Kauern is a German municipality in the

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

n Landkreis of

Greiz Greiz () is a town in the state of Thuringia, Germany, and is the capital of the district of Greiz. Greiz is situated in eastern Thuringia, east of state capital Jena, on the river '' White Elster''. Greiz has a large park in its center (Fürs ...

. It belongs to the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft of

Wünschendorf/Elster Wünschendorf/Elster is a municipality in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany. The municipality is seat of a municipal association Municipal associations (german: Verwaltungsgemeinschaften) are statutory corporations or public bodie ...

Geography

Neighboring municipalities

Communities near Kauern are Hilbersdorf and Ronneburg in the Landkreis of Greiz, as well as the Free City of

Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...

Municipal arrangement

Kauern has two subdivisions: Lichtenberg und Loitzsch.

History

Kauern is first mentioned in writing in 1465, when the Lord of Rudenitz was invested with the manor of Kauern. The village of Kauern belonged to the Dukes of

Saxe-Altenburg Saxe-Altenburg (german: Sachsen-Altenburg, links=no) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin in present-day Thuringia. It was one of the smallest of the German states with an area of 1323 square kilomete ...

and possessed a tight bond to the nearby city of Ronneburg that developed over the years. In 1958, the

SDAG Wismut SAG/SDAG Wismut was a uranium mining company in East Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populo ...

began the construction of a

uranium ore Uranium ore deposits are economically recoverable concentrations of uranium within the Earth's crust. Uranium is one of the more common elements in the Earth's crust, being 40 times more common than silver and 500 times more common than gold. It ...

open-pit mine in Lichtenberg. By 1976 it had formed a 240 meter deep hole. Then the extraction of uranium in the mine was discontinued, because expansion was impossible due to the proximity of Ronneburg and to the Schmirchau mine. In 1990, the mine was partially filled with material from the nearby pits. When Federal Garden Show is held nearby in 2007, it should be completely filled up and integrated into the ''new landscape of Ronneburg''.

References

Greiz (district) {{Greiz-geo-stub