Johanngeorgenstadt (, ) is a mining town in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, 17 km south of Aue, and 27 km northwest of Karlovy Vary. It lies in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, on the border with the Czech Republic, is a state-recognized health resort (Erholungsort), and calls itself Stadt des Schwibbogens (“Schwibbogen Town”). Its population decline since the 1950s has been extremely severe, falling from 45,000 residents in 1953 to only about one twelfth of that now.
Geography
Location The town stretches predominantly from the eastern ridge of the almost 900-m-high Fastenberg to where the Breitenbach, which forms part of the border with the Czech Republic, empties into the river Schwarzwasser. The nearest high mountains to the town are the 1019-m-high Auersberg, the 1043-m-high Blatenský vrch (in the Czech Republic) and the 913-m-high Rabenberg.
Neighbouring communities Communities in Aue-Schwarzenberg bordering on Johanngeorgenstadt are Breitenbrunn, Eibenstock and Sosa. The Czech community of Potůčky also borders on Johanngeorgenstadt.
Constituent communities Johanngeorgenstadt consists of the centres of Altstadt (called locally Sockendorf), Mittelstadt, Neustadt, Schwefelwerk, Jugel (Ober- and Unterjugel), Henneberg, Wittigsthal, Pachthaus, Heimberg (with Külliggut), Steigerdorf (with Haberlandmühle), Steinbach and Sauschwemme. The former centre of Neuoberhaus is nowadays abandoned and has been overgrown by woods.
Climate Owing to the town's great elevation – the road to Neustadt reaches 892 m – the winter here, with its long-lasting snow cover, often lasts half the year, making Johanngeorgenstadt one of Saxony's snowiest areas. Wind strengths of four to seven at any time of year are not a rarity, leading to the town's already becoming a well-loved summer resort by the late 19th century. Ever since the area was once mentioned in some 18th-century publications as the Sächsisches Sibirien (“Saxon Siberia”), the town has been known by the affectionate nickname Johannsibirsk.
History
Early history
On 23 February 1654 in Annaburg, the founding of Johanngeorgenstadt at the Fastenberg right on the border in the Amt of Schwarzenberg by Bohemian Protestant refugees driven from Horní Blatná was approved by Elector John George I of Saxony. By 1680, there were roughly 100 ore mines in the town and the surrounding area. Silver mining also branched into tin mining, reaching its high point about 1715 and declining during the 18th century.
After the two free years were up in 1656, the Elector of Saxony gave up excise, “Schock” (an old currency in Saxony) and drinking taxes until the beginning of the 18th century owing to the pervasive poverty in the town. The great famine in the Ore Mountains in 1771 and 1772 claimed roughly 650 lives in Johanngeorgenstadt.
Already in 1651 in today's constituent community of Wittigsthal, an ironworks had come into service, and by 1828, Carl Gotthilf Nestler (1789–1864) had set up Saxony's first fully functional iron plate rolling mill in the Haberlandmühle. In the 19th century also began the production of lace bands and as of 1860, of leather gloves. On 19 August 1867, a devastating great fire destroyed 287 of the town's 355 houses and claimed seven adults’ and five children's lives.
20th century Germany's first ski jump was built in 1929 near Johanngeorgenstadt. It bore the name “Hans-Heinz-Schanze”. In 1934, the formerly abandoned mining industry was taken up again. In the Second World War, with the seizure of owner Arthur Krautmann's “Deutsches Haus” hotel across from the railway station, the town became home to a military hospital. Furthermore, the town harboured a subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration campChristine O'Keefe. Concentration Camps. in which countless inmates died. Its prisoners were used as forced labour and were deported mostly from German-occupied Soviet Union, Poland and France. The Johanngeorgenstadt camp was emptied on 13 April 1945 and the inmates were sent on a death march towards Theresienstadt.
Following World War II, the town was part of East Germany until 1990. Beginning in 1945, through the founding of SAG Wismut and later SDAG Wismut (Sowjetisch-Deutsche Aktiengesellschaft Wismut – Soviet-German Bismuth Corporation) uranium mining underwent growth that was both rapid and without much regard to the effects on either human beings or on the environment. A great deal of the Old Town had to be torn down between 1953 and 1960 owing to mining damage, and new residential areas were built.
From 1952 to 1957, Johanngeorgenstadt was a district unto itself, but after this the town was integrated with the district of Schwarzenberg (now Aue-Schwarzenberg).
The closure that began in 1990 of many businesses, such as the glove, textile and furniture industries as well as machine building led to a great fall in the town's population to levels below those before the war. This in turn led to the demolition of many empty factories and residential blocks (especially in Neuoberhaus, Pachthaus and the midtown). These measures even affected one of the town's few cultural monuments: The mining warehouse building, built between 1806 and 1812 and spared by the great fire of 1867, was, with town council's approval, torn down.
Amalgamations 1935: Jugel and Wittigsthal 1952: Steinbach
Population development
Development of population figures (from 1955 31 December): 1815 to 1946 1815: 2,979 1834: 3,433 1871: 4,083 1890: 5,124 1910: 6,188 1938: 7,111 1939: 8,861 1946: 6,559 11950 to 1971 1950: 32,870 2 1953: ca. 45,000 1955: 21,480 1957: 12,106 1959: 10,763 1961: 10,661 1964: 10,849 1971: 10,7971974 to 2006 1974: 10,328 1976: 10,025 1998: 6,834
2000: 6,306 2001: 6,100 2002: 5,928 2003: 5,748 2004: 5,566 2005: 5,408 2006: 5,199 2007: 5,0912008 to 2017 2008: 4,924 2009: 4,779 2010: 4,681 2011: 4,566 2012: 4,358 2013: 4,257 2014: 4,206 2015: 4,135 2016: 4,115 2017: 3,991since 2018 2018: 3,973 2019: 3,897 2020: 3,879 2021: 3,758 2022: 3,789 2023: 3,749 Source from 1946 to 1976 (except 1953): Statistische Jahrbücher der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik Source from 1998: Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen 1 29 October 2 31 August
Of the 5,748 inhabitants on 31 December 2003, 2,751 were male and 2,997 female.
Politics
Coat of arms The town's arms have their roots in the time when the town was founded.
Johanngeorgenstadt's coat of arms might heraldically be described thus: Party per fess, above argent three buildings gules with towers, below gules an inescutcheon argent, therein a sledgehammer and a cross-peen hammer sable per saltire.
The official German blazon, however (“Geteilt von Silber über Rot; oben drei rote Gebäude mit Türmen, unten ein kleiner Silberschild, darin schwarze Schlägel und Eisen”), does not mention the black roofs seen in the sample coat of arms in this article, nor does it say exactly how the charges are to be configured. It does not say, for instance, that the tools in the inescutcheon should be crossed (note, however, that this is implied if they are described as “hammer and pick”, the historical symbol of mining).
Town partnerships Burglengenfeld in Bavaria, Germany Nejdek in the Czech Republic
Culture and sightseeing
Museums
Not far from Schwefelwerkstraße lies the recreation, dedicated on 30 October 1993, of a horse gin and a hat house that may be visited. Right near the horse gin is a lapidarium featuring historic border stones and other boundary-marking stones.
Likewise on Schwefelwerkstraße in the middle of town is a Heimat-Stube, a museum of local lore.
In the Bahnhofsgebäude (railway station building), built in 1898 and 1899 and remodelled after a fire in 1993, various exhibitions take place.
There is also an “educational and entertaining” visitor mine in Wittigsthal called “Frisch Glück”
Music Johanngeorgenstadt is where the Ore Mountain folk group De Randfichten comes from, although only one of the three musicians, Michael Rostig, actually still lives in town.
Buildings
The Evangelical Lutheran Stadtkirche (“Town Church”) was built in neo-Gothic style using the old tower stonework after the town fire destroyed the Exulantenkirche from the 17th century, and it was consecrated on 27 August 1872. Inside are found, among other things, the monumental painting “Hausandacht” (“House Prayer”) – also known as “Betender Bergmann” (“Praying Miner”) and “Bergmannsglaube” (“Miner’s Belief”) – and “Exulantenschicksal” (“Exulants’ Fate”) by artist August Herrmann (1885–1962).
At the marketplace stands the Statue of the Town's Founder, Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony (1585–1656). It was carved out of Postelwitz sandstone in 1863 by sculptor Wilhelm Schwenk from Dresden and restored in 1984. Before it are some granite steps and a water-spouting bear's head referring to the Electoral hunts in the town's environs.
Also at the marketplace, the Schillerbrunnen (“Schiller Fountain”) is to be found. This was built in 1859, and dedicated on Friedrich von Schiller’s one hundredth birthday.
Other memorials at the marketplace are the light grey granite pedestal of the Warriors’ Memorial (1870/71) and several memorial stones to the sons of the town. The two-metre-tall bronze figure formerly on the Warriors’ Memorial pedestal was melted down in the Second World War.
At the corner of the marketplace at Karlsbader Straße once stood, until the town fire in 1867, the Löbelhaus in which the town's first mayor Johann Löbel the Elder lived. Here, in August 1785 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent the night on his way to Karlovy Vary.
At Röderplatz is found the memorial dedicated on 8 September 1901 to the Ore Mountain poet and singer, school principal Christian Friedrich Röder (1827–1900); it includes a larger-than-life bust.
Also located in the area is the Platz des Bergmanns (“Miner’s Square”) with its music pavilion.
In the New Town (Neustadt) stands a Saxony postal milestone from 1728, which once stood at the market.
In Wittigsthal, next to the border crossing and the visitor mine, is the mansion of the old Wittigsthal ironworks, from 1836.
There is an old powder tower in the town known locally as the Pulverturm.
Natural monuments
Kleiner Kranichsee nature reserve (a raised bog with viewing platform) in Henneberg Auersberg (1 019 m) with viewing tower and mountain hotel Himmelswiese natural monument near Breitenbrunn-Halbemeile Preißhausbuche on the old postal road to Breitenbrunn
Sport A Naturbad (“natural” swimming pool), fed by the Schwefelbach, draws summertime visitors. The natural ice stadium not far from the pool at the ski jumps is open in the wintertime.
The cross-country skiing centre in Schwefelwerk was completed in 2004 with a new building and recognized as a Nordic-Aktiv-Zentrum of the German Skiing Federation. Here begins the ridge ski run by way of Weitersglashütte and Mühlleithen to Schöneck, much loved in winter. Furthermore, in the Külliggut lands there are lifts at skiers’ disposal.
The widely wooded surroundings offer hiking enthusiasts a broad area for their pastime. Many marked trails lead to local sightseeing spots, among them in particular the Anton-Günther-Weg, which was dedicated in 1995 and which crosses the border. Also popular are outings to the Czech Republic, among these a trip to the 1043-m-high Plattenberg.
Regular events
January: Grenzlauf (Border Walk) Faschingszeit (Shrovetide): various events for townsfolk and visitors 23 February: Town's founding day with mining parade and service at the town church March: Auersberglauf (Auersberg Walk) July: Gugler Fast August: Old Town Festival in “Sockendorf” Third weekend in Advent: Schwibbogenfest (Christmas market) Hardcore band New Morality played a show here on February 28, 2009, it has since become an annual local holiday
Economy and infrastructure
Transport