Bockau
Encyclopedia
Bockau is a community in the district of Erzgebirgskreis
in the Free State of Saxony
in Germany
. The community is known for growing and researching herbs. Owing to its centuries-old cultivation of angelica
, whose roots are used in making liqueurs, Bockau is also known locally by the nickname Wurzelbucke (Wurzel is German
for “root”).
, Lauter
, Schwarzenberg
, Sosa
and Zschorlau
.
, angelica, valerian
and rhubarb
. From the roots’ essential oils they mixed medicinal tinctures, essences and pills. Not least of all, they burnt schnaps. The research establishment grew out of this. Later, herbs were grown in dedicated fields, with angelica plants even being grown as late as 1989. The roots were exported to several Europe
an countries and overseas. With the changes in the East Bloc, local herb growers were left to themselves and their herbs.
A long tradition was threatening to wither and die. Since that time, many in Bockau have been growing the herbs in their gardens and never tire of telling of the valuable angelica roots’ medicinal properties or of using them for their health.
Drawn by the großer Berggeschrey (“Great Call of the Mountains”) to the Ore Mountains in the 16th century (silver
, tin
, cobalt
, white earth and gravel
mining
), many settlers came here from the Harz Mountains and found a new home. Bockau received status as a mining area, comparable to status as a mining town, although Bockau was not actually considered a town. Specialists and academics, too, settled here.
In 1750, Gottlieb Lorenz introduced vitriolic acid distilling into Bockau. From gravelly ores mined in the area, such as pyrite
, which yield sulphur salts (vitriol) came, after weeks of heating and “cooking” in stone vats, concentrated sulphuric acid, also called vitriolic acid. This was put to use in medicine
and was an important raw material for both inorganic
and organic
chemistry
. About 1760 there were already 7 vitriol plants in town, and by 1812 there were 24 distilleries in operation. Important sidelines for the farmers were tree felling, charcoal
making, resin
harvesting (this was limited by decree to a patch of the woods known as the Harzweide, or “resin meadow”, to prevent widespread damage to the foresthttp://www.beerheide.net/home/geschichte.htmhttp://www.wanderer-familie.de/html/genealogie.html) and log driving
.
Even cobalt ore was a raw material for a new branch of industry. Peter Weidkammer, a man from Franconia
, succeeded in 1520 in making a dye
out of it. However, it was only after about 100 years that the Saxon Elector Johann Georg I allowed the founding of several “dyemills”. Erasmus Schindler secured approval in 1649 to build one of the five great dyeworks in the Ore Mountains.
The blue dye
made from the ore was used for colouring both glass
and enamel
, for ceramic
glazing and later for painting porcelain
. For Saxony’s economy, this dye was an important export item. When the Aue-Adorf railway line was built in 1875, the dyeworks succeeded in having the foreseen station for Bockau built right near the works, thereby significantly improving transport conditions. When King Albert of Saxony
visited the community on 7 July 1880, the factory’s reputation was enhanced. The mining industry’s heyday stretched into the 19th century.
Even in Bockau, the Thirty Years' War
wrought its wrath. In 1632 Bockau was sacked by Heinrich von Holk’s troops. In 1633, 108 of the community’s 500 inhabitants lost their lives to the plague. The Swedes brought much wretchedness to the mountains; in 1640 alone, 6 Bockauers were murder
ed by them.
The year 1678 was a very important one for Bockau, as it was then that it became an independent parish
. The Baroque
church that stands today had however already been consecrated in 1637.
In 1747, Master George (or Georg) Körner became the church minister in Bockau. He was a chronicler and a linguist as well as the founder of the Bockauer jährliche Nachrichten (Bockau Yearly News”). George Körner’s work lives on in the club Magister George Körner Gesellschaft e.V. at the Körner Haus together with a German-Czech
meeting centre.
The nineteenth century brought Bockau new kinds of livelihood, while the traditional herbal industry fell ever more by the wayside owing to modern medicine and pharmacy
. Basket
weaving from spruce
splints became an outgrowth of boxmaking.
Glove
making and the introduction of metalworking
at the die and enamel works brought further employment and earnings. The first clubs came into being, among them the sport club, founded in 1869, the marksmen’s club, founded in 1871, the poultry raisers’ club, founded in 1872, the Erzgebirgszweigverein (“Ore Mountain Branch Club”), founded in 1888, and also the volunteer fire brigade, founded in 1867.
Workers also now worked in the neighbouring areas around Bockau, also in Aue
, Schwarzenberg
and Lauter
. Political parties and trade union
s were organized. Many people fell victim to the two world wars. A calming and hopeful beacon throughout these troubled times was the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
In 1886 and 1887, the current primary school was built. Under the auspices of the workers’ club, gymnastics club and sport club, the outdoor swimming pool
and the sporting ground were realized.
In 1950 came the merger of three small liqueur distilleries into today’s Erzgebirgische Destillerie und Liqueurmanufaktur GmbH Bockau. In 1964, the groundwork was laid for today’s middle school
.
Already by 1900, Bockau had become known to Saxon citydwellers as a summer health resort. They came from Leipzig
, Zwickau
and elsewhere, travelling comfortably by rail. There were plenty of rental rooms and inns in Bockau and its environs. This development continued after the Second World War. In 1965, Bockau became a state-recognized health resort (Erholungsort), a title that today’s Bockauers still value. There came company holiday homes, and the local holiday services offered holidaymakers a varied programme, changed every fortnight, during their stay.
In the postwar years, when many people began to think, looking back on the war, that there must be a better way than wars and racial hatred, there arose the idea of friendly partnerships between towns in one country or in different nations. In 1957, the World Federation of Partner Towns was founded. Thus also arose the wish in Bockau to have some kind of partnership with what was then West Germany
.
Through the Bockau master joiner Werner Teubner’s family ties with Werner Herzog, the mayor of Herrieden
, a small town in Middle Franconia
, then part of West Germany, the first contacts were established. On 3 October 1990 – the day of German Reunification
– the partnership document was signed. At this time, Herrieden already had a partnership arrangement with the Austria
n town of Melk
. This was also the basis for establishing ties with that town on the Danube
at the entrance to the picturesque Wachau
.
Club life almost died out in the time when Bockau found itself in East Germany. It only revived in the 1990s after the political changes wrought by Reunification. Until that time there had simply been interest associations, above all in the field of sport. As of 1990, former clubs had new life breathed into them, and new members joined.
Nowadays, the clubs, with their events, participate fully in the community’s varied, active life, whereby several activities have already become traditional, among them the yearly Buchberglauf (“Buchberg Walk”) in February, the Angelika-Cross-Lauf held yearly on 3 October, the yearly Wurzelfest (“Root Festival”) with its election of the Wurzelkönigin (“Root Queen”) on the third weekend in August and the Bockauer Kirmes on the first Sunday in November. All these festivals enjoy great popularity and draw many visitors.
Over the last few years, great pains have been undertaken to offer industrial operations and crafts new locations for expansion, to maintain and improve the community’s economic structure. In connection with the European initiative for rural reform, it is the community’s wish to have a commercial-industrial area built by attracting investment in the near future to develop the 8.5 ha site where once stood the old paper factory.
To avoid demand for meadowland, it is important to clean up old industrial sites so that they can be used by new operations and services. This is a meaningful process for the further development of the Naturpark Erzgebirge/Vogtland, and it could also contribute to mitigating the whole problem of economic and social problems.
On 13 April 1930, a university student from Leipzig named Elisabeth Charlotte Müller fell victim to a violent sexual crime in the woods next to the road between Bockau and Jägerhaus. Her murderer, Willy Leischke, was caught, but killed himself in prison. At the scene of the crime, a memorial stone was laid. The event occupied the population and the daily press for months.
are represented in Bockau.
Erzgebirgskreis
Erzgebirgskreis is a district in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is named after the Erzgebirge , a mountain range in the southern part of the district which forms part of the Germany–Czech Republic border...
in the Free State of Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The community is known for growing and researching herbs. Owing to its centuries-old cultivation of angelica
Angelica
Angelica is a genus of about 60 species of tall biennial and perennial herbs in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, reaching as far North as Iceland and Lapland...
, whose roots are used in making liqueurs, Bockau is also known locally by the nickname Wurzelbucke (Wurzel is German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
for “root”).
Location
The place lies in the western Ore Mountains in a sheltered hollow in a side valley off the Zwickauer Mulde valley, stretching up to the Ochsenkopf bei Jägerhaus, an 823-m-high mountain.Neighbouring communities
Bordering on Bockau are AueAue
Aue is a small town in Germany at the outlet of the river Schwarzwasser into the river Mulde in the Ore Mountains, and has roughly 18,000 inhabitants. Aue was the administrative seat of the former district of Aue-Schwarzenberg in Saxony, and is part of the Erzgebirgskreis since August 2008...
, Lauter
Lauter, Saxony
The town of Lauter lies in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, between the two towns of Aue and Schwarzenberg. It lies in the Ore Mountains, 4 km southeast of Aue, and 4 km northwest of Schwarzenberg, has 4,927 inhabitants in an area of 21.55 km²...
, Schwarzenberg
Schwarzenberg, Saxony
Schwarzenberg is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, near the German–Czech border. The town lies roughly 15 km southeast of Aue, and 35 km southwest of Chemnitz....
, Sosa
Sosa, Germany
Sosa is a former municipality in the western Ore Mountains, in the Erzgebirgskreis, Saxony, Germany. It is a state-recognized health resort, that has belonged to the town Eibenstock since 1 January 2011.- Geography :...
and Zschorlau
Zschorlau
- Location :Zschorlau lies nestled in the gentle hills in the western Ore Mountains some 5 km from Aue and is overhung in the south by the Steinberg...
.
History
In the late 15th century, farmers began gathering medicinal herbs from meadows and woods and to ply a trade with them. Important to the herbal lore were, among others, spignel, lovageLovage
Lovage is a tall perennial plant, the sole species in the genus Levisticum, in the family Apiaceae, subfamily Apioideae, tribe Apieae.-Distribution:...
, angelica, valerian
Valerian (herb)
Valerian is a hardy perennial flowering plant, with heads of sweetly scented pink or white flowers which bloom in the summer months. Valerian flower extracts were used as a perfume in the sixteenth century....
and rhubarb
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a group of plants that belong to the genus Rheum in the family Polygonaceae. They are herbaceous perennial plants growing from short, thick rhizomes. They have large leaves that are somewhat triangular-shaped with long fleshy petioles...
. From the roots’ essential oils they mixed medicinal tinctures, essences and pills. Not least of all, they burnt schnaps. The research establishment grew out of this. Later, herbs were grown in dedicated fields, with angelica plants even being grown as late as 1989. The roots were exported to several Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an countries and overseas. With the changes in the East Bloc, local herb growers were left to themselves and their herbs.
A long tradition was threatening to wither and die. Since that time, many in Bockau have been growing the herbs in their gardens and never tire of telling of the valuable angelica roots’ medicinal properties or of using them for their health.
Drawn by the großer Berggeschrey (“Great Call of the Mountains”) to the Ore Mountains in the 16th century (silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
, cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
, white earth and gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
), many settlers came here from the Harz Mountains and found a new home. Bockau received status as a mining area, comparable to status as a mining town, although Bockau was not actually considered a town. Specialists and academics, too, settled here.
In 1750, Gottlieb Lorenz introduced vitriolic acid distilling into Bockau. From gravelly ores mined in the area, such as pyrite
Pyrite
The mineral pyrite, or iron pyrite, is an iron sulfide with the formula FeS2. This mineral's metallic luster and pale-to-normal, brass-yellow hue have earned it the nickname fool's gold because of its resemblance to gold...
, which yield sulphur salts (vitriol) came, after weeks of heating and “cooking” in stone vats, concentrated sulphuric acid, also called vitriolic acid. This was put to use in medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and was an important raw material for both inorganic
Inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the properties and behavior of inorganic compounds. This field covers all chemical compounds except the myriad organic compounds , which are the subjects of organic chemistry...
and organic
Organic chemistry
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives...
chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
. About 1760 there were already 7 vitriol plants in town, and by 1812 there were 24 distilleries in operation. Important sidelines for the farmers were tree felling, charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
making, resin
Resin
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...
harvesting (this was limited by decree to a patch of the woods known as the Harzweide, or “resin meadow”, to prevent widespread damage to the foresthttp://www.beerheide.net/home/geschichte.htmhttp://www.wanderer-familie.de/html/genealogie.html) and log driving
Log driving
Log driving is a means of log transport which makes use of a river's current to move floating tree trunks downstream to sawmills and pulp mills.It was the main transportation method of the early logging industry in Europe and North America...
.
Even cobalt ore was a raw material for a new branch of industry. Peter Weidkammer, a man from Franconia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...
, succeeded in 1520 in making a dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
out of it. However, it was only after about 100 years that the Saxon Elector Johann Georg I allowed the founding of several “dyemills”. Erasmus Schindler secured approval in 1649 to build one of the five great dyeworks in the Ore Mountains.
The blue dye
Cobalt blue
Cobalt blue is a cool, slightly desaturated blue color, historically made using cobalt salts of alumina. It is used in certain ceramics and painting; the different cobalt pigment smalt, based on silica, is more often used directly in tinted transparent glasses...
made from the ore was used for colouring both glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
and enamel
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...
, for ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
glazing and later for painting porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
. For Saxony’s economy, this dye was an important export item. When the Aue-Adorf railway line was built in 1875, the dyeworks succeeded in having the foreseen station for Bockau built right near the works, thereby significantly improving transport conditions. When King Albert of Saxony
Albert of Saxony
Albert of Saxony may refer to:* Albert of Saxony * Albert I, Duke of Saxony * Albert, Duke of Saxony * Prince Albert of Saxony, Duke of Teschen * Albert of Saxony...
visited the community on 7 July 1880, the factory’s reputation was enhanced. The mining industry’s heyday stretched into the 19th century.
Even in Bockau, the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
wrought its wrath. In 1632 Bockau was sacked by Heinrich von Holk’s troops. In 1633, 108 of the community’s 500 inhabitants lost their lives to the plague. The Swedes brought much wretchedness to the mountains; in 1640 alone, 6 Bockauers were murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed by them.
The year 1678 was a very important one for Bockau, as it was then that it became an independent parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
. The Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
church that stands today had however already been consecrated in 1637.
In 1747, Master George (or Georg) Körner became the church minister in Bockau. He was a chronicler and a linguist as well as the founder of the Bockauer jährliche Nachrichten (Bockau Yearly News”). George Körner’s work lives on in the club Magister George Körner Gesellschaft e.V. at the Körner Haus together with a German-Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
meeting centre.
The nineteenth century brought Bockau new kinds of livelihood, while the traditional herbal industry fell ever more by the wayside owing to modern medicine and pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
. Basket
Basket
A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are...
weaving from spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
splints became an outgrowth of boxmaking.
Glove
Glove
A glove is a garment covering the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each...
making and the introduction of metalworking
Metalworking
Metalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large scale structures. The term covers a wide range of work from large ships and bridges to precise engine parts and delicate jewelry. It therefore includes a correspondingly wide range of skills,...
at the die and enamel works brought further employment and earnings. The first clubs came into being, among them the sport club, founded in 1869, the marksmen’s club, founded in 1871, the poultry raisers’ club, founded in 1872, the Erzgebirgszweigverein (“Ore Mountain Branch Club”), founded in 1888, and also the volunteer fire brigade, founded in 1867.
Workers also now worked in the neighbouring areas around Bockau, also in Aue
Aue
Aue is a small town in Germany at the outlet of the river Schwarzwasser into the river Mulde in the Ore Mountains, and has roughly 18,000 inhabitants. Aue was the administrative seat of the former district of Aue-Schwarzenberg in Saxony, and is part of the Erzgebirgskreis since August 2008...
, Schwarzenberg
Schwarzenberg
- People :* House of Schwarzenberg, Frankish and Bohemian aristocratic family which was first mentioned in 1172** Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg , Field Marshal in Austrian service during the Napoleonic Wars...
and Lauter
Lauter
Lauter may refer to:In towns:*Lauter, Saxony, town in the district of Aue-Schwarzenberg, Saxony, Germany*Lauter, Bavaria, village in the district of Bamberg, Bavaria, GermanyIn rivers:*Lauter , tributary to the Baunach, Germany...
. Political parties and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s were organized. Many people fell victim to the two world wars. A calming and hopeful beacon throughout these troubled times was the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
In 1886 and 1887, the current primary school was built. Under the auspices of the workers’ club, gymnastics club and sport club, the outdoor swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
and the sporting ground were realized.
In 1950 came the merger of three small liqueur distilleries into today’s Erzgebirgische Destillerie und Liqueurmanufaktur GmbH Bockau. In 1964, the groundwork was laid for today’s middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
.
Already by 1900, Bockau had become known to Saxon citydwellers as a summer health resort. They came from Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
and elsewhere, travelling comfortably by rail. There were plenty of rental rooms and inns in Bockau and its environs. This development continued after the Second World War. In 1965, Bockau became a state-recognized health resort (Erholungsort), a title that today’s Bockauers still value. There came company holiday homes, and the local holiday services offered holidaymakers a varied programme, changed every fortnight, during their stay.
In the postwar years, when many people began to think, looking back on the war, that there must be a better way than wars and racial hatred, there arose the idea of friendly partnerships between towns in one country or in different nations. In 1957, the World Federation of Partner Towns was founded. Thus also arose the wish in Bockau to have some kind of partnership with what was then West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
.
Through the Bockau master joiner Werner Teubner’s family ties with Werner Herzog, the mayor of Herrieden
Herrieden
Herrieden is a town in the district of Ansbach and situated in the Middle Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. It lies along the upper Altmühl river, about 9 km southwest of the city of Ansbach, 47 km southwest of the city of Nürnberg, 95 km east of Heilbronn and 144 km northwest of Munich...
, a small town in Middle Franconia
Middle Franconia
Middle Franconia is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is in the west of Bavaria and adjoins the state of Baden-Württemberg...
, then part of West Germany, the first contacts were established. On 3 October 1990 – the day of German Reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
– the partnership document was signed. At this time, Herrieden already had a partnership arrangement with the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n town of Melk
Melk
Melk is a city of Austria, in the federal state of Lower Austria, next to the Wachau valley along the Danube. Melk has a population of 5,222 ....
. This was also the basis for establishing ties with that town on the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
at the entrance to the picturesque Wachau
Wachau
The Wachau is an Austrian valley with a picturesque landscape formed by the Danube river. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations of Lower Austria, located midway between the towns of Melk and Krems that also attracts "connoisseurs and epicureans". It is in length and was already...
.
Club life almost died out in the time when Bockau found itself in East Germany. It only revived in the 1990s after the political changes wrought by Reunification. Until that time there had simply been interest associations, above all in the field of sport. As of 1990, former clubs had new life breathed into them, and new members joined.
Nowadays, the clubs, with their events, participate fully in the community’s varied, active life, whereby several activities have already become traditional, among them the yearly Buchberglauf (“Buchberg Walk”) in February, the Angelika-Cross-Lauf held yearly on 3 October, the yearly Wurzelfest (“Root Festival”) with its election of the Wurzelkönigin (“Root Queen”) on the third weekend in August and the Bockauer Kirmes on the first Sunday in November. All these festivals enjoy great popularity and draw many visitors.
Over the last few years, great pains have been undertaken to offer industrial operations and crafts new locations for expansion, to maintain and improve the community’s economic structure. In connection with the European initiative for rural reform, it is the community’s wish to have a commercial-industrial area built by attracting investment in the near future to develop the 8.5 ha site where once stood the old paper factory.
To avoid demand for meadowland, it is important to clean up old industrial sites so that they can be used by new operations and services. This is a meaningful process for the further development of the Naturpark Erzgebirge/Vogtland, and it could also contribute to mitigating the whole problem of economic and social problems.
On 13 April 1930, a university student from Leipzig named Elisabeth Charlotte Müller fell victim to a violent sexual crime in the woods next to the road between Bockau and Jägerhaus. Her murderer, Willy Leischke, was caught, but killed himself in prison. At the scene of the crime, a memorial stone was laid. The event occupied the population and the daily press for months.
Religion
Both the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Evangelical Methodist ChurchEvangelical Methodist Church
The Evangelical Methodist Church is a Christian denomination headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The denomination currently has churches in the United States, Mexico, Burma/Myanmar, Canada, Europe, and Africa. Congregations are located in 23 U.S. states, and they have a presence in 20 other...
are represented in Bockau.
Population development
All following figures are for 31 December in the given year.1982 to 1988
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1989 to 1995
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1996 to 2002
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2003 to 2006
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- Source: Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen
Culture and sightseeing
- Vitriolölhütte (vitriol distillery)
- Wurzelstube (root cellar)
- Magister Georg Körner Haus
- Steinbackofen (stone oven)
- Wildgehege (game enclosure)
Clubs
- Verein zur Förderung des Feuerwehrwesens in der Gemeinde Bockau (Club for the furthering of the fire brigade’s presence in the community of Bockau)
- SC Teutonia Bockau
- Skiverein Bockau (skiingSkiingSkiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
) - Schützengesellschaft Bockau (marksmanship)
- Magister Georg Körner Gesellschaft e.V., Bockau
- Musikverein Holzhacker e. V.
Economy and infrastructure
- Werkzeugbau Ullmann, cutting tools and dies
- Behälterbau Zeeh, building and installation of backup memories
- Elektrotechnik Günther
- Bauschlosserei Vulturius, building fitters
- Bagger- und Tiefbauarbeiten Zeeh, digging and civil engineering
- Schmiede & Metallbau Gerd Zeeh, smiths and metal structure
Persons connected with the community
- Georg(e) Körner (born 28 November 1717 in Pölbitz; died 3 May 1772 in Bockau) clergyman, chronicler and language researcher
- Sebastian Weiß (born about 1450; died about 1500 in Bockau) mentioned in 1495 as a tradesman in herbs, founded medicinal herb trade in the western Ore Mountains.
Titles and nicknames
- State-recognized health resort
- Laborantenort (research community)
- Kräuterort (herb community)
- Gebirgsdorf (mountain community)
- Wurzelbucke
- WaldhufendorfWaldhufendorfThe Waldhufendorf is a form of rural settlement established in areas of forest clearing with the farms arranged in a series along a road or stream, like beads on a chain...
(≈ forest homestead village)
Further reading
- Jubiläumsschrift 750 Jahre Bockau
- Schriftenreihe der Magister George Körner Gesellschaft, Band 1-10
- Georg Körner Bockauische Chronik von 1750-1763 (Sonderband der Schriftenreihe der Magister George Körner Gesellschaft)