Sohland on the Spree

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 51 ° 3 '  N , 14 ° 26'  E
Basic data
State :	Saxony
County :	Bautzen
Height :	302 m above sea level NHN
Area :	37.3 km 2
Residents:	6743 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	181 inhabitants per km 2
Postcodes :	02686-02689
Area code :	035936
License plate :	BZ, BIW, HY, KM
Community key :	14 6 25 560
Community structure:	10 districts
Address of the municipal administration:	Bahnhofstrasse 26 02689 Sohland on the Spree
Website :	www.sohland.de
Mayor :	Hagen Israel (independent)
Location of the municipality of Sohland on the Spree in the Bautzen district

Sohland an der Spree ( Upper Sorbian Załom ) is a place and the associated municipality in southeast Saxony on the border with the Czech Republic . With almost 7000 inhabitants, it is one of the most populous communities in the Bautzen district and one of the largest villages in Saxony. Sohland is located directly on the federal highway 98 with connection to the federal highway 4 via Bautzen . Numerous half-timbered houses , including the oldest half-timbered house in the Bautzen district, characterize the townscape.

geography

Sohland is located about 15 km south of the large district town of Bautzen in the Lausitzer Bergland . The altitude of the community extends from 280 m (Spreetal to Schirgiswalde) to 487 m (Kälbersteine). The distance between the two points is only 1500 m.

The community is bordered by Schirgiswalde-Kirschau in the north, Oppach in the east, Šluknov (Schluckenau) , Velký Šenov (Groß Schönau) and Lipová (Hainspach) in the south and Steinigtwolmsdorf in the west.

Community structure

In addition to the main town, the villages of Wehrsdorf and Taubenheim belong to Sohland an der Spree . Parts of the municipality are Am Hohberg , Ellersdorf , Karlsruhe , Neusorge , Neutaubenheim , Pilzdörfel , Sohland an der Spree, Tännicht , Taubenheim an der Spree, Wassergrund and Wehrsdorf.

The old body of the village of Sohland is divided into 15 districts:

1. On the spring mountain (Wendisch-Sohland)
2. Ellersdorf
3. Alt-Scheidenbach
4. Neu-Scheidenbach
5. Nieder-Sohland
6. New care
7. Carlsruhe
8. Lease yard
9. Sohland Mitteldorf
10. Hohberg ( Äußerst-Mittel-Sohland and Äußerst-Nieder-Sohland )
11. Mushroom village (Neu-Mittel-Sohland)
12. Oberdorf with "meadow"
13. Neudorf
14. Tännicht (Neu-Ober-Sohland)
15. Gütchen ( Schaffhirtsches G.)

For this reason, Sohland was also known as the “Durf mit fuffzn Zippl'n” (village with fifteen corners) .

history

Evangelical Lutheran Church

Exactly how the village of Sohland came about is currently being investigated in more detail. An older theory was based on a Sorbian foundation of the village, whereby this was derived from the name Załom (place at / behind the break / swamp), which can also be proven for Sohland am Rotstein . Recently, however, there have been increasing voices which assume that the Bohemian side will be founded. A fortified church is said to have served as a kind of fortress against the neighboring country of Budissin to the north . It is clear, however, that a uniform foundation of the village cannot be assumed.

The different districts are shaped differently and 100 years ago still had spatially separated ethnic communities. An exact foundation date of the place is not known to this day. The first documentary mention comes from the year 1222. Various stages of development can be seen in the village. While the middle of the village is rather closed, the other "foothills" of Sohland have the shape of Waldhufendörfern and thus most likely originated during the time of the Frankish settlement in the 13th and 14th centuries.

From 1901 to 1924, mining on nickel ore was carried out on Hornsberg near Äußerstemittelohland and Rosenhain. The Niedersohland manor house was demolished in 1970.

Population development

As in almost all municipalities in Upper Lusatia, the population of Sohland also tended to decrease in the years after 1945. Since 1990, in addition to the phenomenon of emigration, the enormous surplus of deaths has also come to bear. Compared to the neighboring communities, however, Sohland can hold its own quite well and has seen a certain influx here. In addition to the very good infrastructural location, this is mainly due to the designation of building land, which attracts young families from the surrounding area. But various senior citizens' projects in the village also contribute to this success.

In the census of May 9, 2011, there were 7,076 people in the municipality's 2,239 residential buildings. The district of Sohland consisted of 1247 residential buildings and had 3917 inhabitants; the rest lived in Wehrsdorf (1645) and Taubenheim (1514). The average age was 48 years.

religion

Upper Lusatia is generally a mixed denominational region. Sohland on the Spree is a predominantly Evangelical-Lutheran village. This is also evidenced by the church enthroned on a natural elevation in the center of the village, which dates from the beginnings of the village and was later redesigned in baroque style. At the church is the evangelical cemetery of the community, in the middle of which there is a historical crypt. The community center of the Evangelical Free Church of Sohland, founded in 1990, is located on the reservoir. There is also a Catholic church in the village.

politics

City council election 2019

Turnout: 69.7% (2014: 58.4%)

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

41.2%

28.4%

22.4%

8.0%

CDU

FWGSTW ^b

AfD

left

Gains and losses

compared to 2014

 % p

 25th

 20th

 15th

 10

   5

   0

  -5

-10

-15

-10.7  % p

-6.3  % p

+ 22.4  % p

-3.9  % p

CDU

FWGSTW ^b

AfD

left

Remarks:

^b Free voter community Sohland / Taubenheim / Wehrsdorf

Municipal council

Since the municipal council election on May 26, 2019 , the seats of the municipal council have been distributed among the individual groups as follows:

Party / list	Share of votes	+/-% p	Seats	+/-
CDU	41.2%	−10.7	8th	± 0
FWGSTW *	28.4%	−6.3	5	−2
AfD	22.4%	+22.4	3	+3
LEFT	8.0%	−3.9	1	± 0

^* Free voter community Sohland / Taubenheim / Wehrsdorf

In addition, the mayor belongs to the municipal council.

mayor

In June 2015, Hagen Israel was elected to succeed Matthias Pilz with 63.8% of the valid votes. The turnout was 65.4%.

Community association

Under Mayor Matthias Pilz, Sohland was accepted on May 10, 2008 into the loose association of the cross-border German-Czech five-community , to which the town of Neusalza-Spremberg and the communities of Friedersdorf (Spree) as additional members in the border region (on January 1, 2008 to Neusalza -Spremberg incorporated) and Oppach from the German side and the cities of Šluknov and Jiříkov from the Czech side.

coat of arms

Himmelsbrücke - landmark of Sohland

The coat of arms of the village of Sohland is a new artistic creation and shows the sky bridge leading over the Spree framed by two birch trees. A special legend is associated with the building shown, which assumes that anyone who crosses this bridge lying, will bring it to collapse. A wooden bridge over the Spree had existed since 1709. In 1796 a granite stone-like bridge was built, which has since been called the Sky Bridge. The sky bridge has only appeared as a community seal and coat of arms since 1876. With the regulation of the Spree its course was relocated; today the sky bridge leads over the Sohlander Dorfbach .

Town twinning

Sohland maintains partnerships too

• Gangelt in North Rhine-Westphalia
• Montévrain in France
• Rocca Priora in Italy

Culture and sights

A list of selected cultural monuments can be found in the list of cultural monuments in Sohland an der Spree .

Museums

Local history museum in Sohland

• Sohland has a small local history museum in a historical half-timbered house (Hainspacher Straße 19a), which is located in the upper village. The half-timbered house, built around 1750, is the oldest house of this type in the Bautzen district. Various everyday objects from farmers and weavers from the region from the 19th and early 20th centuries are exhibited here, providing an insight into the life of previous generations enables.
• In the Upper Lusatian Forest Museum in Sohland (Hainspacher Straße 21) there are various exhibitions on forestry in Upper Lusatia, including an originally furnished forester's room.

Buildings

Half-timbered house in Sohland

Castle (1915)

One of the most important buildings in the village is the neo-classical Mittelohland Palace, with its courtyard and park , built in the center of the village . The palace, built in 1747 and known as the Red Court, was a refugee camp after 1945, a tuberculosis home and a convalescent home for the seriously ill in GDR times, and later a convalescent home for pregnant women. In 1995 the building was renovated, but is currently empty. However, the palace and park are not in a state that can be used for tourism.

The historical church and the churchyard should also be mentioned here. Originally it is said to have been a fortified church. The public buildings (town hall, Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule, both by J. Arthur Bohlig ) that were built during the Art Nouveau period are also special landmarks of the place. As everywhere in Lusatia, the numerous half-timbered houses are also worth seeing.

The Prinz-Friedrich-August-Turm and Baude in the Neudorf district near the Czech border offers a view of the Upper Lusatian highlands. Only ramparts remain from the medieval Sohlander Castle .

"Bruno H. Bürgel" observatory

The public and school observatory " Bruno H. Bürgel " has been located in Sohland since 1963 . It is your concern to let visitors experience the starry sky, this is realized through public observations at the telescopes with introductory lectures and through events or slide presentations on various current topics. The Planet Path in Sohland, which shows the solar system on a scale of 1: 1.4 billion, was also created through the initiative of the Observatory Association .

Observatory "Bruno-H.-Bürgel" Sohland / Spree

Since 2008, the observatory has been researching a calendar-based solar observation phenomenon on various legendary rocks, the so-called " solar sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia ". The Upper Lusatian Bergland Tourist Regional Community took up the archaeoastronomical research as a touristic theme and in 2014 equipped the Kälberstein as the first property with appropriate hiking information and information boards.

In 2018, the Königshain cuckoo stone with its calendar astronomical functions at the Sohland observatory was recreated from Upper Lusatian granite with a size of around two meters. It is part of the " Sun Paths " tourism project . The replica of the cuckoo stone at the observatory forms the starting point of a hiking route to various calendar astronomical stone formations around Sohland and in Upper Lusatia and the Czech Republic.

Replica of the Königshain cuckoo stone at the Sohland / Spree observatory

Regular events

Special highlights are the summer performances on the forest stage . In addition to various fairy tales, pieces in the Upper Lusatian dialect are performed here, which is spoken here and in the south of Upper Lusatia.

Economy and Infrastructure

Like most other towns in Upper Lusatia , Sohland is also troubled by high unemployment and sluggish economic development. Nevertheless, Sohland was able to assert itself better than other towns in the region in the internal Upper Lusatian competition due to its central location on larger roads, its own rail connection and its own car border crossing to the Czech Republic, as well as a rather large population and population density.

Educational institutions

In addition to various crèches and kindergartens, there are two primary schools in Sohland and Wehrsdorf. The Gerhart Hauptmann School (by the architect J. Arthur Bohlig , around 1924) is located in the center of the town as a middle school. High school students have to go to school in another city ( e.g. Wilthen ).

Leisure and sports facilities

The most important sporting center of the place is the "Oberlandsporthalle" in the center of the village, which is used next to the normal school sport also for various public sporting events (especially handball and volleyball). There are also various public sports fields. In the two districts of Wehrsdorf and Taubenheim / Spree there is a forest and a leisure pool. In the northern part of the village is the Sohland reservoir .

The ski sports center is in the Tännicht district. There are two ski jumps here, the outlets of which are suitable for a variety of sports activities such as volleyball and gymnastics, a downhill slope with a drag lift, a gym and a roller-skis / skater track. The gastronomic care is guaranteed by the "Schanzenbaude", which also has a sauna and overnight accommodation. Interesting hiking trails lead through this sports area into the Upper Lusatian Mountains and the Bohemian Netherlands. In winter, groomed ski trails begin in this ski sports center over a distance of over 50 km. Wehrsdorf also has a downhill slope with a drag lift.

traffic

The Sohland stop is on the Oberoderwitz – Wilthen railway line .

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the church

• Johann Christian Müller (1749–1796), Gewandhaus musician and composer
• Martin Ficker (1868–1950), hygienist and bacteriologist
• Horst Scholze (1921–1990), chemist
• Günter Philipp (* 1927), pianist, musicologist, composer and painter
• Michael Harig (* 1960), politician (CDU) and current district administrator of the Bautzen district
• Evelin Kaufer (* 1953), track and field athlete
• Johannes Michael Schnarrer (1965–2008), social ethicist

People connected to the community

• Carl Robert Stein (1852–1932), entrepreneur
• Lothar Düring (1940-2014), Nordic combined athlete, began his career at Dynamo Sohland
• Andy Zirnstein (pseudonym: Der Asiate ) (* 1988), musician

literature

• Cornelius Gurlitt : Sohland (on the Spree). In:  Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 32nd issue: Bautzen Official Authority (Part II) . CC Meinhold, Dresden 1908, p. 287.

Web links

Commons : Sohland an der Spree  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Manors and castles in the kingdom of Saxony: Nieder-Sohland on the Spree  - sources and full texts

• Sohland an der Spree in the Digital Historical Directory of Saxony

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Population of the Free State of Saxony by municipalities on December 31, 2019  ( help on this ).
2. ↑ 2011 census - Sohland ad Spree community
3. ^ Evangelical Free Church in Sohland.
4. ↑ State Statistical Office of the Free State of Saxony - Results of the 2019 municipal council elections: Sohland
5. ↑ statistik.sachsen.de - Mayor election 2015, municipality of Sohland ad Spree: Final result of the election on June 7th
6. ^ Sohland (Spree): Sohland Castle. In: Sachsens-Schlösser.de. Retrieved September 12, 2013 . 
7. ^ Sächsische Zeitung, Bautzen edition, June 21, 2018