Spremberg or Grodk (, ; Polish: ''Gródek'' ) is a municipality near the Saxon city of Hoyerswerda and is in the

Spree-Neiße Spree-Neiße (, ; Polish language, Polish: ''Powiat Sprewa-Nysa,'' ) is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the southern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the south clockwise) the districts Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis an ...

district of

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

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 ...

. First mentioned in 1301, the town alone has 14,028 inhabitants, and the municipality, including other villages, has 22,456 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2017.

Geography

Spremberg is situated about 20 km (12 miles) south of

Cottbus Cottbus () or (;) is a university city and the second-largest city in the German state of Brandenburg after the state capital, Potsdam. With around 100,000 inhabitants, Cottbus is the most populous city in Lusatia. Cottbus lies in the Sorbian ...

and 25 km (15 miles) north of Hoyerswerda, on an island and on both banks of the river Spree. Between 1871 and 1918 the town was the geographical centre of the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

: today, it is only 25 km (15 miles) from the German- Polish border. On 1 January 2016, the former municipality Hornow-Wadelsdorf became part of Spremberg.

Demography

Bevölkerungsentwicklung Spremberg.pdf, Development of population since 1875 within the current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population development in Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

; Red Background: Time of communist

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 ...

) Bevölkerungsprognosen Spremberg.pdf, Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the

Census in Germany A national census in Germany (, ) was held every five years from 1875 to 1910. After the World Wars, only a few full population censuses have been held, the last in 1987. The most recent census, though not a national census, was the 2011 Europea ...

in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005–2030 (yellow line); for 2017–2030 (scarlet line); for 2020–2030 (green line)

Mayors

* Friedrich Nath (1908–1919) * Paul Steffen (1920–1931) * Richard Buder (1931–1933) * Kurt Kaulbars (1933–1945) NSDAP * Rudolf Otto (1944–1945) temporary * August Scholta (1945–1945) temporary * Richard Buder (1945–1946) * Willi Lange (1946–1953) * Ruth Kartschall (1953–1961) * Herbert Köhler (1961–1965) * Günter Frenzel (1965–1975) * Lothar Barnowski (1975–1975) temporary * Hannelore Neumann (1975–1990) SED * Egon Wochatz (1990–2002) CDU * Klaus-Peter Schulze (2002–2013) CDU * Christine Schönherr (2013–2013) temporary, independent * Frank Kulik (2014–2014) temporary, independent * Christine Herntier (since 2014), independent

Culture

In 1911 there were

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and two Protestant churches and a pilgrimage chapel dating from 1100, there was a ducal chateau built by a son of the elector John George around the end of the 16th century (now used as government offices), and there were classical, technical and commercial schools as well as a hospital.

Schwarze Pumpe

Schwarze Pumpe () is a district of Spremberg, lying approximately 7 km (5 miles) southwest of Spremberg's town centre on the federal state boundary between Brandenburg to Saxony. It had 1886 inhabitants as of 31 December 2017. A large industrial area extending into Saxony and including the site of a large

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

is known by the same name. On 26 May 2006, construction work started on the world's first -free coal power plant in the Schwarze Pumpe industrial district. The plant is based on a concept called

carbon capture and storage Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process by which carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial installations is separated before it is released into the atmosphere, then transported to a long-term storage location.IPCC, 2021Annex VII: Glossary at ...

, which means that carbon emissions will be captured and compressed to ^th their original volume, liquefying the gas. It will then be forced 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) below the soil into porous rock where it is believed that it will remain for thousands of years without exacerbating

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

. The project, which has cost some 70 million

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s, was funded entirely by the Swedish company Vattenfall AB and went into service on 9 September 2008. The power plant was a pilot project to serve as a prototype for future full-scale power plants. Vattenfall stopped carbon capture R&D at the plant in 2014 because they found that "its costs and the energy it requires make the technology unviable".

Twin towns – sister cities

Spremberg is twinned with: * Grand Forks, Canada *

Szprotawa Szprotawa is a town in western Poland, in Żagań County, Lubusz Voivodeship. It has 11,820 inhabitants (2019). History The region was part of Poland after the emergence of the Piast monarchy in the 10th century. The first mention of today's Sz ...

, Poland * Zheleznogorsk, Russia

Notable people

* Johann Agricola (1530–1590), Protestant theologian * Otto Ostrowski (1883–1963), politician (SPD), Lord Mayor of Berlin 1946/1947 *

Erwin Strittmatter Erwin Strittmatter (14 August 1912 – 31 January 1994) was a German writer. Strittmatter was one of the most famous writers in the GDR. Biography Strittmatter was born the son of a baker and foods wholesaler. Between 1924 and 1930 he attende ...

(1912–1994), writer * Joachim Teege (1925–1969), actor and cabaret artist * Dirk Meier (born 1964), cyclist * Sebastian Piersig (born 1984), slalom-canoeist * Martha Israel (1905–), politician (SED, DFD), member of the

Volkskammer The Volkskammer (, "People's Chamber") was the supreme power organ of East Germany. It was the only branch of government in the state, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs were subservient to it. The Volkskammer was initia ...

and the city council

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Germany Populated places in Spree-Neiße