Gehringswalde, a so-called

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 ...

, is situated about 1.5 km east of

Wolkenstein Wolkenstein is a town in the district Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, on the river Zschopau, 22 km southeast of Chemnitz. The town is situated on a rocky spur near the confluence of the Zschopau ...

in 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 ...

. It extends for about 1.5 km along the valley of a stream which joins the

Zschopau Zschopau (), is a town in the Erzgebirgskreis district of Saxony, Germany. The town grew around the castle, which was built in the mid-12th century to protect the Salt Road, which crossed the Zschopau River here. Mining was also practiced from ...

river ca. 1.5 km west of Warmbad. The nearby ''Hüttengrundmühle'' (site of a former water mill) is also part of the village. The mountain Dreibrüderhöhe lies ca. 3 km east of Gehringswalde.

Bundesstraße 101 ''Bundesstraße'' (, ), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' are labelled with rec ...

forms the main road of the village, at whose western end it is joined by Bundesstraße 171. A county road connects Gehringswalde with Warmbad.

History

Gehringswalde was first mentioned in 1427 as ''Geringiswalde''. After the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

it became part of Wolkenstein parish in 1536/37. In 1540 it was known as ''Gerichtswalde''. From this time on there are reports of ore mining in Gehringswalde. The village was centred on the

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land subinfeudation, sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. ...

of the

prince-elector The prince-electors ( pl. , , ) were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Usually, half of the electors were archbishops. From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince- ...

. In 1693, possibly as a consequence of 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 ...

, of the need for water in the mines, and of damages due to increasing numbers of wild animals, there were only 5 Hufners, 8 half-Hufners, and 10 cotters, signifying pronounced poverty, and causing the local judges to ask for reductions of taxes. In 1816 Gehringswalde had according to

August Schumann Friedrich August Gottlob Schumann (March 2, 1773 – August 10, 1826) was a German bookseller and publisher. His best-known work is the 18-volume Lexicon of Saxony, which was completed after his death by . He wrote ''Junker Kurt von Krötenst ...

45 houses, 221 inhabitants who kept 123 heads of cattle and 100 sheep, and some mills. The road through the village was renewed between 1823 and 1829. The first school is mentioned in 1824, a new schoolhouse was built in 1874. In 1846 the grange of Huth was transferred from

Großrückerswalde Großrückerswalde is a municipality in the district Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, 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 an ...

to Gehringswalde. Until 1856 the village was part of Amt Wolkenstein. Municipal offices were built in 1925, the

volunteer fire department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respo ...

was formed two years later. An aerial attack in the night from 14 to 15 February 1945 destroyed 26 buildings. On 1 January 1999 the hitherto separate municipalities of Falkenbach, Gehringswalde, Hilmersdorf and Schönbrunn joined the town of Wolkenstein''Gebietsänderungen ab 1. Januar 1999 bis 31. Dezember 1999'', Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaats Sachsen, p. 4
(PDF; 39 kB), retrieved 02 July 2015. and became subdivisions thereof.

References

{{Authority control Erzgebirgskreis Wolkenstein Villages in the Ore Mountains