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Elbe-Elster Land (), also called the Elbe-Elster region (''Elbe-Elster-Gebiet'') is a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

around the

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

of the German states of

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

and

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 ...

. It is part of the

North German Plain The North German Plain or Northern Lowland () is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain. The region is bounded by the coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the north, Germany's ...

and is named after the two major rivers that have their confluence here: the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

and the

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

. In older sources the northwestern parts of the present-day Elbe-Elster Land were called ''Mezumroka'' or "land between the rivers". It was part of the Gau Nizizi and almost unpopulated. The region is first recorded as the "land between the Elbe and Elster" on 14 April 1312, when Frederick the Brave promised 32,000 marks in silver ''"to be paid within three days"'' to

Margrave Margrave was originally the Middle Ages, medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or a monarchy, kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain Feudal ...

Waldemar of Brandenburg as part of the Treaty of Tangermünde following his capture near Hayn. He also promised to cede the "land between the Elbe and Elster", the

March of Lusatia The March or Margraviate of Lusatia () was an eastern border march of the Holy Roman Empire in the lands settled by Polabian Slavs. It arose in 965 in the course of the partition of the vast ''Marca Geronis''. Ruled by several Saxon margravial dy ...

and the towns of Hayn and

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies first met near ...

to Brandenburg. The "land between the Elbe and Elster" was then understood to be a region that covered what later became the

Electoral Saxon 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 ...

Ämter Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'' or districts of Mühlberg, Liebenwerda, Schweinitz and

Lochau Lochau is a municipality in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg. It is located on Lake Constance, in the Bregenz district, near the border to Germany. About 50.3% of the municipality's area is forest. The Pfänder, the landmark mountai ...

. Today the territory of the county of

Elbe-Elster Elbe-Elster is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the southern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Teltow-Fläming, Dahme-Spreewald, Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Meißen, Nordsachsen and Wittenberg. The district has a partnership with the ...

which was created in 1993 is marketed and advertised for tourist purposes as the holiday region of ''Elbe-Elster-Land'', but it also includes the western parts of

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

around

Finsterwalde Finsterwalde (, , ) is a town in the Elbe-Elster district (German: Landkreis), in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany. Overview It is situated on the Schackebach, a tributary of the Kleine Elster, 28 m. W.S.W of Cottbus by rail. Pop. (2005) 18,8 ...

and the

Schraden Schraden is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Elbe-Elster district, in Brandenburg, Germany. History From 1816 to 1944, Schraden was part of the Prussian Province of Saxony. From 1952 to 1990, Schraden was part of the Bezirk Cottbus ...

region.

Literature

* * * * * * Andreas Pöschl (Hrsg.): ''Kohle, Wind und Wasser. Ein energiehistorischer Streifzug durch das Elbe-Elsterland.'' Hrsg. v. Kulturamt des Landkreises Elbe-Elster. Herzberg/Elster 2001, . * * (deutsch/englisch) * ''Baudenkmale des Landkreises Elbe-Elster.'' (= Blattsammlung denkmalgeschützter Bauten des Landkreises Elbe-Elster) * *

Periodicals

* ''"Heimatkalender für das Land zwischen Elbe und Elster"'' (Region Altkreis Bad Liebenwerda, the Mückenberger Ländchen,

Ortrand Ortrand (; , ) is a town in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, in southern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 24 km southwest of Senftenberg, and 36 km north of Dresden. History From 1815 to 1944, Ortrand was part of the Prussian Prov ...

und Uebigau-

Falkenberg Falkenberg is a locality and the seat of Falkenberg Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 27,813 inhabitants in 2019 (out of a municipal total of about 45,000). It is located at the mouth of river Ätran. The name consists of the Swedish ...

) – published annually * ''"Die Schwarze Elster"'' (heimatkundliche Schriftenreihe für den Altkreis Bad Liebenwerda) * ''„Heimatkalender Herzberg“'' (Region Herzberg) – published annually * ''"Finsterwalder Heimatkalender"'' – published annually * ''"Der Bomätscher"'' (heimatkundliche Schrift der Stadt Mühlberg/Elbe) – published quarterly * ''"Der Speicher"'' (Jahresschrift des Kreismuseums Finsterwalde) * ''"EE-Grafik"'' (Kunstmappe mit Grafiken ansässiger Künstler) – published annually

External links

Internetauftritt des Tourismusverbandes Elbe-Elster Land e. V.

Footnotes and references

Karl Friedrich von Klöden: ''Diplomatische Geschichte des Markgrafen Waldemar von Brandenburg vom Jahre 1295 bis 1323.'' Teil II. M. Simion, Berlin 1844, S. 109. () Adolph Friedrich Johann Riedel
''Codex diplomaticus Brandenburgensis. Sammlung der Urkunden, Chroniken und sonstigen Geschichtsquellen für die Geschichte der Mark Brandenburg und ihrer Regenten. Berlin 1838–1869.''
Zweiter Haupttheil oder Geschichte der auswärtigen Verhältnisse der Mark Brandenburg und ihrer Regenten, S. 319. {{coord, 51.663889, 13.172778, region:DE-NI_type:adm2nd, display=title History of Brandenburg Geography of Brandenburg History of Saxony Regions of Saxony History of Saxony-Anhalt Regions of Saxony-Anhalt