Cotta (), located in the western part of the Saxony state capital Dresden, is a district within the city of the same name.
Founded as a Slavic village on the Elbe, Cotta was first documented in 1328. In 1903 it was merged into Dresden along with many other communities. Today, the district is centrally located in the western part of the state capital and features the mouth of the Weißeritz River. Predominantly characterized by buildings from the Wilhelminian period, only a few houses from the historic village center still remain in Cotta.
Geography
District and statistical district
Geology Cotta lies on the banks of the Elbe, which flows through the Ostragehege and Übigau before reaching the left boundary of the Elbe valley at that point and forming a steep bank that extends all the way to Kemnitz. As a result, the 600-meter-long Cotta Bank's Elbe meadows are extremely constrained. The low-lying areas of the district along the Elbe have been shaped by the fluviatile, eroded valley and the river sediments.
A few kilometers west of Cotta, near the village of Mobschatz, begins the Meißner Hochland, a left-island plateau. It is characterized by gradually rising slopes towards the southwest and has a subsoil with a strong layer of plains. Clayey soil is present in the area close to Tonbergstraße, which is named after it.
At the level of Werkstättenstraße in Cotta, the Weißeritz River is joined by the Weidigtbach, which is piped underground in this area. The Weidigtbach, together with its tributary the Gorbitzbach, drains a catchment area of over six square kilometers that includes Omsewitz, Altfranken, and Wölfnitz.
Structural character
The built-up area of Cotta has gradually expanded from the historic village center of Altcotta, which is protected by an official preservation statute. The district has expanded particularly to the southeast, southwest, and northwest, along existing traffic routes towards neighboring districts or over them. Planned settlements were also built, evident from the parallel streets in areas such as Rudolf-Renner-/Klopstockstraße and Zöllmener/Weidentalstraße. The high proportion of coffee mill houses is notable, and the densely built former workers' residential district has retained its Wilhelminian era to this day. Only a few old farmsteads have survived along Hebbelstraße. For more than 100 years, various allotment gardens have existed between the individual Cotta districts.
Population geography The Cotta statistical district covers an area of just under 2 square kilometers and has a population of nearly 10,000 people. This puts the population density at over 4,900 people per square kilometer, which is above average compared to other Dresden districts. The population density is lower in the neighboring districts of Mickten and Briesnitz, but it increases in the direction of Löbtau and Gorbitz to the south.
The average age of the population in the district is 39.5 years, with an average length of residence of 7.6 years. The population in their 20s to 30s makes up just under 6%, which is approximately 25% more than the rest of the city. Families with children under the age of 18 account for about one-fifth of all households. In 2005, there were around 12 births per 1,000 residents, and 14.1% of the inhabitants are not yet adults.
History
Name
According to historical records, the village was first mentioned in a document dated February 27, 1328, as Kottowe. At that time, the lord of the manor, Hermann the Elder, sold a third of the local estate, and a little later also the manor in the area of today's grammar school, to the Meissen Cathedral. The name Kottowe has Old Sorbian roots, and it is believed to have originated from the Slavic Lokator name Kot or Chot, referring to the village of Chot.
During the 14th century, the name of the location underwent changes, evolving from Kothow (1350) and Kottaw (1397) to Cotta, which was first documented in 1444 with its current spelling. The area was referred to as Kotten in 1485, Kuttaw in the 16th century, and Kotthe in 1517. The village was mentioned again in 1768 under the name Cotta and has been known by this spelling ever since.
The area surrounding the village center along the Weidigtbach, which used to flow directly into the Elbe, was once extremely wet and swampy. It had to be laboriously drained over the years to be put to use for agriculture. As a result, the village, like its neighboring village Kuh-Löbte, was mockingly nicknamed Frosch-Cotte, which means "Frog Cotta".
In the 19th century, the inhabitants of Cotta embraced the nickname and turned it into a positive aspect of their identity. Consequently, when the "Zum Frosch" restaurant was opened in 1862, it was given the name of the frog, and the town hall in Cotta was decorated with stone frogs. Even today, the district newspaper Froschpost in Cotta honors this tradition.
Prehistoric settlement Neolithic settlement in the Cotta area is evidenced by archaeological remains, and extensive research was carried out during the 1990s, resulting in the discovery of a female skeleton estimated to be over 7,000 years old. The skeleton was given the name "Rebecca" and is a remarkable find from the Stone Age.
The manner of her burial is very unusual for the period of the linear pottery. In contrast to comparable skeletons, she was found in a stretched posture and prone position, with parts of the skull and facial bones missing and a large stone in the pelvic area was found. The remains of the skeleton are kept in the Klotzscher Depot building of the State Museum of Prehistory.
Middle Ages
Rundling Cotta was founded by Slavic-speaking settlers several centuries before it was first mentioned. Originally located in present-day Altcotta, over time a number of homes were added along Hebbelstraße. The neighboring villages of Wernten and Rostagk, which were located to the east and became uninhabitable after the Elbe flooded them in the 15th century, were likely abandoned. A mill in Cotta was documented in 1338.
Between 1416 and 1512, the secular landlords' properties that remained in their possession in the 14th century also passed to the Meissen Cathedral Chapter, which became the sole landlord. The manor, which the cathedral chapter had acquired from Hermann the Elder in 1328, was expanded into an outlying estate. Cotta was then under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Meissen and was in the district of the episcopal court of Briesnitz. Cotta also had a parish in Briesnitz, and Cotta's children attended school there. As early as the Middle Ages, the church paths of the neighboring villages of Wölfnitz and Löbtau, which ran along today's Gottfried-Keller-Straße or Cossebauder/Lübecker Straße, crossed the Cottaer Flur.
Modern era
In the 16th century, there were three large field stones in the river bed of the Elbe known as the Cotta Hunger Stones. These stones would only emerge from the water during times of extremely low water levels. They were placed in the Elbe to commemorate the devastating famines of that time caused by droughts. The center stone bears the date 1630.
Similar to its neighboring villages, Cotta suffered from war and destruction regularly, especially during the Seven Years' War. Despite this, the settlement was continuously rebuilt.
In 1711, Cotta was affected by witch hunts, and Georg Kirsten and his wife were caught up in the witch trials on the accusation of holding a dragon.
Industrialization
During the 19th century, Löbtau and Friedrichstadt witnessed the establishment of numerous industrial companies, which led to a significant increase in population. While Cotta was only slightly affected by industrialization, it quickly developed into a residential area for workers. By 1900, its population had increased by sixfold between 1870 and 1890, making it one of the most populous rural settlements in Saxony. In response to this growth, many new streets were constructed, with those running east–west being named after local settlements, and those running north–south named after German poets.
During the period of rapid growth, property speculation was rampant, and many new houses were built. Almost all of them were the aforementioned coffee mill houses, which continue to characterize Cotta and its neighboring districts to this day. Some of these buildings were erected on the site of a ski jump that had been leveled in 1875 and constructed by the Prussian army in 1866 during the German War at Lerchenberg. As a result, the area around Rudolf-Renner-Straße, previously known as Schanzenstraße, became known as the Schanzenviertel, which extends as far as Löbtau.
The period of population growth brought further changes in Cotta. In 1869, Cotta built its first independent school building after leaving the school affiliation with Briesnitz. This building underwent numerous extensions in 1873 and 1880 and had to be supplemented by a second building in 1889. Other Cotta school structures were built later. The construction of a separate church building also became necessary. In 1895, a half-timbered structure with 600 seats and a Jehmlich organ was built on Hebbelstraße as a temporary solution. A bell tower, which was constructed around 1905 but no longer exists, was also added. Since the completion of the Heilandskirche in 1927, the temporary church has been used for commercial purposes. The city funded the construction of the new Cotta town hall in 1900.
Cotta was linked to the Berlin-Dresden railway line in 1875, but it wasn't until April 22, 1900, that a streetcar connection to Dresden's city center was established. The Dresden Tramway Company's line initially ended at the Schusterhaus and was later extended in 1906 as the Cotta-Cossebaude suburban line via Stetzsch and Gohlis to Cossebaude. Three years later, the company completed the connecting line to Löbtau along today's Rudolf-Renner-Straße.
Despite the advantages of progress, Cotta's citizens also faced some drawbacks. For instance, a knacker's shop operated on the Lerchenberg between 1862 and 1915, closing down a few years later after Hans Erlwein finished building the city's cattle and slaughterhouse in the Great Ostragehege in 1910. The residents of Cotta had to put up with the smell of animal carcass disposal in addition to the fact that a sizable portion of the feces in Cotta was dumped into the Elbe by the fertilizer export company that cleaned up the Dresden cesspools. The alluvial sewage system to the Kaditz sewage treatment plant did not start operating until 1910.
In 1893, the course of the Weißeritz River had to be altered due to the construction of the railway line on the 26er Ring in the center of Dresden, which affected Cotta's location. As a result of this change, Cotta was now situated at the mouth of a large outflow of Ore Mountains, increasing the risk of floods. This risk became a reality in late July 1897, when severe flooding caused significant damage in Cotta.
In 1900, Cotta was considered a relatively impoverished community, collecting around 5 marks in taxes per resident, which is significantly lower than the figures for Dresden and Blasewitz, which were 18.50 marks and 38 marks, respectively. Unlike the wealthy villa colony of Blasewitz, Cotta did not resist its integration into Dresden on January 1, 1903.
After 1900, Cotta emerged as a center of the labor movement, particularly social democracy, due to its high proportion of workers. The construction of the Volkshaus Cotta on Hebbelstraße in 1925 provided a dedicated meeting place for workers, followed by the expansion of the Hebbelbad in 1929 and the construction of cooperative settlements. In addition, the construction of the Flügelweg bridge established Cotta as a significant traffic junction, intersecting the largest north–south connection in the western part of the city, federal highway 6, and other main roads in the district area.
During and after World War II