Weißwasser (, ; ) is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Upper Lusatia Upper Lusatia (, ; , ; ; or ''Milsko''; ) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the north, it makes up the region of Lusatia, named after the Polabian Slavs, Slavic ''Lusici'' tribe. Both parts of Lusatia a ...

in eastern

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 ...

. Weißwasser is the third largest town in the Görlitz district after

Görlitz Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...

and

Zittau Zittau (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, Upper Lusatian dialect: ''Sitte''; ) is the southeasternmost city in the Germany, German state of Saxony, and belongs to the Görlitz (district), district of Görlitz, Germany's easternmost Districts of Germ ...

. The town's landmark is its

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

. The town is part of the recognized

Sorbian settlement area The Sorbian settlement area ( , , ; in Brandenburg officially ''Siedlungsgebiet der Sorben/Wenden'') commonly makes reference to the area in the east of Saxony and the South of Brandenburg in which the West Slavs, West Slavic people of the Sorbs ...

in Saxony. Upper Sorbian has an official status next to German, all villages bear names in both languages.

History

Weißwasser was mentioned for the first time on 8 June 1552, when it was part of the

Lands of the Bohemian Crown The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were the states in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval and early modern periods with feudalism, feudal obligations to the List of Bohemian monarchs, Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted o ...

in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

. The town's name means "white water". In 1635 it passed to the

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony ( or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356 to 1806 initially centred on Wittenberg that came to include areas around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. It was a ...

, and following the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, in 1815 it fell to the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

and was included within the

Province of Silesia The Province of Silesia (; ; ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1742 and established as an official province in 1815, then became part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1919, as ...

. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Weißwasser was the European centre of

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

production. It became part of the Prussian

Province of Lower Silesia The Province of Lower Silesia (; Silesian German: ''Provinz Niederschläsing''; ; ) was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1919 to 1945. Between 1938 and 1941 it was reunited with Upper Silesia as the Province of Silesia. The capita ...

in 1919. Weißwasser received its town charter on 28 August 1935. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Nazis established and operated the ''FAL Weisswasser'' subcamp of the

Gross-Rosen concentration camp Gross-Rosen was a network of Nazi concentration camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during World War II. The main camp was located in the German village of Gross-Rosen, now the modern-day Rogoźnica in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, di ...

, whose prisoners were mainly Jewish women. In the Second World War, 40% of the town was destroyed. With the dissolution of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

resulting from the war, the town became part of Saxony from 1945–52. It was then part of communist

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

from 1952–90 and administered within

Bezirk Cottbus Cottbus was a Administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic, district () of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The administrative seat and main town was Cottbus. History The district was established, along with the othe ...

. Many enterprises had to close during the communist regime. After the

fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (, ) on 9 November in German history, 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions we ...

, only a few enterprises were left. It was included within a restored Saxony after

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 ...

. Weißwasser now struggles with the after-effects of German reunification, as the fall of the Berlin Wall has had a devastating effect on the local economy. Many people have since lost their jobs and the town's population continues to suffers from a high percentage of

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

. Consequently, many have left the area in the hope of finding a new job elsewhere in a reunited Germany. In September 2005, Weißwasser hosted the " Tag der Sachsen." The event was a success with more than 300,000 visitors, which left some believing that the town could reinvent itself as a tourist attraction. There are bilingual street signs in German and Upper Sorbian in the town.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was allotted on 31 January 1927. The two green glasses symbolise the glass industry of the town, which was one of the largest in former East Germany. The tools are a reference to coal mining, which is carried out close to the city. Blue and yellow are the traditional colours of Upper Lusatia and the white waves in the bottom part of the coat of arms symbolise the name of the city.

Population development

Development of the population figure since 31 December 1960 Source from 1998 on: Statistics office Saxony

Politics

A new city council was elected on the 13 June 2004. Out of 18,653 eligible voters, 29.36% participated in the vote. The results were as following: *27.68 % PDS *27.01 % CDU *18.54 % Wir für Hier e.V. *12.70 % SPD *6.96 % Klartext *3.84 % FDP *3.26 % NPD

Twin cities

* Brühl (North Rhine-Westphalia) *

Żary Żary (, , , ) is a town in western Poland with 37,502 inhabitants (2019), situated in the Lubusz Voivodeship. It is the administrative seat of the Żary County and of the Gmina Żary within the county, though the town is not part of the gmina (c ...

(Poland)

Sights

* Water Tower * Ice Hockey Stadium "Fuchsbau" (fox's den) * Glass museum * Zoo * Pückler - Park in Bad Muskau * Rhododendron - Park in Kromlau * Forest Railway Muskau * Braunsteich - Lake * Erratic Rock - Park in Nochten * Opencast pit in Nochten

Sport

The local ice hockey club Dynamo Weißwasser, known presently as Lausitzer Füchse and also known as "The Foxes", was the most successful club in the ice hockey Premier League of former

, winning 25 championships.

Notable people

* Tino Chrupalla (born 1975), politician and co-chairman of the

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

* Joachim Franke (1940–2024), ice hockey player * Roland Hemmo (born 1946), voice actor and actor * Klaus Hirche (born 1939), hockey goalkeeper and coach, national team GDR, 1968 Olympian * Rudolf Lange (1910–1945), SS officer and Wannsee Conference attendee * Christa Luding-Rothenburger (born 1959), speed skater and cyclist * Angela Ranft (born 1969), cyclist *

Günter Schubert Günter Schubert (18 April 1938 – 2 January 2008) was a German actor. He was born in Weißwasser and died in Berlin. His son Alexander Schubert is also an actor. Filmography * 1966: ''Die Söhne der großen Bärin'' * 1972: ''Sechse ziehe ...

(1938–2008), actor and voice actor

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weisswasser Towns in Görlitz (district)