Zschornewitz is a village and a former municipality on the southwestern edge of the

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

Gräfenhainichen Gräfenhainichen () is a town in Wittenberg district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Geography The town was the seat of the offices of the administrative community (''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'') of Tor zur Dübener Heide until it was disbanded in Jan ...

. It was part of the administrative community (''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'') of

Tor zur Dübener Heide Tor zur Dübener Heide ("Gateway to the Düben Heath") was a ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' ("administrative community") in the district of Wittenberg, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was situated southwest of Wittenberg. The seat of the ''Verwaltungsg ...

. It lies about 4 km west of the former district seat of

, right on the border with

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Geography

The former municipalities of

Jüdenberg Jüdenberg is a community in Wittenberg district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since January 2007, it belongs to the municipality of Gräfenhainichen. Jüdenberg lies about 4 km northwest of Gräfenhainichen on the edge of the Biosphere Reserv ...

Möhlau Möhlau is a village and a former municipality in Wittenberg district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2011, it is part of the town Gräfenhainichen. It was part of the administrative community (''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'') of Tor zur ...

Burgkemnitz Burgkemnitz is a village and a former municipality in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Muldestausee Muldestausee is a municipality in the district of Anhalt-Bitter ...

and

Gröbern Gröbern is a village and a former municipality in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Muldestausee Muldestausee is a municipality in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfel ...

as well as the town of

border on the community of Zschornewitz.

Subdivisions

The municipality was divided into the historical centre of Kolonie, a neighbourhood to the east built for power station, and Pöplitz, about 2 km to the west.

History

In the 19th century, there were hardly any more than 200 inhabitants in Zschornewitz. In 1915, work began on the

power station 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 ...

under architect Prof. Klingenberg's plans. At the same time the garden-city-like workers' community Kolonie was established. In 1916, eight

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

s capable of 16 MW each were generating a total of 128 MW, making the Zschornewitz power plant the world's biggest brown-coal-fired power station. In 1920–1921, the school in Kolonie was built. In 1929, two 85 MW turbines were brought into service (at the time,

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

's biggest). Thirteen huge chimneys became for decades the community's backdrop. In 1945, however, the plant was partially dismantled by the

Soviets The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (). Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...

as part of the

war reparations War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, in ...

that they exacted from Germany. On 30 June 1992 came the power plant's final shutdown. The Kolonie and parts of the plant were granted protection as a memorial. In 1995, the preserved part of the old power plant became an industrial memorial. In 1996, the old workers' community Kolonie was included in the list of

EXPO An expo is a trade exposition. It may also refer to: Events and venues * World's fair, a large international public exposition * Singapore Expo, convention and exposition venue ** Expo Axis, one of the world's largest membrane roofs, construc ...

projects, undergoing widespread restorations in 1997–99. On 13 May 2000, Zschornewitz celebrated its 800th anniversary of founding.

Main sights

The community's most prominent building is the former Zschornewitz Power Station. Since 1995 this plant has been open to the public as an energy museum.

Economy and transportation

On the old Gröbern

strip mine Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in whic ...

's waste dump south of Zschornewitz, a

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

was built after the

brown coal Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, Combustion, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered ...

pit was shut down. It has eight

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s. The dump itself rises some 50 m above the surrounding area, making it an ideal place to make good use of

wind energy Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ...

. Zschornewitz lies on state road (''

Landesstraße ''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'' ) are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are road ...

'') L136 between

and on district road (''

Kreisstraße A Kreisstraße (, or 'county road') is a class of road in Germany. It carries traffic between the towns and villages within a ''Districts of Germany, Kreis'' or district or between two neighbouring districts. In importance, the ''Kreisstraße'' ...

'') K2037 to

. Federal highway (''Bundesstraße'') B 107 in Gräfenhainichen is only about 2 km away. The ''Dessau-Ost'' interchange on the

A9 autobahn is an autobahn in Germany, connecting Berlin and Munich via Leipzig and Nuremberg. It is the fifth longest autobahn spanning . Route The northern terminus of the A 9 is at the Potsdam interchange, where it merges into the A 10, ...

between

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

is about 16 km away. The nearest

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

railway station 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 ...

s are to be found in Gräfenhainichen and Burgkemnitz on the

Bitterfeld Bitterfeld () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2007 it has been part of the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It is situated approximately 25 km south of Dessau, and 30 km northeast of Hall ...

line about 4 km away.

Population

References

External links

'Kolonie' as an EXPO project

{{Authority control Former municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt Gräfenhainichen