Katzhütte

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 33 '  N , 11 ° 3'  E
Basic data
State :	Thuringia
County :	Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
Management Community :	Schwarzatal
Height :	420 m above sea level NHN
Area :	28.87 km 2
Residents:	1293 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	45 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	98746
Area code :	036781
License plate :	SLF, RU
Community key :	16 0 73 037
Community structure:	2 districts
Association administration address:	Markt 5 in 98744 Schwarzatal
Website :	www.gemeinde-katzhuette.de
Mayor :	Wilfried Machold (independent)
Location of the municipality of Katzhütte in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district

church

town hall

Church in Oelze

Katzhütte is a municipality in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district . The community belongs to the administrative community Schwarzatal , which has its administrative seat in the city of Schwarzatal . The place consists of the districts Katzhütte and Oelze .

geography

The municipality of Katzhütte is located in the north-western part of the Thuringian Slate Mountains and forms the center of the upper Schwarzatal . The place has developed into a street village due to its location in notched valleys . The houses stretch along the Schwarza for a length of 5.3 km. But the side valleys were also settled early on. The distance from the outskirts in the direction of Neuhaus am Rennweg to the last house in Masserberger Straße is 5.4 km.

High and steep mountains surround the place. First of all, the Wurzelberg massif should be mentioned, a mountain range whose highest peak, the Große Farmdenkopf (868 m), had to give way to the upper basin of the Goldisthal pumped storage plant. The height of the root mountain is given as 843 m. On the left-hand side of the Schwarza downstream follow the Vorderer Schmiedebacher Kopf (630 m), Oelzer Rain (698 m), Oelzer Stieg (672 m) and Scheffelsberg (608 m) in a clockwise direction. This is followed by Hainberg (604 m) and Rosenberg (716 m) on the right-hand side of the Schwarza.

Numerous rivers have cut deeply into the mountain range. In the local area of ​​Katzhütte, mass, Oelze , Schwemmbach and Amselbach flow into the Schwarza downstream from the left . The largest tributaries downstream on the right are Haspiseife, Cat and White Schwarza.

history

The current boundaries of the place were created through the incorporation of the neighboring Oelze on July 1, 1950. When it was founded, it had around 3800 inhabitants. Since the merger, the number of inhabitants has fallen sharply. According to official information, the community of Katzhütte had 2,197 inhabitants at the end of 2004 and in 2012 only 1,486.

On December 23, 1565, a Leipzig Saiger trading company received permission from the Schwarzburg counts Günther and Hans Günther to build a Saiger hut with residential houses and coal sheds at a previously uninhabited area in Rosenthal , at the confluence of the Katzen in the Schwarza . The shareholders included the merchants Wolf von Lindenau the Elder, Arnt Preun, Theobald Preun and Markus Merten. Construction of the first building began in April 1566. The "hut at the cat" or "Katzenhütte im Rosenthal" later led to the name of the village Katzhütte. Even older records in the Meuselbach parish registers refer to the area as the Gräntzhaus . The iron and steel works processed black copper delivered from the Mansfeld copper mines . In the Saiger process , it was made of copper and also a proportion of silver. After the ironworks fell into disrepair in 1576, the new iron hammer in particular ensured the residents' livelihood.

In the 14th century, the vast forests offered shelter for brown bears, deer and other animals, which is why there was a princely hunting lodge on the Wurzelberg . In 1786, golden eagles were still nesting nearby, and the last lynx was shot in 1810 and the last wolf in 1820. On the occasion of a court hunt in 1581, 266 deer were shot in one week, of which 161 calves and 63 pintle deer were shot.

The forest provided the forest farmers with the hay and bedding, the craftsmen the charcoal they needed, while the raftsmen carried the wood down to the valley. Lumberjack , charcoal burner and raftsman were therefore widespread professions. The first attempts to manufacture porcelain were also made here (around 1759). This was in connection with the owner of the ironworks Johann Wolfgang Hammann . Hammann later moved production to Wallendorf . The production there gained national recognition as Wallendorfer porcelain . The manor house was built by Hammann in 1760. It was not until the 19th century that further factories were added in Katzhütte, in particular the porcelain factory Hertwig & Co. , which was established in 1864 and whose products are coveted collector's items to this day.

Before the permanent settlement of the landscape, some watercourses were known as orientation and border points. The Oelze (Ulsna), 1366 Wenigen Wolgast (Kleine Wulst) and the Weisse Schwarza were first mentioned in 1229 . The place Katzhütte extends for kilometers in the valleys of Katzen, Oelze, Masse and Schwarza. The small, slate- roofed houses stretch in a closed row on the mountain slope in the upper Schwarzatal . Until 1918 Katzhütte belonged to the sovereignty of the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt .

During the Second World War , 52 workers from Poland and the Soviet Union who were housed in the " Eastern Workers' Camps " of Katzhütte and Oelze had to do forced labor .

Population development

Development of the population (from 1994 December 31st) :

1756: 0533 1794: 0701 1812: 0836 1824: 0891 1829: 1134 1858: 1076 1890: 1553 1902: 1819 1933: 2113 1939: 1913

1950: 3800 1976: 3022 1987: 2600 1994: 2156 1995: 2106 1996: 2151 1997: 2157 1998: 2196 1999: 2221

2000: 2223 2001: 2234 2002: 2244 2003: 2226 2004: 2201 2005: 2162 2006: 2119 2007: 1897 2008: 1801 2009: 1750

2010: 1657 2011: 1511 2012: 1486 2013: 1435 2014: 1410 2015: 1373 2016: 1358 2017: 1317 2018: 1293

Data source from 1994: Thuringian State Office for Statistics

Lost places

The hunting salon, built in 1740, was made entirely of wood and survived the extreme weather until the end of the 1890s.

• Former octagonal hunting lodge (hunting salon) of the Counts and Princes of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt on the Wurzelberg (built in 1740, demolished around 1900 due to dilapidation). The complex also included a house for hunters and servants (called the hunter's house or Wurzelberghaus), a horse stable, a carriage shed and a coal shed.
• Business premises of the former ironworks, later VEB KEFAMA. With a few exceptions, the buildings were demolished in the 1990s.
• The premises of the former Hertwig porcelain factory and the later VEB Zierkeramik (liquidated at the end of the 1990s, demolished in mid-2005).
• Paint factory in Neuwerk near Oelze (closed in 1990 and subsequently demolished).
• The former Hotel Kieslerstein, later “House of the People”, with a restaurant, bar and two halls was demolished in early 2015. It had been empty since 1990 and fell into ruin after privatization. With this, the largest cultural institution in the area, the home of the “Carnival in the Schwarzatal”, the place for numerous cultural events and vacationers' care, disappeared.
• Gasthaus "Zum Rosenbaum" - seat of the vigilante group in the revolutionary year 1848. Later a residential building and demolished for a shopping market after the reunification of Germany. (Location next to today's Sparkasse)
• Former summer garden and summer pavilion of the Hertwig family. During the GDR until the early 1970s, it was the house of the Young Pioneers . Then left to decay
• Hertwigsvilla (former villa of the Hertwig family of manufacturers). The villa was used as a residential building after 1945, but was empty for a long time after 1990. Since the Katzhütte community could not keep the building, it fell into disrepair. The ruin had to be demolished in spring 2011.
• Königstanne - Once the mightiest fir in Germany with a height of 44 m and a foot circumference of 8.75 m. At chest height it had a diameter of 2.20 m. The wood mass was calculated and was 66 solid cubic meters. The king fir stood on the Wurzelberg for over 500 years when it fell to the ground during a storm in September 1947.

politics

coat of arms

Blazon : "Over a golden shield base, inside a black comb under a black fork, split and half-divided by red, silver and blue covered by a slanting bar made of silver and blue."

Meaning: The colors of the main shield indicate the Schwarzburger (blue and white), as well as Thuringia (white and red). The bar is intended as a connecting element to symbolize the affiliation of the district Oelze (formerly Schwarzburg-Sondershausen) to Katzhütte (formerly Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt). the base of the shield shows the official coat of arms of the Schwarzburgers (both lines), who were imperial hereditary masters.

The coat of arms was designed by Ernst Henklein and entered into the Quedlinburg coat of arms on March 19, 1991.

Culture and sights

• Michaeliskirche , built in 1756 in peasant baroque style with an organ by Johann Michael Wagner from Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig
• Mountain church Oelze with Sauer organ
• French grave. In October 1813, a French grenadier, who was probably on the run after the Battle of Leipzig, died at a charcoal maker near the Mittelbacher pond . The soldier was buried on the spot. When the charcoal burner returned to his home village of Katzhütte a few weeks later, he reported the incident to the pastor. He entered the death under the heading "oddities" in the church book of Katzhütte.
• Rohrbachvilla (former villa of the ironworks owner Rohrbach), popularly known as the "tear villa". After 1945 the Katzhütte country ambulance, today a renowned medical center, a. a. with a dentist and physiotherapy practice.
• Manor house, built in 1760, after 1945 the seat of the forest administration, extensively renovated in the 1990s and today the seat of the municipal administration.

Former Lindig forest house with home parlor

• Heimatstube Katzhütte, developed from the former Lindigforsthaus. In numerous rooms and on the open-air site, it shows a representative overview of the local history, the craft, life and goings-on in Katzhütte and Oelze.
• Kieslerstein. A geological monument with a Schiller plaque (donated by the Thuringian Forest Association in the 1930s), which commemorates Schiller's daughter Caroline, who lived in Katzhütte for a few years. The plaque, which was destroyed by rioters, was renewed by the Katzhütte local history association and attached to the Kieslerstein again by the community.
• Reichenbacher pond. A former rafting pond, which was used for rafting wooden fathers when the water level was high. Later converted into a fish pond and now leased water for the anglers of Katzhütte and Oelze. Tourist destination easily accessible.
• Geological nature trail "Katzhütter layers". The over 600 million year old Precambrian “Katzhütte Layers” (official geological name), the Frauenbach succession ( Ordovician ) and the geotope “Bärentiegel” (Ordovician) are presented on a path length of approx. 6 km .
• Petrowski monument in the Oelze district on the Gläserthälchen forest meadow. The memorial commemorates the "Summer Camp of the Young Spartacus League in July 1928". The memorial was built on the initiative of Emil Machold in 1962/63 as part of the NAW National Reconstruction Project. The inauguration took place on October 13, 1963.

See also the list of cultural monuments in Katzhütte

Economy and Infrastructure

In Katzhütte and Oelze there were several factories that gave a large part of the local population and people from other places work and bread. In Katzhütte these were: the ironworks, later VEB KEFAMA, as the largest local company, the porcelain factory Hertwig, later VEB Zierkeramik, which also employed many home workers, temporarily a button factory, a cigar factory and a violin factory, a paint factory ( paint factory zu Neuwerk bei Oelze ), two glassworks and the local forestry. This also includes numerous mass mills and sawmills. The place is now almost de-industrialized. In Katzhütte only Schwarzataler Kunststoff GmbH operates, sandblasting Thorsten Günsch and metal construction Norbert Werner. The relay technology Witte, Metallbau Pohl and Fischer Metallbau still exist in Oelze. Furthermore, trades of the most diverse trades and shops as well as restaurants are located in both places. The two post offices were closed and the buildings sold. As a replacement, Deutsche Post set up a post office in the gas station. Katzhütte is the terminus of the Schwarzatalbahn from Rottenbach / Saalfeld / Saale and is served every hour by the RB 60 ( OBS ) line.

tourism

Until 1990

The landscape of the Schwarzatal attracted around 12,000 visitors to Katzhütte every year. These vacationers came to hike and relax in summer and to ski in winter at the Sedanklause , where there was a ski lift.

Accommodation was an FDGB home, a contract house with 56 beds, four company rest homes, four children's holiday camps - including one operated by the VEB Technische Gebäudeausarat Halle im Bärentiegel - and the company holiday camp " Martin Andersen Nexö " of the VEB Keramische Werke Hermsdorf combine , a youth hostel and 21 private rooms.

There were eight public restaurants with around 400 seats, a sports hall with a club room, indoor and outdoor bowling alley and an outdoor field chess game, the House of the People with a small dining room, a guest room, a small guest room and one for the catering, cultural and sporting care of the 12,000 holidaymakers annually larger hall, a sports field with a sports center, a drag lift, a ski and bicycle rental station and a club room for holidaymakers in Bahnhofsstraße. There was also a 300-seat cinema that was built in 1939 and demolished in 1991.

There were regular cultural events in Katzhütte-Oelze. For example, welcome and folklore evenings were celebrated, concerts were held and there were special children's events for children. The carnival and the three fairgrounds ( gooseberry fair in Oelze, the Katzhütte fair and the Mühlkermse in the Mühle district ) were and are a highlight of every year .

The network of hiking trails has been expanded and improved over time. This was partly done by the local residents themselves. There were 30 km of area and local hiking trails, 900 m² of parks with benches (120 in total). Some of these parks were also placed under private care.

Since 1990

After the reunification in 1990 z. B. most of the companies, the FDGB holiday home, the House of the People , the children's holiday camps closed and the railway line was shut down for a few years. Overall, tourism fell sharply. In 2005 there were only about 2700 vacationers with a total of about 8000 overnight stays.

The biggest visitor magnets are the geo-educational trail and the Heimatstube . In 2005 a gold panning facility was built .

In 2000 a weather station of the meteomedia weather network ( Jörg Kachelmann ) was built in Katzhütte .

Personalities

• Johann Wolfgang Hammann (born June 11, 1713 in Weidenberg; † October 10, 1785 in Wallendorf) was the owner of the iron and steel works in Katzhütte from 1752 to 1768; Co-founder of the Wallendorfer porcelain manufactory

• Caroline Henriette Luise Junot , b. Schiller (born October 11, 1799 in Jena, † December 19, 1850 in Würzburg); Daughter of Friedrich Schiller ; lived in the manor house in Katzhütte from 1836 to 1839

• Franz Karl Immanuel Junot (born April 24, 1785 in Ballenstedt, † January 4, 1846 in Rudolstadt); Fürstlich-Schwarzburgischer hut inspector; Headed the iron and steel works in Katzhütte from 1821 to 1840

Sons and daughters of the church

• Oskar von Truppel , (born May 17, 1854 in Katzhütte, † August 20, 1931 in Berlin), naval officer, most recently admiral of the Imperial German Navy and 1901–1911 governor of Kiautschou

• Wilhelm Neuhäuser , (born December 13, 1885 in Katzhütte, † January 1, 1960 in Dachau ); Painter, sculptor, modeler; from 1919 to 1960 freelance artist in Dachau

societies

• SV Motor Katzhütte-Oelze eV

For the development of the football section, reference is made to the article BSG Aufbau Katzhütte .

• Heimatverein Katzhütte-Oelze eV
• Fire Brigade Association Katzhütte eV
• Fire Brigade Association Oelze eV
• Musikverein Oelze eV
• Carnival Association Oelze eV
• Sport fishing club Katzhütte eV
• School development association of the state primary school Katzhütte eV
• Mühlkermsenverein Katzhütte eV
• Friends of the Kindergarten "Dwarf Paradise" Katzhütte eV
• Förderverein Schwarzatalhospiz eV

literature

• Eduard Kühne: Chronicle of Katzhütte in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Heinrich, Gehren 1891.
• Gunda Klee: Oelze in words and pictures. Self-published, Oelze 2003.

Web links

Commons : Katzhütte  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Link catalog on the topic of Katzhütte at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Population of the municipalities from the Thuringian State Office for Statistics  ( help on this ).
2. ^ Eastern Thuringian Forest, Thuringian Slate Mountains (= Fritsch hiking map. 47). Scale 1: 50,000. Fritsch Landkartenverlag, Hof (Saale) 1992, ISBN 3-86116-047-1 .
3. ^ Neuhaus am Rennweg (= topographic map. 5432). Scale 1: 25,000. Free State of Thuringia - State Office for Surveying and Geoinformation, Erfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-86140-421-7 .
4. ↑ Masserberg - Katzhütte, Upper Schwarzatal. Großbreitenbach, Mellenbach-Glasbach, Altenfeld, Goldisthal, Fehrenbach, Friedrichshöhe, Scheibe-Alsbach, Sachsenbrunn, Siegmundsburg, Limbach, Steinheid (= Thuringian Forest Nature Park. Hiking map with bike routes and ski trails. No. 15). Scale 1: 30,000. Grünes Herz, Ilmenau et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-86636-004-4 .
5. ↑ Herbert Kühnert, Rudolf Ruhe: The historical development of the districts of Rudolstadt and Neuhaus a. R. In: Rudolstädter Heimathefte. Vol. 2, Issue 3/4, 1956, ISSN  0485-5884 , pp. 90-101.
6. ↑ Thuringian State Archives Rudolstadt, Chancellery Rudolstadt, No. E XI No. 87, Privilegium over a Saigerhütte granted by Count Günther and Hans Günther.
7. ↑ Klaus Apel: Lauscha, Neuhaus a. Rwg., Steinach (=  tourist travel book ). 7th edition. VEB Tourist-Verlag, Leipzig et al. 1980, p. 52 .
8. ^ Otto Dobencker : Regesta diplomatica necnon epistolaria historiae Thuringiae. Volume 3: (1228-1266). Gustav Fischer, Jena 1925, p. 17, no. 81 .
9. ^ Herbert Kühnert: Field names of the Upper Schwarza area in 1366 . In: Schwarzburgbote. No. 2, from January 24, 1930, ZDB -ID 1448344-0 .
10. ↑ Thuringian Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists and Study Group of German Resistance 1933–1945 (Ed.): Local history guide to sites of resistance and persecution 1933–1945. Volume 8: Thuringia. VAS - Verlag für Akademische Schriften, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-88864-343-0 , p. 234.
11. ↑ Paul Liebmann: The history of the hunting lodge on the Wurzelberg. In: Thuringian monthly sheets. Vol. 22, No. 4, 1914, ZDB -ID 527359-6 , pp. 75-80 .
12. ^ Eduard Kühne: Chronicle of Katzhütte in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Heinrich, Gehren 1891.
13. ^ HB Müller: The riddle of the French grave. In: Schwarzburgbote. No. 25, dated December 24, 1931.
14. ^ Gunda Klee: Oelze in words and pictures. Self-published, Oelze 2003.
15. ↑ Freia Neuhäuser: Wilhelm Neuhäuser (= Dachauer Museumsschriften. Vol. 1). Publishing house "Bayerland", Dachau 1985, ISBN 3-922394-45-0 .