Geusa is a village and a former municipality within the district

Saalekreis Saalekreis is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The district seat is Merseburg. Its area is . It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts Kyffhäuserkreis (Thuringia), Mansfeld-Südharz, Salzlandkreis, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, ...

, in the federal state of

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 ...

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 ...

. Since January 1, 2010, it is within the town limits of

Merseburg Merseburg () is a town in central Germany in southern Saxony-Anhalt, situated on the river Saale, and approximately 14 km south of Halle (Saale) and 30 km west of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese ...

PSM V52 D077 Germanic village of geusa prussian saxony

Geography

Geusa is approximately 5 kilometres west of

. The

Geiseltalsee Geiseltalsee, literally Geisel valley lake, is at about the largest artificial lake by area in Germany. Once flooding of the Cottbuser Ostsee is complete it will surpass Geiseltalsee in surface area, covering . Geiseltalsee lies in the Saalekrei ...

is found to the south-west. The A38 goes through the neighborhood.

History

The village of Geusa was mentioned as early as 880/890 in the

Hersfeld Tithe Register The Hersfeld Tithe Register (German: ''Hersfelder Zehntverzeichnis'') is a list of the places and castles in the Friesenfeld Gau (territory) and in Hassegau, from which Hersfeld Abbey received tithes. The original document dates from between 881 ...

( German:''Hersfelder Zehntverzeichnis'') as ''Husuw(n)a'', or ''Husiuwa''. Additional nobility maps dating back to 1000 C.E. have the town marked as ''Geußau'', ''Geißau'', ''Geusau'', and ''Geußen''. It appears as ''Gusau'' in an August 9, 975 entry in th
''Pago Hassaga''
a record of noble land holdings for the region during the reign of

Otto II Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy. Otto II was ...

. The town appears as "Geuse" in Willem Blaeu's 1645 edition of

Atlas Novus An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditionally been ...

in the map of

Mansfeld Land Mansfeld Land () is a region in the southwestern corner of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The region derives its name from the counts of Mansfeld, who ruled this region for about 1,000 years. Geography In the west and northwest, Mansfeld La ...

entitled Mansfeldia Commitatus.

Origin of name

The von Geusau family of Geusa maintains that the name derives from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''gans'' for "goose." However, while this cannot be ruled out, no salient documents exist to support this claim. It is equally probable that the name Geusa shares its origin with the Geisel River Valley, but since both names date back to the days of the

Carolingian Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Franks, Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as List of Frankish kings, kings of the Franks since ...

, the original spelling and etymology have been lost. There are several equally valid possibilities:

Proto-Germanic origin

Due to its age, the name is likely related to the

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

roo
hūsą
meaning "house" or "home." The first documented mention of the village was in a tithing document created between 881 and 899 in

Hersfeld Abbey Hersfeld Abbey was an important Benedictine imperial abbey in the town of Bad Hersfeld in Hesse (formerly in Hesse-Nassau), Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Geisa, Haune and Fulda. The ruins are now a medieval festival venue. History ...

where the place name was listed as ''Husuuua'' in the district of Friesenfeld. This is likely to mean ''House by the meadow''.Spring, Bernhard: ''Welche Rolle spielt die weiße Gans?'' In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 21. Januar 2013

Old High German origin

The name may also derive from

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

''gewi'', (from the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

''gavi'', (neuter) or ''gaujis'' (genitive)), a medieval term for a region within a country, often a former or actual province. Another possibility is it come from the OHG ''gīsl'' o
''gīsal''
meaning "

hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...

References

{{authority control Former municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt Merseburg