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Location
The town lies on the northern declivity of the Ore Mountains, with the majority of the borough west of the Eastern or Freiberger Mulde river. Parts of the town are nestled in the valleys of Münzbach and Goldbach streams. Its centre has an altitude of about 412 m above NHN (at the railway station). Its lowest point is on Münzbach on the town boundary at 340 m above NHN; its highest point is on an old mining tip at 491 m above NHN. Freiberg lies within a region of old forest clearances, subsequently used by the mining industry which left its mark on the landscape. The town is surrounded to the north, southeast and southwest by woods, and in the other directions by fields and meadows. Since the beginning of the 21st century an urbanised area has gradually developed which is formed by the towns of Nossen, Roßwein, Großschirma, Freiberg and Brand-Erbisdorf. It has currently about 75,000 inhabitants.
Freiberg is located about 31 kilometres (19 miles) west-southwest of Dresden, about 31 kilometres east-northeast of Chemnitz, about 82 kilometres (51 miles) southeast of Leipzig, and about 179 kilometres south of Berlin and about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest of Prague.
Freiberg lies on a boundary between two variants of the Saxon dialect: the Southeast Meissen dialect (Südostmeißnisch) to the east and the South Meissen dialect (Südmeißnisch) to the west of the town, both belonging to the five Meissen dialects, as well as just north of the border of the dialect region of East Erzgebirgisch.
Expansion of the town
The nucleus of the town, the former forest village of Christiansdorf lies in the valley of the Münzbach stream. The unwalled town centre grew up on its two slopes and on the ridge to the west. This means inter alia that the roads radiating outwards east of the old main road axis (today Erbische Straße and Burgstraße running from the former Erbisch Gate (Erbischer Tor) on Postplatz to Freudenstein Castle), some of which run as far as the opposite side of the Münzbach valley, are very steep. The area located east of the main road axis is called Unterstadt ("Lower Town"), with its lower market or Untermarkt. The western area is the Oberstadt ("Upper Town") where the Obermarkt or "Upper Market" is situated. The town centre is surrounded by a green belt running along the old town wall. In the west, this belt, in which the ponds of the Kreuzteichen are set, broadens out into an area like a park. Just north of the town centre, is Freudenstein Castle as well as the remnants of the town wall with several wall towers and Schlüsselteich pond in front of them. The remains of the wall run eastwards, in sections, to the Donats Tower. This area is dominated by the historic moat. The southern boundary of the old town is characterised in places by buildings from the Gründerzeit period. The B 101 federal road, here called Wallstraße, flanks the west of the town centre, the B 173, as Schillerstraße and Hornstraße, bounds it to the south.
Freiberg's north is dominated by the campus of its University of Mining and Technology. The main part of the campus on either side of Leipziger Straße (as the B 101 road, the most important transport link in this district) emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. Furthermore, the districts of Lossnitz, Lößnitz and Kleinwaltersdorf are found here, extending almost out to the boundary of the borough. Between Kleinwaltersdorf and Lößnitz is the Nonnenwald wood, and east of Leipziger Straße is a trading estate.
Surrounding area
In the area around Freiberg there are both industrial estates as well as agricultural and recreational areas. Smelting and metalworking firms are based at Muldenhütten and Halsbrücke and paper manufacturers at Weißenborn and Großschirma. Northeast of the town is the recreational area of the Tharandt Forest.
The town of Großschirma lies north of Freiberg on the B 101 federal road. To the northeast the municipality of Halsbrücke borders on the territory of Freiberg's borough and, to the east, is the municipality of Bobritzsch-Hilbersdorf. The municipality of Weißenborn to the southeast belongs to the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft of Lichtenberg/Erzgebirge. On the B 101 south of Freiberg is the Große Kreisstadt of Brand-Erbisdorf and to the east is the municipality of Oberschöna.
Town subdivisions and residential areas: Bahnhofsvorstadt, Donatsviertel, Fernesiechen, Freibergsdorf, Friedeburg, Halsbach, Himmelfahrter Revier, Hinter dem Bahnhof, Hospitalviertel, Hüttenviertel, Kleinwaltersdorf, Langenrinne, Lößnitz, Loßnitz, Neufriedeburg, Oberstadt, Scheunenviertel, Seilerberg, Silberhofviertel, Steinberg, Unterstadt, Wasserberg, Zug
History
The town was founded in 1186 and has been a centre of the mining industry in the Ore Mountains for centuries. A symbol of that history is the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, often just known as the Mining Academy (Bergakademie), established in 1765 and the second oldest university of mining and metallurgy in the world. (In North Hungary, in Selmecbánya town /now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia/ a Mining Academy was established at 1735) Freiberg also has a notable cathedral containing two famous Gottfried Silbermann organs. There are two other organs made by Gottfried Silbermann – one at the St. Peter's Church (Petrikirche) and the other one at the St. James' Church (Jakobikirche). The medieval part of Freiberg stands under heritage protection.
The river, Freiberger Mulde, flows through the borough of Freiberg, but not the town itself.
In 1944, a subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp, was built outside the town of Freiberg. It housed over 500 female survivors of other camps, including Auschwitz Birkenau. Altogether 50 or so SS women worked in this camp until its evacuation in April 1945. The female survivors eventually reached Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
In 1985, Mormons built the Freiberg Germany Temple here because of the large number of members in the region. The Freiberg Germany Temple serves Mormons from all over Eastern Germany and majority of the East Europe.
Regular events
Every year in Freiberg the Mining Town Festival (Bergstadtfest) is held on the last weekend in June with a procession by the historic Miners' and Ironworkers' Guilds, the so-called Miners' and Ironworkers' Parade. The Freiberg Christmas Market takes place during Advent, when a so-called Mettenschicht is held with a parade by the Miners' and Ironworkers' Guilds and the SAXONIA Miners Music Corps. This includes a traditional sermon on the mount in St. Peter's Church and waiting by the miners on the second Saturday in Advent. Firmly established is the potter's gathering on a weekend in the second half of April on the Upper Market (Obermarkt). Every year on the Drei Brüder Schacht minesin the quarter of Zug there is a model steam engine gathering. Other annual events include the Freiberg Art Award and the election of the Mining Town Queen (Bergstadt-Königin).
International relations
Freiberg is twinned with:
Poland Wałbrzych, Poland (since June 26, 1991)
Germany Darmstadt, Germany (since 1990)
Netherlands Delft, Netherlands
Israel Ness Ziona, Israel
Czech Republic Příbram, Czech Republic
List of the personalities of the city Freiberg
Freemen
2000 Günter Blobel, biochemist, Nobel Prize 1999
2014 Michael Federmann, investor
Sons and daughters of the town
Hansjörg Albrecht (b 1972), counter-tenor, conductor, organist & harpsichordist
Christoph Anton (???-1658), composer & organist
Günter Bartusch (1943-1971), motorcycle racer
Rolf Emmrich (1910-1974), internist and university teachers
Friedrich Robert Helmert (1843-1917), surveyor, mathematician, the Helmert transformation is named after him, it is the chi-squared distribution attributed
Edward Johnson (1840-1903), local historian and editor of the Vogtländische Gazette
Christian Liebe (1654-1708), composer & organist
Christian Heinrich Spiess (1755-1799), actor, playwright and author, co-founder of the Gothic novel
Emil von Sydow (1812-1873) officer, geographer and cartographer
Jakob Ullmann (b 1958), composer and university lecturer
Clemens Winkler (1838-1904), chemist, discoverer of the germanium
Personalities who have worked in the place
August Bebel (1840-1913), politician
Fritz Bleyl (1880-1966) architect, painter of Expressionism
Günter Blobel (b 1936), biologist, Nobel laureate, sponsor of the reconstruction of neo-historic buildings in Saxony
Kwasi Boakye (1827-1904), from Ashanti, Dutch mining engineer, student in Freiberg (also: Boachi)
Johann Friedrich August Breithaupt (1791-1873), mineralogist
Leopold von Buch (1774-1853), geologist
Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645-1714), Saxon Oberberg Chief
Johann Christoph Demantius (1567-1643), composer & poet
Johann Friedrich Doles (1715-1797), composer, Bach's Pupil (1739-1743), kantor and music director in Freiberg (1744-1755), Thomaskantor in Leipzig (1756-1789)
Arthur Eger (1900-1968), organist and choirmaster at Freiberg Cathedral (1926-1968)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), natural scientist, writer and statesman
Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611-1675), organist, composer & hymn-writer; freeman of Freiberg (from 1629); organist at Petrikirche (1634-1639)
Johannes (Italus) Hermann (1515-1593), hymn-writer, Thomaskantor (1531-1536), first Evangelist Kantor in Freiberg (1536?), professional jurist (from 1541)
Zacharias Hildebrandt, organ builder (1688-1757)
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), naturalist and explorer
Herbert Jobst (1915-1990), writer
Jan Katzschke (b 1972), harpsichordist, organist & conductor; interim Kantor at Freiberg Cathedral (2007-2008), Vice-President of Gottfried-Silbermann-Gesellschaft Freiberg
Helmut Kirchberg (1906-1983), mining scientist
Theodor Körner (author) (1791-1813), poet, freedom fighter
Wilhelm August Lampadius (1772-1842), metallurgist, chemist
Friedrich Mohs (1773-1839), Mineralogist, creator of the Mohssche Härteskala
Carl Friedrich Naumann (1797-1873), geologist
Novalis (1772-1801), poet
Hans Otto (1922-1996), organist and choirmaster at Freiberg Cathedral (1968-1983)
Max Roscher, (1888-1940), politician, Reichstag deputy
Bernd Schröder (b 1942), football coach
Clara Schumann (1819-1896), pianist & composer
Gottfried Silbermann (1683-1753), organ builders
Alfred Wilhelm Stelzner (1840-1895), geologist
Robert Volkmann (1815-1883), composer
Christian Leopold von Buch (1774-1853), geologist
Bernhard von Cotta (1808-1879), geologist
Kunz von Kaufungen (1410-1455), abductor of the Saxon Princes Albrecht and Ernst, executed in Freiberg
Eberhard Wächtler (1929-2010), economic historian
Julius Weisbach (1806-1871), mathematician and engineer
Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817), co-founder of the modern geoscience
Johann Heinrich Zedler (1706-1751), bookseller and publisher
Gustav Zeuner (1828-1907), engineer
Source: mostly Wikipedia (February 2018), BCW |
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The wealth that silver mining brought to the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) region of Saxony manifests itself in Freiberg, the “City of Silver” (Silberstadt). At the center of the mining area and one of the most attractive and prosperous historic towns of Eastern Germany, Freiberg and the mining region have been proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Although a visit by J.S. Bach to Freiberg is not documented, he easily could have traveled there. The city is located just 38 km/24 miles southwest of Dresden, a short detour off the most direct route that he would have taken on any of his half-dozen trips from Leipzig to the Saxon capital between 1725 and 1741. A major attraction would doubtless have been five organs built by Gottfried Silbermann (1683-1753) - the three-manual instrument, dating from 1714, in the Cathedral of St. Mary, for example. Four of the organs have survived.
In 1711, Gottfried Silbermann opened a workshop in Freiberg and spent the remainder of his career there. In the following years, he built three major organs in Dresden: one for St. Sophia’s Church (1720), where Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was organist from 1733 to 1746; one for the Church of Our Lady (1736), where J.S. Bach performed shortly after its consecration; and one for the Court Church (1754), completed after Silbermann’s death by his nephew, Johann Daniel.
Silbermann's Freiberg residence, which still stands, may have been the venue where a conversation took place concerning the so-called “sun organ” in Gorlitz. According to Johann Andreas Silbermann (1712-1783), the son of Gottfried’s older brother, Andreas (and hence a nephew of Gottfried’s), “the old famous Mr. Bach of Leipzig did not judge this instrument unfairly when, in discussing it with my cousin, he called it a ‘horse organ’ because one has to be as strong as a horse to play it.” The identity of the “cousin” is unclear. It may have been Johann Georg Silbermann who worked in Gottfried’s shop (BDOK II, no. 486), or Gottfried himself (although Gottfried was Johann Andreas’s uncle rather than his cousin).
Johann Andreas Silbermann related this anecdote in his travel diary after he had heard the "sun organ" in 1741 while on an organ tour through Germany.
The conversation, then, would have preceded by at least five years the first documented encounter between J.S. Bach and Gottfried Silbermann. That meeting took place in Naumburg in September 1746, when both men inspected the new organ in the Church of St. Wenceslas built by Silbermann’s former student, Zacharias Hildebrandt.
Johann Friedrich Doles (1715-1797), a former student of J.S. Bach's, provides another connection to Freiberg. Doles was kantor and music directhere from 1744 until 1755, at which time he became Thomaskantor in Leipzig (1756-1789).
There is one further connection between J.S. Bach and Freiberg. In 1741, J.S. Bach became a stakeholder in a silver mine, the Ursula-Erbstollen, situated in Kleinvoigstberg, 10 km/6 miles north of Freiberg. The estate inventory (NBR, no. 279) lists as the first entry one share out of 128 of this silver mine, valued at 60 thalers (ca. $5,750). The early stakeholder system was mostly a philanthropic undertaking. Owners of a share participated in the mine’s profits. If, however, the mine did not yield a profit, shareholders were obliged to contribute monies to ensure its continued operation and thus save the miners’ employment. By the end of his life, J.S. Bach had contributed some thirty thalers (ca. $2,880) to the mine, the equivalent of six months of a miner’s wages. He never earned a profit from his share (Spree 2012/13).
Literature: BDOK II; NBR; Friedrich 2000; Organs; Spree 2012/13.
Source: Robert L. Marshall & Traute M. Marshall: Exploring the World of J.S. Bach - A Traveller's Guide (University of Illinois Press, 2016), pp 135-137 |
