Großschirma is a town in the district of

Mittelsachsen Mittelsachsen (, ) 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 2008. Geog ...

, in

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 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is situated 7 km northwest of

Freiberg Freiberg () is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the Elster and ...

. It was formed from the administrative union of the municipality of Großschirma and the town of Siebenlehn, including their districts, on 1 September 2003.

History

The eponymous village Großschirma was founded in the middle of the 12th century. Claims by local historians that it was already founded in 956 could not be proved. Until the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

Großschirma belonged to

Altzella Abbey Altzella Abbey, also Altzelle Abbey ( or ''Altzelle'', previously ''Cella'' or ''Cella Sanctae Mariae''), is a former Cistercian monastery near Nossen in Saxony, Germany. The former abbey contains the tombs of the House of Wettin, Wettin margra ...

. In 1555,

prince-elector The prince-electors ( pl. , , ) were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Usually, half of the electors were archbishops. From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince- ...

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

sold Großschirma and 14 other villages that were part of the estate of the dissolved abbey to his councillor Ulrich von Mordeisen. Rudolph Mordeisen, one of the sons of the latter, sold Großschirma and at least nine more villages in the property of his family to prince-elector

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. Großschirma benefited from the growth of mining in the Freiberg Mining Field. The state-owned mine ''Churprinz Friedrich August Erbstolln'' (short: ''Churprinz'') on the west bank of the river

Freiberger Mulde The Freiberger Mulde (also called the ''Östliche Mulde'' or Eastern Mulde; ) is the right-hand, headstream of the river Mulde, whose catchment covers an area of in the Czech Republic and Germany in central Saxony. It has a volumetric flow of ...

was one of the most profitable mines in the field. The ore extracted there was conveyed to the smelters in

Halsbrücke Halsbrücke is a municipality and village in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated just north of Freiberg, on the banks of the Freiberger Mulde river. Geography Halsbrücke lies 5 km north of Freiberg on the lef ...

on an artificial waterway, the ''Churprinzer Bergwerkskanal''. In 2003, the hitherto separate town Siebenlehn offered to join the municipality of Großschirma due to financial difficulties. The two municipalities merged on 1 September 2003, whereby the town privileges of Siebenlehn were transferred to the joint municipality. This was the first case of a town being incorporated into a rural municipality in Saxony.

Districts and their incorporations

Infrastructure

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' (, ), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' are labelled with re ...

101 traverses the area of the municipality from north to south. Motorway A4 runs along the northern boundary of the town, with a junction north-west of Siebenlehn. Nossen–Moldau railway also traverses the town from north to south and has stations in Großvoigtsberg and Großschirma. It is principally used by museum trains and occasional freight trains. A network of hiking paths and cycling routes, integrated into long-distance routes is maintained by local associations.

Sons and daughters of the city

Otto Rühle (1874–1943) born in Siebenlehn. Foremost radical Marxist associated with

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg ( ; ; ; born Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary and Marxist theorist. She was a key figure of the socialist movements in Poland and Germany in the early 20t ...

and Alfredd Ardler. *

Amalie Dietrich Koncordie Amalie Dietrich (née Nelle) (26 May 1821 – 9 March 1891) was a Germans, German naturalist who was best known for her work in Australia from 1863 to 1872, collecting specimens for the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg. Australia Dietrich w ...

(1821–1891), born in Siebenlehn, naturalist, botanist, zoologist and plant hunter * Friedrich Wilhelm Putzger (1849–1913), born in Siebenlehn, educator, schoolbook author

References

Mittelsachsen {{Mittelsachsen-geo-stub