Schwarza (Thuringian Forest)

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 37 '  N , 10 ° 32'  E
Basic data
State :	Thuringia
County :	Schmalkalden-Meiningen
Management Community :	Dolmar salt bridge
Height :	352 m above sea level NHN
Area :	13.51 km 2
Residents:	1171 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	87 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	98547
Area code :	036843
License plate :	SM, MGN
Community key :	16 0 66 065
Address of the municipal administration:	Zella-Meininger-Str. 6 98547 Schwarza
Mayor :	Marco Rogowski
Location of the community Schwarza in the district of Schmalkalden-Meiningen

Center of Schwarza with the tower of the Easter church

Stolberg Castle in Schwarza (2011)

Schwarza is an independent municipality in the district of Schmalkalden-Meiningen in the Franconian part of the Free State of Thuringia, which belongs to the Dolmar-Salzbrücke administrative community . The partner community is Eppstein .

geography

Schwarza has a north-south extension of 3 km. The place is crossed by several rivers, one of them is the Schwarza, named after the municipality.

Schwarza is located southwest of the Thuringian Forest between Meiningen and Zella-Mehlis . To the northwest of the village is the 739.5 meter high Dolmar .

history

The burial mounds of Schwarza date from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. BC, the time of the burial mounds .

The first documentary mention of Schwarza ("Suwarzes muor" = Black Moor) comes from 827 from Fulda . But whether this actually means Schwarza remains questionable. In 948 the place was mentioned as an imperial property , which was transferred to the Hersfeld monastery that year . The moated castle on the site of Stolberg Castle, built in the 16th century, served to secure the roads across the Thuringian Forest and the city.

Schwarza among the prince counts of Henneberg

Since the Henneberg inheritance in 1274, the place belonged to the county of Henneberg - Hartenberg . After this line became extinct, the properties came to the Henneberg - Aschach line in 1379 , which was later called Henneberg - Römhild . In the period that followed, Schwarza was the capital of the Henneberg district of Schwarza .

On September 20, 1495, at the request of the sovereign, Count Herrmann VIII von Henneberg-Aschach (ruled 1488–1535), the market and town rights were granted to Schwarza by Emperor Maximilian I. However, only use was made of market law . After that, "trade Jews" immigrated, who were " protective Jews " of the Hennebergers and Stolbergers.

Shortly before the death of Count Herrmann VIII von Henneberg-Aschach , the county of Henneberg - Römhild was divided between his two sons in 1532. Schwarza became the capital of the Henneberg-Schwarza sideline under Count Albrecht von Henneberg-Schwarza (ruled 1535–1549). During his reign, the castle in Schwarza was extensively renovated and expanded from 1535 to 1538. In 1545, Count Albrecht introduced the Reformation to the town.

In 1549 the line of counts Henneberg - Aschach - Römhild went out with the death of the sons of Hermann VIII von Henneberg-Römhild (r. 1488–1535), Berthold XVI. von Henneberg-Römhild and Albrecht von Henneberg-Schwarza .

The property of Albrechts von Henneberg-Schwarza fell to his wife Katharina, born in a will. Countess zu Stolberg, Countess and wife zu Henneberg. After her death in 1577, they were passed on to the Counts of Stolberg .

The office of Schwarza was split up after the death of the last Count of Henneberg-Römhild in 1549. The area of ​​Schwarza and the associated deserted area of ​​Schwadenbach were given to the Counts of Stolberg , the rest of the official territory to the Counts of Henneberg - Schleusingen , who moved the official seat from Schwarza to Kühndorf . After the division, until 1815, Schwarza was a Stolberg enclave in the middle of the district of Kühndorf, which had been in the Electoral Saxony since 1660 .

Schwarza and the witch trials

From 1549 to 1705 Schwarza was persecuted by witches . Thereafter Dorothea Metzler was burned, year unknown. A total of 30 people, 25 women and five men, got into witch trials . At least three women were executed and three women were sentenced to expulsion from the country; the outcome of 18 trials is unknown. Because Schwarza for possession of since 1549 counts of Stolberg belonged, took a stolbergischer bailiff local jurisdiction true, however, in addition to the four tall claims made by Schwarza in the neighboring centering Benshausen fell.

The controversial question of whether witchcraft and sorcery are to be counted among the four high rebukes or not gave rise to a constantly smoldering dispute over competence between the Stolbergian office and the Hennebergian center as to who was responsible for negotiating these magical crimes. The files in question clearly show that the proceedings in Schwarza were conducted by the bailiff, who received his instructions from the Stolberg offices, sometimes also from the count personally.

Schwarza under the Count of Stolberg

After the first division of ownership of the until then jointly governed property of the Counts of Stolberg , the sons of Count Wolfgang zu Stolberg (1501–1552) (Harz line) took over the lordships of Stolberg , Wernigerode and Hohnstein in 1587 ; while the sons of Count Heinrich zu Stolberg (1509–1572) (Rhine line) received Gedern and Ortenberg (both in Hesse) and Schwarza (southern Thuringia).

In 1645/1657 the property was divided for the second time between the two sons of Count Christoph II (1567–1638). Heinrich Ernst zu Stolberg established the older main line and took over the county of Wernigerode , the rule of Gedern and Schwarza. Johann Martin zu Stolberg donates the younger main line with the possessions in the County of Stolberg and Dominion Ortenberg .

In 1710 the Wernigerode possessions were divided among the sons of Count Ludwig Christian zu Stolberg-Wernigerode (1652–1710). This is how the Stolberg-Wernigerode, Stolberg-Gedern and Stolberg-Schwarza lines are created .

The only regent of the Stolberg-Schwarza line, Count Heinrich August von Stolberg-Schwarza (June 16, 1697 - September 14, 1748), had no male descendants. As a result, after his death in 1748, Stolberg-Schwarza fell to the Stolberg-Wernigerode line , whose county had been under the Prussian Oberlandesherrschaft since 1714 . With the end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1806, the Stolberg Counts were completely mediatized .

Schwarza under Prussian administration

After by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the former Saxon offices Kühndorf , Suhl and Schleusingen of Prussia had fallen, the existing 1816-1944 were from them circle Schleusingen in the administrative district of Erfurt of the Prussian province of Saxony formed. Schwarza in Stolberg was incorporated into this district and was thus reunited with its surrounding area after almost 300 years. In 1885 the community bought the castle and the chamber property from Otto zu Stolberg-Wernigerode .

At the beginning of the National Socialist era , local citizens were persecuted for political, racist or religious reasons, such as the Jew Irma Stern and her children who were murdered in the extermination camps in the East. The Irma-Stern-Straße and the Jewish cemetery with its 70 tombstones commemorate them and the other Jews of the village. The synagogue from 1841 had to be sold in 1935, was used by third parties and demolished in 1980/81. During the Second World War , at least 157 men and women from Poland , the Soviet Union and France had to do forced labor : in the wood goods factory Wettig , in the branch of the Suhl weapon factory Krieghoff , at the forestry office as well as farmers and craftsmen. A grave memorial in the St. Bartholomäi churchyard commemorates a Polish slave laborer who was hanged on the sports field in 1944 for contradicting his superior.

Schwarza since 1945

In April 1945 Schwarza was occupied by US troops , and since the beginning of July it has been part of the Soviet occupation zone when it was occupied by the Red Army . The Soviet occupation forces maintained a military training area on the entire neighboring Dolmar until 1990 , which was completely closed to the German population.

Due to the land reform in the GDR in 1946, the entire property of the Count zu Stolberg in Schwarza was expropriated without compensation.

In the GDR , Schwarza was incorporated into the Suhl district in the Suhl district. With the regional reform and the dissolution of the Suhl district, Schwarza has belonged to the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district since 1994 .

religion

25% of the inhabitants of Schwarza are Protestant, 3% Catholic. The Easter church in Schwarza is part of the Henneberger Land parish in the Meiningen-Suhl district of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany . The few Catholics in Schwarza belong to the parish of St. Kilian in Suhl ( Deanery Meiningen , Diocese of Erfurt ), whose next branch church is Christ-König in Zella-Mehlis .

Culture and sights

Buildings

• Easter church from 1788 in the center of the village
• Stolberg Castle from the 16th century, currently vacant
• Archways and remains of walls from the old town fortifications
• Stone arch bridge
• St. Bartholomäi cemetery chapel , traceable since the 11th century
• Jewish cemetery , laid out at the end of the 18th century and well preserved

Regular events

• In the house of the associations there are regular events of the various associations.
• Fair

Economy and Infrastructure

• Schwarzaer market

traffic

In Rohr (Meiningen-Nord), which is six kilometers away, you will find the slip road to Autobahn 71 Erfurt-Schweinfurt. Schwarza is on federal highway 280 (now district road 581).

sons and daughters of the town

• Count Heinrich Ernst zu Stolberg (1593–1672), founder of the older main line of the Count's House of Stolberg
• Christian Ludwig Bachmann (1763–1813), physician and music writer
• Moses Simson (1808–1868), co-founder of the Simson works in Suhl
• August Löhnert (1874–1941), communist resistance fighter against the Nazi regime
• Wolfgang Lentz (1916–1995), surgeon in Oldenburg

Web links

Commons : Schwarza  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Schwarza in the Chronicle of Benshausen (PDF; 2.8 MB)

literature

• Karlheinz Blaschke , Uwe Ulrich Jäschke : Kursächsischer Ämteratlas 1790. Scale approx. 1: 200000. Gumnior, Chemnitz 2009, ISBN 978-3-937386-14-0 , p. 90 f. and 100 f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Population of the municipalities from the Thuringian State Office for Statistics  ( help on this ).
2. ↑ Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces. Jenzig-Verlag Köhler, Jena 2001, ISBN 3-910141-43-9 , pp. 229 and 230.
3. ^ Kai Lehmann : Exhibition "Luther and the witches". Schwarza area, Library Museum Schloss Wilhelmsburg Schmalkalden, 2012; Ronald Füssel: The persecution of witches in the Thuringian area (= publications of the working group for historical witchcraft and crime research in Northern Germany. Vol. 2). DOBU-Verlag, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-934632-03-3 , p. 255, (also: Marburg, Universität, Dissertation, 2000).
4. ↑ 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. 259.
5. ↑ 2011 census database