The Thuringian Holzland () is an upland region in the state of

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

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 ...

Location

The Thuringian Holzland lies within a triangle formed by the towns of Hermsdorf, Eisenberg and

Stadtroda Stadtroda (Roda until 1925) is a town of 6,653 people (2017), located in Thuringia, Germany. Stadtroda lies on the river Roda (river), Roda, a tributary of the Saale. The former municipalities Bollberg and Quirla were merged into Stadtroda in Jan ...

and between the rivers

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...

White Elster The White Elster (, ) is a river in central Europe. It is a right tributary of the Saale. The source of the White Elster is in the westernmost part of the Czech Republic, in the territory of Hazlov. After a few kilometres, it flows into easte ...

and Orlasenke. Originally it comprised the following 8 villages: Bad Klosterlausnitz, Hermsdorf, Oberndorf, Reichenbach, Schleifreisen, Sankt Gangloff, Tautenhain and Weißenborn.

Description and history

The reason for the extensive forests of this landscape is its rather infertile soils, which have been formed from the

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

s of the Bunter formation that make up the area. As a result, the Holzland is of limited use for agriculture. The rich timber industry of the area meant that once typical occupations, such as ladder maker (''Leitermacher''), blacksmith (''Peckschmied''), tubmaker (''Muldenhauer''), etc., were very common here. Which is why the area is also often referred to not infrequently as ''Leiterland'' ("ladder land"). In the late 19th century, the

china China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

industry (the industry was based in Hermsdorf - household porcelain was especially centred on Reichenbach. After 1989 there were a large number of spin-offs from the Hermsdorf ceramic works (KWH) (from 1990 Tridelta AG) and several start-ups of companies in the

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

, micro-electronics,

micromachinery Micromachines are mechanics, mechanical objects that are fabrication (semiconductor), fabricated in the same general manner as integrated circuits. They are generally considered to be between 100 nanometres to 100 micrometres in size, although ...

powder metallurgy Powder metallurgy (PM) is a term covering a wide range of ways in which materials or components are made from metal powders. PM processes are sometimes used to reduce or eliminate the need for subtractive manufacturing, subtractive processes in ma ...

and

service industries Service industries are those not directly concerned with the production of physical goods (such as agriculture and manufacturing). Some service industries, including transportation, wholesale trade and retail trade are part of the supply chai ...

, etc. For many years the Thuringian Holzland has also been used as the recreational area of the East

n region and beyond. In warm weather, tourists walk in small and large groups by the Zeitzgrund or the Eisenberg Mill Valley. The mills were mostly converted into

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

s and footpaths have largely been improved. The railway line between

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

and

Gera Gera () is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of ...

(via Stadtroda, Hermsdorf and Klosterlausnitz ) is called the Holzland Railway. {{Coord, 50, 55, 37, N, 11, 49, 55, E, type:landmark_region:DE-TH, display=title Regions of Thuringia Saale-Holzland-Kreis Forests and woodlands of Thuringia