Mistelgau is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the district of

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

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 ...

. The eponymous village is the seat of both the municipality as well as the municipality association Mistelgau.

Name

The name "Mistelgau" is a compound of "Mistel" (German for

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate parasite, obligate parasitic plant, hemiparasitic plants in the Order (biology), order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they ...

) and "Gau" (here:

shire Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...

), possibly referring to the abundance of mistletoes in a nearby oak forest, which was cut down in 1780. Today, mistletoes are not quite as common in the area as the name would suggest.

Geography

Location

The main village Mistelgau is located 10 km to the west of

. It is the centre of the so-called Hummelgau, the north-northeastern boundary of

Franconian Switzerland Franconian Switzerland (, ) is an upland in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany and a popular tourist retreat. Located between the River Pegnitz in the east and the south, the River Regnitz in the west and the River Main in the north, its relief ...

and its transition into the Obermain foothills. The eastern part of the municipality is located on modestly hilly terrain used for agriculture, whereas the (south-)western parts are already part of the Franconian Switzerland with its steeper relief and wooded slopes. Roughly 5 km southwest of the main town, but still within the municipality, lies

Neubürg The Neubürg is a table hill in Mistelgau, Germany. It is part of the Franconian Jura and Franconian Switzerland. Geography The Neubürg is a so-called "Zeugenberg" (outlier mountain) located on the eastern edge of the Franconian Jura, 5&nb ...

, a

table hill A tableland is an area containing elevated landforms characterized by a distinct, flat, nearly level, or gently undulating surface. They often exhibit steep, cliff-like edges, known as escarpments, that separate them from surrounding lowlands. ...

offering views of the surrounding area. To the east, the

Red Main The Red Main ( or ''Rotmain'') is a river in southern Germany. It is the southern, left headstream of the river Main (river), Main. It rises in the hills of Franconian Switzerland, near Haag, Upper Franconia, Haag and flows generally northwest th ...

valley opens up, granting views of the

Fichtel Mountains The Fichtel Mountains (, ; ) is a mountain range in Germany and the Czech Republic. They extend from the valley of the Red Main River in northeastern Bavaria to the Karlovy Vary Region in western Czech Republic. The Fichtel Mountains contain an ...

in the distance.

Neighbouring municipalities

Beginning in the north and continuing clockwise, Mistelgau shares borders with the following municipalities:

Eckersdorf Eckersdorf is a municipality in the district of Bayreuth in Bavaria in Germany. Geography The municipality of Eckersdorf is located on the northern edge of an area called "Little Switzerland" (German: Fränkische Schweiz), close to the world- ...

Mistelbach Mistelbach an der Zaya (; Mistelbach on the (River) Zaya; Central Bavarian: ''Mistlboch'') is a town in the northeast of Austria in Lower Austria, one of Austria's nine States of Austria, federal states. It is located roughly 40 km northea ...

Hummeltal Hummeltal is a municipality in the district of Bayreuth in Bavaria in 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 ...

, Glashütten,

Plankenfels Plankenfels is a municipality in the district of Bayreuth in Bavaria in 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 Alp ...

Hollfeld Hollfeld is a town in the Bayreuth (district), district of Bayreuth, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 20 km west of Bayreuth, and 30 km east of Bamberg. Sport The towns association football club, ASV Hollfeld, experienced its greates ...

, and Thurnau.

Fossil pit

The Mistelgau fossil pit is considered one of the hundred most beautiful

geotope A geotope is the geological component of the abiotic matrix present in an ecotope. Example geotopes might be an exposed outcrop of rocks, an erratic boulder, a grotto or ravine, a cave, an old stone wall marking a property boundary, and so forth. ...

s in Bavaria. Until 2005, the Mistelgau pit was used to mine clay for brick production. It gained supraregional fame because of its impressive fossils. A “

belemnite Belemnitida (or belemnites) is an extinct order (biology), order of squid-like cephalopods that existed from the Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous (And possibly the Eocene). Unlike squid, belemnites had an internal skeleton that made up the cone ...

battlefield” and remains of

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

s make it one of the most important fossil sites in Europe. Some of the finds are exhibited at the Urwelt Museum Oberfranken in Bayreuthin. The Bavarian State Office for the Environment has designated the pit as a valuable geotope (geotope number 472A016).

Subdivisions

The municipality consists of the following 42 districts: Äußerer Graben, Außerleithen, Bärnreuth, Böhnershof, Braunersberg, Culm (obere), Culm (untere), Engelmeß, Eschenmühle, Frankenhaag, Friedrichsruh, Geislareuth, Gollenbach, Göritzen, Gries, Hardt, Harloh, Hundshof, Kammer, Klingenmühle, Kreckenmühle, Laimen, Lenz, Mengersdorf, Mistelgau, Moosing,

Obernsees Obernsees is a village in Germany. It is part of the municipality Mistelgau Mistelgau is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the district of Bayreuth (district), Bayreuth in Bavaria in Germany. The eponymous village is the seat of both ...

, Ochsenholz, Pensenleithen, Plösen, Schnackenwöhr, Schobertsberg, Schobertsreuth, Schöchleins, Seitenbach, Sorg, Streit, Striegelhof, Tennig, Truppach, Wohnsgehaig.

History

Source: The area of the current municipality was first populated during the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

: on top of the

, a fortified settlement existed between the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and the

La Tène period LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smi ...

. During the

Frankish Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lomba ...

, around the year 700, peasants (''Hummelbauern'') from the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

and

Middle Rhine Middle Rhine (, ; kilometres 529 to 660 of the Rhine) is the section of the Rhine between Bingen and Bonn in Germany. It flows through the Rhine Gorge (), a formation created by erosion, which happened at about the same rate as an uplift i ...

regions settled in the area. Also,

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

from the times of the

Carolingian dynasty The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Franks, Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Pippinids, Arnulfi ...

have been found. Mistelgau proper is one of the older villages in the western part of Bayreuth district. Its first documentary mention was in 1379. From 1386 onwards, a noble family resided within the village. In 1422, the characteristic church St. Bartholomäus was first mentioned. Most historic sources were destroyed in the course of the Hussite (1433), German Peasants' (1525), Second Margrave (1552–55), Thirty Years' and

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

s. In 1634, more than half of the population died of the plague. In 1791, Mistelgau along with the remaining

Principality of Bayreuth The Principality of Bayreuth () or Margraviate of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (''Markgraftum Brandenburg-Bayreuth'') was an immediate territory of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a Franconian branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Since Burgrave Frederi ...

was ceded to

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

. During the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, a part of the municipality served as a staging area for French artillery in a battle against the Austrians (1806). After the

Treaties of Tilsit The Treaties of Tilsit (), also collectively known as the Peace of Tilsit (; ), were two peace treaties signed by French Emperor Napoleon in the town of Tilsit in July 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland, at the end of the War o ...

, Mistelgau was briefly under French control until the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...

purchased it alongside the remainder of the former Principality of Bayreuth. Since then, Mistelgau has been part of Bavaria. In 1904, a railroad line from Bayreuth to

(see main article:

Bayreuth–Hollfeld railway The Bayreuth–Hollfeld railway was a branch line in the Bavarian province of Upper Franconia. It ran from Bayreuth to Hollfeld in the northern part of Franconian Switzerland. Construction Plans for the construction of this line went back to the ...

) with a stop in the village of Mistelgau was opened. The village was electrified and a couple of manufacturing plants constructed. A public school was created in 1964. In 1972, several other formerly independent municipalities (Seitenbach, Engelmeß, Truppach, Mengersdorf, Frankenhaag, Plösen, Gollenbach, Wohnsgehaig) were incorporated into Mistelgau. The railroad connection to Bayreuth and Hollfeld was discontinued in 1974. In the time since then, the tracks have been dismantled and the former railroad route has been converted into a road (in the direction of Obernsees) and a bike path (in the direction of Bayreuth, linking Mistelgau to

). In 1978, the hitherto independent Obernsees was incorporated into the municipality. In 1980, the Catholic church St. Peter and Paul was opened. The thermal bath Therme Obernsees was inaugurated in 1998. In 2003, the permanent exhibit ''NaturKunstRaum Neubürg'' on top of the hill Neubürg was opened.

References,

{{Authority control Bayreuth (district)