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Pirna


Coat of arms Map
Statistics
State: Saxony
County: Dresden
Administrative District: Sächsische Schweiz
Location: . long.
Elevation: 109.4 to 340 m
Area: 53.01 km²
Population: 40,380 (09/30/2004)
Population density: 762 Inhabitants per km²
Postal code: 01781 - 01796 (old: 8300)
Area Code: 03501
Car designation: PIR
Municipal Code : 14 2 87 290
Arrangement of the City: 16 Districts
Address of the
City Administration:
Am Markt 1/2
01796 Pirna
Website: www.pirna.de
E-Mail Address: [email protected]
Politics
Mayor: Markus Ulbig (CDU)

Pirna is a Saxon (German) city (Große Kreisstadt ) in the administrative district of the Sächsische Schweiz. The city's population is 40,380 (2004). Pirna is located near Dresden and is an important city in the area. It is also known for the gasification of about 15,000 disabled people in Schloss Sonnenstein between June 1940 and August 1941.

Contents

Geography

Geographical Location

Pirna is located near the Elbsandsteingebirge in the Elbe valley , where the nearby rivers Wesenitz , in the north, and river Gottleuba , to the south, flow into the Elbe. Pirna is also called Tor zur Sächsischen Schweiz (gate to the Sächsische Schweiz). The Sächsische Weinstraße , which goes from Pirna over Pillnitz, Dresden, and Meißen to Diesbar-Seußlitz , was inducted in 1992. In August of 2002, the city was harmed a lot by an enormous flood.

see also: (in German)

general map and City map of Pirna

Neighbouring Municipalities

Pirna is located in the south of Dresden. Neighbouring municipalities are Bad Gottleuba-Berggießhübel (city), Bahretal, Dohma , Dohna (city), Dürrröhrsdorf-Dittersbach, Heidenau (city), Königstein (city), Lohmen , Stadt Wehlen (city), and Struppen .

History

Stone Age

Tools made of flint from the late paleolithic (about 12,000-8,000 BC), at the end of the latest ice age, are evidence for earliest human settlement in the area. Later on people belonging to the culture of Linearbandkeramic, who farmed grain and cattle, lived here during the neolithic (5,500-4,000 BC) because of a good climate and Loess. Around 600 A.D. a Slavic group called the Sorbs, who were fishermen and farmers, succeded the Germanic tribes in the Elbe Valley, which had lived in the area for a couple of centuries from the 4th century BC on. The name Pirna derives from the Sorbian phrase, na pernem, meaning on the Hard (stone).

Pirna in the Middle Ages

With the conquest of the Slavic communities and the founding of the Mark by the Germans (Heinrich I founded the castle of Meißen in 929), settlement in the area Pirna is again proveable. The castle in Pirna was probably already existing in the 11th century, which was mentioned the first time in 1269. In the context of the second Eastern German colonization the city was founded by Markgraf Heinrich der Erlauchte von Meißen ).

The streets are aligned from east to west and from north to south forming a chessboard-like system. Only the streets in the east of the church are not in this shape because of the near Burgberg. In 1233, Pirna was mentioned for the first time in a document. 1293 the king of Bohemia buys the city and the castle from the Bishop of Meißen. Thus Pirna belonged to Bohemia until 1405.

Modern Times

In 1502 the construction of the new church under Meister Peter Ulrich von Pirna is begun. With the introduction of the Reformation in Saxony in 1539, Anton Lauterbach , a friend of Martin Luther's, becomes pastor and superintendent. In 1544 the strategically important castle is upgraded to a fortress by Moritz von Sachsen . Three years later the siege by elector Johann Friedrich von Sachsen in the Schmalkaldische War is sustained.

On April 23, 1639, the city was invaded by Swedish troops under the commander in chief of the Swedish army Johan Banér. While the futile five-month siege of the fortress the city is terribly devastated. About 600 people were murdered (Pirnarisches Elend, lit. Misery of Pirna). In around 1670, the Festung Sonnenstein was built after modern military realizations. Only the powerful stoneworks still exists today. In 1707, Pirna had debts that related with the Great Northern War with more than 100,000 Thalern.

Prussian Pirna

On August 29, 1756, the small Saxonian army fled without the declaration of war and fell to Prussia on the parallelism between Festung Königstein and Schloss Sonnenstein and remained until October 16, two days after Schloss Sonnenstein surrendered. In 1758, Austrian troops and Reichsarmee sieged the forterss.

Napoleonic Pirna

Manufactured plants opened in 1774 in Pirna. In 1811 in Sonnenstein, the physician Ernst Gottlob Pienitz opened a mental hospital. But on September 14, 1813, French troops occupied Sonnenstein and forced evacuation of 275 patients, seized supplies and cleared away the roof framings due to a threatening fire risk. In September of 1813, emperor Napoleon temporarily went into Marienhaus at the market. Dresden surrendered Pirna on November 11 and defend the Frenchmen at the fortress. Only in February, its hospital for mentally ill reopened.

See also: Schloss Sonnenstein, Markgrafschaft Meißen , Kings of Saxony , History of Bohemia , History of Saxony , History of Germany

The industrial revolution, the Kaiser period and the Weimar Republic

In 1837, a kind of steam ship flowed the upper Elbe. A few years later, a railway line connecting Dresden and Pirna opened. It became an industrial city in 1862 with the building of factories. Mechanical engineering, glass, cellulose and celanese production also expanded. In 1875, the sand-stone Elbbruecke was completed. During the First World War Pirna became a garrison and the engineer battalions 12 and 5 was aligned at Rottwerndorfer Straße. The Royal Saxonian field artillery regiment No. 64. In 1922/23 the city incorporated several municipalities including Posta, Niedervogelgesang, Obervogelgesang , Copitz, Hinterjessen , Neundorf, Zuschendorf, Rottwerndorf and Zehista. The population was totaled 30,000 inhabitants.

Incorporations

The cities that were incorporated into Pirna.

Population Growth

Change of the Population (from 1960 December 31 on):

1834 until 1946

1950 until 1997

1998 until 2003

1 Oktober 29
2 August 31

Dialect

Its main dialect spoken in Pirna is of the Saxonian dialect group called : Südostmeißnische , which is one of the five Meißnischen group of dialects.

City Partnership

With Baienfurt and Reutlingen, both in Baden-Württemberg

Culture and sites of interest

Museums

  • Pirna museum = Stadtmuseum Pirna , located at 2 Klosterhof
  • Botanische Sammlungen und Landschloss Pirna - Zuschendorf
  • Richard Wagner Museum Graupa = Richard-Wagner-Museum Graupa

Buildings

Music

  • Neue Elbland Philharmonie with 60 musicians and about 160 concerts every year.
  • Pirnaer Jazznacht, which in 2004 took place for the fifth time.

Persons

  • Johann Lindner
  • Johann Tetzel (1465 - 1519)
  • Wolf Blechschmidt
  • Michael Schwenke (1563 - 1610)
  • Anton Lauterbach (1502 - 1569) - Superintendent of Pirna
  • Theophilus Jacobäer (1591 - 1659) - pharmacist, "rescuer" in the Thirty Years War
  • Johann Siegmund von Liebenau (1607 - 1671) - captain and Commander-in-Chief of fortresses in Saxony
  • Bernardo Bellotto, called Canaletto (1721 - 1780)
  • Napoléon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821) - overnight accommodation guest 1813
  • William Adolph Haußner (1819 - 1849) - physician and city delegate, revolutionist from 1848-49
  • Anna Marie Geibelt (1838 - 1923)
  • Friedrich August Greif - founder of the Greif donation
  • Dr. Ernst Gottlob Pienitz (1777 - 1853) - Psychatriereformer
  • Carl William Häcker - pioneer of photography
  • Oskar Speck
  • Hugo Küttner (1880 - 1945) - entrepreneur
  • Siegfried Rädel (1893 - 1943) - city delegate
  • Eva Schulze-Knabe (1907 - 1976) - painter
  • Gertrud Eysoldt (1870 - 1955)

External links

(in German)

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