Rochlitz

Rochlitz (; , ) is a major district town (Große Kreisstadt) in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. Rochlitz is the head of the "municipal partnership Rochlitz" (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Rochlitz) with its other members being the municipalities of Königsfeld, Seelitz and Zettlitz.

The town is situated on a bend of the river Zwickauer Mulde and at the foot of Rochlitzer Berg, 26 km northwest of Chemnitz and 45 km from Leipzig or Zwickau.

Rochlitz is situated in the Natural Region Sächsisches Lössgefilde ("Saxon Loess country") and its sub region Mulde Lösshügelland ("Mulde Loess hill country"). Rochlitzer Berg (ca. 349 m (NHN)) is of Rotliegend volcanic origin (latest Carboniferous to Guadalupian) and consists to a large extent of so called Rochlitzer Porphyr, a rhyolitic tuff or ignimbrite. Due to its colour and structure, this rock is used in representative buildings in the wider region like the Old Town Hall in Leipzig and is mined in deep quarries. Pleistocene sediments (sand, gravel) are excavated in the surroundings of the town.

Slavic villages have existed in the area of the town since the 9th and 10th century, and the name of the town is derived from Old Sorbian Rochelinzi. A market settlement below Rochlitz Castle and east of St Peter's church, near today's square Mühlplatz, formed presumably in the 11th century, likely connected with a ford across the Zwickauer Mulde near the village of Zaßnitz. A farming estate which supplied the castle was built at the same time in Poppitz in the northern part of the modern town area the same time. It was later moved to Königsfeld. Rochlitz as a town in its own right with its town church St Cunigunde's was founded around 1200 by Dedo the Fat of Lusatia or one of his sons Dietrich (1190–1207) or Konrad (1207–1210), possibly only after 1210 by margrave Dietrich the Oppressed. A characteristic feature of the town is the elongated street market which has an analogue in nearby Geithain. The approximate founding date is supported by archeological findings and preserved Romanesque architectural features of the church which originated in a short basilica without transept. Despite the central location of St. Cunigunde's church, the older St. Peter's church which was situated extra muros remained the parish church for the western parts of Rochlitz until the Protestant reformation. A town wall was first mentioned in 1288 on the occasion of a partial collapse. It was apparently preceded by a combination of earth wall, ditch, and hedge, and was renewed and extended between 1367 and 1373. The town itself is first mentioned in writing in 1336, its council in 1360, and the first seal of the town is found on a document from 1364. The council obtained the right to execute low justice before 1379, and in 1380 the town obtained a regional monopoly for bleaching cloth. In 1430 Rochlitz suffered from an invasion of hussitic troops, but experienced a boom afterwards, marked by the awarding of the right to execute higher justice and the expansion of other rights in 1464. St. Cunigunde's church was rebuilt in late Gothic style from 1416 to 1476, and obtained a new altar, carved in wood, in 1513.

The Protestant Reformation was introduced in Rochlitz by Elisabeth of Rochlitz in 1537. After the so called "old" cemetery with its ossuary had been founded in 1534 on the site of today's square Clemens Pfau Platz, a Latin school (demolished in 1876, now library) was built on the grounds of former St Cunigunde's cemetery. It was rebuilt in 1595 at the expense of Electress Sophie. A new hospital church (Church of the Holy Spirit, demolished in 1904) was finished in 1563. The central part of the former lower market square (east of today's town hall) was built over in the first half of the 16th century (Mittelzeile). In the Battle of Rochlitz on 2 March 1547, Protestant troops won their most important victory during the Schmalkaldic War before their defeat in the Battle of Mühlberg. Three witch trials are documented between 1556 and 1608, ending in one case with a man being executed, while the outcome of the others is not known any more. During the Thirty Years' War town and castle of Rochlitz were besieged and taken several times. Fires damaged the town in 1632 and in 1682. Following the latter, houses were rebuilt with the eaves of the roofs parallel to the streets. From 1682 an infantry unit was stationed in the town. The travelling barber surgeon and oculist Johann Andreas Eisenbarth plied his trade in Rochlitz in early 1691. The three towered front of St Cunigunde's church dates from 1688/1689, its baroque porch was added in 1709. It housed the first public library in the town. In the mid 18th century Rochlitz was connected to the Saxon postal system, which is attested by two Saxon post milestones (reconstructed since). A post office was established in 1734 or 1743, when regular services were introduced. A woolen mill was founded in 1769.

Reconstruction after a fire in 1802 changed the appearance of the town significantly with new residential buildings and a new tower of St Cunigunde's church (1804). A first masonry bridge across the Zwickauer Mulde was erected in 1816, a new town hall between 1826 and 1828, and a new hospital in 1854. Beginning in 1830, the town fortifications were removed. During the Founder Epoch the town boomed and increased in size. The first railway connection opened in 1872. A new school was built near the Mulde river between 1874 and 1876, a new post and telegraph office in 1889/1891. From 1889 the town was extended towards the station. A further extension in the shape of a garden town was built during the Golden Twenties, a second gas works was built in 1922/1923. The market fountain was created by the sculptor Georg Wrba in 1929. Today's bridge across the Zwickauer Mulde was built in 1933/1934. The Nazi Party managed early to establish themselves in the town council, and in 1934 they deposed the non partisan mayor by means of a political intrigue. On the initiative of the president of the local historical society and honorary director of the museum, Albert Bernstein, celebrations were held in 1936 ostensibly in honour of the 1000th anniversary of German control of the Rochlitz area (a mere historical construct), but in reality as a means of attracting business and tourism. The arms industry established itself in Rochlitz in 1938 as Mechanik GmbH. During World War II, a subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp was located in the town from September 1944 to March 1945. The camp held about 600 Jewish women who were forced to labour for Mechanik GmbH. Units of 76th Infantry Division and 6th Armored Division of Third United States Army liberated Rochlitz on 14 April 1945. Until the Americal withdrawal on 30 June 1945, the Zwickauer Mulde was part of the demarcation line between the American and Soviet occupied territories. Troops of Red Army had already established themselves in Döhlen on the east bank of the river in mid May 1945. Beginning in July 1945, the larger enterprises were expropriated and transformed into the publicly owned operations VEB Elektroschaltgeräte Rochlitz, VEB Stern Radio Rochlitz, and VEB Orsta Hydraulik, who were the principal employers for much of the population of the town. During the existence of the GDR, Rochlitz expanded further, and its population increased. New residential quarters were built: Am Friedenseck 1955–1961, Am Regenbogen 1960–1965, Wilhelm Pieck Straße 1977/1978, and Am Eichberg from 1982/1983. Rochlitz suffered major damage during the 2002 European floods.

Rochlitz did not suffer damage in World War II. Therefore, despite some fires in past centuries, the historical structure of the town, many sacred buildings from the late Middle Ages, and residential buildings from the Renaissance era have been conserved. The historical configuration of the town, consisting of a market square with surrounding buildings, but without a network of streets, is rare for Saxony. The neoclassicist town hall from 1828 forms the eastern termination of the market square with its patrician houses. St Cunigunde's church, situated to the east and dating in its current form from 1417 to 1476, is a late Gothic hall church, as is St Peter's church (1470 1499) which is situated to the south west of the town centre towards the castle. Rochlitz Castle with its two towers and its Gothic chapel has externally maintained its appearance from the 14th and 15th century. The observation tower on Rochlitzer Berg was built in 1860 from the local "porphyry" stone and is named after King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony. A Soviet memorial, built in 1958, stands on the former Platz der Deutsch Sowjetischen Freundschaft where Soviet prisoners of war and forced labourers had been buried and whose remains were later moved to Chemnitz. Two Saxon post milestones, dated 1722, are located on the location of the former upper and lower town gates, the former stone having been renewed in 1820 using parts of a stone which stood in nearby Zettlitz. A quarter mile stone is fixed in a wall on Chemnitzer Straße 1. There also stands a reconstructed distance post of 1722, and a partly reconstructed milestone of 1860 stands near the road bridge across Zwickauer Mulde.

A 1628 view of the town already shows a simple bridge across the river. Farmers built a wooden bridge along the ford in 1502 which was garded from nearby Hohes Haus. It was destroyed by floods in 1534, 1573, 1595, 1618, 1656, and 1661, and had then been replaced by a ferry for more than 200 years. When a boat capsized in 1855, three of its eleven passengers drowned. A new, higher suspension bridge was built in 1958 about 30 m from the old location. It was extensively rehabilitated after the 2002 European floods and was closed temporarily after the 2013 European floods. The first masonry bridge across Zwickauer Mulde in Rochlitz was built in 1816. It was replaced by today's bridge in 1933/1934. A 243 m long railway viaduct near the castle and a 98 m long lattice truss bridge north of the town were opened for the Glauchau–Wurzen railway in 1875, another lattice truss bridge for the Waldheim–Rochlitz railway was opened in 1893. The worn out state of the latter contributed to the closure of the line in 1998.