Neukirch / Lausitz

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 51 ° 6 ′  N , 14 ° 18 ′  E
Basic data
State :	Saxony
County :	Bautzen
Height :	317 m above sea level NHN
Area :	21.3 km 2
Residents:	4847 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	228 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	01904
Area code :	035951
License plate :	BZ, BIW, HY, KM
Community key :	14 6 25 380
Address of the municipal administration:	Hauptstrasse 20 01904 Neukirch / Lausitz
Website :	www.neukirch-lausitz.de
Mayor :	Jens Zeiler ( CDU )
Location of the community Neukirch / Lausitz in the district of Bautzen

Neukirch / Lausitz ( Upper Sorbian Wjazońca ) is a place and the associated municipality in the southeast of the state of Saxony . It belongs to the district of Bautzen and is nestled between two mountain ranges of the Oberlausitzer Bergland at the foot of the richly wooded 587 m high Valtenberg .

geography

Look at Neukirch from Valtenberg from

The Valtenberg is Neukirch's local mountain . The Wesenitz flowing through Neukirch rises from here . Larger cities in the area are Bautzen (15 km) and Bischofswerda (12 km). Adjacent communities are (clockwise) Doberschau-Gaussig , Wilthen and Steinigtwolmsdorf with the districts Ringenhain and Weifa in the district of Bautzen, Neustadt in Saxony in the district of Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains and Schmölln-Putzkau in the district of Bautzen.

population

The development of the population in Neukirch / Lausitz from 1925 to 2013

The population development of Neukirch has been declining for years.

Development of the population: (from 2002 reference date: December 31, source: State Statistical Office Saxony)

year	Residents
1925	5382
1939	6778
1946	7563
1950	7648

year	Residents
1964	7368
1990	6294
2000	5844
2002	5680

year	Residents
2004	5540
2006	5434
2008	5323
2009	5287

year	Residents
2010	5236
2011	5153
2012	5099
2013	5074

year	Residents
2014	5043
2015	5066
2016	5011

history

Around 1200, Franconian settlers who had been summoned laid out a forest hoof village and built a new church. In 1222 Neukirch was first mentioned in a document as "Neinkirgen". While the German name refers to the then newly built church in the Niederneukirch district, the Sorbian name refers to the geographical location on the Wesenitz .

In May 1813, skirmishes between French and Russian troops took place near the village in connection with the Battle of Bautzen .

From September 12 to 15, 1830, the so-called Neukirch Court Revolution took place in the village .

In the 1850s, emigrants founded a Wendish community in Victoria , Australia , which was also called Neukirch and is now called Byaduk . The first settler was Johann Rentsch, who made sure that Wendish was spoken there until his death in 1915 .

The place consisted of four independent communities until 1923

• Niederneukirch,
• Oberneukirch, Steinigtwolmsdorfer part (Oberneukirch St. A.),
• Oberneukirch, Upper Lusatian side (Oberneukirch LS) and
• Oberneukirch, official part (Stolpener part; Oberneukirch AA).

On November 15, 1923, Niederneukirch and Oberneukirch, Oberlausitz side were merged to Neukirch am Hohwald , on August 13, 1924 the name was changed to Neukirch / Lausitz . The merger of Oberneukirch, Steinigtwolmsdorfer part and Oberneukirch, official part to Oberneukirch took place on February 1st, 1925. On July 1st, 1928 the municipality of Oberneukirch was incorporated into the municipality of Neukirch / Lausitz.

Along with the Brandenburg district town of Forst (Lausitz), Neukirch is the only remaining municipality with the Lausitz suffix , other municipalities explicitly name the part of Lausitz in their suffixes, for example Weißwasser / Oberlausitz , or have meanwhile been incorporated like the Schönbrunn / Lausitz district of Bischofswerda .

politics

Municipal council

Local elections 2019

Turnout: 65.6%

 %

40

30th

20th

10

0

37.1%

22.6%

16.8%

10.8%

9.0%

CDU

AfD

future

GBN

SPD

The town council of Neukirch / Lausitz was elected for the last time on May 26, 2019 .

Distribution of seats (18 seats in total):

• CDU : 8 seats
• AfD : 4 seats
• Neukirch needs a future: 3 seats
• Community of the citizens of Neukirch (GBN): 2 seats
• SPD : 1 seat

mayor

Dietmar Belke was mayor of the community from 1990 to 2001. He was succeeded in August 2001 by Gottfried Krause (CDU since 2009, previously independent), who was in office until August 31, 2015. Jens Zeiler (CDU) has been mayor of the community since September 1, 2015.

Water supply association

The communities Neukirch / Lausitz and Steinigtwolmsdorf have formed the water supply association “Obere Wesenitz”, each community has four members in the association assembly (mayor and three community councilors).

Location sign

The coat of arms-like local signet Neukirch

Neukirch does not have a coat of arms, but a local signet that goes back to the seal image of Oberneukirch (Stolpen official part). The seal shows a sheep or lamb standing on a rock, which is threatened by a lion on the right below the rock. A heraldic shield was later added to it. The local signet, the design of which contradicts the rules of heraldry , cannot be used as a coat of arms.

As early as 1801 and 1837, Oberneukirch AA had two stamps designed in this way. Walter Hoffmann wrote about its importance: “Oberneukirch AA used to belong to the Stolpener judicial office. Stolpen on the basalt rock was a fortress. The sheep or calf on the piled-up basalt blocks represent the protégé who takes a secure place in front of his persecutor, a lion, thanks to the fortress and is said to have been interested in buying the Neukirch AA estate. Its buyers, the free Obereck farmers, turned to the Stolpen Office for protection, to which they were henceforth subordinate and which gave them the right to use their own official seal.

The seal image Oberneukirch LS showed "a large deciduous tree (probably linden tree), next to which there was a smaller conifer on each side." Oberneukirch St. A. only had a name stamp and had no seal image. The Niederneukirch seal showed an anchor with the inscription "Gemeinderat zu Niederneukirch".

On November 15, 1923, the communities of Niederneukirch and Oberneukirch Oberlausitzer Seite merged under the name "Neukirch am Hohwald". At this time, Oberneukirch, on the recommendation of the Royal Saxon Ministry of the Interior from June 1913, “for the sake of uniformity”, had the seal image of Oberneukirch's official share. A corresponding seal inscription served to differentiate. In the search for a common seal, the Niederneukirch anchor could not be found either historically, geographically or economically. The Ministry of the Interior in Dresden recommended that the previous seal image with the lamb on the rock from 1801 be retained, with the indication that a combined seal would appear overloaded. In May 1926 it was unanimously decided to use the seal image with the lamb and the inscription Gemeinde Neukirch (Lausitz), Amtsh. Bautzen, 1926 . The community was given the name Neukirch / Lausitz on August 13, 1924. Previously, Neukirch near Kamenz had this name.

Even after the unification of Oberneukirch AA and Oberneukirch St. S. zu Oberneukirch in 1925 and the incorporation to Neukirch / Lausitz in 1928, the proven seal image was continued in a simpler form and with a different inscription.

Town twinning

Bönnigheim in the Ludwigsburg district has been the twin town of Neukirch / Lausitz since 1992 .

Economy and Infrastructure

Business location

Aerial panorama near the commercial area

The community of Neukirch has a relatively high economic growth for Upper Lusatia. The machine tool manufacturer Trumpf , which with 417 jobs (as of 2014) is the largest employer in town, makes a significant contribution to this . It emerged from the rationalization equipment and special machine construction of the combine "Progress".

Neukirch is also known for its pottery. Karl Louis Lehmann GmbH, Heinke Keramik and Saxonia-Feinsteinzeug-Manufaktur have their headquarters here.

The textile industry, which was mainly based in Upper Lusatia during the GDR era, also played a role. There were trader families, such as Tear and Wendler, who also traded beyond Neukirch.

Ernst Lehmann founded a suitcase factory in 1893 with a production site on Hauptstrasse. This was nationalized after the Second World War and incorporated into VEB Progress Agricultural Machinery . In 1960, production was switched to parts supplied to the combine harvester plant in Bischofswerda . To remedy a shortage of consumer goods, production was expanded to include youth bikes in 1974. After the reunification, VEB Progress was split up by the Treuhandanstalt and the factory was sold to the Biria company as Sachsen Zweirad GmbH . In 2005 this work was sold to a US fund, which ceased production in 2007.

With Little John Bikes, the first franchise system for the bicycle retail trade has its headquarters in Neukirch. The company was founded as a bicycle supplier in 1993 and renamed a retail company in 1997 and started the franchise system in March 2010. According to its own statements, the company is now one of the ten largest specialist bicycle stores in Germany.

Important companies in Neukirch

• TRUMPF Saxony GmbH
• Käppler and Pausch GmbH
• Magnetech GmbH (magnesium die-cast parts for a variety of industries)
• Rusk factory
• EAN Elektroanlagenbau Neukirch GmbH
• Little John Bikes GmbH (1997-2014)

traffic

A well-signposted cycle route leads from Neukirch to Zittau - the Upper Lusatian cycle path . There is an ambulance station on Zittauer Strasse near the level crossing.

railroad

Neukirch (Lausitz) Ost stop

For rail travelers, there are two train stops in Neukirch, ( Neukirch (Lausitz) East and Neukirch (Lausitz) West ), with continuous connections to Dresden and Tanvald . The regional transport lines RE  2 and RB  61 of the Trilex operate here .

The dilapidated station building at the Neukirch (Lausitz) Ost stop was empty for a long time. A renovation that had started in 2018 was canceled again. A track and a platform are still available for railway operations.

At Neukirch West station, the Neukirch West – Bischofswerda line branches off from the Bautzen – Bad Schandau line . Until December 12, 2004, the latter was continuously served by regional trains, since then it has only been used for freight traffic. At the northern entrance to Neustadt (Sachs), an approx. 200 meter long section of the route was torn down soon after operations were closed in order to be able to build a new road. This means that the scenic route is no longer passable. The remainder of Neukirch (Lausitz) West is still used for ballast trains up to the Ottendorf quarry. The other remaining branch of the route is used from Bad Schandau to Sebnitz, sometimes also to Neustadt (Sachs).

bus

Bischofswerda , Bautzen , Oppach and Neustadt in Saxony (with connections to Bad Schandau and Pirna ) can be reached via the regional bus routes 115, 117, 181 .

Like the regional train lines, these bus lines are integrated into the Upper Lusatia-Lower Silesia Transport Association (ZVON).

automobile

Neukirch is located directly on the B 98 , which begins at the A 4 junction in Burkau and joins the B 96 leading to Zittau in Oppach . In the Neukirch area, 7,200 vehicles traveled daily in 2010. The heavy load share was 6.1%.

The S 119 connects Neukirch with Bautzen and the S 106 connects the town with the A 4 motorway , which passes around 13 km to the north at the Salzenforst junction .

plane

The Dresden airport is about 45 minutes by train and car.

religion

In the 2011 census , 1806 community citizens (35.1%) belonged to the Evangelical Church and 156 (3.0%) to the Roman Catholic Church . 3183 citizens (61.9%) belonged to another or no religious community.

There is an Evangelical Lutheran parish on site . The church goes back to a building from the 12th century. The current nave was built from 1723, initially without a tower. From 1749 to 1753, with the completion of the tower, it received its present form.

The municipality belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of the Assumption in Schirgiswalde . The closest Roman Catholic Church is St. Barbara Church in Wilthen . This was an independent parish until 2007, which also included Neukirch and was merged with Schirgiswalde that year.

Culture

See also : List of cultural monuments in Neukirch / Lausitz

education

Neukirch has a primary school , the Lessing School, and a high school . The former Pestalozzi primary school was closed in summer 2010 due to the municipal council resolution of March 10, 2010. In 2016 the Pestalozzi School was sold and converted into a residential property.

In addition, there are two childcare facilities, the “Querx Valentin” nature center operated by the People's Solidarity and the “Zur kleine Feuerwehr” daycare center operated by the DRK . The Valtenbergwichtel e. V. has its headquarters here and operates a children's and youth center.

In 1926, the “Sächsisches Erzähler” (Saxon Storyteller) wrote about the Bethlehemstift children's recreation home, which was in its infancy at the time of Pilk. The uniqueness of the building ensemble is mentioned and praised. In the time of the GDR , the Bethlehemstift was used as a week nursery for children whose parents had to work in shifts. Until 2005 there was a special school for mentally handicapped people in the building.

Town center

The center of the village is the former manor, which includes the festival barn, the local history museum and the community library .

sport and freetime

In soccer, the 1st men's team of the local soccer club TSV 90 Neukirch currently (as of 2014/15) plays in the 1st district class season II of the West Lusatian soccer association .

SV Valtenberg played volleyball in the Saxon class with its first men's team in the 2013/14 season.

In addition, the motorsport fans “Valtental” have their seat there.

Since 1992, the Riding and Driving Club on Valtenberg maintains local equestrian .

On the northern slope of the Valtenberg there is a 750 m long ski slope, which is currently not looked after and is only used for isolated events. When there is snow, cross-country skiing trails are laid out around the Valtenberg.

In addition, there has been a skate park at the manor since spring 2014 , which is constantly being expanded. This is operated by the Neukirch youth center, which is located near the center of the village. The youth center serves as a pedagogically supervised contact point for children and young people and a location for a wide variety of cultural events.

The pottery festival has been held in Neukirch every year since 1989. At the beginning of October, around 85 exhibitors and over 15,000 visitors gather at the invitation of the Lehmann family of potters (as of October 7, 2008, Sächsische Zeitung). The highlights are the team beating and the "pottery run", a race in which the skill and speed of the potters are put to the test.

Between 1953 and 2003, a folk festival took place around the former festival hall near the Ostbahnhof. This tradition ended with their demolition. In 2015, a folk festival took place for the first time on the grounds of the former manor.

In 1924 the place got its first cinema. The cinema building on Bautzner Strasse, which still exists today but is now vacant, was built in 1960.

Club life

The 30 or so clubs located in Neukirch include:

• Youth Association Valtenbergwichtel eV
• Nature Conservation Center “Oberlausitzer Bergland” eV
• Kulturförderverein Neukircher Heimat eV
• Riding and driving club at Valtenberg eV
• TV Valtenberg eV
• SV Valtenberg Neukirch eV

literature

The local researcher Georg Pilk ( Sorbian Jurij Pilk ) has written three books on the history of Neukirch. The first two volumes "Neukirch am Hohwald in the Wars of Liberation" and "Neukirch in the 18th Centuries" were published during his lifetime. He was only able to complete the third volume, “Kulturbilder und Annalen von Neukirch am Hohwald”, as a manuscript. After more than 80 years, all three books were published by the Oberlausitzer Verlag as an anthology under the name “The History of Neukirch”:

• Georg Pilk: The history of Neukirch , Oberlausitzer Verlag 2005. ISBN 3-933827-55-8 .

Siegfried Heinrich has published three volumes "Neukirch (Lausitz) in old views". It contains old photographs and postcards from around 1900. There is interesting information about each figure. Many of the photos were taken by the Neukirch photographer Julius Grunewald (1875–1922), in whose villa the local history researcher Georg Pilk also lived for some time.

• Siegfried Heinrich: Neukirch (Lausitz) in old views - Volume 1 , European Library Zaltbommel / Netherlands, ISBN 90-288-5625-0 .
• Siegfried Heinrich: Neukirch (Lausitz) in old views - Volume 2 , European Library Zaltbommel / Netherlands, ISBN 90-288-5897-0 .
• Siegfried Heinrich: Neukirch (Lausitz) in old views - Volume 3 , European Library Zaltbommel / Netherlands, ISBN 90-288-6247-1 .

Personalities

In Neukirch were born:

• Johann Gottlieb Dressler (1799–1867), psychologist and educator
• Gerhard Fritz Hensel (1910–1986), painter
• Karlheinz Tietze (1912–1996), internist and sports medicine specialist
• Walter Hartmann (1927–1992), jazz and entertainment musician
• Egon Ludwig (* 1929), Major General of the GDR Ministry for State Security
• Karl-Ernst Herrmann (1936–2018), set designer and opera director
• Werner Forkert (1940–2008), teacher and local chronicle from Senftenberg
• Peter Graetz (* 1944), writer and theater scholar

In the place worked:

• Jurij Pilk (1858–1926), Sorbian historian, composer, educator, local researcher and musician
• Kurt Dinter (1868–1945), botanist, forest officer, Africa researcher , especially South West Africa ,
• Walter Pfützner (1933–2017), local history researcher and local chronicle from Neukirch

Web links

Commons : Neukirch / Lausitz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Neukirch / Lausitz  - Sources and full texts

Wikisource: Manors and castles in the kingdom of Saxony: Neukirch  - sources and full texts

• Official community website
• Neukirch / Lausitz in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
• Niederneukirch in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
• Oberneukirch in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
• Articles on local history and biographies on the Neukirch local history museum website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Population of the Free State of Saxony by municipalities on December 31, 2019  ( help on this ).
2. ↑ Neukirch / Lausitz in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony
3. ^ Jan Meschgang: The place names of Upper Lusatia. Domowina Verlag, Bautzen 1973; P. 97
4. ↑ The so-called Hofrevolution to Neukirch. Retrieved August 16, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Early BYADUK Settlers ( Memento from August 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ): Early Byaduk Settlers , in English, accessed on October 5, 2011
6. ↑ ^{a b} Heimatmuseum (ed.): The development of the spelling of the place name Neukirch , in September 2002
7. ↑ City council election 2019. Accessed on July 29, 2019 . 
8. ^ City of Bönnigheim: "Obituary for the death of retired mayor Dietmar Belke" January 14, 2008
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Daniel Pfletscher: The Neukirch local signet , with a note by Marcel Richter, 2003, in: heimatmuseum.neukirch-lausitz.de
10. ↑ ^{a b} Walter Hoffmann: Grenzland Oberlausitz No. 8
11. ↑ coat of arms. (No longer available online.) In: www.neukirch-lausitz.info-4you.de. RooW, archived from the original on September 4, 2012 ; Retrieved April 16, 2012 . 
12. ^ Sächsische Zeitung local section in Bischofswerda: “Trumpf conquers the USA”, October 25, 2014
13. ↑ Horst Jäkel (ed.): GDR unforgotten. Christian Müller: Exchanging experiences is the cheapest investment, p. 83ff., ISBN 978-3-89819-430-3 , Schkeuditz 2016
14. ↑ Neukirch local history museum: "Lehmann luggage factory / Sachsen-Zweirad-GmbH"
15. ↑ Little John Bikes GmbH (ed.): The company , accessed October 30, 2014
16. ↑ Construction of the ambulance station is progressing. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013 ; accessed on October 17, 2016 . 
17. ↑ Goodbye Spain - Hello Neukirch!
18. ^ B30 Oberschwaben: Traffic Numbers Database , accessed November 8, 2014
19. ↑ 2011 census: Population in regional comparison by religion , accessed on November 1, 2014
20. ^ Church history , at www.kirche-neukirch.de, accessed on December 19, 2018
21. ↑ Catholic parish of Mariä Himmelfahr Schirgiswalde: Chronicle Schirgiswalde History of the parish “Mariä Himmelfahrt” Schirgiswalde and its pastors and chaplains , at www.kath-gemeinde-mariae-himmelfahrt.de, accessed on December 19, 2018
22. ↑ Gustav Sommerfeldt: Through villages and small towns in the area of ​​the Röder and Wesenitz: with 4 literary supplements  (= forays through the Rödertal; 4). Adler, Dresden 1926.
23. ^ SV Valtenberg: "Herren 1", accessed on November 8, 2014
24. ↑ Reit- und Fahrverein am Valtenberg (Ed. :) About us , accessed on February 7, 2015
25. ^ Website of the Valtenbergwichtel eV support association
26. ↑ Pottery festival pottery Lehmann Neukirch / Lausitz. In: toepferfest.de. Karl Louis Lehmann GmbH, accessed on April 16, 2012 . 
27. ↑ Neukirch Movie Theater In: Kinowiki , accessed on November 8, 2014.
28. ^ Association directory Neukirch / Lausitz , accessed on May 7, 2018
29. ↑ Mourning the local chronicles