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Pirna

Encyclopedia : P : PI : PIR : Pirna

Pirna is a city in Saxony, Germany 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 district town as well as a Große Kreisstadt. It is also known for the gassing 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 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 dedicated in 1992. In August of 2002, the city suffered great damage in the widespread flooding in Europe at the time.

Neighbouring municipalities

Pirna is located southeast 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 last ice age, are evidence for the earliest human settlement in the area. Later on, people belonging to the Linear Pottery culture, 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, succeeded the Germanic tribes in the Elbe Valley, who 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). The representation of a pear tree in the coat of arms was a later, fanciful, German-language notion about the town's name ("pear" is Birne in German, which sounds rather like "Pirna").

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 Pirna area is again verifiable. The castle in Pirna, which was mentioned for the first time in 1269, probably already existed in the 11th century. 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 chessboardlike system. Only the streets east of the church are not in this shape because of the nearby Burgberg. In 1233, Pirna was mentioned for the first time in a document. In 1293 the king of Bohemia bought 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 was begun. With the introduction of the Reformation into Saxony in 1539, Anton Lauterbach, a friend of Martin Luther's, became pastor and superintendent. In 1544 the strategically important castle was upgraded to a fortress by Moritz von Sachsen. Three years later it withstood the siege by elector Johann Friedrich von Sachsen in the Schmalkaldic War.

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

Prussian Pirna

On August 29, 1756, the small Saxon army fled before the Prussians, who had invaded without declaring war, to the levels between Festung Königstein and Schloss Sonnenstein and capitulated there on October 16, two days after Schloss Sonnenstein surrendered. In 1758, Austrian troops and the Imperial Army besieged the fortress.

Napoleonic Pirna

Manufacturing 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, forcing the evacuation of 275 patients, seizing supplies and tearing the roof trusses out to remove the threat of fire. In September of 1813, emperor Napoleon temporarily lived at the Marienhaus at the market. Until Dresden's surrender on November 11 the French defended the fortress. Only in February did the hospital for the mentally ill open again.

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

Industrial revolution, Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic

In 1837, steamship travel began on the upper Elbe. A few years later, a railway line connecting Dresden and Pirna opened. Pirna became an industrial city in 1862 with the building of factories. Mechanical engineering, glass, cellulose and rayon production also expanded. In 1875, the sandstone Elbbrücke (bridge on the Elbe) was completed. During the First World War Pirna became a garrison and the engineer battalions 12 and 5 of the Royal Saxon field artillery regiment No. 64 were billeted on Rottwerndorfer Straße. In 1922/23 the city absorbed several municipalities including Posta, Niedervogelgesang, Obervogelgesang, Copitz, Hinterjessen, Neundorf, Zuschendorf, Rottwerndorf and Zehista. The population then totalled 30,000 inhabitants.

Amalgamations

The cities that were amalgamated with Pirna are:

Population

Change of Population (from 1960, all figures for December 31):
1834 until 1946 1950 until 1997 1998 until 2003
1 October 29
2 August 31

Dialect

The main dialect spoken in Pirna is the Saxon dialect group called : Südostmeißnische, which is one of the five Meißenisch group of dialects.

City partnership

Pirna is bound with Baienfurt and Reutlingen, both in Baden-Württemberg, in city friendships.

Culture and sites of interest

Museums

Buildings

Music

Persons

External links

(in German)

[General map] [City map of Pirna]

 

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