Wolkenstein is a town 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 ...
, 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
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 situated in the
Ore Mountains, on the river
Zschopau
Zschopau (), is a town in the Erzgebirgskreis district of Saxony, Germany.
Geography
The town is located on the northwestern slopes of the Ore Mountains, on both banks of the Zschopau River, about south-east from Chemnitz. The highest point ...
, 22 km southeast of
Chemnitz.
The town is situated on a rocky spur near the confluence of Zschopau and
Preßnitz. Its name is derived from the eponymous castle which is situated ca. 70 m above the river, and whose name signifies a rock that rises into the clouds. Aside from the town itself, Wolkenstein consists of the following subdivisions:
Of these, Warmbad is a
spa town
A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits.
Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. He ...
known for its
hot spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by c ...
with a variety of medicinal uses.
History
A
Herrschaft
The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...
Wolkenstein is mentioned in 1262. The town itself was first mentioned in 1293, and was first called an "oppidum" in 1323. A school was first recorded in 1385. From 1378, Wolkenstein was the seat of the noble family of Waldenburg. After they died out in 1473, it reverted to the
House of Wettin
The House of Wettin () is a dynasty of German kings, prince-electors, dukes, and counts that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its ori ...
. At the same time, mining started again in the area. 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 ...
was introduced in 1536/1537, and Wolkenstein became a parish of its own.
A wooden
covered bridge
A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...
across the Zschopau river was built in 1573.
Witch-hunt
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...
s occurred between 1614 and 1680. 67 mines were in operation around 1622. A great fire occurred in 1687, necessitating the rebuilding of the church which was consecrated again in 1689. The wooden bridge was replaced in 1769 by a stone bridge according to plans by
Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann
Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann (1662–1736) was a German master builder and architect who helped to rebuild Dresden after the fire of 1685. His most famous work is the Zwinger Palace.
Life
Pöppelmann was born in Herford in Westphalia on ...
.
A spinning mill was built in 1835 in Floßplatz, which was transformed into a paper mill in 1880. The
Zschopay valley railway reached Wolkenstein in 1866. The local
volunteer fire department
A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respond ...
formed in 1876. A new school was built in 1885. The sanitary sewers were completed in 1890, and a high pressure water supply in 1908.
The narrow-gauge
Pressnitz valley railway
The Pressnitz Valley Railway (German: ''Preßnitztalbahn'') was a narrow gauge railway line in Saxony, Germany. It used to climb from Wolkenstein on the standard gauge Annaberg-Buchholz–Flöha railway through the valley of river Preßnitz (Cz ...
opened in 1892.
Mining ended in 1904.
The first cinema opened in 1919. In 1926, the town takes over operation of the health spa in Warmbad. In 1929, Wolkenstein was connected to the gas supply from
Annaberg, and the local gas works was closed. In the same year, the new town hall is opened. From 1929 to 1931 a bypass road was built which necessitated a new bridge across the Zschopau river and the railway.
An aerial attack in the night from 14 to 15 February 1945 kills six people, and destroys or damages more than 200 buildings.
Passenger services on the Pressnitz valley railway ended in 1984, freight services in 1986. The line was subsequently lifted.
On 1 January 1999, the hitherto separate municipalities of Falkenbach, Gehringswalde, Hilmersdorf und Schönbrunn joined Wolkenstein.
Gebietsänderungen vom 01.01. bis 31.12.1999
Statistisches Bundesamt
The area of the former paper mill was sold in summer 2003, and a supplier for the automotive, medical, and electrical industry started production of turned parts from there.
Number of inhabitants
: Source: Statistical Office of Saxony
People who are connected to the place
* Kaspar Eberhard (1523-1575), Lutheran theologian and pedagogue
References
External links
*
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{{Authority control