR diplomat
Dieter Montag (* 1949), actor
Norbert Bischoff (* 1950), SPD politician, 1994–2016 Member of the State Parliament in Saxony-Anhalt