Niederlauterstein is a village in

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 ...

which has been incorporated into the town of

Marienberg Marienberg is a town in Germany. It was the district capital of the Mittlerer Erzgebirgskreis (Central Ore Mountains district) in the southern part of Saxony, and since August 2008 it has been part of the new district of Erzgebirgskreis. As of ...

in the district

Erzgebirgskreis Erzgebirgskreis is a district ('' Kreis'') in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is named after the Erzgebirge ("Ore Mountains"), a mountain range in the southern part of the district which forms part of the Germany–Czech Republic border. I ...

since 1996.

Geography

Niederlauterstein is a

dispersed settlement A dispersed settlement, also known as a scattered settlement, is one of the main types of settlement patterns used by landscape historians to classify rural settlements found in England and other parts of the world. Typically, there are a numb ...

(''Streusiedlung''), situated about north-east of Marienberg in the Ore Mountains. It extends from the left bank of Schwarze Pockau river for about westward on a steep slope. The ruined Lauterstein Castle which formed the origin of the settlement is situated on a rock spur above the river, at the eastern end of the village. A former miners' settlement dating back to the 12th century, the

abandoned village An abandoned village is a village that has, for some reason, been deserted. In many countries, and throughout history, thousands of villages have been deserted for a variety of causes. Abandonment of villages is often related to epidemic, f ...

Schwedengraben, is located about southwest of Niederlauterstein. To the east,

Landesstraße ''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'') are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are roads t ...

224 between

Pockau Pockau is a village and a former municipality in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony, Germany. On 1 January 2014 it was merged with the town Lengefeld to form the town Pockau-Lengefeld. Pockau is on the Silver Road (''Silberstraße''). Geor ...

und Kniebreche runs along the valley of Schwarze Pockau.

Kreisstraße A Kreisstraße (literally: "district road" or "county road") is a class of road in Germany. It carries traffic between the towns and villages within a '' Kreis'' or district or between two neighbouring districts. In importance, the ''Kreisstraße ...

8131 connects the western end of the village with Rittersberg and Kniebreche and with

Lauta Lauta ( Sorbian: ''Łuty'') is a town in the district of Bautzen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 10 km west of Hoyerswerda, and 10 km southeast of Senftenberg. History From 1815 to 1945, within the Prussian Province of Brandenburg ...

via Lauterbach.

History

The history of Niederlauterstein is closely connected with that of Lauterstein Castle, built in the second half of the 12th century and first mentioned in 1304, which was built to protect a medieval trade road between

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

across the Ore mountains. When castle and lordship were divided in 1497 into ''Nyder Sloß Lauttersteynn'' ("Lower castle Lauterstein") and ''zum Lawttersteyn'', a dividing wall was erected across the castle courtyard. Since 1539, after the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

Niederlauterstein has belonged to the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of Lauterbach. In 1559,

Prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prince ...

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

installed the administration of the

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

Lauterstein in the castle. The castle burned down in 1639 during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

. Beginning in 1698, the sale of the '' Vorwerke'' ''Neudeck-Schäferei'', ''Schlossmühle'' and ''Schweizer Vorwerk'' was prepared. Carl Gottlieb Leubnitz, Georg Heinrich Dürrfeldt and Curth Heinrich Einsiedel, commission agents of the prince-elector, were instructed to negotiate the contract which was completed on 26 September 1701 and which was confirmed on 23 December 1701 by

Augustus the Strong Augustus II; german: August der Starke; lt, Augustas II; in Saxony also known as Frederick Augustus I – Friedrich August I (12 May 16701 February 1733), most commonly known as Augustus the Strong, was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as Ki ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. The farming estates together with their tracts of land were sold to 31 buyers, among them subjects of the ''Amt'' and other applicants. Since the estates had been property of the castle's share since 1497, the new village arising from them was named ''Nieder Lauterstein'' in 1701. A school was established in 1835 and a second one in 1884. Both were replaced by a new building in 1916 which is now used as a club house by the local history society. After ''Schlossmühle'' mill on the right bank of Schwarze Pockau burned down in 1860, a flax spinnery was built in its grounds in 1865. It burned down in 1888 and was replaced by a

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, ...

for the production of

paperboard Paperboard is a thick paper-based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker (usually over 0.30 mm, 0.012 in, or 12 Inch#equivalences, points) than paper and has certain ...

in 1893. It closed in 1965, only the former proprietor's villa has been preserved. The former manorial district of Schlossmühle was incorporated into Niederlauterstein in 1921. On 1. Januar 1996 Niederlauterstein was incorporated into Marienberg.

Inhabitants

Bibliography

* * Landratsamt Mittlerer Erzgebirgskreis, Hrsg.: ''Zur Geschichte der Städte und Gemeinden im Mittleren Erzgebirgskreis'', Eine Zeittafel (Teile 1–3) *

References

External links

* * * * {{HOV, Schweizervorwerk, Schweizervorwerk
niederlauterstein-erzgebirge.de
Former municipalities in Saxony Marienberg Villages in the Ore Mountains