Sosa is a former municipality in the western Ore Mountains, in the

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 ...

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 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 populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is a state-recognized health resort, that has belonged to the town

Eibenstock Eibenstock is a town in the western Ore Mountains, in the Erzgebirgskreis, Saxony, Germany. It is situated near the river Mulde. Geography Eibenstock has the following constituent communities: Eibenstock, Blauenthal, Wolfsgrün, Neidhardtsthal ...

since 1 January 2011.

Geography

Sosa lies on both sides of the like-named Sosabach at an elevation of between 550 and 817 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. Also in the community is the ''Rote Grube'' (“Red Mine”).

History

Sosa began as a forest village (''

Waldhufendorf The ''Waldhufendorf'' ("forest village"; plural: -''dörfer'') is a form of rural settlement established in areas of forest clearing with the farms arranged in a series along a road or stream, like beads on a chain.Dickinson, Robert E (1964). ''G ...

''). In 1453 it was first mentioned as ''Sossaw'', although its beginnings are believed to have been in the 13th century. The people originally worked the land; however, from the 18th century onwards,

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

gained in importance. In the second half of the 19th century, mining was diminishing in importance, and many migrated to the

Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

fields. There was a short revival between 1947 and 1956 when the Soviet-German Wismut Corporation (''Sowjetisch-Deutsche Aktiengesellschaft Wismut'', or SDAG Wismut) mined

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

here, bringing about a new upswing. From 1952 to 1990, Sosa was part of the

Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt The Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt, also known as Bezirk Chemnitz, was a district (''Bezirk'') of East Germany. The administrative seat and the main town was Karl-Marx-Stadt, renamed back to Chemnitz during the reunification of Germany. History The Chemn ...

East Germany 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 ...

Population development

Development of population figures ''(31 December)'': : Source from 1998 on: ''Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen''

Culture and sightseeing

Between 1949 and 1952, the Sosa Reservoir was built. Its

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

is almost 60 m high and its area is 39.3 ha.

Notable people

Ludwig Güttler Ludwig Güttler (born 13 June 1943) is an internationally known German virtuoso on the Baroque trumpet, the piccolo trumpet and the corno da caccia. As a conductor, he founded several ensembles including the chamber orchestra Virtuosi Saxoniae. ...

(b. 1943),

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

virtuoso * Daniel Friedrich Hecht (1777–1833), mathematician

References

External links

Bergbrüderschaft Sosa (“Mining Brotherhood”)

private homepage about Sosa

homepage of the FSV Sosa
{{authority control Former municipalities in Saxony Erzgebirgskreis