Kamenz

Basic data
State :	Saxony
County :	Bautzen
Height :	173 m above sea level NHN
Area :	98.3 km 2
Residents:	16,914 (Dec 31, 2019)
Population density :	172 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	01917
Primaries :	03578, 035797 (Schönbach)
License plate :	BZ, BIW, HY, KM
Community key :	14 6 25 250
; City administration address :	Market 1 ; 01917 Kamenz
Website :	www.kamenz.de
Lord Mayor :	Roland Dantz ( independent )
Location of the city of Kamenz in the Bautzen district

The Lessing town of Kamenz , in Upper Sorbian Kamjenc ^?^/ⁱ (literally "Small place on the stone"), is a large district town in the Bautzen district in Saxony . It is located about 40 km northeast of Dresden and about 30 km northwest of Bautzen .

geography

Geographical location

Kamenz, aerial photo 100 m above Hohen Strasse, view towards the city center, on the left the main church St. Marien, in the middle the town hall, on the right the monastery church St. Annen; in the background exactly in the middle above the town hall the Hutberg

Came from the air

The city is located in West Lusatia or western Upper Lusatia , at the foot of the Hutberg in the natural area of West Lusatian hills and mountains . The area forms the interface between the flat pond landscape in the north, one of the largest bodies of water - the Deutschbaselitzer Großteich - is located in the Kamenz area, and the Lausitzer Bergland in the south. Accordingly, the landscape in the north is characterized by flat, undulating heather , which rises relatively quickly to the south and already shows the character of a low mountain range in the Hennersdorf district. The highest elevations in the city are the Hennersdorfer Berg ( 387 m ) and the Walberg near Schwosdorf ( 360 m ).

Coming from the south and merging in the urban area with some other small streams, such as the Lange Wasser , the Schwarze Elster flows through Kamenz towards the north.

geology

Immediately under the streets of the city, under a moderately thick layer of loess, there are massive greywackle rocks , which are interrupted in some places by granite outcrops and partly protrude directly from the ground. Both rocks were mined intensively in the past, as evidenced by several closed quarries in the urban area (some directly next to residential areas). The most important quarry is likely to be the 80 meter deep Sparmann quarry , which is now a popular diving area . In the north and northeast you can find gravel and kaolin deposits that were created by the Elbe glacial valley .

Neighboring communities

Neighboring communities are in the north the city of Bernsdorf , in the northeast Oßling , in the east Nebelschütz , in the southeast the city Elstra , in the south Haselbachtal , in the west Neukirch and in the north-west Schwepnitz .

City structure

In addition to the city proper, Kamenz includes the following localities :

Locality	Residents	Incorporation date	annotation
Bernbruch	333	January 1, 1999
Biehla	494	1st January 2019	previously municipality Schönteichen
Brauna	426	1st January 2019	previously municipality Schönteichen
Cunnersdorf	553	1st January 2019	previously municipality Schönteichen
Deutschbaselitz Němske Pazlicy	448	January 1, 1999
Exactly	329	January 1, 1999	previously the municipality of Lückersdorf-Gelenau
House village	157	1st January 2019	previously municipality Schönteichen
Hennersdorf	115	January 1, 1999	previously the municipality of Lückersdorf-Gelenau
Jesau Jěžow	1766	1935
Liebenau	160	1st January 2019	previously municipality Schönteichen
Lückersdorf	404	January 1, 1999	previously the municipality of Lückersdorf-Gelenau
Petershain	70	1st January 2019	previously municipality Schönteichen
Rohrbach	37	1st January 2019	previously municipality Schönteichen
Schiedel Křidoł	93	January 1, 1999	previously the municipality of Zschornau-Schiedel
Schönbach	165	1st January 2019	previously municipality Schönteichen
Schwosdorf	164	1st January 2019	previously municipality Schönteichen
Thonberg Hlinowc	325	1st January 1974	was never an independent community, previously belonged to Wiesa
Why Brěznja	705	1st January 1974
Zschornau Čornow	237	January 1, 1999	previously the municipality of Zschornau-Schiedel

Around the Catholic Church of St. Maria Magdalena , today in the center of the city, there is also the area of the formerly independent municipality of Spittel , which was incorporated in 1903.

The districts Deutschbaselitz, Jesau, Kamenz, Thonberg and Wiesa are part of the official Sorbian settlement area .

history

Kamenz in 1837

Towards the end of the 12th century, a castle was built on the site of today's old town to secure the crossing of the Via Regia over the Black Elster . At that time the Via Regia was an important national trade route from Belgium to Silesia . The place was first mentioned in documents in 1225, and Kamenz had been a free city since 1319. In 1346 the Upper Lusatian Union of Six Cities was founded, the westernmost member of which was Kamenz. On October 6, 1429, Kamenz was besieged by the Hussites for several days and then captured. The historical news says that most of the residents were previously able to escape by fleeing and found acceptance in Dresden . The Bohemian “God's fighters” also haunted the surrounding area and devastated the open country town of Wittichenau and the St. Marienstern monastery . Then they moved towards Bautzen .

In 1547 Kamenz was affected by the Upper Lusatian Pönfall and lost some rights.

There were persecutions of witches in Kamenz from 1607 to 1655 : In 1607 Peter Babus, the hangman in Kamenz, was sentenced to death in a witch trial and in 1655 deacon Kaspar Dulichius was beheaded.

In 1707, a large city fire destroyed many houses in the old town. The poet and writer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born in Kamenz in 1729 .

On April 17, 1838, the “commercial Sunday school for the royal Saxon town of Kamenz” opened, which as a forerunner of the vocational school center was also the first trade school in Saxony.

In 1896 a permanent garrison was set up in Kamenz by royal resolution. At the beginning of the First World War , the Royal Saxon Reserve Infantry Regiment 242 was set up here and in the other two garrisons of the Saxon Upper Lusatia ( Zittau and Bautzen ) .

During the Second World War from October 1944 to April 1945 in the building of the shut down was Tuchfabrik Gebr. Noßke & Co. , Herrental no. 9 (code name "Elster GmbH"), a satellite camp of Gross-Rosen concentration camp operated in the nearly 1,000 prisoners among them 150 Jews , for whom Daimler-Benz AG had to manufacture aircraft engine parts. Until 1990, the officers' college of the air forces / air defense Franz Mehring of the NVA was located in Kamenz, with at times 1,500 students. The blue-gray uniforms determined the image of the small town. The Kamenz district existed until July 2008 .

Religions

In 1925, of the 11,165 inhabitants, 9,566 were Evangelical Lutheran (85.7%). In 2011, 3,000 of the 15,582 residents were Protestant (19.3%) and 1,090 Catholic (7.0%), while 11,490 belonged to no or any other denomination (73.7%).

Population development

Population development of the city

year	EW
1834	03,844
1871	6,404
1875	6,784
1880	6,820
1885	7.211
1890	7,749
1910	11,533
1925	11,165
1933	11,426
1939 (May 17)	14,483
1946 (October 29)	13,862
1950 (August 31)	14,331
1955	14,981
1956	14,931
1957	14,857
1958	14,876
1959	14,944

year	EW
1960	14,888
1962	15,461
1963	15,350
1964	15,905
1965	16,236
1966	16,585
1967	16,657
1968	16,618
1969	16,528
1970	16,653
1971	16,532
1972	16,289
1973	16,315
1974	18,221
1975	18.001
1976	18,052
1977	18,030

year	EW
1978	18.001
1979	17,898
1980	18,143
1981	18,410
1982	18,377
1983	18,410
1984	18,339
1985	18,269
1986	18,323
1987	18,229
1988	18,126
1989	18,016
1990 (October 3rd)	19,954
1997	18,882
1998	19,013
1999	19,136
2000	19,010

year	EW
2001	18,848
2002	18.606
2003	18,440
2004	18.308
2005	18,129
2006	18.009
2007	17.802
2008	17,431
2009	17.171
2010	16,990
2011 (November 30th)	16,819
2012	15,432
2013	15.301

The values from 1834 to 1950 are census results, thereafter mainly updates by the respective statistical offices or the city administration itself. Up to 1989 they correspond to the respective territorial status, from 1990 to the current one. If a key date other than December 31 could be determined, this is indicated.

politics

Kamenz Town Hall

City council

The City Council of Kamenz counts since the last municipal election held on May 26, 2019 more than 26 city council (previously 22) and is composed as follows:

Parties and constituencies	2019		2014		2009
Parties and constituencies	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats
Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU)	17.98	5	29.2	7th	20.6	5
The Left (LEFT)	15.53	4th	27.2	7th	27.5	7th
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)	3.04	0	-	-	-	-
Alternative for Germany (AfD)	20.80	6th	-	-	-	-
Voters' association Kamenz and districts	21.51	6th	14.6	3	12.9	3
Voter association We for Kamenz	-	-	11.1	2	10.3	2
National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD)	-	-	7.3	1	9.2	2
Free Democratic Party (FDP)	6.31	1	7.0	1	10.6	3
Alliance 90 / The Greens (GREENS)	3.29	1	3.8	1	3.3	0
CITY \| COUNTRY \| WOMAN	11.51	3	-	-	-	-
total	100.00	26th	100.0	22nd	100.0	22nd
voter turnout	59.17%		48.1%		48.5%

Kamenz is the largest city in Germany and the SPD is not represented on its city council.

Lord Mayor

Roland Dantz was confirmed in office in September 2011 with 74.2% and in 2018 with 94.6% of the votes.

coat of arms

Description : "In blue a black grooved, tinned, golden city wall with an open gate, drawn three-pointed black portcullis and silver wings, surmounted by two growing, hexagonal, black grooved, golden, tinned towers with three black windows each, between them a golden triangular gable placed on top, equipped with under half a golden lily , the tower roofs growing ever a rotgekleideter, facing, blond, a golden bugle cautious blowing tower guards in natural colors, a Wappenschildchen, is in red a silver, gold-winning doppelschwänziger lion . - Full coat of arms: On the red and blue fluffed, gold crowned helmet with red and silver helmet covers on the right and blue and gold helmet covers on the left , the silver gold crowned lion grows between a black open flight . "

In 1319 the city of Kamenz adopted a new city coat of arms after its defeat from the count's rule. The golden battlement wall stands for the defensive strength of the city, the double-tailed lion is the Bohemian lion and expresses the Bohemian sovereignty.

Town twinning

Culture and sights

View over the city center of Kamenz

Marketplace

theatre

Kamenz runs a theater that was reopened in 1999 and since then has offered cabaret, concerts and the like in addition to drama.

Museums

Kamenz has a rich museum landscape. There are three municipal museums in the city: the Lessing Museum is dedicated to the city's most famous son, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , and the City History Museum in the Malzhaus describes the history of Kamenz since the Middle Ages. Since 2011 the art and church treasures of the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Kamenz have been on display in the Museum Klosterkirche and Sacral Museum St. Anne's, also operated by the city . The Museum der Westlausitz mainly presents exhibitions on regional nature, landscape and history.

Buildings

The Kamenz town hall was built from 1847 to 1848 by Carl August Schramm in the Italian Neo-Renaissance style. The Andreasbrunnen with Justitia statue made of sandstone is located on the market in front of the town hall .

Main Church of St. Mary

Lessingturm on the Hutberg

In the south of the old town you can see remains of the medieval town and monastery fortifications, especially the Red Tower , the town clerk's bastion ("Pichschuppen"), the monk's wall and the monastery gate. The main Protestant church of St. Marien (built from 1275 to 1479, late Gothic hall church ) is the only hall church north of the Alps made of granite . Immediately next to it is the catechism church ( fortified church , before 1358). Also in the south of the city is the Barmherzigkeitsstift with Bönisch mausoleum, a hospital for the poorest of the poor, completed in 1826.

On the northern edge of the old town is the St. Annen monastery church (approx. 1510) with a total of five late Gothic carved altars and other sacred treasures. Opposite is the Lessing memorial at the former location of Lessing's birthplace. The Lessinghaus is one of the 20 cultural memorials in the New States. Further to the west is a Saxon Post Distance Column , built in 1725 at the former Königsbrücker Tor, today Bönischplatz. The fourth Protestant church in the city is the burial church of St. Just , which is already mentioned as a pilgrim chapel before 1377.

The Hutbergbühne , an open-air stage for up to 10,000 spectators, is located on the far western edge of the city center . At the end of the village in the direction of Pulsnitz there is a royal Saxon whole milestone dating from 1859 to 1860. A plaque on the Herrental factory building No. 9 commemorates 125 concentration camp prisoners who were victims of forced labor .

nature

Hutberg ( 297 m ) - park with rhododendrons , azaleas and various types of wood.
About 32 percent of the surrounding former district of Kamenz are under landscape or nature protection, there is a well-developed network of cycle and hiking trails.

Sports

The SV unit Kamenz is based in Kamenz , whose first men's soccer team has been playing in the sixth-class state league of Saxony since the 2018/19 season .

In the old city bath there is a skater park, whose skaters have won various championships.

For the first time in 2004, the VDH e. V. (Association of German Mobile Phone Throwers e.V.) the first German mobile phone throwing championship took place in Kamenz, where the first European championships were held on German soil in 2005 and the first world championship based on the IAMPT version in 2006.

The East Saxon Swimming Club Kamenz is the second largest club in the city. Internationally successful triathletes and swimmers train here.

Regular events

Kamenz Forest Festival (annually in the week in which August 24th ( Bartholomew's Day ) falls)
Blossom run on the Kamenz Hutberg
Kamenz Lessing Days (annually in January and February)
Fête de la Musique every year on June 21st
Carnival in Kamenz

Culinary specialties

A particular specialty of the city is the Kamenzer sausage , also called "Kamenzer" for short. The Knackwurst is eaten raw or heated in water and in many Kamenzer families along with potato salad, the traditional dish on Christmas Eve. The filling consists of one third each of lean and fatty beef and streaky pork. Some butchers also add sheep meat. The sausage meat is seasoned with salt, pepper, caraway seeds, onions and paprika, filled into cheesecloths and then smoked hot. It is believed that the recipe originally came from the nearby town of Wittichenau . In the meantime, the Kamenz sausages have been made known in other parts of Saxony by apprentice butchers trained in Kamenz.

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

Kamenz train station

The closest junction to the A 4, Burkau , is about 12 km south. From there there is a connection via the state road S 94 Burkau – Kamenz – Bernsdorf and from the Pulsnitz junction via the S 95 Radeberg – Pulsnitz – Kamenz – Hoyerswerda. Other state roads that open up the city are the S 93 from Kamenz to Grüngräbchen on the state border with Brandenburg , the S 97 from Kamenz to Zerna and the S 100 Radeburg – Königsbrück – Kamenz – Salzenforst. Kamenz Airport is located on the northeastern outskirts of the city . Regionalbus Oberlausitz GmbH, part of the Rhenus Veniro Group , operates a city bus network with three lines (lines 21, 22, 23).

Kamenz lies on the single-track main lines Lübbenau – Kamenz and Kamenz – Pirna . After Dresden a local train runs every hour. The Kamenz (Sachs) station is today the end point of the SB 34 line of the Sachsen urban railway from Dresden. Since the end of the 1990s there have been no more passenger trains to Senftenberg in Brandenburg , only goods traffic. The railway line to Bischofswerda was completely shut down.

Established businesses

Optical experiment by VEB Kamenzer Spielwaren in the GDR Museum Pirna

The city is mainly home to small and medium-sized companies in the textile, mechanical engineering, kaolin processing and plastics processing sectors. The largest well-known national employers are a bottling plant belonging to the spirits manufacturer Jägermeister and the textile advertising specialist Sachsen Fahnen .

The battery manufacturer Deutsche Accumotive , a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG , is the town's largest employer. In 2018, it put a second battery plant into operation and plans to employ a total of over 1,000 people in 2020. The battery cell manufacturer Li-Tec , also a Daimler subsidiary, was also based in Kamenz until it ceased operations in 2015 .

Another important employer in Kamenz are various authorities, such as the State Office for Statistics , which is based here.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

Friedrich August Bevilaqua (1777–1845), Lieutenant General
Hermann von Salza and Lichtenau (1829–1915), district chief of Bautzen
Wilhelm Weisse (1846–1916), purveyor to the royal court and city gardener from Kamenz
Emil Oskar Müller (1843–1930), cloth manufacturer, city councilor, deputy mayor, director of the brewing cooperative, from 1920 Emil-Oskar-Müller-Straße
Ludwig Haberkorn (1811–1901), German politician
August Theodor Goebel (1829–1916), German printer and author
Paul Freiherr von Gutschmidt (1822–1904), district director in Bautzen
Eduard von Könneritz (1802–1875), government councilor, board member of the Royal Saxon district administration in Bautzen

sons and daughters of the town

The most famous son of the city of Kamenz is the poet Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), whose father, Johann Gottfried Lessing, was pastor at the main church St. Marien. Lessing's birthplace was destroyed in the last great city fire in 1842, but a museum now commemorates him.
Bruno Richard Hauptmann (1899–1936), US immigrant who died because of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's son Charles Lindbergh III. was sentenced to death and executed
Georg Baselitz (* 1938 as Hans-Georg Kern in the Deutschbaselitz district), who is one of the most important contemporary German painters , is also internationally known .

Personalities who work or have worked on site

Johann Lange (1543–1616), organ builder
Johannes Franke (1545–1617), doctor and botanist, 1581–1600 city physician in Kamenz
Johann Gottfried Heinitz (1712–1790), school principal in Kamenz
Heinrich Gottlob Gräve (1772–1847), historian and folklorist, councilor and senator in Kamenz
Johann Gottfried Bönisch (1777–1831), physician and writer
Walter Lehweß-Litzmann (1907–1986), from 1952 to 1959 commander of the Kamenz Aviation School, later the officers' college of the air forces / air defense "Franz Mehring"
Bernhard Wensch (1908–1942), Roman Catholic priest, 1934–1937 chaplain in Kamenz
Hellmuth Muntschick (1910–1943), woodcut artist
Erich Große (1925–2009), educator and non-fiction author
Matthias Herrmann (1961–2007), city archivist and director of the Lessing Museum
Paultheo von Zezschwitz (* 1972), chemist, works as an entrepreneur in Kamenz

literature

Kamenz . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 9, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 422.
Western Upper Lusatia between Kamenz and Königswartha (= values of our homeland . Volume 51). 1st edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-05-000708-7 .
Tino Fröde: Privileges and Statutes of the Upper Lusatian Six Cities - A foray into the organization of urban life in Zittau, Bautzen, Görlitz, Löbau, Kamenz and Lauban in the early modern period . Oberlausitzer Verlag, Spitzkunnersdorf 2008. ISBN 978-3-933827-88-3
Sächsische Heimatblätter 57 (2011) 3 - Thematic booklet on the "Day of the Saxons" with articles on the city of Kamenz, u. a.
- Uwe Ulrich Jäschke: Kamenz - The City on the Stone (p. 180-185)
- Matthias Herrmann, Thomas Binder: Kamenz in Upper Lusatia - you poorest of the six cities, rich in culture and history (p. 186–191)
- Stefan Krabath: Urban archeology in Kamenz - a look at over 200 years of research history (pp. 236–242)
Lutz Mohr : The Hussites in Upper Lusatia with special consideration of their campaigns in the years from 1424 to 1434 . Special edition No. 2 of the series History and Stories from Neusalza-Spremberg , Greifswald a. Neusalza-Spremberg 2014.