Kamenz () or Kamjenc ( Sorbian) is a town ('' Große Kreisstadt'') in the district of

Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin () is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree river. In 2018 the town's population was 39,087. Until 1868, its German name was ''Budi ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Until 2008 it was the administrative seat of Kamenz District. The town is known as the birthplace of the philosopher and poet Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Bruno Hauptmann, convicted kidnapper of the Lindbergh baby. It lies north-east of the major city of

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Geography

This small town is located in the west of the

Upper Lusatia Upper Lusatia (german: Oberlausitz ; hsb, Hornja Łužica ; dsb, Górna Łužyca; szl, Gōrnŏ Łużyca; pl, Łużyce Górne or ''Milsko''; cz, Horní Lužice) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the ...

historic region (

West Lusatia The term West Lusatia (german: Westlausitz) was coined in the 1950s for the old counties of Hoyerswerda, Kamenz and Bischofswerda (today in the north and west of the county of Bautzen) – mainly in order to make the Museum of West Lusatia into a c ...

), about northeast of

and about northwest of

. Situated on the

Black Elster The Black Elster or Schwarze Elster () is a long river in eastern Germany, in the states Saxony, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, right tributary of the Elbe. Its source is in the Upper Lusatia region, near Elstra. The Black Elster flows through t ...

river, between the West Lusatian Hills and the Lusatian Highlands rising in the south, the town was built on

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

rocks which were mined here for centuries. Kamenz railway station is the terminus of Lübbenau–Kamenz and Kamenz–Pirna railway lines. It is served by '' Regionalbahn'' trains from Dresden Hauptbahnhof, operated by the Städtebahn Sachsen. The Hutberg hill west of the town centre, at an elevation of , is the site of an extended landscape park laid out in 1893. It is known for its major rhododendron and azalea collections flowering at Pentecost. In 1864 the Lessing Tower was erected on the hilltop, offering a panoramic view over the West Lusatian lands and the

Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape The Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape (also ... District or ... Lake District,Hauptsatzung der Stadt Kamenz
September 2019. *Bernbruch *Biehla *Brauna (incl. Liebenau, Petershain, Rohrbach and Schwosdorf) *Cunnersdorf (incl. Hausdorf and Schönbach) *Deutschbaselitz/Němske Pazlicy *Jesau/Jěžow *Lückersdorf-Gelenau (Lückersdorf, Gelenau and Hennersdorf) *Thonberg/Hlinowc * Wiesa/Brěznja *Zschornau-Schiedel (Zschornau/Čornow and Schiedel)

History

The settlement arose in the late 12th century, when a fortress was erected at the location of today's old town, in order to secure the junction of the medieval

Via Regia The Via Regia (Royal Highway) is a European Cultural Route following the route of the historic road of the Middle Ages. There were many such ''viae regiae'' associated with the king in the medieval Holy Roman Empire. History Origins The V ...

trade route with the Black Elster river. From here, the Via Regia offered important transport links from the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

up to

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. In 1225, written records first mentioned the town; Kamenz became an independent city in 1319, when Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV enfeoffed the West Lusatian lands to the

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

king John of Bohemia. In 1346, the citizens joined the

Lusatian League The Lusatian League (german: Oberlausitzer Sechsstädtebund; cs, Šestiměstí; pl, Związek Sześciu Miast) was a historical alliance of six towns in the Bohemian (1346–1635), later Saxon (1635–1815) region of Upper Lusatia, that existed fr ...

for protection against robber barons and to maintain public peace (''

Landfrieden Under the law of the Holy Roman Empire, a ''Landfrieden'' or ''Landfriede'' (Latin: ''constitutio pacis'', ''pax instituta'' or ''pax jurata'', variously translated as "land peace", or "public peace") was a contractual waiver of the use of legiti ...

''). The town was nevertheless besieged and finally occupied by

Hussite The Hussites ( cs, Husité or ''Kališníci''; "Chalice People") were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, who became the best known representative of the Bohemian Reformation. The Huss ...

forces in 1429, who also devastated the nearby town of

Wittichenau Wittichenau (German) or Kulow ( Upper Sorbian) is a bilingual town in the district of Bautzen in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Schwarze Elster, 6 km south of Hoyerswerda. This small municipality is situated ...

before they marched against Bautzen. In 1493, King Vladislaus II of Bohemia had a

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

monastery established north of the Kamenz town walls, dedicated to Saint Anne in 1512. KM-Annenkirche2

Kamenz citizens officially turned

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

in 1536. In the

Schmalkaldic War The Schmalkaldic War (german: link=no, Schmalkaldischer Krieg) was the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (simultaneously King Charles I of Spain), commanded by the Duk ...

of 1546/47, the Upper Lusatian towns refused to support the troops of the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand I against the Protestant princes and were penalised with the loss of numerous privileges. The Franciscan convent finally dissolved in 1564. With the 1635 Peace of Prague, the Lusatias passed from the Bohemian Crown to the Electorate of Saxony. Several

witch-hunt A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...

s are documented in the 17th century. In 1707 a fire destroyed large parts of the old town. A second major fire on 4 and 5 August 1842 destroyed much of the city. In 1896, Kamenz became garrison town of the ''Königlich Sächsisches Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 242'', part of the German 53rd Reserve Division. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

subcamp Subcamps (german: KZ-Außenlager), also translated as satellite camps, were outlying detention centres (''Haftstätten'') that came under the command of a main concentration camp run by the SS in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The Nazi ...

of Gross-Rosen concentration camp was located in the town from 1944 to 1945, where forced labourers worked for a

Daimler-Benz The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufactur ...

aircraft engine factory. The airfield northeast of the town was used by Luftwaffe ''

Schlachtgeschwader 2 ''Schlachtgeschwader'' 2 (SG 2) ''Immelmann'' was a Luftwaffe dive-bomber wing of World War II. It was named after Max Immelmann, the first German pilot to earn the Pour le Mérite. This close-support ''Stuka'' unit fought principally in the s ...

'' and '' Sturzkampfgeschwader 77'' units. After the war, the town became part of the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...

and

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 its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. Until 1990, an officer candidate school of the East German Air Force Staff (''Offiziershochschule

Franz Mehring Franz Erdmann Mehring (27 February 1846 – 28 January 1919) was a German communist historian, literary critic, philosopher, and revolutionary socialist politician who was a senior member of the Spartacus League during the German Revolution of 191 ...

'') was located at the Kamenz Airfield. The former municipality Schönteichen was merged into Kamenz in January 2019.

Politics

Seats in the city council (''Stadtrat'') as of 2014 local elections: * Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU): 7 * The Left: 7 *''Wählervereinigung Kamenz und Ortsteile'' (

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

): 3 *''Wir für Kamenz'' (Independent): 2 *

National Democratic Party of Germany The National Democratic Party of Germany (german: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the German Reich Part ...

(NPD): 1 * Free Democratic Party: 1 * Alliance '90/The Greens: 1

Twin towns — sister cities

Kamenz is twinned with: * Alzey,

Kolín Kolín (; german: Kolin, Neu Kolin, Collin) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation. Administra ...

, Czech Republic * Karpacz, Poland

Sights

The altarpiece collection in the St Anna Museum in Kamenz

Theatre

* The municipal theatre (''Stadttheater'') was re-opened in 1999; it is also used for ''

Kabarett Kabarett (; from French ''cabaret'' = tavern) is satirical revue, a form of cabaret which developed in France by Rodolphe Salis in 1881 as the ''cabaret artistique''. It was named Le Chat Noir and was centered on political events and satire. It ...

'' and concert performances * Within the Hutberg landscape park, an open-air stage for up to 10,000 visitors was built in 1934/35 as a '' Thingplatz''; it is today used for music events.

Museums

* Lessing Museum, opened in 1931, memorial site and library * St Anna abbey church and sacred museum (''Klosterkirche und Sakralmuseum St. Annen''), part of the former Franciscan convent, exhibits sacred art of the Kamenz churches - a collection of 16th century carved timber painted altarpieces * Museum of West Lusatia (''Museum der Westlausitz''): various collections on cultural history, archaeology, geology, zoology, and botany of the region.

Buildings

* Town hall, built in 1848/49, in an Italian

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

style * Marketplace with

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...

Andreas Fountain, erected in 1570 * Roter Turm (''red tower''), Mönchsmauer (''monk wall''), and Pichschuppen, all remnants of the medieval town fortification * The Protestant main church of St Mary was built from 1275 to 1479, in a Late Gothic

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

style; it is the only church built from granite rocks north of the Alps * The nearby Catechism Church at the town wall was first mentioned in 1358; it was later used for religious services held in the Sorbian language * The St Anne Abbey Church was finished in 1510, now a museum whose collections include five 16th century carved wood altarpieces * The St Just Church on the historic Via Regia road, first mentioned in 1377, contains several mural paintings from about 1400 * The Lessing memorial marks the place of the poet's birth house.

Events

Blütenlauf auf dem Hutberg
(Run on the Hutberg) * Lessing Days (every year, January and February) * Fête de la Musique every year on June 21 * Forstfest (Forest Festival), every year in the week of August 24 on St Bartholomew's Day * Kamenzer Nasenfest (Nose Festival), Festival with the so-called ''nose market'' every year on October 3 * Carnival * Popular German band

Silbermond Silbermond ("silver moon") is a German pop rock band from Bautzen, Saxony. The band consists of Stefanie Kloß, Andreas Nowak, and brothers Johannes and Thomas Stolle. History The band members originally met in 1998 when they participated in t ...

, originally from the nearby town of Bautzen, have made it a personal tradition to play the final concert of their album tours at Kamenz's Hutbergbühne stadium.

Notable people

* Andreas Dressler (1530-1604), a highly skilled local artist * Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), philosopher and poet *

Gottfried von Erdmannsdorff __NOTOC__ Gottfried von Erdmannsdorff (25 April 1893 – 30 January 1946) was a German general during World War II. He was convicted by a Soviet military tribunal for war crimes at the Minsk Trial and executed in 1946. Fortress Mogilev On 27 Jun ...

(1893–1946), German Nazi officer executed for war crimes *

Richard Hauptmann Bruno Richard Hauptmann (November 26, 1899 – April 3, 1936) was a German-born carpenter who was convicted of the abduction and murder of the 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The Lindbergh kidna ...

(1899–1936), convicted kidnapper of the Lindbergh baby * Hans Thamm (1921–2007), choral conductor * Georg Baselitz (born 1938), painter, born in Deutschbaselitz *

Wolfgang Mager Wolfgang Mager (born 24 August 1952) is a retired Germany, German rowing (sport), rower. He competed for East Germany, first in coxless pairs, together with Siegfried Brietzke, and then in coxless fours. In these events he won Olympic gold meda ...

(born 1952),

rower Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is ...

, two-time Olympic gold medalist

References

External links

Municipal site

Museum of West Lusatia

Lessing Museum
{{Authority control Populated places in Bautzen (district) West Lusatia