Finsterwalde (, dsb, Grabin) is a town in the Elbe-Elster district (German: Landkreis), in

Lower Lusatia Lower Lusatia (; ; ; szl, Dolnŏ Łużyca; ; ) is a historical region in Central Europe, stretching from the southeast of the German state of Brandenburg to the southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Like adjacent Upper Lusatia in the sou ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 squ ...

, Germany.

Overview

It is situated on the Schackebach, a tributary of the

Kleine Elster Kleine Elster is a river of Brandenburg, Germany. It flows into the Black Elster in Wahrenbrück. See also *List of rivers of Brandenburg A list of rivers of Brandenburg, Germany: A * Alte Oder * Alte Schlaube B * Bäke *Berste * Black E ...

, 28 m. W.S.W of

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...

by rail. Pop. (2005) 18,840. The town has a Gothic church (1581), a castle, schools, cloth and cigar factories, iron-foundries, flour and saw mills and factories for machine building. Popular are the "four singers from Finsterwalde" and their "singer-song".

History

Finsterwalde, which is first mentioned in 1288, came into the possession of the

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (German: or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charle ...

from 1635 and of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

in 1815. From 1815 to 1947, Finsterwalde was part of the

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...

. From 1952 to 1990, it was part of the

Bezirk Cottbus Cottbus was a district () of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The administrative seat and main town was Cottbus. History The district was established, along with the other 13, on 25 July 1952, ''de facto'' replacing the East German ...

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 German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

Demography

File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Finsterwalde.pdf, Development of population since 1875 within the current boundaries (Blue line: population; dotted line: Comparison to population development of Brandenburg state; grey background: Time of Nazi rule; red background: Time of communist rule) File:Bevölkerungsprognosen Finsterwalde.pdf, Recent Population Development and Projections: Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the

Census in Germany A national census in Germany (german: Volkszählung) was held every five years from 1875 to 1910. After the World Wars, only a few full population censuses have been held, the last in 1987. The most recent census, though not a national census, w ...

in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2020-2030 (green line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line)

Known persons

The following well known persons are from Finsterwalde: * Hansgeorg Bätcher (1914-2003), Oberstleutnant in the Luftwaffe * Inge Deutschkron, (1922-2022), German-Israeli journalist and author * Thomas Eisfeld, (born 1993), football player for

Arsenal FC Arsenal Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, London, England. Arsenal plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club has won 13 league titles (incl ...

* Catrin G Grosse (born 1964), artist and painter *

Kurt Haehling __NOTOC__ Kurt Haehling (7 November 1893 – 20 May 1983) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Haehling surrendered to the Red Army in May 1945 in ...

(1893-1983), Generalmajor in the Wehrmacht * Detlef Irrgang, (born 1966), football player * Sonja Kesselschläger,

Heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

athlete * Hermann Kotzschmar, (1829-1908), German-American musician, conductor and composer * Peggy Kuznik, Football player * Otto Ostrowski, (1883-1963), Mayor of Finsterwalde in the 1920s * Stephanie Pohl, (born 1978), beach volleyball player * Hans-Jürgen Riediger, football player

Buildings and Monuments

* Finsterwalde Solar Park * Janusz-Korczak-Gymnasium, formerly ''Knabenschule'' by Max Taut (1913) * In Finsterwalde is located a relief dedicated to Lenin in the park "Bürgerheide"https://leninisstillaround.com/2015/07/20/in-front-of-the-playground/ checked 26.1.2020

References

External links

Localities in Elbe-Elster {{Brandenburg-geo-stub