Lichtenau (; ) is a village in the

Oberspreewald-Lausitz Oberspreewald-Lausitz (, ) is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the southern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) Dahme-Spreewald, Spree-Neiße, the districts Bautzen and Meissen in Saxony, and the district ...

district of

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

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 located in

Lower Lusatia Lower Lusatia (; ; ; ; ) is a historical region in Central Europe, stretching from the southeast of the Germany, German state of Brandenburg to the southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Like adjacent Upper Lusatia in the south, Lower Lusa ...

, about 90 km (55 mi) south of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. The village was annexed by the municipality Tornow in 1926 (according to different sources in 1928), which was annexed itself by Kittlitz in 1968. Since 26 October 2003, Lichtenau is part of the town

Lübbenau Lübbenau (, ; officially Lübbenau/Spreewald, Lower Sorbian, L.S. Lubnjow/Błota (meaning ''Lübbenau/Spree Forest'') Polish language, Polish: ''Lubniów'') is a town in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Upper Spree Forest-Lusatia District of Brandenbu ...

History

Lichtenau was first mentioned in 1319 as ''Lichtenow''. The name derived from the German term for a clearing. The Lower Sorbian name was first mentioned in 1761. From 1815 on, Lichtenau was a village in the prussian

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg () was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1947. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg (excluding Altmark) and ...

, where it was part of the Luckau district. On 21 July 1875, the municipality of Lichtenau and Gutsbezirk of the same name merged to the new municipality of Lichtenau, which then became part of the Calau district. On 1 January 1928, Lichtenau became a district of Tornow.Heinz-Dieter Krausch: ''Burger und Lübbenauer Spreewald. Ergebnisse der heimatkundlichen Bestandsaufnahme in den Gebieten um Burg und Lübbenau.'' Berlin 1981, pp. 112
Online, pp. 59
In 1950, Lichtenau switched districts again, now becoming part of Lübben district. Two years later, Lichtenau became part of the Calau district again. From the 1960s on,

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their safet ...

for

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

mining were opened around Lichtenau. As a result, the village of Tornow, to which Lichtenau belonged, was demolished and Lichtenau became part of Kittlitz on 25 January 1968. After the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

, Lichtenau became a part of the state

. On 26 October 2003, the municipality of Kittlitz dissolved and Lichtenau became part of Lübbenau.

Demographics

References

External links

Populated places in Oberspreewald-Lausitz {{Brandenburg-geo-stub