Niederstrasse (Altstrasse)
The Niederstraße (also Salzstraße), lat . via regia Lusatiae inferioris , was a trade route. It was an alternative route of the Via Regia , which led from Breslau to the Rhine . For several centuries, the road after the Hohe Landstrasse, which ran south, was the most important traffic connection from Central Germany to Silesia and the Polish East and developed in competition with it. The Niederstrasse was also used by pilgrims as the Way of St. James.
course
The Niederstrasse went from Eilenburg via Torgau , Liebenwerda , Senftenberg , Spremberg , Muskau and Sagan or Cottbus and Priebus to Silesia and on to what was then Poland .
history
The Niederstrasse developed in competition with the Hohen Landstrasse. King Ferdinand , who was also sovereign of Upper Lusatia, set higher border tariffs for the area in Upper Lusatia in 1559. With the increase of the tariffs on the Hohen Landstrasse, however, the traffic shifted to the Niederstrasse and to new roads, such as via Frankfurt / Oder through Brandenburg to western Germany. Elector August von Sachsen referred to the joint obligation set in the legacy to maintain the Hohe Strasse. He emphasized that the new tariffs would divert Polish trade towards the mark. As a result, a large part of the goods in Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Antwerp would no longer be transported to Poland via Leipzig and Breslau as before, but in future via Wittenberg and the Mark Brandenburg.
At the beginning of the 17th century, traffic to the east went to the same extent over the Hohe Landstrasse as over the Niederstrasse to Leipzig. The route through Niederlausitz, however, was preferred by merchants traveling in the direction of Magdeburg. In 1615, Emperor Matthias ordered the bailiff of Niederlausitz to keep the right Niederstrasse via Muskau and Spremberg to Leipzig and to prevent the deviation to Magdeburg.
In 1684, the Saxon Elector Johann Georg expressly allowed the use of the Niederstrasse leading from Sagan via Muskau, Spremberg, Senftenberg, Liebenwerda and Torgau to Leipzig. But in 1706 the Hohe Landstrasse was again designated as the decisive one, and the byways and byways through Niederlausitz were banned. However, this ban could not really be enforced. In part, the trade went increasingly on more northerly roads (via Frankfurt / Oder, Berlin, to Hamburg). Merchants from Bohemia and Silesia who wanted to Hamburg or Lüneburg also used a route from Hohen Strasse via Hoyerswerda, or from Kamenz via Senftenberg to Finsterwalde, Sonnewalde , Dahme , Jüterbog , Niemegk and further north. In September 1722, the cities of Upper Lusatia declared that goods destined for the lakeside towns and only through-going goods should not be forced onto Hohestrasse or Niederstrasse, but that the route Lauban, Görlitz, Bautzen, or Kamenz, Senftenberg, Finsterwalde , Sonnewalde, Dahme had to be used and continue to allow. Thereupon the Elector August the Strong issued a new street mandate. According to this, the Silesian and Polish carters, no matter where they brought their goods, should now use the Hohe Strasse via Görlitz, Grossenhain. However, wagoners who did not come across the Queis on their way should use the Niederstrasse and travel to Saxony via Priebus, Muskau and Spremberg. Then the travelers were only allowed to continue via Finsterwalde, Dobrilugk and Torgau, or on the Hohen Strasse via Grossenhain and Oschatz. The route via Senftenberg, Finsterwalde, Dahme and Niemegk was forbidden. This ban created a detour for traders from Löbau and Bautzen who wanted to trade with Hamburg. The complaint of the two Upper Lusatian cities led in 1723 to a permission from the Elector, who released it to bring Bohemian glassware and Silesian as well as "Lausitzischer Leinewand" via Kamenz or Bautzen, then via Senftenberg to Lüneburg or Hamburg.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rudolf Lehmann : History of Niederlausitz. de Gruyter, Berlin 1963 (= publications of the Berlin Historical Commission at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute of the Free University of Berlin, Volume 5; extended new edition of the history of the Margraviate of Niederlausitz)
- ^ New archive for Saxon history and antiquity