Spechtsbrunn

Spechtsbrunn City of Sonneberg
Coordinates: 50 ° 29 ′ 38 ″  N , 11 ° 15 ′ 20 ″  E
Height :	683 m above sea level NN
Incorporation :	April 9, 1994
Incorporated into:	Engnitzthal
Postal code :	96515
Area code :	036703
Location of Spechtsbrunn in Thuringia

Spechtsbrunner Höhe, view of the Thuringian Slate Mountains

Spechtsbrunn is a district of the city of Sonneberg in the district of Sonneberg in Thuringia .

location

Spechtsbrunn is a place in the Thuringian Slate Mountains on the border with Bavaria . The Rennsteig leads directly through the town and shortly after leaving the town it crosses the old trade and military route from Nuremberg to Leipzig .

history

Spechtsbrunn is one of the oldest places in the Rennsteig region. The place name is not due to a woodpecker, but to a bacon , a ( stick dam ), with which a swampy, boggy place was made passable.

On June 29, 1414, the place is mentioned for the first time with the division of the estate by the Counts of Orlamünde. In 1438 the Imperial Hereditary Marshals of Pappenheim were enfeoffed with the noble rule of Graefenthal. In 1525 Sebastian von Pappenheim introduced the Reformation in the Gräfenthal rule. Thus Spechtsbrunn belongs to the first Evangelical-Lutheran places in Germany. The first mention of Spechtsbrunn on a map dates back to 1594, when "Speckbron" appears on page 6 in the so-called "Pfinzigatlas" by the Nuremberg cartographer Paul Pfinzing .

Old Army and Trade Route - Cold Kitchen

The place developed in the Middle Ages on the trade and military route between Nuremberg and Leipzig, which led over the Sattelpass to Franconia . One of the steepest stretches of the trade route (from Buchbach to “Kalte Küche”, the relaxation of the harnessed animals) was near Spechtsbrunn. For the ascent, “leaders (4–6 pairs of horses and up to 18 pairs of oxen) were necessary.” The route was well paved and up to six meters wide in some places so that mutual evasions were possible. Even today, 10 to 15 cm deep wagon tracks can be seen at one point. "For the Buchbach-Kalte Küche route, 24 Kreutz leader money and three Kreutz tips were paid per pair of oxen ..." This probably explains the high number of draft animals that were kept in the surrounding villages. The start of the carting trade is to be set around the year 1700 (in a church book the profession "Carrier" appears for the first time). In Spechtsbrunn alone, according to regional information from the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen, over 100 oxen were counted at the turn of the 19th century. Many carters and peasants grew wealthy during that century and a half. With the expansion of the railway network in Germany after 1835, the carting business collapsed completely in 1860.

Spechtsbrunn with industrial park in the background

The place arose after clearing as a forest hoof village ; today are Gelänge to recognize and to see the corridor plan of the relevant land registry. We know little about the life of the villagers in the first centuries after the foundation. Official regional records only existed at the end of the 18th century. It is reported that the administrative village of Spechtsbrunn consists of 24 farms. Due to inheritance divisions and other disposals, that was 8 whole and 32 half. In addition, 3 people from Hintersätt and 6 small houses owned houses with little or no land. These were among others lumberjacks, charcoal burners, pitchers, linen weavers and miners. Due to the extremely harsh climate, only summer grain, potatoes and flax could be grown. Cattle breeding was practiced to a small extent for marketing purposes, a forest village south of the village, "Kuhmarkt", indicates this. The peasant wars did not pass the Gräfenthal rule without a trace. Without bloodshed, the peasantry won some small privileges in tough negotiations. These were the “rights to malt, brew and tavern”. Serfdom was not abolished, some of which extended into the first half of the 19th century. Compulsory labor had to be done in the form of tensioning services for the rulers for the transport of goods of all kinds. In addition, there was the hand front when creating, repairing and maintaining roads, especially the trade route. The farmers had to pay high fees for the “death benefit” and the “acceptance money” when they took over the hereditary farm. The field name "Schleifenwiesen" indicates that rafting was also important for the region around Spechtsbrunn for centuries. Diving logs (length approx. 1.20 m) was seasonal work that was carried out by woodworkers and carters on behalf of ducal foresters. There were no independent raftsmen here. In winter, carters transported the tree trunks via "Schleifweg" (Rennsteig) and "Schleifenwiesen" to the storage sites near the raft ponds. The logs could only be lifted in spring, when there was plenty of water. The district forester had the task of determining the time and order and classifying them in the system. After the raft ponds had been lowered to support the rafting, the raftsmen regulated the drift from outside, the so-called raftsmen, and thus prevented the logs from getting caught under themselves and the bank. Logs were rafted from the following storage areas to supply the city population with firewood:

1. from Tettau near the "Schleifenwiesen" to the Tettau, over the Haßlach to Kronach Holzanger
2. from Spechtsbrunn in the Pfmersch over the Steinach, Rodach to Coburg.

Pen box		Slate pen

Already around the time the place was first mentioned, slate was being mined in the area, later also in underground mining. It was slate that was used to cover building roofs and was therefore mostly exported by local carters. In later centuries it was also processed into writing boards. In conjunction with slate grips, these ensured that children around the world could learn writing and arithmetic, the ABCs and multiplication tables . Because the slate blocks in the vicinity around Spechtsbrunn could not be split into stable panels, but rather because they disintegrated into thin prismatic stems, they were ideally suited for the production of these pens. At first they were left edged and only sharpened. Later they were turned around in laborious manual work while they were damp. This was done in home work with the help of all family members, especially the women and children, who last pasted the pencils with colored paper. At the beginning of the 20th century there was a transition to industrial production. For this purpose, so-called large huts were built directly at the slate quarries. That was the result of an initiative of the stylus maker Karl Friedrich Weigelt who came to the state parliament of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen in 1897. Despite the installation of suction devices, the slate dust ensured that many people fell ill with "dust lung" and had to die prematurely. The nearby large hut on the "Brand" was closed in 1930. The pen production experienced an upswing in the post-war period, when paper was scarce. After the number of orders also declined from developing countries, production in the then neighboring state plants was discontinued in the mid-1960s. In addition to the centuries-old quarrying of slate in numerous pits in the region, there is evidence that four color earth pits were laid out and exploited in the Ramstal valley and between Spechtsbrunn and Hasenthal between 1878 and 1930. Spechtsbrunn citizens also found work here.In 1912, a porcelain factory was founded, which continued until 1990 existed. Today Spechtsbrunn has the largest industrial area in the former municipality of Oberland am Rennsteig. Several branches of industry were able to settle here. Agriculture has hardly played a role for several decades. Agricultural areas are only used as mountain pastures.

A holiday property of the MfS was sheltered, in the middle of the 5 km restricted zone area near Spechtsbrunn . This included the Berggasthof Brand , which was expanded by eight Finnhütten . At the forest village of Kalte Küche, right at the entrance to the fenced 500 m restricted area, the residents of Spechtsbrunn called for the opening of the inner-German border in 1989. Today a memorial on the state border from Bavaria to Thuringia reminds of the time of division and the forced opening of the border.

Spechtsbrunn has belonged to the Saalfeld district since 1868 . In 1950 it became part of the Sonneberg district . Two years later it came to the Neuhaus am Rennweg district and after its dissolution in 1994 it became the Sonneberg district again. In the same year, the place was incorporated into the single community Engnitzthal , which in 1997 became part of the Oberland am Rennsteig community. This was incorporated into Sonneberg in 2014.

Attractions

Place of peace

Shortly after the reunification, the newly founded local tourism association began to build up a gentle tourism in cooperation with the inns and some private landlords. The former border strip , the "Green Belt", as well as the Rennsteig and the Old Heer and Trade Road are worthwhile destinations for hikers. The 450 km long tourist road "Nature Park Route Thuringian Forest", which is signposted for motorized visitors, meets these hiking trails at the level of the "Nature Park Information". In winter there are groomed trails that connect South Thuringia with Upper Franconia on the Rennsteig.

Spechtsbrunn is a stop on the “Via Porta” pilgrimage route from the Catholic Waldsassen Monastery in Bavaria to the Evangelical Brotherhood in the Volkenroda Monastery in Thuringia .

Memorial on the border between Bavaria and Thuringia inaugurated on the occasion of the Rennsteigkirchentag 2009

The Matthäuskirche zu Spechtsbrunn (1746/1747) with its rich painting is an example

Matthaeuskirche zu Spechtsbrunn

the heyday of baroque church buildings in the Thuringian Slate Mountains. It was renovated in 1911 by Curt Steinberg from Berlin-Steglitz with the financial contribution of the ducal house . The Duke also financed the installation of a new organ from the W. Sauer Orgelbau Frankfurt (Oder) workshop . The church was consecrated on September 21, 2008 after extensive restoration work. It was named Matthäuskirche. A memorial on the state border between Bavaria and Thuringia commemorates the overcoming of the division of Germany .

Myths and legends

“Cold kitchen” should mean “chapel on the border”? - A legend? This is clearly a pamphlet - a mockery of people who believe all of this.

• “Cold cuisine” for centuries? The term did not exist in the 19th century. One spoke of the "kitchen" (forest place, street crossing) HL Wilhelm Volker (1824), Alexander von Ziegler (1862) and others. a. Regional studies
• The national border never led directly past the cold kitchen (shortest distance approx. 1 km to the Schildwiese)
• In the original forgery it says: The name originated from the terms "Calde", which means border, and "Kuche". In Franconian a chapel or small church is called "Kuchel" or Kochel.
• However, calde (Latin) is a form of the adjective caldus , German: warm . calde does not mean limit in any language ,
• There is no Kochel in Franconian, in Old Bavarian it is simply called kitchen.
• In no language is kuche, but kochel means chapel .
• Put the whole thing back together and the cold kitchen becomes a warm kitchen . Unfortunately, the pamphlet in the article "The inn on the border" (Tourismusverband Oberland am Rennsteig) was processed dubiously.

The Spechtsbrunners' desire to tell stories was already evident in earlier centuries. For example, around 1850 (according to Brückner, Meiningische Landeskunde) a mayor at the time presented a certificate allegedly issued in 1490 without a signature, which named privileges that had the character of urban rights, but in some cases even corresponded to the rights of feudal lords. The strangest point is the third point of this privilege: "Thirdly, the von Spexbrun should not go into any rift or army expedition, because so far away that they have to come home again before night, do not yet take care of any army money or other things that serve to rule, Therefore, the road on the forest is to you. Even if you walked into someone in the forest or realized with a warning that you would like them to hang on to the next tree, without any part of the clock and judgment, and on the third day to present the rule and judgment and to have them asked by the clock and right if he same hang. Also whether a key comes (against, after) Spexbrunn, he is a murderer, a robber or another culprit, in a patch of field bushels of winter grain are sown on it, he has freedom from everyone while he is in the field. “Today there is an information center of the Thuringian Forest Nature Park at the“ Cold Kitchen ” at the interface to the neighboring Thuringian Slate Mountains / Obere Saale and Franconian Forest Nature Park .

Web links

Commons : Spechtsbrunn am Rennsteig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wolfgang Kahl : First mention of Thuringian towns and villages. A manual. 5th, improved and considerably enlarged edition. Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza 2010, ISBN 978-3-86777-202-0 , p. 269.
2. ^ Paul Pfinzing : The Pfinzing Atlas of 1594. Facsimile. State Archives Nuremberg and Altnürnberger Landschaft eV, Nuremberg 1994, ISBN 3-921635-31-4 , p. 6.
3. ↑ Achim Paschold, Henry Bechtoldt: The Graefenthaler Fuhrwesen. Enough. In: Gräfenthaler Bote. Official journal of the city of Graefenthal. Vol. 23, No. 7, 2012, ZDB -ID 1203368-6 , pp. 12–14, here p. 14, ( digital version (PDF; 13.5 MB) ).
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Friedrich Gottlob Leonhardi : Earth description of the electoral and ducal Saxon lands. Volume 4. 3rd, increased and improved edition. Barth, Leipzig 1806, p. 901 f.
5. ↑ Thomas Gunzelmann, Christine Dorn: The cultural landscape of the rafting in the Franconian Forest. A complex system and its relics. In: Local history yearbook of the district of Kronach. Vol. 24, 2003/2006, ZDB -ID 518171-9 , pp. 83-162.
6. ↑ Otto Ludwig: The Rennsteig. A hiking book. New, complete edition, 3rd revised edition. Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1980, p. 648 ff.
7. ↑ Sibylle Göbel: Where the Stasi used to go on vacation undisturbed. In: Thüringische Landeszeitung , July 24, 2013.
8. ^ Thuringian Association for Home Care. Yearbook. 1912, ZDB -ID 554725-8 , p. 72 .
9. ^ Georg Brückner : Regional studies of the Duchy of Meiningen. Part 2: The topography of the country. Brückner and Renner, Meinigen 1853, p. 587 ff.