Falkenau is a village and a former municipality in the district of

Mittelsachsen Mittelsachsen (, ) is a district ('' Kreis'') in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. History The district was established by merging the former districts of Döbeln, Freiberg and Mittweida as part of the district reform of August 2008. Geog ...

, in

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 ...

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 ...

. On 1 October 2011, Falkenau joined the town of

Flöha Flöha () is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. Flöha is situated on the confluence of the rivers Zschopau (river), Zschopau and Flöha (river), Flöha, east of Chemnitz. Flöha station connects the town to Dresden, ...

Geography

Location

Located in the

Ore Mountain Basin The Ore Mountain BasinFlöha Flöha () is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. Flöha is situated on the confluence of the rivers Zschopau (river), Zschopau and Flöha (river), Flöha, east of Chemnitz. Flöha station connects the town to Dresden, ...

. Falkenau and its sole district Hetzdorf is located north of

Augustusburg Augustusburg () is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 12 km east of Chemnitz. Augustusburg is known for its ''Jagdschloss'', the hunting lodge of the same name. The town includes the ortsteil or to ...

, east of

and west of

Oederan Oederan is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. Geography Oederan is situated 14 km southwest of Freiberg, 17 km east of Chemnitz and about 50 km west of Dresden. The town includes the villages of Börni ...

History

Until the middle of the 12th century, the region lay in the primeval forest known as the

Miriquidi Miriquidi is a medieval name for a forest, perhaps in the vicinity of the Ore Mountains, between the Elbe and Saale rivers. The name occurs in the Norse form ''Myrkviðr'' ('dark wood') in the Edda story Lokasenna, and in Hervarar saga ok Heiðrek ...

, which covered large parts of what is now southern Saxony and stretched across the ridge of the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

to northern Bohemia. Falkenau was first mentioned in 1378 in a tax register of the socalled "Castrum Schellenberg" district, but the first settlers probably arrived as early as the late 12th century in the course of the Medieval . The settlers founded the village as

Waldhufendorf The ''Waldhufendorf'' ("forest village"; plural: -''dörfer'') 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.Dickinson, Robert E (1964). ''G ...

with 15 farms arranged along both sides of the river. The oldest family names of these farmers were Richter (1546), Rudolph (1563), Ruttluff (1563), Schubert (1563), Kunz (1564), Teufel (1566), Wächtler (1567), Hartwig (1580), Förster (1583), Aßmann (1586), Ranfeld (1585), Becker (1585), Schnorr (1589), Naumann (1599), Fintzel (1593), and Barthel (1595). Small ore mining endeavours were undertaken in the northern forests of Falkenau along the with a first phase during the late 16th century and a second one from 1674 till 1842. Since the beginning of the 19th century and during the 20th century, the village was a small, but supraregional centre of the textile industry with business connections to major cities in Germany and Europe.

Population

Falkenau had a population of around 140 people during the mid-16th century, with only 20 more in 1688. Falkenau reached its highest peak of population in the year 1950 with a total of 2921 people. The population has slowly declined since then. :Source: Official Statistical Office of the Free State of Saxony, Date: 30. Juni 2011

Languages

Standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the umbrella term for the standard language, standardized varieties of the German language, which are used in formal contexts and for commun ...

* a variety of

Upper Saxon German Upper Saxon (, , ) is an East Central German dialect spoken in much of the modern German state of Saxony and in adjacent parts of southeastern Saxony-Anhalt and eastern Thuringia. As of the early 21st century, it is mostly extinct and a new r ...

Infrastructure

Roads

Falkenau is connected to the . Between Hof and

Zwickau Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...

, the course of this road largely corresponds to the old

Via Imperii Via Imperii (Imperial Road) was one of the most important of a class of roads known collectively as imperial roads (') of the Holy Roman Empire. This old trade route ran in a south–north direction from Venice on the Adriatic Sea and Verona i ...

. Further on to Dresden, it follows the historic , which leads eastwards via Chemnitz, Oederan, and Freiberg, towards

Upper Lusatia Upper Lusatia (, ; , ; ; or ''Milsko''; ) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the north, it makes up the region of Lusatia, named after the Polabian Slavs, Slavic ''Lusici'' tribe. Both parts of Lusatia a ...

and on to

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

Public transport

The village has two small train stations and is connected by one bus line to Chemnitz. The upper station Falkenau (Sachs) Süd connects the village to Dresden, Chemnitz, and Freiberg (

Dresden–Werdau railway The Dresden–Werdau railway is an electrified, double-track main line in the German state of Saxony. It runs from Dresden Hauptbahnhof, Dresden via Freiberg (Sachs) station, Freiberg, Chemnitz Hauptbahnhof, Chemnitz and Zwickau Hauptbahnhof, Z ...

). The lower station Falkenau (Sachs) HP connects to Chemnitz and

Olbernhau Olbernhau is a town in the district Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, 35 km southeast of Chemnitz, and 23 km north of Chomutov, Czech Republic. History Presumably, the town's name arose from t ...

(

Pockau-Lengefeld–Neuhausen railway The Pockau-Lengefeld–Neuhausen railway, one of two lines also called the Flöha Valley Railway (), is a branch line in the German state of Saxony. It runs in the valley of the Flöha (river), Flöha from Pockau via Olbernhau to Neuhausen, Saxon ...

). Until 1968, the socalled Lößnitz Valley railway branched off to Großwaltersdorf in the neighbouring district of Hetzdorf.

Bridges

* , a 43 metre high and 328 metre long former railway bridge built 1866-1868. It is now part of a hiking trail.

Culture and sights

In 1722, the post office of

Electoral Saxony 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 ...

erected on behalf of

Augustus II the Strong Augustus II the Strong (12 May 1670 – 1 February 1733), was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1697 to 1706 and from 1709 until his death in 1733. He belonged to the Albertine branch of the H ...

a numbered

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...

along the historic . The quarter milestone rests on a low plinth and consists of a rectangular ca 1.7 metres high slab. It only bears the monogram ‘AR’, a post horn, the year of manufacture and, on the narrow side the odd row number "25". The school, built 1913, was designed by the Saxonian architect Curt Herfurth.

Sports

* (football, table tennis, athletics, volleyball) * (skiing) * (fishing)

Notable people

Sons and daughters of Falkenau

* Karl Nendel (* 1933 in Falkenau; † 2019 in Frankfurt (Oder)), engineer in microelectronics

Active in Falkenau

* Carl Ludwig Beaumont (* 1791, † 3. March 1840 in Falkenau), French soldier in the Napoleon army and entrepreneur in textile industry in Falkenau * Adolf Gottlieb Fiedler (* 1771 in Dresden, † 2. August 1850), entrepreneur in Saxony and Poland * Max Hauschild (* 28. December 1804 in Dresden, † 20. July 1877 in Dresden), Saxonian entrepreneur in textile industry and mechanical engineering * Abraham Kluge († 1654), Captain of a

Dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat wi ...

Unit during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

A. Magnus (2024)
''Abraham Kluge (gest. 1654)''
in: ''Falkenauer Netz'', June 10, 2024. * Georg Liebermann (* 5. July 1844 in Berlin; † 15. April 1926 in Berlin), German

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

and entrepreneur in textile industry and mechanical engineering, brother of the artist

Max Liebermann Max Liebermann (20 July 1847 – 8 February 1935) was a German painter and printmaker, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany and continental Europe. In addition to his activity as an artist, he also assembled an important ...

Bibliography

In German

* * *

External links

Falkenauer Netz

Falkenau

References

{{authority control Former municipalities in Saxony Flöha Mittelsachsen