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 Sebnitz (; hsb, Zebnica) is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany. 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 betw ...

and its

side valley Side valleys and tributary valleys are valleys whose brooks or rivers flow into greater ones. Upstream, the valleys can be classified in an increasing order which is equivalent to the usual orographic order: the tributaries are ordered from tho ...

s 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 The Lusatian Highlands''Upper Lusatia''
at www.silvaportal.info. Accessed on 10 July 20 ...

. 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

Upper Lusatian Highlands The Lusatian Highlands''Upper Lusatia''
at www.silvaportal.info. Accessed on 10 July 20 ...

. 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 Sebnitz (; hsb, Zebnica) is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany. 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 betwe ...

(joined 1998) and the former municipality of

Kirnitzschtal Kirnitzschtal is a former municipality in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany. Since 1 October 2012, it is part of the town Sebnitz. It had its administrative seat in Lichtenhain. The municipality was divided into th ...

(joined 2012), that itself consisted of the villages Altendorf,

Mittelndorf Mittelndorf is a village in Saxony, Germany, situated in the district of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge. It was one of the villages that composed the municipality of Kirnitzschtal. Since 1 October 2012, it is part of the town Sebnitz. History ...

, Lichtenhain, Ottendorf and

Saupsdorf Saupsdorf is a village in Saxony, Germany, situated in the district of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge. It was one of the villages that composed the municipality of Kirnitzschtal. Since 1 October 2012, it has been part of the municipality of Seb ...

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 An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country and applies for asylum (i.e., international protection) in that other country. An asylum seeker is an immigrant who has been forcibly displaced and m ...

Transport

Sebnitz railway station Sebnitz (german: Bahnhof Sebnitz) is a railway station in the town of Sebnitz, Saxony, Germany. The station lies on the Bautzen–Bad Schandau railway and the Rumburk–Sebnitz railway. The station is served by DB Regio Südost. The line into ...

is located at Rumburk–Sebnitz railway, which connects here to

Bautzen–Bad Schandau railway The Bautzen–Bad Schandau railway is a 64-kilometre long railway line in the state of Saxony, Germany, which connects Bautzen to Bad Schandau via Neukirch/Lausitz, Neustadt in Sachsen and Sebnitz. The railway was opened fully in 1898. The part ...

. Train services are operated by

Städtebahn Sachsen The Städtebahn Sachsen was a railway company that operated regional train services in Saxony, Germany by order of Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe. Städtebahn was a subsidiary of ''Nordbayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft'' (NBE) and started its operation ...

''(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 The Kirnitzschtal tramway, also known as the ''Kirnitzschtalbahn'', is an electric tramway in Saxony, Germany. The line runs through the valley of the Kirnitzsch river in Saxon Switzerland, from the town of Bad Schandau up to the Lichtenhain Wate ...

, 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 The Lichtenhain Waterfall is a waterfall formed by the Lichtenhainer village brook and is situated in the Kirnitzsch Valley in the Saxon Switzerland of Germany. The village of Lichtenhain lies to the north of the waterfall, and is away on foot, ...

from Bad Schandau.

References

{{Authority control Czech Republic–Germany border

Geography

History

Transport

See also

References