Thamsbrück (, in German also ''Ablassstadt Thamsbrück'' Indulgence town Thamsbrück" is a quarter of the town of Bad Langensalza in

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 larg ...

, central

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 ...

, about northwest of

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

, with 940 inhabitants. The town, which has been independent since 1206, was incorporated into Bad Langensalza in 1994. Thamsbrück is the oldest small town in Thuringia and, with the Indulgence Festival (''Ablassfest''), has a tradition of more than 500 years.

Geography

Thamsbrück is located in the west of the

Thuringian Basin The Thuringian Basin (german: Thüringer Becken) is a depression in the central and northwest part of Thuringia in Germany which is crossed by several rivers, the longest of which is the Unstrut. It stretches about from north to south and around ...

about north of Bad Langensalza at an altitude of above NHN. The surrounding area is agricultural. On the southern and western edge of the village, the

Unstrut The Unstrut () is a river in Germany and a left tributary of the Saale. The Unstrut originates in northern Thuringia near Dingelstädt (west of Kefferhausen in the Eichsfeld area) and its catchment area is the whole of the Thuringian Basin. It ...

, with two river courses, flows eastwards to the Saale. The Welsbach, which comes from the north, flows into the Unstrut on the north-west side of the village.

History

Thamsbrück was first mentioned in a document in 736. It describes that the church in Thamsbrück was founded by the Anglo-Saxon missionary Boniface. In 1149, Louis the Iron had a castle built on the hill in front of the

river for his brother Louis the Younger. In 1206, Thamsbrück was documented in a deed of donation by Landgrave Hermann I and named ''civitas'' (Latin for "town") when a

Mühlhausen Mühlhausen () is a city in the north-west of Thuringia, Germany, north of Niederdorla, the country's geographical centre, north-west of Erfurt, east of Kassel and south-east of Göttingen. Mühlhausen was first mentioned in 967 and bec ...

arbitration award was confirmed. This is generally regarded as the first mention of the town charter. Until 1490, Thamsbrück Castle formed the centre of a landgravial office, then it was absorbed into the Langensalza office. On 20 June 1500, 30 Thamsbrückers returned from a campaign against rebellious

Frisians The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group native to the coastal regions of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, ...

who had risen up against the Gubernator of Friesland, the Wettin Henry the Pious. Until 1815, Thamsbrück belonged to the Electorate of Langensalza, and after 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 ...

, from 1816 to 1944 it belonged to the district of Langensalza in the

province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (german: link=no, Provinz Sachsen), also known as Prussian Saxony () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merge ...

. In 1868, Thamsbrück Castle was demolished and the area, including the moat, was turned into a garden. The castle tower, however, was spared. Anno 1890 saw the founding of the "Schloss Thamsbrück" malt factory. A town portrait published in 1975 mentions the agricultural production cooperative (''LPG'') "Karl Marx", which was united with a part of the farm in

Großwelsbach Großwelsbach () is a village and an ''Ortsteil'' (part) of the town of Bad Langensalza in Thuringia, central Germany, with about 250 inhabitants. Geography Großwelsbach is situated north of Bad Langensalza on the Landesstraße (state road) ...

, as the main agricultural enterprise, as well as the two malt factories located in the town, the ''

VEB VEB may stand for: * Venturing and Emerging Brands, a division of Coca-Cola * Virtual business * Venezuelan , currency of Venezuela between 1879 and 2007, ISO 4217 code VEB * ' (German for "People-owned enterprise"), a state-owned workplace or est ...

"Feuerteufel"'' (Firebug) and the only mill construction company remaining in the

GDR 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 ...

, "ORANO", which also took over the production of millstones. One of four ''Dingstühle'' of the Thuringian district court at Mittelhausen was located in Thamsbrück.

Sights

* * Town hall * St Nicholas's Tower

Notable people

* Ulrich Fleischhauer (1876–1960), anti-Semitic publicist and publisher *

Hermann Ludwig Blankenburg Hermann Ludwig Blankenburg (14 November 1876 in Thamsbrück – 15 May 1956 in Wesel) was a German composer of military marches. Blankenburg was the only son of three children of Johann Heinrich and Ernestine Friederike Koch Blankenburg. He was ...

(1876–1956), composer, called "March King", honorary citizen of the town

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thamsbruck Bad Langensalza Former municipalities in Thuringia