Winterstein (Waltershausen)

Winter stone City of Waltershausen Coordinates: 50 ° 53 ′ 6 ″  N , 10 ° 27 ′ 24 ″  E
Height :	365  (360-400)  m
Incorporation :	December 31 2013
Incorporated into:	Emsetal
Postal code :	99880
Area code :	036259
Location of Winterstein in Waltershausen
Ruin of the moated castle in the center of Winterstein

Winterstein is a district of the town of Waltershausen in the Gotha district in Thuringia .

geography

Mountains and rivers

The southern part of the municipality is completely forested and extends to the ridge of the Thuringian Forest with the Rennsteig and in the southwest to the Dreiherrenstein on the Great Weissenberg . The highest elevation is the Drehberg ( 754.3  m above sea level ), Großer Weißenberg ( 746.7  m above sea level ), Kleiner Weißenberg ( 724.5  m above sea level ), Kleiner Inselsberg ( 705.6  m above sea level) ), Hübelskopf ( 694.6  m above sea level ), Breitenberg ( 634.1  m above sea level ), Thielberg ( 565.3  m above sea level ), Reitzenberg ( 481.8  m above sea level ). The northern part of the municipality has been used for agriculture since the Middle Ages, with pasture farming dominating. The lowest point is on the Emse towards Schwarzhausen . The district is drained by the Emse, an orographically left tributary of the Hörsel . The Sembach flows into this.

history

Winterstein was first mentioned in a document in 1246. The place was partly owned by the Lords of Wangenheim , who built the water castle Winterstein there in 1307 . The other part of the place belonged to the ruling office of Tenneberg . A second castle complex - the Sommerstein - can still be found today on the southern outskirts as a ground monument . This facility was located at the beginning of an old road that led to the Grenzwiese on the Kleiner Inselsberg and from there to the Werra Valley around Schmalkalden and Breitungen. In 1554 there were 17 houses, in 1615 there were 80.

In the Thirty Years War the castle and village were affected, and many residents died of the plague during that time . The place has always been shaped by forestry . Copper mining was also carried out until the 18th century, followed by linen weaving and basket making ( Wintersteiner carrying baskets ). As a result of industrialization , the crafts in Winterstein experienced a decline and the place was at times very poor. There was little income from making buttons and collecting berries. It was not until the developing small industry and the tourist traffic that began in 1886 that the living conditions in the village improved. In 1996, Winterstein merged with three surrounding communities and became part of the unified community of Emsetal . Since December 31, 2013 the place belongs to the city of Waltershausen, because the unified municipality Emsetal was incorporated into the city.

religion

Evangelical St. John's Church

Ev. Church of St. John

The barons of Winterstein as patron saints of the place dared to convert to the Evangelical faith as early as 1530. A chapel that previously existed on the outskirts in the direction of Schmerbach is no longer detectable. It was not until 1703 that Bernhard von Wangenheim approved the construction of a village church. First, the church was built, it was on St. John's Day , June 24, 1704 as St. John's church consecrated at the same time also the new cemetery was created. As early as 1850 this building was severely damaged by structural defects (probably caused by sponge infestation) and was replaced by the current building in 1855. The church has a red, tiled, half-hip roof with a relatively large, eight-sided and slated roof turret with a tower ball and a cross. An outside bell is attached to the dome. The entrance to the church is via a small roofed porch on the outside on the south gable. The inside shows a circumferential gallery and a barrel vault. It is illuminated through eight high windows in the long sides of the nave. Since Winterstein was the ancestral seat of the von Wangenheim-Winterstein family, the builder of the church, Heinrich Bernhard von Wangenheim, along with his wife and Adam Adolph von Wangenheim (1679–1744) were buried in a small crypt in front of the church's altar.

Catholic St. Joseph Church

The Emsetal near Winterstein

The Sembach valley near Winterstein

At the entrance to the Greifenwarte on Rennsteig

In the first months and years after the Second World War, Winterstein and the neighboring towns became the new home of thousands of expellees from Silesia and the Sudetenland . The Catholic pastor Wilhelm Brauers initially made it possible for the Catholic faithful to worship in St. John's Church . After further provisional arrangements, the building of a separate church was approved; it was consecrated as St. Joseph's Church on November 28, 1954 by the Erfurt auxiliary bishop Joseph Freusberg . The Catholic parish includes the places Fischbach , Schmerbach , Schwarzhausen and Winterstein.

Attractions

• The moated castle of the Lords of Wangenheim, preserved as a ruin , still shows the remains of Gothic pointed arch windows. The preserved bailiwick building is a half-timbered building that once housed the forest administration. In the castle park is the dog memorial for the "loyal dog Stutzel von Wangenheim ", who probably carried out messenger services for the rulers and died in 1630. Originally he was buried in a coffin in the cemetery, after objections and protests from the pastor and the Gotha Consistory , he was reburied in its current location.
• The Sommerstein is a presumed further castle site near Winterstein, the complex of which can be seen especially through the moat.
• The Kupferrose is a large historical slag dump on the site of an earlier iron and steel works.
• Since the 1990s, there has been a griffin waiting room with daily demonstrations at the Ruhla ski hut on the Rennsteig .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thuringian Land Survey Office TK10 - sheet 45-Bd-2 Winterstein , Erfurt 1997
2. ↑ Confirmation from the state parliament
3. ↑ Paul Lehfeldt had mentioned it in architectural and art monuments in Thuringia , but it had probably already disappeared before the Reformation.
4. ↑ Karl-Heinz Pfuch: Winterstein. Pictures, stories and history (anniversary publication for the 750th anniversary) . Ed .: Festival Committee. Winterstein 1996, excerpts from the history of the Protestant parish Winterstein, p. 40-43 .
5. ↑ Christina Foit: Winterstein. Pictures, stories and history (anniversary publication for the 750th anniversary) . Ed .: Winterstein municipality. Winterstein 1996, chronicle of the cath. Winterstein Church, S. 44 .

literature

• Horst H. Müller: “Travel Guide Thuringian Forest and Peripheral Regions” (1977) p. 739 ff.

Web links

Commons : Winterstein (Emsetal)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files