Mansfeld country
The Mansfelder Land is a region in the southwestern part of Saxony-Anhalt .
Geographical location
The Mansfelder Land includes the eastern foothills of the Harz Mountains in the west and northwest and is bordered by the Saale in the eastern part. To the north and south, the rural communities of the two former district towns of Eisleben and Hettstedt form the border, while Sangerhausen and the town of Mansfeld border the Mansfelder Land from southwest to west .
Until after the Second World War, the Mansfeld mountain circle ( about northwest of a line Annarode – Siersleben – Gerbstedt) and the Mansfeld lake district (places southeast of the above line) formed the Mansfeld region.
After the founding of the GDR, the mountain and lake districts were dissolved and transferred to the two districts of Hettstedt and Eisleben , with smaller areas of the Mansfeld region falling into the Sangerhausen district in the west and the Saalkreis and the Querfurt district in the south .
Since a new district reform in 2007, the Mansfelder Land - after having been the independent district of Mansfelder Land for a few years - now belongs to the Mansfeld-Südharz district .
In the extent described above, it is roughly identical to the former County of Mansfeld.
Transport links
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Autobahn :
- A 38 , Göttingen / Kassel – Eisleben – Halle / Leipzig
- Federal highways :
-
Railroad :
- Magdeburg – Hettstedt – Erfurt
- Halle / Saale – Eisleben – Kassel
- Klostermansfeld – Wippra
economy
Located near the industrial area Halle-Leipzig and belonging to the industrial district of Halle , the Mansfelder Land was part of the most important industrial center of the GDR. Above all, copper slate mining and the smelting of copper and its accompanying metals played a part in this. All copper-mining, processing and processing companies in the entire GDR were brought together under the roof of the Mansfeld combine "Wilhelm Pieck" , which also operated the Mansfeld mining railway. Before that, it was Mansfeld AG for mining and smelting operations .
The closure of the mines and smelting works, which had been in operation for almost eight centuries, marked a sharp turning point in this monostructured economic area, the problems of which were not diminished by the political change in 1989/90 . The newly created business parks and the redevelopment of contaminated sites did not bring about the hoped-for economic recovery.
tourism
The region offers some good conditions for local recreation and cultural tourism around the Süßen Lake south of Eisleben as well as with the Harz foreland and the Luther memorials in Lutherstadt Eisleben and Mansfeld .
The city of Eisleben has been officially known as Lutherstadt since 1946. This takes into account the fact that Martin Luther was born here shortly before his parents moved to Mansfeld, only a few kilometers away. Coincidentally, Luther also died in the town he was born in, where he was staying to mediate in a dispute between the Mansfeld counts (one branch of which maintained a city palace in Eisleben). Tourist attractions are the house where the reformer was born and where he died.
The city of Mansfeld - with regard to Luther's - has always been somewhat overshadowed by the larger ice life; after the political change, however, Mansfeld was allowed to use the suffix Lutherstadt : Mansfeld-Lutherstadt.
The trains of the former Mansfeld mine railway now running on the remaining line from Klostermansfeld – Siersleben – Hettstedt are reminiscent of the once brisk operation of this narrow-gauge factory railway, which connected all the shafts, many huts and other operating sites of the Mansfeld combine. In addition to the much more extensive freight traffic, the mine railway was also used for passenger transport - and here primarily for workers' rush hour traffic.
literature
- Here the Harz and there the Saale. The Mansfeld country . A multimedia foray through Martin Luther's homeland. Multimedia CD-ROM. Schneemann, Berlin 2002, ISBN 978-3-00-009782-9 .
- Mansfeld History and Local History Association (Ed.): Mansfelder Land. Portrait of a cultural landscape. Schäfer, Langenbogen 2008, ISBN 978-3-938642-30-6 .
- Mansfelder Land (= values of our homeland . Volume 38). 1st edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1982.
- Mansfeld country. Between the Saale and the Harz Mountains. Geiger, Horb am Neckar 1993, ISBN 978-3-89264-756-0 .
- Renate Seidel: The Counts of Mansfeld. History and stories of a German noble family . Fouquè, Frankfurt a. M. 1998, ISBN 978-3-8267-4230-9 .
- Britta Schulze-Thulin: Mansfelder Land and Lower Saale Valley (= hiking guide for Central Germany. Volume 3). Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2008, ISBN 978-3-89812-547-5 .
- Britta Schulze-Thulin: Luther's home. Mansfelder Land and Harz foreland (= hiking guide for Central Germany. Volume 5). Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2015, ISBN 978-3-95462-435-5 .
