Amerika () is a former company settlement in the

German state The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

and a district of the town of

Penig Penig () is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Zwickauer Mulde, 19 km northwest of Chemnitz. The old and the new castle were owned by the House of Schönburg from 1378 ...

. A small village of 79 residents (2010), it is known merely for its name, the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

word for

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, which was given to it in the 19th century. In 1836, a spinning factory was built on the left bank of the river

Zwickauer Mulde The Zwickauer Mulde () is a river in Saxony, Germany. It is the left tributary of the Mulde and in length. The source of the river is in the Ore Mountains, near Schöneck, in the Vogtlandkreis. It runs northeast to Aue, then northwest to ...

, but houses for workers and clerks were not built until 1870. Initially, because a bridge was only built much later, workers and visitors coming from the right bank of the river had to cross the water using stepping stones or boats to access the place. As "crossing the pond" in those times was chiefly understood as emigrating to America, the factory was named "Amerika" by the local population. The name became official in 1876 (incidentally, the centennial of the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

) when the village's railway station was named "Amerika". The factory was closed in 1991. Amerika was part of Arnsdorf until 1993 and, together with the latter, became part of

in 1994. In 1995, the town of Penig bought the buildings from the

Treuhandanstalt The (, " Trust agency"), colloquially referred to as , was an agency established by the government of the German Democratic Republic to reprivatise/ privatise East German enterprises, Volkseigene Betriebe (VEBs), prior to German reunification ...

, and new trades and a museum (including workshops of locksmiths and file cutters, powered by a refurbished water turbine) have been established since.

References

History of Amerika from the website of the town of Penig
''(in German)'' * Jana Kaulich, Dieter Richter: ''Über Amerika ins Tal der Burgen – Das Tal der Zwickauer Mulde um Penig.'' Bildverlag Böttger, 1994, ''(in German)''

References

See also