Oederan is a town in the district of

Mittelsachsen Mittelsachsen ("Central Saxony") is a district ('' Kreis'') in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. History The district was established by merging the former districts of Döbeln, Freiberg and Mittweida as part of the district reform of August ...

, 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 ...

, Germany.

Geography

Oederan is situated 14 km southwest of

Freiberg Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district. Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage c ...

, 17 km east of

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

and about 50 km west of

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. The town includes the villages of Börnichen, Breitenau,

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...

, Gahlenz, Görbersdorf, Kirchbach, Lößnitztal and Schönerstadt.

History

Oederan was first mentioned as town in 1286. The settlement of the area dates back to a Sorbian tribe in the 9th and 10th century.

Rhenish Franconian __NOTOC__ Rhenish Franconian or Rhine Franconian (german: Rheinfränkisch ) is a dialect chain of West Central German. It comprises the varieties of German spoken across the western regions of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, north ...

farmers, craftsmen and traders settled down in the 12th century. Since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

the most important industries had been cloth manufacturing and linen

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal th ...

. In the 19th century the railway construction had a great influence to the growth of the town. Some medium-sized factories were built around the train station of Oederan.oederan.de:
History of Oederan
'. 8 June 2008 During World War II, a subcamp of

Flossenbürg concentration camp Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Unlike other concentration camps, it was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, adjacent to the town of F ...

was located here.

Literature

Cziborra, Pascal. KZ Oederan. Verlorene Jugend. Lorbeer Verlag. Bielefeld. 2008

Places of interest

Oederan is known for its tourist attractio
“Klein-Erzgebirge”
the oldest

miniature park A miniature park is a display of miniature buildings and models, usually as a recreational and tourist attraction open to the public. A miniature park may contain a model of a single city or town, often called a miniature city or model village ...

in Germany. About 185 miniatures of famous buildings from the area of the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) in a reduced scale of 1:25klein-erzgebirge.de:
Der älteste Miniaturpark der Welt lädt ein!
'. 8 June 2008 are shown here. The most important old building is the gothic

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

. The history of the church goes back to the 13th century. An organ built by famous

Gottfried Silbermann Gottfried Silbermann (January 14, 1683 – August 4, 1753) was a German builder of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and fortepianos; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two. Life Very little is know ...

is located inside. The second most prominent building of the town is the town hall. First built around 1400 AD, it burned down several times (1632, 1709 and 1753), and was re-erected in its present shape in 1785.

People

Valentin Schindler Valentin Schindler (14 February 1543 – 11 June 1604) was a Lutheran Hebraist and professor of the University of Wittenberg, where he was an important teacher of the Hebrew language. He moved by 1594 to Helmstedt. He is known for his dictionary " ...

(1543–1604), philologist and orientalist * Johann Klemm (* c. 1595; † c. 1659), composer, organist and music publisher *

Minna Planer Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer (5 September 180925 January 1866) was a German actress and the first wife of composer Richard Wagner, to whom she was married for 30 years, although for the last 10 years they often lived apart. At an early age, ...

– (1809–1866),

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's first wife, actress *

Adolf Gottlieb Fiedler Adolf Gottlieb (also: Gottlob) Fiedler (1771 – 12 August 1850) was a German entrepreneur in Saxony and Poland. Life Born in Dresden as the son of Christian Gottlob Fiedler, Adolf was one of the most important cloth producers of Saxony in t ...

– (1771–1850), Saxon entrepreneur in

and Poland *

Herbert Böhme Herbert Böhme (7 October 1907 – 23 October 1971) was a German poet who wrote poems and battle hymns for the Nazi Party. In 1930 he became one of the newly formed ''Junge Mannschaft'', a group of semi-official Nazi poets that also included H ...

(1879–1971), Superintendent of the Lutheran Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony in the church district of Meißen *

(1771–1850), entrepreneur in Saxony and Poland *Martin Hoffmann (born 1930), student resistance in the GDR, 2002 founder of the Zeitkundemuseum in Oederan, 2008 Federal Cross for his commitment to the elaboration of the GDR's injustice *

Igor Mitoraj Igor Mitoraj (Polish pronunciation: ; 26 March 1944 – 6 October 2014) was a Polish artist and sculptor. Known for his fragmented sculptures of the human body often created for large-scale public installations, he is considered one of the most ...

(1944–2014), Polish sculptor and painter, born in Oederan

References

Mittelsachsen