Sebnitz (; hsb, Zebnica) is a town in the
Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge
Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains (german: Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge) is a district ('' Kreis'') in Saxony, Germany. It is named after the mountain ranges Saxon Switzerland and Eastern Ore Mountains.
History
The district was establ ...
district, in
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
.
Geography
The town of Sebnitz lies in the valley of the river
Sebnitz and its
side valleys between 251 and 460 m above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...
between the mountains of
Saxon Switzerland
Saxon Switzerland (german: Sächsische Schweiz) is a hilly climbing area and national park around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic it forms the Elbe San ...
and the
Lusatian Highlands. Topographically the town itself lies in the
West Lusatian Upland
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
, but lies right on the border with the
. Because the natural region of Saxon Switzerland is also very close by, the countryside around the town is very varied.
The municipality consists of the town Sebnitz itself,
Schönbach (joined 1935),
Hainersdorf (joined 1920),
Hertigswalde (joined 1950),
Hinterhermsdorf (joined 1998) and the former municipality of
Kirnitzschtal (joined 2012), that itself consisted of the villages
Altendorf,
Mittelndorf,
Lichtenhain,
Ottendorf and
Saupsdorf.
History
Sebnitz was first mentioned in a document of 1223/1241 outlining the borders between the kingdom of
Bohemia and the diocese of
Meißen
Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrech ...
. In 1451 it was first mentioned as a town. A new town hall was built in 1714–1715, but was destroyed together with numerous other buildings, among them the school house, in a fire in 1854. Around 1900 Sebnitz became a centre of the manufacture of
artificial flowers
Artificial plants are imitations of natural plants used for commercial or residential decoration. They are sometimes made for scientific purposes (the collection of glass flowers at Harvard University, for example, illustrates the flora of the ...
. From 1952 until 1994 the town was the administrative centre of the
district Sebnitz.
In 1997, six-year-old German-Iraqi Joseph Kantelberg-Abdulla, who suffered from a heart condition, had a heart attack and drowned in the local public swimming pool as neither mother nor 12-year-old sister looked after him. Three years later, his mother claimed that the boy had been tortured and drowned by no less than 50 neo-Nazis, wearing boots, tattoos, and all. While ''
Der Spiegel'' did not buy the story, tabloid ''
Bild
''Bild'' (or ''Bild-Zeitung'', ; ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper '' Bild am Sonntag'' ("''Bild on Sunday''") is published instead, which ...
'' took full advantage, dragging the town into the national spotlight for about a week until the mother was investigated by police for encouraging false accusations.
Sebnitz hosted the Festival "Tag der Sachsen" in 2003. In October 2015 around 3000 people protested against the migration policy of the German Chancellor
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Op ...
and built a symbolic 'living frontier' () against
asylum seekers.
Transport
Sebnitz railway station is located at
Rumburk–Sebnitz railway, which connects here to
Bautzen–Bad Schandau railway. Train services are operated by
Städtebahn Sachsen ''(Pirna–Neustadt–Sebnitz)'' and
DB Regio
DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio ...
(in cooperation with
České dráhy
České dráhy (English: ''Czech Railways''), often shortened to ČD, is the major railway operator in the Czech Republic providing regional and long-distance services.
Overview
The company was established in 1993, after the dissolution of Czec ...
) ''(Rumburk–Dolní Poustevna–Sebnitz–Bad Schandau–Děčín hl.n.)'', mostly every two hours. The
Kirnitzschtalbahn, a rural
tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...
way, serves the
Lichtenhain Waterfall from Bad Schandau.
See also
*
Angel Church, Hinterhermsdorf
The Angel Church (german: Engelkirche) is an Evangelical-Lutheran church in Hinterhermsdorf which overlooks this Saxony, Saxon village. Its name, unusual for a Protestant church, comes from the Baroque baptismal angel that decorates the interior ...
References
{{Authority control
Czech Republic–Germany border