Waldheim () is a town in

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 ...

district, 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 ...

Geography

It is situated in the valley of the river

Zschopau Zschopau (), is a town in the Erzgebirgskreis district of Saxony, Germany. The town grew around the castle, which was built in the mid-12th century to protect the Salt Road, which crossed the Zschopau River here. Mining was also practiced from ...

, southwest of

Döbeln Döbeln (; , ) is a town in Saxony, Germany, part of the Mittelsachsen district. It sits on the banks of the Freiberger Mulde, Freiberger Mulde river. Location and geography Döbeln is situated in the Central Saxon Hills, Central Saxon Hill co ...

, and north of

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

. The municipal area comprises Waldheim proper, the localities of Reinsdorf, Massanei, Heiligenborn, and Schönberg, as well as parts of the former Ziegra-Knobelsdorf municipality with the localities of Gebersbach, Heyda, Knobelsdorf, Meinsberg, Neuhausen, and Rudelsdorf, which were incorporated in 2013. Neighbouring towns are

Hartha Hartha is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km west of Döbeln, and 12 km north of Mittweida. Personalities * Carl Grünberg (1847–1906), woven goods manufacturer in Hartha and politici ...

and

Geringswalde Geringswalde () is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 12 km northwest of Mittweida, and 27 km north of Chemnitz. History The town was first mentioned in 1233 in a document confirming the esta ...

as well as the municipality of Kriebstein. Waldheim station is a stop on the

Riesa–Chemnitz railway The Chemnitz–Riesa railway is a two-track and electrified mainline railway in the German state of Saxony, originally built and operated by the ''Chemnitz-Riesa Railway Company''. The line was opened between 1847 and 1852 and is one of the List o ...

, served by

Regionalbahn The ''Regionalbahn'' (; lit. Regional train; abbreviated ''RB'') is a train categories in Europe, type of Regional rail, local passenger train (stopping train) in Germany. It is similar to the Regionalzug (R) and Regio (Swiss railway train), R ...

trains of

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

and the private Vogtlandbahn railway company.

History

Waldheim in the

Margraviate of Meissen The Margravate or Margraviate of Meissen () was a medieval principality in the area of the modern German state of Saxony. It originally was a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, created out of the vast ''Marca Geronis'' ( Saxon Eastern March ...

was first mentioned in 1198. Waldheim Castle first appeared in a 1271 deed, the surrounding settlement received

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

in 1286. The castle was turned into an Augustinian monastery in 1404. The population turned

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

in 1537.

In 1588 Waldheim Castle was again rebuilt as a hunting lodge by Elector Christian I of Saxony. In 1716

Augustus II the Strong Augustus II the Strong (12 May 1670 – 1 February 1733), was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1697 to 1706 and from 1709 until his death in 1733. He belonged to the Albertine branch of the H ...

inaugurated a

penitentiary A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state, usually ...

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...

and

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...

in the castle, which is used as a prison (''Justizvollzugsanstalt'') up to today. The hospital ‘Chur-Sächisches Zucht-Waysen und Armen-Haus’ in Waldheim was the first state institution dedicated to the care of the mentally ill on the German territory. The later author

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his novels of travels and adventures, set in the American Old West, the Orient, the Middle East, Latin America, China and Germany. He als ...

served a sentence here from 1870 to 1874. In the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

era,

Waldheim Prison Waldheim Prison is a -year-old federal prison in Waldheim, Saxony, Germany. Use , the Waldheim penal institution held 373 men (aged 21–80) out of a capacity of almost 400. The Saxon Minister of Justice, Sebastian Gemkow, described the ...

became notorious as a detention centre for political opponents, convicted for preparation of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

, undermining military morale or just listening to banned ''

Feindsender ''Feindsender'' ("enemy radio station") was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe radio stations broadcasting from countries that were enemies of the German Reich before and during World War II, such as the United Kingdom or the Un ...

'' radio stations. Among the inmates were several resistance fighters like Eva Schulze-Knabe, who was convicted by the People's Court in 1942 and freed at the end of World War II. When the

NKVD special camps The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) secre ...

were handed over from the Soviet Military Administration to the

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

government in 1950, numerous NKVD detainees were transferred to Waldheim for further detention and for trial. From April to June 1950, the

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

authorities put about 3,400 alleged war and Nazi criminals to the Waldheim Trials, ending with prison terms and 32 death sentences.

Notable people

* Abratis, Thomas (born 1967), Nordic combined skier * Altner, Georg (1901-1945), Nazi politician SS brigadier and police president of Dortmund * Fallou, Friedrich Albert (1794-1877), Lawyer and co-founder of the Soil Scientists (''Bodenkundler'') * Fischer von Waldheim, Gotthelf (1771–1853), anatomist, entomologist and paleontologist * Govinda, Anagarika (1898–1985), born Ernst Lothar Hoffmann, Buddhist, founder of the order of the Arya Maitreya Mandala * Kolbe, Georg (1877–1947), sculptor * Meinig, Arthur (1853-1904), born in Waldheim, architect in Hungary * Wussing, Hans (1927-2011), historian of mathematics and science

Twin towns

Waldheim is twinned with: *

Landsberg am Lech Landsberg am Lech (Landsberg at the Lech (river), Lech) is a Town#Germany, town in southwest Bavaria, Germany, about 65 kilometers west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Landsberg (district), Lands ...

, since 1990 *

Siófok Siófok (; ; ) is a town in Somogy County, Hungary on the southern bank of Lake Balaton. It is the Somogy County#Municipalities, second largest municipality in Somogy County and the seat of Siófok District. It covers an area of about between Lak ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, since 1996

References

External links

{{Authority control Mittelsachsen