MarktleuthenA Little Town At The Chain Of Mountains "Fichtelgebirge" |
Appertaining
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| town with about 4000 inhabitants lies in the north-east corner of Bavaria in the highlands of the Fichtelgebirge about 550 m above sealevel on the banks of the river Eger. The source of the river is located at the slope of the mountain "Schneeberg". At the town "Hohenberg" the river leaves Germany and flows in Czech Republic into the "Elbe". |
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An actual view of
Marktleuthen you can get by this  Webcam
on the Kornberg. |
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The first settlers here probably were Slavs. They wandered
up the rivers around 600 a.C. and searched for tin in the
Fichtelgebirge. The settlement they named "Leuken" which
means "(water-)spring".
The forest-law of the town Eger mentions in the year 1379: "The village Leuken there lived for time out of mind a pastor, a hunter and a fisherman". First mentioned in a record was Marktleuthen as the "Village Leuken" in the year 1314 when it was sold from "Heinrich The Older" to the monastery Waldsassen. In 1354 "Albrecht Nothaft from Thierstein" acquired the settlement and enlarged it by adding 24 farms and shelters, 1 mill and 15 pitch-stoves. Further expansion it get in 1429 by the incorporation of the adjacent village Rohrsbach. After the first great fire on March 19th, 1577, which developed from "carelessness at barrel-glueing", a chronicler from Eger reported that 65 houses, 9 barns and 1 person fell victim to the fire. A hard time was the 17th century. The thirty-years-war has effects with billetings, war-taxes and plunderings by army-groups. But that was not all: On April 4th, 1641 a fire broke out because of the "carelessness of soldiers" which burned to ashes the market-place with the church, the town-hall, the school, 71 dwelling houses and 39 barns and spared only 8 houses. A half century later followed the next bad blow and you can read in a report: "On August 16th, 1691 while in the church the people were singing the song At The Rivers Of Babylon an angry thunderstorm striked into a rowantree. The following fire destroyed 14 houses and 10 barns." |
| The old part of the town as you can see it today was built for the most part after the last great fire on September 20th, 1843. It consists of massive middle-class houses which are typical for the 19th century in our area. Seeking refuge they are forming a group like onion-peels around the church and the town hall. |
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The region is situated out of the way and offered only meagre living conditions. Also the persons who carried on a trade were forced to pursue farming additional to be able to exist. Worth mentioning is an old extincted trade namely that of the soot-manufacturing. In small huts without windows and later in special ovens was burned pitch-wood with less air supply. The resulting soot was packed in small tubs made of wooden shavings and was used for dye-works, printing-colour, shoe-polish and cart-grease. Transport and sale ensured mostly poor guys who hiked far over the country with the tubs. They were named "Roußbuttnboum". A monument at the Eger-Bridge and names of fields and paths remind still today on that old trade. |
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The construction of the railway from Regensburg to Hof, which crosses over the Eger-Valley in Marktleuthen on a viaduct made of local granite, brought the beginning of industrialization. Even though there was regular stage-coach traffic until about 1920. From 1880 to 1900 there were built stone grindings and quarries, a glass factory, a porcelain plant and later a paint factory. |
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| A further "milestone of the technical progress" was the first power station in 1910 with a horsepower of no less than 25 HP which was operated by gas from a coke-oven. The building later was used as a stone grinding and contains in the present the "ark", an artist studio and "general work of art". |
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| To our regret some things fell victim to the technical progress. This bridge over the river Eger with six arches made from granite was built in 1596 under Margrave Georg Friedrich and was renovated 1776. It did no longer match the modern traffic so it had to give way a new one in 1964. |
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| The developement work of the Marktleuthen people was rewarded in 1954 by the receipt of the freedom of a city. Therefore on October 16th, 1954 the Bavarian Minister Of State Dr. Hoegner visited our town and the people met on the market place for a great festivity. The mayor at that time was Adolf Schmeissner. Important occurrences in Marktleuthen's history you can see in our Time Table. |
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| At the beginning of our century four breweries brewed beer for our region but today there is no one remaining. The chimney of a former brewery now servs our storks as a place for their nest. A glass factory named "Glashuette", later "Bayerische Hohlglasfabrik", had to close in 1964 and from five stoneworking factories in 1970 remained still four and in present only two. |
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At the present time
Marktleuthen is a small industrial town with
everything people need.
In the last centuries there were built: A hall for entertainment with a seating capacity of about 400 and a sporting-hall, a school-house, a home for the aged and a house for the fire brigade. Also there is a swimming pool in the region Großwendern. The historical town-hall was renovated radically. A striking point at the street from Wunsiedel is the Elementary School. It was built in 1927 and renovated in 2001/2002. |
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| The market place with the evangelical church and the town-hall. |
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| Worth seeing in the evangelical church "St. Nikolaus" is the coffer-ceiling from the year 1718 with 2 meters square paintings from the painters Matthes Gebhard from Marktleuthen and Johann Jacob Radius from Kirchenlamitz. Furthermore the later-renaissance-pulpit of 1617, the baptism-angel which was made 1780 in Bayreuth and the Akanthus-Altar with a picture, painted in oils on linen, which shows the Lord's supper and was donated in April 15th, 1643 by Johann Erhard Buechta. |
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| The catholical church "St. Wolfgang" was built in 1956. It is designed modern and furnished practically. |
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The biggest
employer
is the porcelain factory "Winterling".
Moreover there are:
an arts and crafts tin founder, smaller porcelain manufacturers,
stone-working factory, printing works etc.
In the actually accessible building-site "Rohrsbach" there are for sale advantageous pieces of land (DM 39.50 per square metre) |
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Marktleuthen and its districts offer ideal conditions for a recovering holiday in a wonderful calm landscape. Located in the "Nature Park Fichtelgebirge" there is available a net of walking-paths around the town and hiking-paths through the chain of mountains "Fichtelgebirge". |
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Because of the height above sealevel the temperatures in summer are pleasant and in winter you can find ski-fields with good snow-conditions not far off (downhill at Kornberg, Mehlmeisel and Ochsenkopf and many possibilities for cross-country-skiing). |
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Appertaining
Villages
| Please visit also the other themes of my Panoptikum: |
| Please observe: © 2006 by Erwin Purucker |