Klöden is a village and a former municipality in

Wittenberg Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is the fourth-largest town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It is situated on the River Elbe, north of Leipzig and south-west of the reunified German ...

district in

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 1 January 2011, it is part of the town

Jessen (Elster) Jessen () is a municipality on the Black Elster river and lies in the eastern part of Saxony-Anhalt in the Wittenberg (district), district of Wittenberg. Geography Jessen is an amalgamated municipality, and has the following 44 subdivisions (''Or ...

Geography

Klöden lies on 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 ...

about 12 km southwest of Jessen and in eastern Saxony-Anhalt. Klöden lies in the middle of the ''Elbaue'', a kind of natural

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...

, and one of the biggest

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

and

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

land areas in the region. Much of it is still wild, harbouring a great many wild animals such as roe deer,

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

fallow deer Fallow deer is the common name for species of deer in the genus ''Dama'' of subfamily Cervinae. There are two living species, the European fallow deer (''Dama dama''), native to Europe and Anatolia, and the Persian fallow deer (''Dama mesopotamic ...

, Elbe

beaver Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

s, and many others. The plant life is also quite diverse.

History

Klöden's history is the subject of very divergent points of view. This even goes for the origin of the community's name, as well as for just when Klöden had its first documentary mention. The most up-to-date research says that the name is of

Slavic Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slav ...

origin. In 1935, the name's spelling was changed from "Clöden" to "Klöden". The earliest document that is available was drawn up on 12 April 965, but it constitutes a clever forgery (''ie'' it is authentically mediaeval, but its original purpose was fraudulent). It contains, among the 17 placenames that it mentions, one called "Clotna". What follows is a summary of what it says: :''"On 12 April 965, Kaiser Otto I of Nordhausen granted from Saint John's Monastery to Magdeburg the honey tithe from the Slavic province of Nizzi lying in his faithful Hodo's county."'' The document, originally written in

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 ...

, nowadays hangs in the vicarage in Klöden. The document's legal validity only bears on the granting of honey

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

s at the aforesaid point in time. The mention of the place Clotna in the year 965 allows the conclusion that Klöden is more than 1000 years old, as the document is witness to a fraudulent acquisition of a honey tithe, not to a founding date. Source: Extracts from the ''Klödener Chronik'' by Mr. Schepeler Kurt. From 1815 to 1944, Klöden was part of the

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

Province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (), also known as Prussian Saxony (), was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merger of various territories ceded ...

and from 1944 to 1945 of the Province of

Halle-Merseburg The Province of Halle-Merseburg () was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1944 to 1945. The provincial capital was the city Merseburg. Halle-Merseburg was created on 1 July 1944, out of Regierungsbezirk Merseburg, an administrative ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Klöden was incorporated into the Province (since 1947, State) of

from 1945 to 1952 and the

Bezirk Cottbus Cottbus was a Administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic, district () of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The administrative seat and main town was Cottbus. History The district was established, along with the othe ...

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

from 1952 to 1990. Since 1990, Klöden has been part of

, since 2011 as a part of Jessen.

Economy and transportation

Klöden is connected to Federal Highway (''Bundesstraße'') B 187, which lies 12 km north of the community, and joins Jessen and

. There is, however, no

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

connection. Jessen station is not far away, though, and Klöden may be reached from there by

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

. The Elbradweg R2 bicycle trail also serves Klöden.

References

External links

Community of Klöden – official homepage
Former municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt Jessen (Elster) {{Wittenberg-geo-stub