Niederkaina

Niederkaina Delnja Kina City of Bautzen Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 30 ″  N , 14 ° 28 ′ 40 ″  E
Height :	165-201 m
Area :	3.68 km²
Residents :	475  (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	129 inhabitants / km²
Incorporation :	January 1, 1994
Postal code :	02625
Area code :	03591
Location of Niederkaina in Bautzen

The manor house in Niederkaina

Niederkaina , Delnja Kina in Upper Sorbian ^{? / i} , is a village in East Saxony and has been part of Bautzen since 1994 . The district consists of the settlements Niederkaina and Basankwitz and has around 500 inhabitants. Niederkaina is particularly known for the prehistoric burial ground found here, which is assigned to the Bronze Age and Iron Age Lausitz culture . Niederkaina is part of the official Sorbian settlement area in Saxony.

Location and geography

Niederkaina is located in the eastern part of the city at 165  m above sea level. NN located on the Albrechtsbach . Basankwitz is located a few hundred meters east of Niederkaina downstream on the federal motorway 4 and about 1.5 km (south) west of Kreckwitz and the Kreckwitzer heights . The village was an independent municipality until 1936 and was then incorporated into Niederkaina. The community of Niederkaina was incorporated into Bautzen on January 1, 1994.

Until the 20th century, a large part of the population spoke Sorbian . Arnošt Muka determined for his statistics of the Lusatian Sorbs 1884/85 a total population of 276, of which 261 Sorbs (95%) and 15 Germans.

The Schafberg, located south of Niederkaina, rises in a north-south direction up to 201 m above sea level. NN and is heavily forested on its western flank. On its southern ridge there is now a solar park on a renatured landfill site, which means that the Schafberg is around 10 m higher overall.

In the north is the neighboring village of Burk . In this direction the terrain rises sharply again and reaches its highest point on the Burker Berg at 199 m above sea level. NN.

history

The prehistoric burial ground on the Schafberg

As early as the beginning of the 19th century, the first archaeological finds were secured during sand mining. At the beginning of the 20th century, various excavations were organized by the Bautzen City Museum. Various rescue excavations were carried out between 1948 and 1972 by the State Museum of Prehistory in Dresden in order to save the found grave field from the threat of destruction through sand mining .

In the grave field on the Schafberg there were grave finds from the Neolithic to the Iron Age . With more than 2000 burials and a main occupancy period of around 2000 years, it is one of the most important and large sites in Germany.

Since the colonization of Upper Lusatia in the Mesolithic (7000–6000 BC), the Schafberg has played a central role as a burial site in the newly emerging cultural landscape. However, there are relatively few finds from this period. At the latest in the New Stone Age ( cord ceramic , 2500-2000 v. Chr.) An extended cemetery was created with inhumations. Until about 600 BC The site was continuously used for burials with varying intensity. After that, no grave finds at this point or no settlement in Upper Lusatia can be proven for several centuries.

With more than 20,000 finds, the Niederkaina site is considered to be one of the main keys to understanding prehistoric cultures in eastern Central Europe, especially the Lusatian culture, which was widespread in present-day eastern Germany , Poland , the Czech Republic and Slovakia . Over 600 urn graves belong to the Bronze Age section of the Lausitz culture. With around 1200 urn graves, the Billendorfer stage (early Iron Age section of the Lusatian culture) is represented most extensively. Based on imports from around 1050 BC Close ties to Bohemia and Moravia visible, which were maintained over several centuries.

In the area of ​​the former burial ground there is now a gravel pit and a garbage dump.

More recently, the State Office for Archeology of Saxony has produced extensive multi-volume publications on the Schafberg burial ground.

Grave 1968-I / 31 from Niederkaina is exhibited in the State Museum of Archeology in Chemnitz . It illustrates the developed Iron Age burial ritual.

Second World War

Old memorial plaque in Niederkaina

On April 19, 1945, Niederkaina was captured by Soviet troops. Three days later, around the time of the Battle of Bautzen, one of the many war crimes on both sides occurred here , in which 195 soldiers from a Volkssturm company were in a Soviet SMERSCH special commando, according to the memorial plaque members of the 1st Ukrainian Front , according to other information from relatives of the 2nd Polish Army , burned barn on fire. Another 181 German prisoners of war were said to have been killed on the premises of the shooting range. A memorial plaque in the village reminds of this, which was destroyed in the night of April 21, 2018 and renewed in October of the same year.

Personalities

Niederkaina

• Werner Bergmann (1921–1990), cameraman
• Helmut Bergmann (1926–1998), cameraman
• Jěwa Wórša Lanzyna (* 1928), Sorbian painter, graphic artist, ceramist and book designer

Basankwitz

• Handrij Dučman ( Andreas Dutschmann ; 1836–1909), clergyman, writer

See also

• List of cultural monuments in Niederkaina

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1. ↑ Niederkaina in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
2. ↑ Basankwitz in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
3. ↑ Area changes from January 1, 1994 to December 31, 1994. (PDF; 64 kB) State Statistical Office of the Free State of Saxony , p. 1 , accessed on December 25, 2012 . 
4. ↑ Ernst Tschernik: The development of the Sorbian population . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1954, p. 57 .
5. ↑ Bautzener Tageblatt of May 2, 1945, report on the fighting for Bautzen
6. ↑ Horror and Remembrance in Niederkaina , Alles-Lausitz.de and saechsische.de , accessed on April 23, 2018
7. ↑ New memorial plaque in Niederkaina. In: Oberlausitzer Kurier. Retrieved October 12, 2018 . 

Web links

Commons : Niederkaina / Delnja Kina  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Manors and castles in the Kingdom of Saxony: Lower Kayna  - sources and full texts

• Niederkaina near Bautzen. Analysis of the largest burial site of the Lausitz and Billendorf culture