Stützengrün is a community in the district of Erzgebirgskreis,

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 ...

Geography

Location

Stützengrün is in the Ore Mountains right on the border with the

Vogtland Vogtland (; cz, Fojtsko) is a region spanning the German states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia and north-western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It overlaps with and is largely contained within Euregio Egrensis. The name alludes to the former ...

. In Stützengrün is found the Weißbach (stream), which flows directly into the Eibenstock Reservoir.

Geology

The community lies on a hilly plateau of Eibenstock

tourmaline Tourmaline ( ) is a crystalline silicate mineral group in which boron is compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is a gemstone and can be found in a wide variety of colors. The ...

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

and stretches from a height of 570 up to 680 metres above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

Constituent communities

As well as the namesake community of Stützengrün, the municipal area also includes the former municipalities of Hundshübel and Lichtenau.

History

From 1952 to 1990, Stützengrün was part of the Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt of

East Germany 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 ...

. Development of population figures ''(31 December)'': : Source as of 1998: ''Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen''

Politics

At the mayoral election on 31 August 2014, Volkmar Viehweg was elected.Bürgermeisterwahlen 2014
Freistaat Sachsen, accessed 13 July 2021. He succeeded Birgit Reichel (CDU), who had been mayor for 14 years.

Culture and sightseeing

Right on '' Bundesstraße'' 169, which runs through the community, is the ''Bauernbarockkirche'' (“

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

Farmers’ Church”), built in 1701 and now a protected monument, with its carved altar and a 130-year-old Jehmlich organ. A further attraction in the community is the 795-m-high ''Kuhberg'' (“Cow Mountain”) with the ''Prinz-Georg-Turm'' (tower) which affords an unrivalled view of the neighbouring communities. Moreover, the ''Bergwiesenerlebnispfad'' (“Mountain Meadow Experience Path”), which features indigenous vegetation and Scottish Highland cattle, makes for an inviting walk.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Stützengrün lies on ''Bundesstraße'' 169. Until the 1970s, the community was connected to the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

by the narrow-gauge line that ran from

Wilkau-Haßlau Wilkau-Haßlau is a town in the Zwickau district, 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''; h ...

to Carlsfeld. In 1997, the stretch to

Schönheide Schönheide is a municipality in Saxony's district of Erzgebirgskreis. It lies in the western Ore Mountains, and was founded as an industrial village. Geography Schönheide is five kilometres long, and lies in the west of the District of Aue ...

was rebuilt and since then has been run as a

museum railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

Established businesses

* Brush industry * Small and medium-sized businesses * Sporadic agriculture * Commercial-industrial area on the B 169

Education

The

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

at Stützengrün on Schulstraße (“School Street”) serves the local schooling needs.