Saathain, with a population of 516, is a Village (Ortsteil) of the municipality of Röderland in the Elbe-Elster district of southern Brandenburg. It is located next to the mouth of the Große Röder into the Black Elster, on the southern border of the Lower Lusatian Heath Nature Park.
The first documented mention of the village dates back to 1140 in a contract between and Conrad, Margrave of Meissen. Due to the settlement of several puppeteer families in the 19th century, Saathain is considered the cradle of the Saxon traveling marionette theater. On October 26, 2003, Saathain and the surrounding villages of Haida, Reichenhain, Stolzenhain, Wainsdorf, Würdenhain and the municipality's future seat of government, Prösen, formed the municipality of Röderland. The former Saathain Castle is one of the cultural centers of the municipality and the district of Elbe-Elster, hosting numerous concerts and exhibitions. Today, the grounds include a rose garden with around 5,000 rose bushes, a 17th-century church (see: ) and a summer café built on the foundations of Saathain Castle, which was destroyed in 1945.
Geography Saathain is located in the north of Röderland, about five kilometers southeast of , the municipality's seat of government. The Große Röder flows into the Black Elster about 1 Kilometer northwards of the center of Saathain. Overall, it is located at the southern border of the Lower Lusatian Heath Nature Park, which covers an area of 484 square kilometres in the districts of Elbe-Elster and Oberspreewald-Lausitz. The village is surrounded by Elsteraue II, one of the three subdivisions of the Elsteraue landscape conservation area (officially a ), which covers a total of around 6011 hectares. One of the conservation purposes of the landscape conservation area is "the preservation of the area due to its particular importance for natural recreation in the area of the spa town of Bad Liebenwerda."
Geology Saathain is located in the (see also: Urstromtal), which reaches its narrowest point a few kilometers to the east in the lowlands of the between Elsterwerda and Merzdorf at a width of seven kilometers before it swings to the northwest. Today's landscape is largely shaped by the penultimate ice age. A layer of sand and gravel several hundred meters thick covers the crystalline bedrock, which was created by the Variscan orogeny that took place in the Saxothuringian region.Dietmar Winkler: Zur Entstehung unserer Landschaft. In: Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Heimatkunde e. V. (Hrsg.): Heimatkalender für den Altkreis Bad Liebenwerda, das Mückenberger Ländchen, Ortrand am Schraden und Uebigau-Falkenberg – 1998. Starke und Sachse GmbH, Großenhain 1998, ISBN 3-932913-01-9, S. 207–214.
Climate With its humid climate, Saathain lies in the cool-temperate climate zone, although there is a noticeable transition to a continental climate. The nearest weather stations are located to the north-east in Doberlug-Kirchhain. Other relevant stations are in Torgau (30 kilometers to the west) and Oschatz (to the south-west).
History
Etymology and the first documented mention The first documented mention of Saathain is found on a contract signed between and Conrad, Margrave of Meissen in 1140, mentioning a castle (the Saathain Castle) named castrum Sathim. Later versions of the name were:
1197 (Uuernherus de) Satem 1199, 1210, 1221/22 (Wernerus de) Satem, Satim 1261 (Thymo de) Sathem 1285 Sathim 1289 Saten 1244, 1328 Satyn 1353 zcu dem Saten 1384 Sathan 1397 Sathen 1419 Sathan 1542 uffm Sattan 1555 Sathaynn, Sathan, Sahann 1575 Sathayn The current form of the name is only official since 1843. It is possible that the castrum Sathim was built on a Slavic settlement or fortifiation and the name comes from the Slavic word Zatyme, meaning "Place behind the swamp" or the Upper Sorbian tymjo or tymjenja for Swamp or River Source. Another theory suggests that the name derived from the root of the word "Seed" in the Eastphalian Language, possibly referring to seeds, the sowing, the harvested grain, or also the land overgrown with grain, the seed field or a piece of seed land. Other fortifications in the region, such as in Wahrenbrück, Würdenhain, Liebenwerda and Elsterwerda, have German names, hence suggesting a Middle Low German (from Sāt, sate) or Middle High German (from sāze) Etymology, in both cases meaning (quiet, peaceful) place of settlement/residence.
From the late Middle Ages to the Electoral Saxon Peasants' Revolt Saathain had one of the oldest weir systems on the Black Elster. The castle served to secure the river crossing at the nearby confluence of the Große Röder (which also defined the border to the neighboring ), and also to protect and control the military and trade routes running parallel to the Black Elster. Only about one kilometer downstream, on the opposite side of the river mouth, was the , which was destroyed in 1442.
In addition to the Saathain village, the lordship of Saathain also included the villages of Stolzenhain (is today another part of Röderland), Mühldorf (which was, in 1935, incorporated into Kröbeln, which itself was incorporated into Bad Liebenwerda in 1996) and the original villages of Gröditz, , , with their original territory, before they were incorporated into the now bigger municipality of Gröditz that exists today. The castle belonged to the Bishopric of Naumburg-Zeitz as an imperial fief until the middle of the 14th century. In 1274, Bishop granted Saathain Castle to Henry the Illustrious for life. Two years later, the enfeoffment was extended to Henry's son () and his descendants.
The noble family of settled in Saathain from 1348. They remained in Saathain until 1475 and were followed by the family. At this time, the Meissen also owned the manor of Mückenberg (today incorporated into Lauchhammer as Lauchhammer-West), about twenty kilometers to the east, which was connected to Saathain via the so-called . The Meissen remained resident there until 1716 and later became extinct with the death of Hermann Otto von Schleinitz in 1891. In 1716, the Electoral Saxon Hofmarschall , who had once come to Saxony under the influence of Countess Anna Constantia von Brockdorff and who had already acquired the neighboring manor of Elsterwerda to the east in 1708, acquired the manors of Saathain and Mückenberg. In 1777, Saathain came into the sole possession of the Saxon cabinet minister . His father had acquired it from the widow Löwendal in 1748.
At the end of August 1790, Count Einsiedel's Saathain was also affected by the Saxon Peasants' Revolt, which had begun a month earlier near Waldheim and Wechselburg and soon violently broke out in the Lommatzsch region. The rebellious peasants, who were mostly armed with scythes, pitchforks and axes, demanded, among other things, the abolition of compulsory service and interest. Some of the peasants of Saathain also rose up and wanted to summon Count von Einsiedel, who was in Bautzen at the time in his capacity as minister and exercised jurisdiction over them. However, the unrest was quelled a short time later by a detachment of dragoons who arrested four Saathain peasants and brought them to Dresden in chains. The Großenhain bailiff, who had initially come to Saathain himself to calm the rebellious peasants, reported calm in the on September 4, 1790, where the unrest had flared up in the dominions of Frauenhain and Zabeltitz with their associated communities as well as in Saathain itself.
From the Congress of Vienna to the Second World War After the German campaign of 1813 ended the Napoleonic domination of the First French Empire over big parts of Europe, the following Congress of Vienna one year later, decided, among other things, that a German Confederation shall be created in near future, succeeding the former Holy Roman Empire (see also: Congress of Vienna#Final agreement and States of the German Confederation). The Kingdom of Saxony, where Saathain was located, became the Saxon Province of the Prussian Kingdom. With that, Saathain, lost its territories of Schweinfurth, Reppis und Gröditz. Thanks to its convenient location and the steel factory founded by Count von Einsiedel in 1779, the now-independent Gröditz quickly developed from a village counting just 150 people in 1834, to a middle-sized city peaking about 10 thousand inhabitants in the nineties.Gröditz in the Digital historical gazetteer of Saxony
In 1852, construction work began in Zeischa (incorporated to Bad Liebenwerda, 1993), a few kilometers downstram, to regulate the Black Elster. The river, which until then had consisted of numerous small streams, was given its current bed and diked by 1861. The Röder, which previously flowed a few hundred meters behind Saathainer Castle, was diverted into the old Elster bed, known as the Alte Röder, and now flows into the new course of the Schwarze Elster.
Around the same time, in the second half of the 19th century, industrialization of the region around Saathain began. The village itself, where agriculture remained the main source of income, was indirectly affected by this development. Fishing in the Röder and Schwarze Elster rivers was made largely impossible by the increasing pollution caused by the newly established industrial plants. Many inhabitants of the village found work outside Saathain, and tradesmen and politicians therefore endeavored to take this development into account. On 18 December 1908, on their initiative, the cooperative Elektrische Überlandzentrale Kreis Liebenwerda und Umgebung () was founded in the Liebenwerda restaurant Weißes Roß (). The Saathainer landowner Otto Bormann was elected chairman of that project's board. A few years later, the first 110 kilowatt line (see: ) in Europe was built to connect the Lauchhammer plant with the steelworks in Gröditz and Riesa. It went into operation on January 21, 1912. A 15 kilowatt line was branched off at the Gröditz switching station via Prösen to Stolzenhain, which was the first municipality in the Liebenwerda district to receive electricity on June 25, 1912. From there, cables were laid further into the surrounding villages, meaning that Saathain also received an electricity connection in the same year.Chronik der Stadt Falkenberg, S. 71. (PDF; 3,9 MB)
Four years later, the Große Röder was regulated (straightened) by the Röderregulierungsgenossenschaft Saathain (). Most of the construction work was carried out by prisoners of war. Since then, the course of the river has not changed. During the Second World War, the village was spared direct combat operations. Nevertheless, the Nazi era and the war did not leave Saathain unscathed. The Saathain pastor , who was newly appointed in September 1934, took over a long-standing dispute with a cantor from his predecessor, who demanded additional pay, which the local church council rejected. The dispute ended with the pastor being denounced to the authorities by the priest. In the letters, the priest sent to high church and NSDAP officials, he accused Bastian of anti-state preachings. After a house search by the Gestapo, where a copy of Die Buddenbrooks, a then-banned book of Thomas Mann was found, Bastian was arrested in March 1942 and died during interrogation in Torgau.Towards the end of the Second World War, the Elster Bridge was destroyed on April 22, 1945, to prevent the advancing troops of the First Ukrainian Front of the Red Army from entering the town. During these days, the Saathain Castle was destroyed by a deliberate fire, which also destroyed the extensive archive with historical records and files, the art treasures stored and the old church registers of the neighboring villages of Würdenhain (with entries of baptisms, weddings and funerals from 1655 to 1812) and Stolzenhain, that were stored there.
From the post-war period to the present day