Saxon Siberia

Saxon Siberia is a arisen in the 18th century designation of the upper West Erzgebirge and Vogtland.

Origin and Distribution

It goes back to that observed on the ridges of harsh climate. This was described in 1723 for the area lying to the Saxon- Bohemian border Gottesgab by an Austrian Rektifikationskommission as follows:

" Gottesgab is a place [ ... ] Located right at the Saxony Country in the roughest woods where so no partner, no grass, not a sloes, no briar. We know here at all of the Summer nothing. The local area is commonly eight months under the snow, which is angehäufet in some areas due to heavy storm winds on many Ellen, also often encounter so dense mists that travelers often get lost very, miss the way, and freeze those according miserably in the snow have. "

The emerging face of these descriptions compare the Ore Mountains with Siberia joined the pastor and chronicler George grains Bockau counter already in 1757. He wrote:

"If you double the country 's Charter issued by the Erzgebirge circles by Mr. Matthias Seuttern, takes the hand; you should almost scare and Meynen, it sey our area a right Wüsteney, small Syberien and as the Bohemians before its mockingly called, a right Haber and hunger land: you look but so many populous cities, towns and villages of the same; then this bias will lose very soon. "

1775, the term Saxon Siberia was explained for the first time in the anonymously published by Carl Ernst Bohn in Hamburg font " Mineralogical history of the Saxon Erzgebirge " in detail. Presumptions indicate the Saxon genealogists Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Toussaint Charpentier as an author. It reads:

" Message from the so-called Saxon Siberia. [ In fact, so, not Siberia! ] We stayed here on our mountain top a pretty Its large area, which is so wild and rough that they usually speak the Saxon Siberia is called so. It extends from Eybenstock, but on the other into the Voigtländischen Creys, after Fichtelbergbahn [meaning the Fichtelgebirge is ] too. Instead of that one else in other places quite rough (as Jöhstadt, statutes, Kuhn Heyde, Neudorf, John George Town, Wiesenthal etc. ) nor potatoes, cabbage, turnips and oats ( although this latter because he hardly the zehntemal is quite mature, at least but builded for obtaining the nöthiges straw for cattle ), here comes nich once a potato on, let alone a grain cereals continued. Everything is without experiencing some furrow arable land there, only with thicker, wilder and darker Grove covered. Commonly located in the winter, which makes up the largest part of the year, the snow three cubits high, and comes, especially in the depths where the wind sometimes to 10, 20, even 30 yards combing it from the mountains, often before Johannis not completely time. Alone, just this is where Vulcan has pitched his right factory cities. The hammer works: upper and lower Blue Thal, Neidhardtsthal, Wildenthal, Witting Thal, Schlössel - Unterwiesenthal, Carl field, with the corresponding Glashütte, Morning Roth diamond Kranzs and Tannenbergsthal are a total of partly localized in and partly to this wilderness around. Sothane ... Waldhäuser are often quite verschneyet in winter, so that worked out their owner with shovels and light holes have to dig through to their windows ...

Meanwhile, just this rough desert is the real homeland of our more best and most precious stones, which in it partly out of the rock, like the topaz broken out of the Schneckenstein, partly from the Auersberger Steinbächer, Sauschwemmer, Knocker and pitch Höfer soap works are found among the hermaphroditic attachments. "

By August Schumann's Encyclopedia of Saxony, which appeared at the beginning of the 19th century in large numbers, the term Saxon Siberia was a larger distribution. About the village Carl field he writes:

" The area of Carl field is yet listed many of the Saxon Siberia and still is rough and barren. Although the mountain has not here, but at Annaberg, Baerenstein and Wiesenthal its highest points, but the dense forests that surround Karl field closely, give this area the reputation of a sad wilderness, extend the winter and prevent the culture. Here there is thus still no cereal, but are several years potatoes have been grown with success, can only be produced due to lack of space not the tenth part of the need. "

While there are several references in the literature in which the Ore Mountains is shown in the 18th and 19th centuries as barren and inhospitable area, so a change from a low estimated mountainous region a popular tourist destination was not until around 1900. Especially well-known representatives of the Erzgebirgsvereins such as Ernst Köhler and Friedrich Hermann extinguisher turned against what they regard as "completely inaccurate " designation Saxon Siberia. Instead of only focusing on the harsh weather condition, now engaged in other aspects of the center. Philipp Weigel points out in his 1907 published dissertation The Saxon Siberia to the versatile economic life, which consisted not only of mining, hammer mills and forestry, but also cope Posamentenfabrikation, lace, colored and silk embroidery, kid glove manufacturing and glass manufacturing included. To promote tourism were further advanced by the natural beauty of the region and the healthy mountain climate publicity, which led to the development of a highly migratory and summer fresh essence. To achieve the objective, the Ore Mountains for hiking enthusiasts from near and far to make known, were built by the Erzgebirgsverein in the first 50 years of its existence about 25 Towers homes and guesthouses.