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Bitterfeld () is a town in the district of
/ref> Bitterfeld was built by a colony of
Bitterfeld Katholische Kirche.jpg, Catholic church
Bitterfeld Kirche.jpg, Evangelical church
Villa am Bernsteinsee.JPG, Villa am Bernsteinsee
Pegelturm Goitzschesee.jpg, Pegelturm tower in Goitzschesee lake
Bitterfeld Berufschulzentrum.jpg, Vocational school center "August von Parseval"
Pouch Giotzsche2.jpg, Goitzschesee (lake)
''(from 1840 to 2006)'':
*
Bitterfeld () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld
Anhalt-Bitterfeld is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Its capital is Köthen (Anhalt). Its area is .
History
This district was established by merging the former districts of Bitterfeld, Köthen and a large part of Anhalt-Zerbst as part o ...
, Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...
, Germany. Since 1 July 2007 it has been part of the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It is situated approximately 25 km south of Dessau
Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...
, and 30 km northeast of Halle (Saale)
Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the Germany, German States of ...
. At the end of 2016, it had 40,964 inhabitants.
History and description
The name Bitterfeld most likely comes from theMiddle High German
Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High ...
words ''bitter'' and ''Feld'' and so means "boggy land".Mitteldeutsche Zeitung: Bitterfeld, ein Name, viele Geschichten/ref> Bitterfeld was built by a colony of
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
immigrants in 1153. The first documentary mention is from 1224. It was captured by the landgrave
Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' ("margrave"), a ...
of Meissen
Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrecht ...
in 1476, and belonged thenceforth to Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
, until it was ceded to Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
in 1815.
By 1900, Bitterfeld station was an important junction of the Berlin–Halle and the Magdeburg–Leipzig railways. The population at that time was 11,839; it manufactured drainpipes, paper roofing, and machinery, and had sawmills. There were also several coal mines in the vicinity. Owing to its pleasant situation and accessibility, it became a favoured residence of businessmen of Leipzig and Halle.
During the East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
(GDR) era, it gained notoriety for its chemical industry complex which caused remarkably severe pollution, even by GDR standards. On 24 April 1959, it also was a scene for the Bitterfeld Conference, locally known as the "Bitterfelder Weg". This conference sought to connect the working class with the artists of the day to form a socialist national culture.
In the 21st century Bitterfeld is still an industrial town and it stages the annual United Metal Maniacs metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
festival.
The former brown-coal open cast mine of Goitzsche, south-east of Bitterfeld, is a source of numerous fossils
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...
in Bitterfeld amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In Ma ...
.
Historical population
Sons and daughters of the town
*Johann Ernst Altenburg
Johann Ernst Altenburg (15 June 1734 – 14 May 1801) was a German composer, organist and trumpeter. He is not to be confused with a similarly named composer in the 1620s who contributed to the collection ''Angst der Hellen und Friede der Seele ...
(1736-1801), trumpeter and organist
* Erwin Ding-Schuler (1912-1945), sturmbannführer and first camp doctor of Buchenwald
* Peter Rasym (born 1953), musician, has been playing bass guitar since 1997 with the Puhdys
The Puhdys () were a German rock band, formed in Oranienburg (Brandenburg), GDR, in 1969, although by then they had been performing together—with various lineups—as the Puhdys since 1965. Although they are especially popular in their nativ ...
Other personalities
* August von Parseval
August von Parseval (5 February 1861, in Frankenthal (Pfalz) – 22 February 1942, in Berlin) was a German airship designer.
As a boy, Parseval attended the Royal Bavarian Pagenkorps in Munich from 1873 to 1878, where he took the ''Fähnrichexa ...
(1861-1942), his impact airships developed by him were partly built in Bitterfeld.
* Walther Rathenau (1867-1922), founder of Bitterfeld's chemical industry.
* Klaus Staeck (born 1938), graphic artist, lawyer and president of the academy of the arts, grew up in Bitterfeld.
Mayors
* 1851-1863 Gottlieb Meuche * 1863-1873 Gustav Frischbier * 1873-1890 Robert Sommer († 1890) * 1890-1914 Hugo Hermann Adalbert Dippe (1853; † 1916) * 1915-1927 Ernst Albert Hermann Schmidt * 1927-1939 Arthur Erdmann Ebermann * 1939-1945 Erhard Johann Martin Nimz * 1943-1945 Walter Stieb (Interim) * 26 April 1945 to 30 August 1945 Gustav Dietrich (deselection by Soviet city commandant) († 1972) * September 1945 to 1946 Bernhard Moder * 1946-1949 Ernst Rettel * 1949-1950 Karl Salbach * 1950-1953 Heinz-Rudolf Strauch * 1953-1959 Wolfgang Stille * 1959-1971 Else Petrushka * 1971-1979 Max Dittbrenner * 1979-1982 Karlheinz Sohr * 1982-1990 Klaus Barth * 1990-1994 Edelgard Kauf * 1994-2007 Werner Rauball * 2007-2009 Horst Tischer * From 2010 Joachim GüllandLiterature
* Maron, Monika: ''Bitterfelder Bogen''. Ein Bericht. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, . * Lojewsky, Hannelore: ''Seh’n wir uns nicht in dieser Welt, so seh’n wir uns in Bitterfeld.'' In: Norbert Kühne: ''Individuelles Lernen wird an Bedeutung gewinnen. 100 Jahre Hans-Böckler-Berufskolleg Marl/Haltern'', Marl 2009, S. 29–30. * Klaus Seehafer: ''Dann sehn wir uns in Bitterfeld. Tagebuch eines Jahres.'' Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle/S. 2009, . * * Hackenholz, Dirk: ''Die elektrochemischen Werke in Bitterfeld 1914–1945. Ein Standort der IG-Farbenindustrie AG.''LIT Verlag
LIT Verlag is a German academic publisher founded in 1980. Its managing director is Wilhelm Hopf. Its principal place of publication is Münster; further publishing offices are located in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, London, Zurich, and New York Ci ...
, Münster 2004, .
Notes
References
External links
* * * * * * {{Authority control Flemish diaspora Towns in Saxony-Anhalt Anhalt-Bitterfeld