Senftenberg, Lower Sorbian Zły Komorow, is a medium-sized town in
southern Brandenburg. It is the district town of the
Oberspreewald-Lausitz district and is located on the Black Elster
and on the Senftenberger See, which is one of the largest man-made
lakes in Germany. Senftenberg itself is in Lower Lusatia and is its
fourth largest city, while some districts that were incorporated in
2001 are in Upper Lusatia.
Since September 9, 2016,
Senftenberg has held the title of state-approved resort in the
districts of Senftenberg-Kernstadt, Großkoschen (with the
Kleinkoschen district) and Niemtsch bordering on Lake Senftenberg.
The city is located on the western edge of the official
settlement area of the Sorbs/Wends.
The historic old town center has
developed around the city's market. The adjacent buildings from
different stylistic epochs were painstakingly reconstructed after
the fall of the Wall. The southern front of the market, which had
previously been designed with green spaces, was closed in September
1998 by the new town hall with Ratskeller and café and in 1999 by
the savings bank complex. A special feature is the very steep roof
of the old town hall building from 1929, which is connected to the
modern town hall building. The roof slope is 72.9 degrees. The newly
built town hall was awarded the Brandenburg State Architecture Prize
in 1999.
One of the dominant buildings on the north side of
the market is the Adler pharmacy, built in 1902 during the
Wilhelmine era. This five-storey building breaks up the
predominantly two-storey development of the market. The facade is
richly decorated, including snakes and skulls as well as two larger
than life eagles, which give the pharmacy its name. The pharmacy's
business premises are on the ground floor. Senftenberg's first
pharmacy was mentioned as early as 1680. The writer Erwin
Strittmatter worked in the building from 1949 to 1951 as local
editor for the Märkische Volksstimme.
On October 18, 2000, a
replica of the Saxon post distance column was set up on the market.
The original was on the market from 1731 and was dismantled in 1847
under Prussian rule. Only the original coat of arms has been
preserved in the castle museum to this day.
From 1932 to
1998, there was a slim reinforced concrete light pole on the market.
In the vernacular he was called Langer Herrmann in reference to
Herrmann Lindemann, who was mayor's office at the time of
construction.
To the east of the market is the church square
with the Protestant Peter-Paul Church (also known as the German
Church). This church was built in the 13th century in the Gothic
style and has a magnificent reticulated vault.
The Wendische
Kirche community center is located in the immediate vicinity of the
Peter and Paul Church. After the renovation, the Wendish Church was
reconstructed for around 400,000 euros. It was converted into a
social and cultural meeting center and inaugurated on March 28,
2003.
The first Wendish church was built in Senftenberg after
the Reformation in 1540. The structure had to be renewed several
times after fires. The current building was erected in 1749. In 1834
the services had to be stopped because of dilapidation. In the
following years the sacred building was renovated several times. The
last Sorbian service for the time being was held in 1881. In 1993
the demolition of the church was planned, but the building was
placed under monument protection and the facade was first renovated.
Church services have been held in Lower Sorbian again since 2010. A
sgraffito by the painter Günther Wendt from 1934 is attached to the
eastern gable wall. It depicts Jesus on the cross. The sgraffito is
damaged by bullets from the Second World War, these remain as a
warning.
The old town center is bounded by the historical
ring, which is formed from the Töpfer-, Salzmarkt-, Bader-, Ritter-
and Burglehnstraße. The oldest buildings in Senftenberg are on
Töpferstrasse.
To the south of the Altstadtring is the
Neumarkt, which was redesigned in 2004. It was converted from a
large car park into a small park with an artificial river, a small
playground and a fountain with bronze sculptures. The sculptures are
by Ernst Sauer. They were presented to the public in 1983 and were
to be set up as fountain games on the water on the south side of
Neumarkt from 1984. By building a transformer station at the planned
location, the fountain was to be built on the northeast side. The
planned heating route prevented this. The sculptures initially
remained on the property of the artist's family. In 2004, when
Neumarkt was redesigned, they were erected as a fountain ensemble,
deviating from the artist's original design. The sculptures were
cast in the Lauchhammer art foundry.
A part of the Senftenberg townscape was the Renaissance fortress,
which was converted into a modern fortification from the middle of
the 16th century until the 19th century. The fortress included the
castle building, a commanders' and armory (indicated floor plan),
the ramparts with postern and a secret waterfall, the casemates and
the powder tower on the ramparts. The earth wall with its four
bastions has been a building and ground monument since the end of
the 19th century. It is unique in its shape and layout and thus has
national status. The Senftenberg Castle and Fortress Museum is
housed in the castle. On the outside wall of the castle is a
memorial plaque for Hans von Polenz, the former bailiff of Lower
Lusatia. The restoration of the entire structure began in 1991. The
extensive construction and reconstruction measures were organized in
accordance with the ongoing museum and event operations. Despite the
renovation, various cultural events, concerts, lectures, museum
nights and festivals as well as large special exhibitions took
place. At the Glück-Auf-Festival of the Senftenberger Theater Neue
Bühne in the 2007/2008 season, the fortress was used as the venue
for the Fäuste production; so the Helenaakt from Faust II is
represented here. The castle building with its annexes was used
under Prussian rule as a school, rent office, court building and
prison.
Today the fortress is surrounded by an extensive
park, the castle park. From 1912, the palace gardens were laid out
during Mayor Kieback's tenure. For this purpose, the remains of the
former castle pond that surrounded the fortress were drained. The
park still has its original trees today. In the castle park there is
a memorial for gymnastics father Jahn, which was erected in 1911 by
the Germania gymnastics club, as well as a memorial for the victims
of fascism and militarism from 1962 by Ernst Sauer. The castle pond,
which is optically divided into a large and small pond by an arch
bridge, as well as an East Asian-looking pavilion make the castle
park look romantic. The ponds are fed by canals, some of which run
underground, which flow around the castle to the east and north from
the Black Elster.
The Senftenberg zoo is also located in the
castle park and is bounded by the ramparts of the fortress and the
Black Elster. On June 12, 1931, it was stocked with native animals,
including roe deer and fallow deer. The entrance consisted of a
semicircular half-timbered building with a hipped roof, which was
used as a material store during and after the Second World War. The
zoo was reopened on July 14, 1954. In 1957 the bear enclosure was
occupied by the two brown bears Puppi and Moritz. In 2012 the brown
bears were relocated to a wildlife park. The population of native
animals was supplemented by exotic specimens such as rhesus monkeys,
meerkats and leopards.
From an urban
planning perspective, the garden city of Marga in the Brieske
district is of particular importance. Marga is a factory estate with
a garden city character, which, due to its external appearance,
competes with the Dresden district of Hellerau as the first German
garden city. It was created between 1907 and 1915 as a high-quality
factory settlement for Ilse Bergbau AG. In her architectural design,
Marga is particularly influenced by Dresden reform architecture and
elements of the late Art Nouveau. The architect of the settlement
was Georg Heinsius von Mayenburg, 78 houses with around 15 different
house types were built in which officials and workers of Ilse
Bergbau AG lived.
The houses are grouped on a circular
settlement plan, in the center of which is a rectangular market
square, which is surrounded by a school, church, cemetery, inn and
commercial buildings. The buildings on the market are based on
models of small-town architecture, while the settlement houses are
more based on the motifs of rural and manorial architecture. The
settlement was placed under monument protection in 1985 and
renovated from 1998 to 2000.
Since 1994, the remains of the former Lehragksmühle have been set up
not far from the castle park on the Black Elster. These are the millet
pounding and parts of the oil gallery. The mill stood between Schipkau
and Schwarzheide from the beginning of the 17th century until 1955.
Originally, the Senftenberg office or castle mill was located at this
point, which was located directly on the former castle pond. At times,
the mill worked with up to ten water wheels and was an oil, grinding,
stamping, cutting, tanning and fulling mill. The year of construction is
unknown, it was built in stone as early as 1551. The residents of
Senftenberg and the villages of Brieske, Buchwalde, Bückgen
(devastated), Hörlitz, Jüttendorf, Großkoschen, Kleinräschen
(devastated), Klettwitz, Lauta, Meuro, Rauno (devastated), Reppist
(devastated), were forced to grind at this mill. Saalhausen, Sorno
(devastated), Sauo (devastated), Sedlitz and Thamm.
On the New
Cemetery on Briesker Strasse there is a memorial stone for 41 mostly
Polish forced laborers and a memorial for the resistance against the
Kapp putsch.
In the gym of the former secondary school (in the
GDR POS I Arthur-Wölk) on Schulstrasse, a plaque commemorates the
anti-fascist Arthur Wölk, who was imprisoned with other comrades in what
was then the SA protective custody camp.
The Senftenberg Castle and Fortress Museum is housed in the building
of the Senftenberg Castle. The exhibition uses finds and exhibits to
illuminate the lives of people in the Bronze Age, in the Middle Ages up
to the discovery of lignite and the beginning of industrialization. A
life-size model mine is shown in the museum. In 1907, Otto Mingau from
Senftenberg began collecting historical objects in the powder tower on
the castle's fortifications. In the 1930s, Mingau was given parts of the
palace for its collection by the city. After the Second World War, the
museum was reopened in 1950 and Otto Mingau became the first museum
director.
The sculpture "The Beggar" by Ernst Barlach is located
in the courtyard of the museum. There is also an oak trunk found near
Arnsdorf. The last recognizable annual ring is from the year 1163. The
year 1183 (± ten years) is assumed to be the year 1183 (± ten years) was
felled, making the oak trunk the oldest evidence of woodworking in the
region.
The gallery at the castle in the Polenzhaus with changing
exhibitions belongs to the museum. It is located not far from the castle
in the castle park. The Polenzhaus was built in 1937 on the occasion of
the 500th anniversary of the death of Hans von Polenz. With its simple
forms, the two-storey building is stylistically based on the Senftenberg
Castle; with a gable end tower, windows modeled on Renaissance windows
and an arcade. On the gable end, a sgraffito by Günther Wendt depicts
Hans von Polenz as the feudal lord of Lower Lusatia. In his hand he
holds a flag on which the Lower Lusatian bull is depicted.
In the
district of Großkoschen is the museum courtyard, a typical Senftenberg
four-sided courtyard from 1864. The farmstead is a listed building and
is one of the last and at the same time very well-preserved farmsteads
in the region. It gives an insight into the historical economic forms of
a farm around 1900. In addition to a large number of agricultural
implements, the daily work on the farm can also be experienced and
viewed. The cultivation of old crops such as flax, buckwheat, woad and
sparrow as well as the keeping of endangered breeds of domestic animals
and their use, e.g. beekeeping, are the focus. The farm includes a horse
gullet, a rural household mill and a bakery. The local historian Wilhelm
Ratthey noticed on his hikes in the Senftenberg area that special types
of farms are particularly common. He distinguished six different types.
The term Senftenberger Vierseitenhof comes from Ratthey. The farms were
mostly built between 1820 and 1880 and made of field stones. Their
massive and closed construction is also a striking sign. The four-sided
form consists of gatehouse, dwelling house and stable buildings; to the
rear it is closed by sheds or an attached barn.
The private
mining museum Niemtsch was opened on July 1, 1996 on the occasion of the
500th anniversary of Niemtsch. It was headed by Dieter Müller, who
collected contemporary mining objects during his 45 years of activity in
the brown coal mine. The collection includes around 1250 briquettes,
mainly decorative, special and ornamental briquettes. Among them are
valuable pieces and unique specimens, such as the first briquette from
the “Henkel” company from 1871. The collection also contains miners’
lamps, hoes and other miners’ utensils, as well as graphic
representations of mining production processes. In the meantime, the
mining museum has been closed. As soon as the city of Senftenberg has
found a suitable location, the collection will be exhibited there as a
loan.
In the former Briesker school building, the Heimatstube
"Gartenstadt Marga" was housed until 2008.
With an area of around 1300 hectares and good water quality, Lake
Senftenberg is a popular holiday and excursion destination for those
seeking relaxation and water sports enthusiasts. The motor ship Santa
Barbara (patron saint of miners) operates on the lake. The name of the
ship is a reminder that the lake was created from the former Niemtsch
opencast mine, where lignite was mined. The lake has been developed for
tourism with cycle paths. It is fed by the Black Elster. Since June 2013
there has been a navigable connection between Lake Senftenberg and Lake
Geierswald with the Koschen Canal. There is an island in Lake
Senftenberg which, as a nature reserve, may not be entered.
On
the Großkoschen shore of the lake, embedded in a pine forest, there is a
holiday park. It offers accommodation for around 2600 holidaymakers.
Numerous investments in the holiday park have resulted in new transport
links, 40 holiday homes, a reception building and a water slide. A water
sports center was built at the level of the former children's holiday
camp. A comfort campsite was created in Niemtsch.
On March 31,
2001, a 31.5 meter high sloping observation tower was erected on the
southern shore of Lake Senftenberg in the district of Hosena, directly
on the lakeside cycle path between Großkoschen and Niemtsch. It allows a
view of the lake, the interior of the island and Lower Lusatia. If the
visibility is good, the grandstands of the Lausitzring and the Kamenzer
mountains can also be seen.
On April 23, 2013, the city harbor on
Lake Senftenberg was opened after almost two years of construction. The
construction costs were 13 million euros.
Also in 2013, the
Koschen Canal was opened, which connects Lake Senftenberg with Lake
Geierswald and crosses under the Black Elster and federal highway 96 as
a ship tunnel.
The Senftenberg Theater New Stage Senftenberg was founded on October
21, 1946 as the Senftenberg City Theater in the gym of the "Walther
Rathenau" school on the orders of the first district and city commander,
the Soviet Colonel of the Guards Ivan Demjanovich soldat. In the years
that followed, it gained a good reputation as a miners' theater and was
a springboard for many well-known actors. In 1990 it received its
current name; In 1993 it was converted into a one-off theater. In 2005,
the magazine Theater heute voted it German theater of the year.
In May 2001, an amphitheater was opened in the district of Großkoschen
directly on Lake Senftenberg. It offers space for 600 spectators and
combines classic and modern elements. The semi-circular playing surface
and the sloping benches are designed in the style of the Greek theater.
It also has modern lighting, sound and stage technology. The 17 by 30
meter playing area and the balcony above the stage as an additional
playing area are well suited for spoken and musical theater. Plays,
stage shows and open-air concerts are performed during the summer
season.
As part of the straightening of the Black Elster, bathing areas were
set up on the river in the 1920s and 1930s. Due to the strong red
coloring of the magpie, these were no longer used. The pollution of the
river was often caused by the discharge of sewage from the Lauta
aluminum smelter. For this reason, bathing in the river was temporarily
prohibited as early as the 1930s. Demands for other swimming
possibilities were loud. The foundation stone for the swimming pool was
laid in May 1969. On October 7, 1970, today's adventure pool was
inaugurated as a public swimming pool with 25-meter lanes in the "dog
forest". The conversion to an adventure pool took place in the
mid-1990s. The adventure pool with outdoor pool, slides, solarium and
sauna was opened on December 14, 1996.
In the Snowtropolis ski
hall it is possible to do sports with skis and snowboards in summer and
winter. The slope is 130 meters long and has different gradients of up
to 25 degrees. Next to it is a bowling alley on 2 levels and a
multi-purpose hall for public ice skating (November-March) and tennis,
badminton and volleyball.
The Pegasus culture and leisure center
offers children and young people opportunities to spend their free time.
In addition to handicraft courses such as pottery, computer courses are
also offered. The leisure center has a fitness room and a rehearsal room
for young bands. The building was built in the 1950s as a pioneer house
and used by sports clubs and work groups. It was named after the
resistance fighter and older brother of Lotte Ulbricht Bruno Kühn. On
the front of the building there is a mosaic depicting Pegasus.
There is also the Club WK III, in which the association “The Cube” e. V.
has its registered office. This is a youth and leisure club that
organizes, among other things, the youth consecration celebrations in
Senftenberg.
In 1854 the youth choir was founded in Senftenberg by 18 young people. The men's singing club Frohsinn later developed from this club. This choral society is the forerunner of the miners' choir founded in 1911. Today this choir has about 40 members. During the performances, the singers wear their traditional miners' clothes. In addition to the miners' choir, there is the mixed chamber choir of the music school (founded in 1988) and the Senftenberg concert choir (founded in 1979), which also performs as a mixed group.
Every year on the last weekend in June, the Peter and Paul market
takes place on the market square in front of the town hall and in the
adjacent streets. For this purpose, sales stands from various dealers
from Senftenberg and the partner cities as well as stages for live
performances will be set up. The Peter and Paul market is the oldest
market in Senftenberg. It is dedicated to the two patron saints of the
town church, Peter and Paul. It used to be known as the Maiden's Market
because the maids for the coming year were selected during the market.
The Senftenberg pub festival takes place once a year. Numerous
Senftenberg inns, pubs and restaurants take part in this. A shuttle
service has been set up between the individual stations, which takes
visitors to the festival to the locations, some of which are far away
from each other. In recent years, however, this festival has suffered
from a sharp drop in visitors.
In December, the Christmas market
is held on the market square and in the adjacent streets.
Senftenberg is connected to the A 13 Berlin-Dresden via the
connection point Symbol: AS 15 Klettwitz - this is the connection point
at the Lausitzring. Two main roads run through the city:
B 96
Finsterwalde-Senftenberg-Hoyerswerda
B 169
Cottbus-Senftenberg-Elsterwerda
By train
Senftenberg station
is on the north-eastern outskirts of the city. There is an hourly
connection (RB) from Berlin via Königs Wusterhausen and Lübbenau. The RE
18 from Dresden and Cottbus stops in Senftenberg. It is also possible to
travel from Leipzig by changing trains in Ruhland.
By bicycle
Black Elster cycle path
1 Schlosspark-Center, Am Neumarkt 2-4, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone: +49
(0)3573 37410, fax: +49 (0)3573 374141, email:
info@schlosspark-center-senftenberg.de. Open: Mon - Fri 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.,
Sat 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
2 Kaufland, Briesker Str. 4, 01968 Senftenberg.
Tel.: +49 (0)3573 70620. Open: Mon – Sat 7 a.m. – 10 p.m.
3 REWE,
Bahnhofstrasse 40, 01968 Senftenberg. Tel.: +49 (0)3573 147045. Open:
Mon – Sat 7 a.m. – 10 p.m.
1 Himalaya, Steindammstrasse 5a, 01968 Senftenberg. Tel.: +49(0)3573
147031. Indian specialty restaurant. Open: Tue-Sun: 11am-2pm and
5pm-11pm, Mon: 5pm-11pm.
2 Restaurant Olympia, Bahnhofstrasse 42,
01968 Senftenberg. Tel.: +49(0)3573 798154, e-mail:
info@greek-restaurant-olympia.de. Greek kitchen. Open: daily 11.30 a.m.
– 2.30 p.m. + 5.30 p.m. – 11.30 p.m.
3 Kumpelklause restaurant,
Otto-Nuschke-Strasse 4, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone: +49(0)3573 61449, fax:
+49(0)3573 61462, email: info@kumpelklause-senftenberg.de. Home-style
German cuisine.
4 Niemtsch mill, Dorfstrasse 12, 01968 Seftenberg OT
Niemtsch. Tel.: +49(0)3573 661026, Fax: +49(0)3573 661026. Open: Tue –
Sun 11.30 a.m. – 4 p.m., Mon + Thurs are days off.
5 Restaurant & Ice
Cream Café "Pier 1", Steindamm 51, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone: +49(0)3573
810630, Fax: +49(0)3573 658767, Email: info@piereins.com. Large
selection of wines. Open: Restaurant: Mon + Tues are closed, Wed – Fri 2
p.m. – 10 p.m., Sat + public holidays 11.30 a.m. – 10 p.m., Sun 11.30
a.m. – 9 p.m.; Cafeteria: Mon – Fri 7 a.m. – 2 p.m.
6 Gaststätte
Heimatruh, Elsterstrasse 31, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone: +49(0)3573
793990, email: lapstich@gaststaette-heimatruh.de. Open: Mon + Tue are
days of rest, Wed, Thu + Sat 3 p.m. – 9 p.m., Fri 3 p.m. – 10 p.m., Sun
10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Mojito Cocktailbar & Restaurant, Brieskerstrasse 32, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone: +49(0)3573 8777560, email: info@mojito-senftenberg.de. Beer, long drinks or cocktails. Open: daily from 5 p.m.
Cheap
1 Pension Kiebeler, Dorfstr. 7, 01968 Senftenberg OT
Niemtsch. Phone: +49(0)3573 63098, fax: +49(0)3573 662606, email:
kontakt@pension-kiebeler.de. Feature: pension. Price: Overnight stay
possible from 40€.
Medium
2 Hotel Pension "Mandy" Senftenberg,
Kreuzstr. 27, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone: +49(0)3573-790058. Bed & Bike.
Open: daily: 07:00-18:00. Price: from € 40.00/50.00 (SR/DR).
3
Strandhotel Senftenberger See, Am See 3, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone:
+49(0)3573-800400. Price: from 52.00/68.00 (SR/DR).
4 Hotel
Kronprinz, Ernst-Thälmann Strasse 44, 01968 Senftenberg. Tel.:
+49(0)3573 808845. Beer garden available. Open: Italian restaurant 11:30
a.m. – 12:00 a.m. Price: Single room from €40, double room from €55.
Upscale
5 Hotel LéonWood, Steindamm 26, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone:
+49(0)3573 36300-0, fax: +49(0)3573 36300-333, e-mail:
info@hotel-lido-senftenberg.de. Europe's largest log house. Open:
Restaurant LIDO: Mon – Fri 5 p.m. – 11 p.m., Sat 11 a.m. – 11 p.m., Sun
11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Price: Single room from €69, double room from €110,
suites from €139.
Camping
6 Comfort Camping Senftenberger See,
Am Senftenberger See 10, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone: +49 (0)3573 800500.
Police station Senftenberg, Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 14, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone: +49 (0)3573 880.
Hospital
1 Klinikum Niederlausitz GmbH, Hospital Street 10, 01968
Senftenberg. Phone: +49 (0)3573 750, email:
info@klinikum-niederlausitz.de.
Pharmacies
2 City Hall
Pharmacy, Kreuzstrasse 1, 01968 Senftenberg. Phone: +49 (0)3573 796030,
fax: +49 (0)3573 796091, email: rathaus@apotheke-sfb.de. Open: Mon - Fri
8.00 a.m. - 6.30 p.m., Sat 8.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m.
3 Aramis Pharmacy,
Briesker Str. 4, 01968 Senftenberg. Tel.: +49 (0)3573 369022, fax: +49
(0)3573 369023, e-mail: service@aramisapotheke.de. Open: Mon - Sat 8
a.m. - 8 p.m.
4 Pharmacy on the lake, Fischreiherstrasse 2, 01968
Senftenberg. Tel.: +49 (0)3573 61030, Fax: +49 (0)3573 662968. Open: Mon
– Fri 8 a.m. – 6 p.m., Sat 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Senftenberg is located in the south of the federal state of
Brandenburg in the border region with Saxony. While the main town,
Brieske, Sedlitz and Groß- and Kleinkoschen are counted in Lower
Lusatia, Niemtsch, Peickwitz and Hosena are already in Upper Lusatia.
The city lies on the Black Elster and on Lake Senftenberg. Together with
Hoyerswerda, Senftenberg forms the core of the Lusatian Lake District.
This will be the largest artificial lake district in Europe with a total
extension of about 80 kilometers from west to east and between 32 and 40
kilometers from north to south (depending on the demarcation).
Senftenberg is about 40 kilometers southwest of Cottbus and about 60
kilometers north of Dresden.
The urban area is part of the
Ruhland-Königsbrücker Heide and thus belongs to the landscape of the
Oberlausitzer Heideland.
The Senftenberg neighboring towns and communities from the north-east
to the west and south belong to the district of Oberspreewald-Lausitz.
The northern neighboring town of Senftenberg is Großräschen, but
separated by the resulting Großräschener See. The municipality of New
Zealand borders the Altdöbern district in the north-east and the
municipality of Schipkau in the north-west. The neighboring town to the
west is Schwarzheide, to the southwest are the town of Ruhland and the
Ruhland district. Adjacent to the south is the municipality of
Hohenbocka, which also belongs to the Ruhland district.
To the
south-east and east there are already Saxon towns and communities in the
district of Bautzen, such as the community of Elsterheide with the
districts of Geierswalde and Klein Partwitz to the east and the town of
Lauta with its districts to the south-east. Geierswalde and Klein
Partwitz lie on the lakes named after them, the Geierswalder and the
Partwitzer See, which are created from former opencast mines.
The Senftenberg urban area is located on a sand-covered slab on the
greywacke mantle of the Lusatian granite massif. This greywacke comes
directly to the surface in some places and, together with the
Koschenberg, forms the highest elevation in the Elster lowlands.
Senftenberg is located in the Lusatian glacial valley of the Black
Elster, which is part of the Breslau-Magdeburg glacial valley. Since the
second half of the 19th century, open-pit mining activities have
completely transformed the landscape of this glacial valley and the
adjacent sander. The oldest rocks come from the young Precambrian and
are about 600 to 700 million years old. This is metamorphic greywacke at
a depth of 150 to 200 meters. Above this there is a strata gap spanning
the era from the Paleozoic to the Mesozoic. This is due to a lack of
sedimentation or to erosion. Above this are tertiary sediments in which
four lignite seams are stored. The youngest is the Lausitzer Oberflöz
(1st Lusatian seam horizon), which has already been completely mined
over the past 120 years. This seam had an average thickness of 22
meters. The Lusatian Unterflöz (2nd Lusatian Flözhorizont) has been cut
into a large number of fields by Pleistocene erosion by ice-age
meltwater. The 3rd Lusatian seam horizon is not very pronounced in the
Senftenberg area; partly it consists only of silt. The fourth and oldest
seam horizon is not mined due to its deep location. The Spremberg layers
(light-colored clay and coarse sand) were deposited above this seam
horizon. These formed as a result of the elevation and onset of
weathering in the Oberlausitzer Bergland. The material removed was
transported north into the Tertiary Sea that covered the area around
Senftenberg. The lignite silt (3rd seam horizon) lies above the
Spremberg strata and the Briesker strata above it. These are marine
sediments (mica sands) that are 30 to 40 meters high. These layers are
covered by the 2nd seam horizon, which ends with the Raunoer layers. The
Rauno layers consist of light-colored clay and quartz sand and were
created by renewed uplift in the Oberlausitzer Bergland further south.
Above this was the youngest coal seam, covered by Pleistocene sands 10
to 15 meters thick.
The town of Senftenberg includes the following districts, inhabited
parts of the municipality and residential areas (official Lower Sorbian
names in brackets):
Brieske (Brjazki)
Großkoschen (Kóšyna) with
the district Kleinkoschen (Kóšynka)
Hosena (Hóznja)
Niemtsch
(Nimjesk)
Peickwitz (Tśikojce)
Sedlitz (Sedlišćo)
In
addition, there are the residential areas of Expansion, Brieske Dorf
(Brjazki Wjas), Buchwalde (Bukojna), Hostenmühle (Hozdny Młyn),
Koboldmühle (Kobołtowy Młyn) and weekend home areas in Waldeck.
The former suburbs of Buchwalde, Jüttendorf (Wjaska), Thamm (Gat) and
Neusorge (Nowe Městko), which were incorporated until the middle of the
20th century, have merged with the urban area. The former residential
areas Brieske Ost (Brjazki Pódzajtšo), Laugkfeld (Ług), Peickwitz Flur
(Na Tśikojskich) and settlement (Sedlišćo) are also no longer officially
managed.
The city's name derives from the Middle High German word for "gently
on the mountain", since the city was surrounded by hills and mountains,
such as the Koschenberg in the southeast and the Raunoer mountains in
the north; a name transfer by the settlers is also conceivable.
An older explanation for the name of the city, but no longer considered
valid today, is the derivation of "sumpftenburg". The castle, under
whose protection the town developed, was surrounded by the Laugk and
Haag marshes. The rivers Black Elster, Storchelster and Wolschinka fed
the swamps, so that Senftenberg was surrounded by water and swamps like
an island.
The Sorbian name of Senftenberg is Zły Komorow. There
are two possible translations for this: “Bad mosquito place” and “Bad
chamber”. The first variant is due to the natural location of
Senftenberg in swampy areas and the associated high incidence of
mosquitoes (old Sorbian komor, komar = "mosquito"). Variant two derives
Komorow from chamber (sorb. komora, komorkaide) and in this case means
"place of jurisdiction" or "court".
As early as the Neolithic Age, people settled in the area around
Senftenberg and in the Elstertal. This is indicated by stone tools found
during excavation work in Schmiedestraße.
Finds of urns and
humpback urns (e.g. on the Koschenberg) indicate settlement during the
Bronze Age and early Iron Age (900 to 500 BC). During opencast mining in
1931, a ring wall with post houses from the last period of the early
Iron Age was discovered in the Laugk. The shards of settlement can be
assigned to the Billendorfer type. This settlement was continuously
inhabited by about 650 people. Alfred Götze from Berlin led the
excavations on the Senftenberg rampart.
Senftenberg was founded in the course of the German Ostsiedlung. The
settlement of Senftenberg developed under the protection of a castle
(today the palace of the fortifications) built by German knights. The
town lay to the west of the castle complex and was laid out according to
plan. It had a circular floor plan, the houses were arranged around the
trapezoidal market square. The Via Regia Lusatiae Inferioris
(Niederstraße) ran through Senftenberg from west to east. Since the city
was protected in the north and east by bodies of water (Schwarze Elster
and Storchelster) and swamps (e.g. the Laugk), the city wall ran south
and west of the city with a city gate each in the east and west. The
city gate in the west was called Kreuztor and the one in the east
Schlosstor. The name of the Kreuztor and the Kreuzstraße leading from it
to the market are derived from the chapel of the Holy Cross, which was
not far from the suburb of Jüttendorf.
The oldest documented
mention of Senftenberg can be found in a document signed on October 6,
1279. This is now in the Brandenburg Main State Archives in Potsdam. In
it, Margrave Heinrich the Illustrious certified the acquisition of the
village of Dobristroh from Otto von Schlieben for the Dobrilugk
monastery. The location of the place is given as between civitatem
Calowe et Sennftenberc. In 1301, Senftenberg was first referred to as
oppidum et castrum. The inhabitants lived mainly from arable farming,
fruit growing and viticulture as well as from fishing. The craftsmen
(potters, cooper, linen weavers and basket makers) mainly produced for
their own needs. The lowlands of the Black Elster only allowed low-yield
harvests. Therefore, the number of inhabitants in the Middle Ages was
only between about 300 and 400 inhabitants. The Senftenberg councilors
were first mentioned in 1423. The city was divided into quarters, each
quarter headed by a quarter master or councillor. He represented the
interests of his district before the council, ensured that the city
order was observed and took over the organization of his district in
fighting fires or defending the city.
In 1290, Johann and Konrad
von Senftenberg are named as the first owners of the castle. After a
short period of Brandenburg rule at the beginning of the 14th century,
the town of Senftenberg, like all of Lusatia, was considered a Bohemian
possession from 1368. At the beginning of the 15th century, Senftenberg
Castle was a nest of robbers under the lords of Penzig and Gorenz. In
1413 the bailiff and later pledgee (from 1422) of Lower Lusatia, Hans
von Polenz, took over the place with the entire margraviate. Hans von
Polenz had owned part of Senftenberg since 1406, putting an end to
robber baronship. When the Hussites invaded Lower Lusatia on their
campaigns, the town of Senftenberg was spared from looting in 1431. Hans
von Polenz' relative, Nickel von Polenz (who was the guardian of the
sons of the bailiff Hans von Polenz, who died in 1437), sold the town
and dominion of Senftenberg to the Wettin dynasty under Duke Friedrich
II in 1448. After this, the town belonged to Saxony for almost 400
years.
In 1453 the wife of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Meek
Margaretha of Austria Senftenberg confirmed the right to hold a fair
before Sankt Galli (October 16).
The Saxon electors had the old castle expanded into a more modern
defensive structure based on the Italian model under the magistrate Hans
von Dehn-Rothfelser and the Italian Count Rochus von Lynar.
The
Reformation in Senftenberg began in 1539. In 1550 the elector entrusted
the Saxon minister Georg von Carlowitz with the office of Senftenberg.
He had a wooden tube ride built that supplied the Senftenberg wells with
drinking water. The water came to Senftenberg from the vineyards north
of Senftenberg in the Soienza parcel near the town of Sauo. The tube
ride continued into the 19th century. The oldest surviving depiction of
Senftenberg and the castle dates back to 1628. It is a pen and ink
drawing made by the Saxon master builder Wilhelm Dilich.
In 1512,
a town hall was first mentioned as the seat of the district captain
Dehn-Rothfelser. The city fires of 1641 and 1670 destroyed this town
hall. After another town fire in 1717 damaged the town hall, which had
been newly built in 1680, its remains were removed in the same year and
a small, unadorned council building was erected. During the Thirty
Years' War, the castle gate and parts of the city wall had to be removed
by order of the elector in 1642 for strategic reasons.
In the
16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, numerous catastrophes hampered the
development of Senftenberg. Large fires (1509, 1512, 1525, 1530, 1641,
1670 and 1717) completely destroyed the city several times. The plague,
which u. erupted in 1567 and 1630, decimating the city's population. The
population suffered from the great wars of the time. During the Thirty
Years' War, Swedish troops billeted in Senftenberg. In 1641 there was a
small skirmish with the Swedes in the Soienza near Sauo, and 15
Senftenbergs died. In the years 1679 and 1686 the inhabitants suffered
from severe droughts. In the Great Northern War, troops were billeted
again, for example Russian troops in 1704/1705 and Swedish troops in
1706/1707. In the Seven Years' War, the city suffered again from
contributions and billeting; the worst was a three-day Prussian field
camp with 46,000 men on the Senftenberg Feldmark.
During the wars
of liberation, not far from the Old Cemetery, there was a reconnaissance
battle between hussars of the Freikorps Hellwig and troops of the French
Marshal Ney.
As a result of the Congress of Vienna, the House of Wettin lost the
Saxon office of Senftenberg to Prussia in 1815. At the end of the 19th
century and throughout the 20th century, the city experienced enormous
growth due to brown coal mining, which first took place underground and
then above ground. The Black Elster, with its diversity of species in
the floodplains, was forced into the north-flowing bed of the Sornoer
Elster as a result of opencast mining; due to the lowering of the
groundwater level, the marshy lowlands close to the groundwater were
drained.
During the separation, the plots of land in Senftenberg
were distributed in such a way that each farmer got a piece of arable
land, meadow and forest. The separation was completed under the tenure
of Mayor Moritz Blankenberg (term: 1845–1889). The fields were located
in the north-west and south-west of the city in the Windmill and Dubina
districts. The meadows were to the east and north-east of the city in
the swampy areas of the Laugk. The names of the parcels are partly of
Sorbian origin and refer to natural peculiarities, Dubina refers to a
place where oaks grow, and Laugk the call of frogs. The farmers cut peat
in the Laugk. It was criss-crossed by canals. With barges (similar to
the Spreewald barges) the farmers could transport their goods to the
market on these canals. The Senftenberg vineyards were located in the
north of the city. In addition to farmers, there were also craftsmen in
Senftenberg. The most commonly encountered craft was tanning. This was
due to the sheep farming practiced in Lower Lusatia and was also favored
by the large amounts of clean water that was needed for the tanning
trade. Because of the water, there were numerous dyers.
Around
1860 brown coal was discovered near Senftenberg. The Senftenberg mill
master Heinrich Schönerstedt had the Heinrich shaft sunk in April 1866.
The lignite was mined underground in the pillar quarry. In 1869, the
Henkelsche coal works Senftenberg acquired the shaft and other deposits
in the Rauno plateau. In the same year, the Emilia extraction tunnel of
the Henkelsche works went into operation. In the years that followed,
pits and briquette factories began to operate. With the development of
opencast mines, the civil engineering that had dominated until the First
World War lost its importance. In 1906, Ilse Bergbau AG opened up the
Marga opencast mine near Brieske and began mining lignite from the
Lausitzer Unterflöz.
In the 1870s, Senftenberg was connected to
the railway network due to the needs of opencast mining. The station
building was built in 1869 in the north of the city, so the city
expanded in this direction over the previous old town ring. The first
gardens were built on the Kreischaussee, which later became
Bahnhofstraße, which was expanded between 1852 and 1856, and residential
buildings were built some distance away. The adjacent Laugk was drained
by the laying of the Black Elster; thus further settlement land was
gained. At that time, Bahnhofsstraße was still surrounded by canals. In
1899 these ditches were filled in due to the receding groundwater. In
the years 1882/83 an imperial post office was built on Bahnhofstrasse.
In the 1920s, residential buildings were built on Bahnhofstrasse and
replaced the gardens. The street was planted with trees and developed
into a magnificent avenue. Due to the expanding city, the old city
fortifications had lost their importance and were gradually being
removed; for example, the cross gate was removed in 1848 because the
year before a wagoner got stuck in it with his wagon.
Under Mayor
Karl Ziehm (term: 1896-1913) the streets were paved; Senftenberg got a
connection to the gas network and a new water supply. In May 1910 the
courthouse was inaugurated. Mayor Emil Kieback (term of office:
1913-1917) planned the sewerage system, and his successor Albert Seedorf
(term of office: 1918-1930) implemented this project. The city bus
service was also set up under Seedorf and Senftenberg was connected to
the Berlin–Vienna telephone line. The area around Senftenberg Castle was
developed into a city park from 1912.
Industrialization and the
associated influx of foreign workers almost completely displaced the
previously dominant Sorbian language.
In 1928, the council
decided to expand the town hall, built in 1717, with a new building. The
tower button with a diameter of 35 centimeters was put on as early as
September 1928. The building was inaugurated on January 1, 1929.
Mayor Herrmann Lindemann (formerly SPD) had to resign on March 30,
1933, and Erich Beiche temporarily took over his post.
After the
incorporation of the western and northwestern suburbs of Jüttendorf and
Thamm, Senftenberg expanded to the southwest in the 1930s. The
Vogelsiedlung in the south-west and the Bei Kreuzchen settlement in the
west of the city were built. In the northeast of the city, the Hallesche
Pfännerschaft mined lignite in the drained Laugkfeld field.
At
the beginning of the National Socialist period, the SA set up the
Senftenberg concentration camp in the gymnasium of the former secondary
school on Schulstraße, where more than 265 opponents of the Nazis from
the KPD, the SPD and the trade unions were interned and tortured. On
November 9, 1938, in Senftenberg, as in many other German towns, Jewish
citizens were attacked and shops were looted. Some of the people were
herded onto the marketplace and were subjected to physical abuse and
insults. A tragic example is the lawyer Rudolf Reyersbach. He was
dragged from his house across Bahnhofstrasse to the market and kicked
while lying on the ground. As a result of the assault, he died at the
police station. In memory of him, the street where he lived was named
after him in GDR times. It still bears his name today. Others, like Saul
Rosenzweig, were deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
During the Second World War, a satellite camp of the Groß-Rosen
concentration camp was set up in the district of Großkoschen on the
Koschenberg site in 1944, occupied by 600 to 800 prisoners who lived
under inhumane conditions and had to dismantle downed airplanes and
airplane parts. The death rate was high. A memorial on the south side of
Lake Senftenberg has commemorated the dead since 1977.
At 5 p.m.
on April 20, 1945, Senftenberg, which had been declared a fortress, was
under Soviet artillery fire. At dawn on April 21, 1945, the Red Army
(1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Konev) entered the city. Senftenberg
was taken without a fight. Unfortunately, Soviet soldiers died in the
early morning darkness in the flooded opencast mines. The Soviet
commander ordered the food trade and distribution to be suspended for a
number of days equal to the number of Soviet soldiers who died. Ernst
Sauer created a memorial for the fallen Soviet soldiers on the west side
of the New Cemetery. It represents a flower protected by bayonets. The
effects of the war destroyed 53 buildings, including the tower dome of
the Peter and Paul Church. The Kreuzstrasse and the Bahnhofstrasse were
hardest hit by the war damage. Most of the houses on Bahnhofstrasse were
set on fire by prisoners of war who had been released and were now
returning home, out of anger at the reprisals they had suffered. During
the Second World War, 861 Senftenbergs died and 625 returned home as
invalids. Along with the Red Army, members of an initiative group of the
National Committee for Free Germany (the Ackermann Initiative Group)
also came to Senftenberg. It was the German anti-fascists Hans Weiß and
Rudolf Rutzen who immediately took over the management of the city
administration and established an anti-fascist-democratic order in
Senftenberg.
Immediately after the Second World War, the Senftenberg family began
rebuilding the partially destroyed town. Two kindergartens opened on
June 1, 1945, and the first schools opened in October. The working
capacity of the deliberately flooded opencast mines was restored and
lignite could be mined again as early as December 1945. Cultural life
was revived; The Senftenberg City Theater (later renamed the Miners'
Theater) was founded in 1946 on the orders of the first district and
city commander, the Soviet Colonel of the Guard Ivan Demjanowitsch
Soldierow, in the gymnasium and auditorium of the Walther-Rathenau
School. In particular, Hans Weiß, City Councilor for Culture at the
time, made a valuable contribution to the founding and the first steps
of the theatre. The theater ensemble resorted to the former Senftenberg
amateur drama group. In 1947, the Mining Engineering School was founded,
later the Engineering School for Mining and Energy "Ernst Thälmann",
which still exists today as the Brandenburg Technical University of
Cottbus-Senftenberg. On March 24, 1946, the two workers' parties, KPD
and SPD, united to form the SED in the Senftenberg Society House.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the city of Senftenberg expanded to the
west. New residential areas developed around the engineering school;
Further residential areas were built in the direction of Brieske around
today's Bertolt-Brecht-Strasse and Johannes-R.-Becher-Strasse.
In
1950, Senftenberg became the district town of the district of Calau,
which was renamed the district of Senftenberg. With the creation of the
districts in 1952 and the reorganization of the districts, Senftenberg
and the district of the same name belonged to the district of Cottbus.
Lignite mining remained an industrial engine. Some parts of the city to
the north and neighboring towns (such as Rauno, Reppist and Sauo) were
dredged in the course of brown coal mining. Not far from the former
Laugkfeld, new apartments were built for the residents of these
devastated places. The charred open-pit mines were recultivated, so in
1962 the 1.2-hectare dump was planted with trees.
Due to the
mining of lignite and the associated influx of workers, Senftenberg
experienced a sharp increase in population. In the 1970s and 1980s,
numerous other new development areas, polytechnic secondary schools,
kindergartens and crèches emerged. Between 1980 and 1986 houses with a
total of 3055 apartments were built. These were the residential areas
"Am See" in the southwest of the city and "Süd" in the south. However,
the expansion to the south was limited by the emerging Senftenberg Lake.
Due to the decline in population after the political change, however,
the housing companies are forced to dismantle or renovate a large number
of these apartments.
In 1976 the old town hall building was
demolished, only the new building from 1928 remained. The open space was
used as a green space. The various parts of the city administration were
spread all over the city until the 1990s when a modern new town hall was
built. On August 7, 1996, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new
building of this modern town hall took place.
The peaceful
demonstrations in the fall of 1989 began on October 25, 1989 on the
property of the Catholic Church.
On June 18, 1990, Klaus-Jürgen
Graßhoff took office as the first freely elected mayor since 1933.
Since the district reform in 1993, Senftenberg has been the district
town of the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district.
In 1999, the Meuro
opencast mine was the last opencast mine in Senftenberg to cease coal
production. The district and university town of Senftenberg is currently
trying to develop into the tourist center of the Lusatian Lake District.
In 2004 the city celebrated its 725th anniversary.
In 2009, the
city was awarded the title of “Place of Diversity” by the federal
government.
At the end of July 2018, a used tire store started to
burn in two places and developed a major fire over an area of 5000 m².
With the expansion of the city of Senftenberg in the course of
industrialization at the beginning of the 20th century, the upstream
towns were incorporated. A second wave of incorporation was due to the
renewed growth of Senftenberg, when the city developed into the energy
center of the GDR in the 1970s. The third and last wave of incorporation
took place in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as both Senftenberg and
the surrounding towns were struggling with declining population numbers.
One of the aims was to streamline administration.
around 1920:
Incorporation of Neusorge
1920: Incorporation of Thamm
1923:
Incorporation of Jüttendorf
July 1, 1950: Incorporation of Buchwalde
January 1, 1974: Incorporation of Hörlitz, Rauno and Reppist (May 6,
1990 spin-off of Hörlitz/Senftenberg-West)
March 1, 1997:
Incorporation of Sedlitz
December 31, 2001: Incorporation of the
communities of the office Am Senftenberger See - Brieske, Großkoschen
with the community part Kleinkoschen, Hosena, Niemtsch and Peickwitz.
From the second half of the 19th century there was rapid population growth. This was triggered by the influx of workers as a result of lignite mining, industrialization and the associated economic upswing. The political decision in the GDR in the 1970s to use lignite as the main source of energy also led to a further surge in population. However, since German reunification in 1990, lignite has lost its previous importance. As a result, the city had to face a massive structural change. Many residents left their homes. Due to the integration of surrounding villages in the course of municipal reform, the number of inhabitants rose significantly in 2001.
Lower Lusatian dialect is spoken in Senftenberg, which belongs to the Lusatian dialects, which in turn are part of the East Central German dialect group. Up to the end of the 19th century, alongside the German language, Sorbian (Senftenberg dialect) was the language of the simple rural population and the inhabitants of the surrounding villages. With the progress of industrialization, the language was almost completely supplanted. In 1880 the last Lower Sorbian sermon took place in the Wendish Church. However, the language was preserved in designations for field and place names (e.g. swamp areas Laugk, Mutzk and Haag; river names Schwarze Elster; place names Großkoschen, Hosena, Brieske). Bilingual signage was also common in Senftenberg up until the 1980s. In 2010 the first Lower Sorbian service took place after 130 years. Since 2013 there has been a local group of the Domowina in Senftenberg, which is dedicated to maintaining the Sorbian language and culture in the town. Since 2017, the city has again belonged to the official settlement area of the Sorbs/Wends in Brandenburg.
Senftenberg was Catholic until the Reformation. Under Duke Henry the
Pious, the Protestant faith was introduced in Senftenberg in 1539, as it
was in all parts of Albertine Saxony. The main evangelical church was
the Peter-Paul-Kirche on the market, which was called the German Church
to distinguish it from the Wendish Church.
Only with
industrialization and the associated influx of industrial workers from
other areas did the proportion of the Catholic population increase. The
first Catholic service after the Reformation was held on November 20,
1887 in what was then the Hotel Baranius, not far from the train
station. Soon after, an interim Catholic church was consecrated in the
north of the city on Calauer Strasse. When this also soon became too
small, construction of a new church began. Due to the devaluation of the
currency, however, construction was delayed and the Catholic Church of
St. Peter and Paul was consecrated on May 25, 1925 by the Wroclaw
auxiliary bishop Valentin Wojciech.
In 1900, 4,455 Protestants,
912 Catholics and six Jews lived in Senftenberg.
In addition to
the two large churches, there is an Evangelical Free Church in
Senftenberg, the fellowship of the Seventh-day Adventists, the regional
church fellowship and the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church
(SELK). The SELK church is not far from the old cemetery in the former
suburb of Jüttendorf. It was consecrated in 1900 as an old Lutheran
church. When this church was built it stood in an open field, today it
is surrounded by prefabricated buildings.
Today about 2300
Protestants live in Senftenberg, which corresponds to about 8% of the
population. Senftenberg belongs to the deanery of Lübben-Senftenberg of
the Catholic Diocese of Görlitz. There are no Jewish or Muslim
communities in Senftenberg.
1990-2007: Klaus-Jürgen Grasshoff (CDU)
2007-2023: Andreas
Fredrich (SPD)
since 2023: Andreas Pfeiffer (CDU)
Graßhoff left
office in 2007 when he reached retirement age. A new mayor was elected
on October 15, 2006. Since none of the applicants achieved the required
number of votes, there was a run-off election on November 12, 2006
between Andreas Fredrich (SPD) and Elke Löwe (Die Linke.PDS). Fredrich,
the city's first deputy to date, was elected with 73.6% of the valid
votes. He took office in February 2007.
On September 14, 2014,
Fredrich was confirmed in office for a further eight years with 76.6% of
the valid votes. His only challenger René Markgraf (CDU) achieved 23.4%.
Voter turnout was 50.5%. Fredrich did not stand in the 2022 mayoral
election. In the mayoral runoff on October 9, 2022, Andreas Pfeiffer
(CDU) was elected the new mayor with 54.4% of the valid votes; he took
office on February 1, 2023.
The coat of arms was approved on January 21, 2002.
Blazon:
“Quartered by silver and red; Field 1: crossed diagonally a black mallet
and a black iron, field 4: a red flag waving to the left.”
Mallets and irons point to Senftenberg's history as a mining town. On
old coats of arms, a five-pointed red crown adorns the shield. This
crown is said to represent the miner's crown, which was part of miners'
clothing. However, this crown does not conform to the rules of heraldry
and has therefore been removed.
The oldest seal of Senftenberg is
a speaking seal, it shows two mustard plants growing to the left and
right of a mountain or hill. In 1423, the Senftenberg councilors were
allowed to use their own seal for the first time. After Senftenberg
became part of Saxony in 1449, new seals were introduced. The large city
seal depicts a tower with a closed portcullis, and a lion sits on the
upper floor. On the tower roof there is a flag with the crossed Saxon
electoral swords as a symbol for the office of archmarshal. A flag with
swords is depicted on the small secret seal. These two seals were used
until 1947. Today's coat of arms goes back to a drawing by the then
second mayor and city councilor for culture, Hans Weiß, from 1946.
However, this still contained the miner's crown, which is no longer part
of the coat of arms.
The town of Senftenberg was originally a small, unimportant farming
town with regional handicrafts (especially tanners and dyers). In the
18th century, Senftenberg gained importance as a trading post between
the cities in northern Germany (Magdeburg, Lüneburg and Hamburg) and
Silesian-Bohemian regions. In the 18th and 19th centuries, viticulture
was a regionally important branch of the economy. From the middle of the
19th century, the farming town became a medium-sized industrial town.
The city developed quickly and underwent major structural changes in the
19th century, mainly due to the discovery of the lignite deposits and
the associated connection to the railway network in 1869. Farmers were
increasingly displaced by industrial workers. Opencast mines and
briquette factories became important employers. After the two world
wars, the industrial structure of the city has not changed
significantly. Lignite mining and processing made Senftenberg the energy
center of the GDR. With the political turnaround, the entire industrial
structure of the city changed with the collapse of lignite mining. In
autumn 2005, Senftenberg, together with the towns of Finsterwalde,
Großräschen, Lauchhammer and Schwarzheide, was identified as a regional
growth center (RWK) West Lusatia in the state of Brandenburg. The metal
and electrical industry, the media and information and communication
technology sectors and the service sector are economically influential.
In recent years, small and medium-sized companies have been able to
develop in the Senftenberg region alongside lignite mining. However, due
to the decline in lignite mining and the associated branches of
industry, the unemployment rate (2008: around 22%) is relatively high
compared to the German average of less than 10%. The largest employers
and clients in the region are Vattenfall Europe Mining AG, the Lausitzer
Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH (LMBV) with its
headquarters in Senftenberg, and the mining rehabilitation and landscape
design company Brandenburg GmbH (BUL).
In the succession and
recultivation of the opencast mines, water landscapes were created with
Lake Senftenberg as the center in the Lusatian Lake District, which made
it possible for Senftenberg to distinguish itself as a tourist center in
Lower Lusatia. As a project within the International Building Exhibition
Fürst-Pückler-Land, Senftenberg was converted into SeeStadt, including a
harbor on the Senftenberg shore of the lake.
Senftenberg has been
developed for tourism by regional and national cycle paths. One of the
nationwide is the Tour Brandenburg, with 1111 kilometers the longest
long-distance cycle path in Germany. The 500 km long Fürst-Pückler-Weg
and the 510 km long Lower Lusatia Mining Tour lead past old opencast
mines, industrial culture and new landscapes. A cycle path with a length
of 17.7 km leads around the Senftenberg lake. The Black Elster Cycle
Route, which runs through southern Brandenburg and parts of Saxony and
Saxony-Anhalt, connects Senftenberg and Lake Senftenberg with industrial
monuments and sights along the Black Elster. Senftenberg is on the
northern route of the Wettiner Fürstenstrasse holiday route.
Viticulture came to a standstill around Senftenberg in the 18th century
due to severe frost and for economic reasons. At the beginning of the
1980s, the last overgrown vineyards were swallowed up by lignite mining
in Lusatia. The post-mining landscape was later partially cultivated for
viticulture, for example for the municipality of Rauno, which was
excavated by mining in 1982.
The Sparkasse Niederlausitz is
located directly at the Senftenberg market. It was created in the course
of the Brandenburg district reform through the merger of the district
savings banks in Calau and Senftenberg. Around 350 people are currently
employed. The Sparkasse building was inaugurated in 1999. The first
savings bank in Senftenberg was inaugurated on April 1, 1852.
The
drinking water supply and waste water disposal is carried out by the
Lausitz Water Association (WAL). The association, founded in 1992, is
based in Senftenberg in the immediate vicinity of Lake Senftenberg and
supplies more than 100,000 residents in over 20 communities (as of
2007). The WAL building was rebuilt in 2007/2008 and a cafeteria was
created, which can also be used as a restaurant by holidaymakers and
guests. The drinking water for Senftenberg is pumped from the waterworks
in Tettau at a depth of 20 to 30 meters.
In October 2006, what
was then the largest biogas plant in Germany with an output of 3
megawatts was built in Senftenberg, working exclusively on the basis of
renewable raw materials. The biogas plant can be fed with maize or
grain.
In addition to municipal companies such as Kommunalen
Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH Senftenberg and Stadtwerke Senftenberg GmbH,
other medium-sized companies include ECOSOIL Ost GmbH and Thyssen-Krupp
Industrieservice GmbH in Brieske. Arvato Direct Services GmbH is located
in the building of the former Waldschmidt department store at the
Bahnhofstrasse crossing. In the GDR era, the building housed the Magnet
department store and, after the reunification, Multistore, among other
things. Arvato currently has around 440 employees in Senftenberg.
Senftenberg is on the federal highways 96 and 169. The new
construction of the B 169 was opened on September 22, 2008. The road
runs northwest past Senftenberg as a bypass road. Planning began in 1993
and construction began in September 2003. The cost of building the new
13-kilometer bypass was 76 million euros. 87% of it runs over compacted
dumping ground (16 million cubic meters), including over the southern
edge hose of the former Meuro opencast mine. The nearest motorway
junction is Klettwitz on the A 13 Berlin-Dresden. It is about 8
kilometers to the west.
The city is the railway junction of the
Lübbenau-Kamenz railway and the Grossenhain-Cottbus railway and formerly
the Finsterwalde-Schipkau railway. In passenger transport, Senftenberg
is a category 5 regional station.
The station is served by the
following regional express and regional train lines:
RE 7
Dessau-Berlin-Senftenberg
RE 18 Cottbus-Dresden
RB 49 Falkenberg
(Elster)–Cottbus
The trains on these lines also stop at Sedlitz
Ost. Hosena station is served by the RE 15 Hoyerswerda-Dresden line and
the S 4 Wurzen-Leipzig-Hoyerswerda line. It has a marshalling yard for
freight traffic.
In 1869 the first station building of the
Senftenberg station was built; In 1870, the first train on the
Cottbus-Großenhain line ran via Senftenberg. On May 1, 1874, the second
Lübbenau–Kamenz line was put into operation, operated by the
Berlin-Görlitzer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft. These two private railways
operated two separate station buildings. Because of the removal of the
coal from the opencast mines, the rail network was expanded in the
following years, among others by the Schipkau-Finsterwalder
Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft. As a result of these expansions and the
double-track route, the station's entrance building was rebuilt and
expanded several times, the last time in 1927 in connection with the
laying of the tracks. Due to the lignite mining in opencast mining, some
railway lines in the city area were relocated several times. In November
1987, the route was electrified in Senftenberg, and since 1990 all
routes from Senftenberg have been operated electrically. The entrance
building of the train station and the bus station in front of it were
renovated and expanded after 1990.
There are three city bus
routes in the city of Senftenberg. The districts are connected to the
urban area via regional bus lines operated by OSL Bus GmbH.
Senftenberg is one of three municipalities in the state of Brandenburg
that have been selected as model cities for environmentally friendly
transport. Several kilometers of road in Senftenberg have already been
completely renovated and the bicycle and pedestrian network has been
renewed and expanded. The traffic planning envisages a complex
environmental network in order to achieve traffic calming in the entire
city area.
The town's streets are listed in the list of streets
in Senftenberg.
The management of the Oberspreewald-Lausitz protection area is based
in Senftenberg on Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse. The Senftenberg police
station of the Brandenburg police is housed in the same building.
The Senftenberg fire brigade is located on Briesker Strasse. The
reconstructed and expanded building was handed over in early 2008. A
total of 50 firefighters (as of December 2007) are on duty here, 25 of
them full-time. Fire-fighting trains and groups have been set up in the
incorporated districts.
Before the voluntary fire brigade was
founded, the citizens of Senftenberg were obliged to fight fires. To do
this, every homeowner had to have a fire escape, two fire buckets and a
hand sprayer. The ladder house for the community's particularly long
fire escapes stood near the former hospital, and later a new building
was erected on the wall on the Black Elster near the east promenade. The
volunteer fire brigade was founded on April 19, 1878, and April 1, 1878
was set as the foundation date. The volunteer fire brigade also had a
gymnastics department. Up until the mid-1880s, gymnastics was used
regularly for the physical training of the comrades. When the gymnasts
and the fire brigade separated, there was a dispute about the club flag.
The flag was awarded to the gymnasts by court. In 1898 the ladder
collapsed, so the city decided to build a new fire depot. The border
between Jüttendorf and Senftenberg was chosen as the location. The
foundation stone was laid on April 20, 1899. The new depot received a
hose washing facility as well as a riser and drying tower. Already on
July 11, 1899, the building with eleven vehicles could be occupied. On
May 10, 1921, a commemorative plaque for 16 comrades who died in World
War I was installed on the west side of the building. Until the end of
the First World War, the fire brigade was mainly used to fight fires in
the coal mines. The first major fire was fought from August 4th to 9th,
1900 in an opencast mine fire in the Ilse mine in Rauno, when a 25 to 27
meter thick coal seam burned. During GDR times, the building was
expanded to include an additional building and was used as a police
station. After reunification, parts of the district office were housed
here, and later a youth club. The supplementary building was dismantled
and the old, listed fire brigade depot was renovated. A pub with an
internet café was set up in the building. Today a hairdresser is housed
in the former depot.
The district court of Senftenberg was
initially located in Senftenberg Castle. In 1910 it moved to a building
with a mansard roof and an attached turret not far from the Wendish
Church; the Storchelster flowed between the two buildings. The prison
cells were also located in the new building. The Senftenberg Labor Court
was dissolved on January 1, 2012. It was located in the administration
building of the Schlossparkcenter multi-storey car park. His duties were
taken over by the Cottbus Labor Court.
On July 18, 1930, the
foundation stone was laid for the Senftenberg employment office in what
was then Wiesenstrasse (today Joachim-Gottschalk-Strasse). The sober,
clearly structured building was ready for occupation on February 5,
1931. Later the building was the seat of the music school and the health
department. After the political change, the employment office moved to
Spremberger Straße. Since this accommodation no longer met the
requirements, a new building was erected in the late 1990s in the
immediate vicinity of the station.
The district office of the
Oberspreewald-Lausitzkreis has its seat in the district town of
Senftenberg in the former mining house of the Niederlausitzer
Bergbauverein e. V. This building, erected in 1924, was the district
headquarters after 1945 and then the seat of the district council.
Today in Senftenberg there is a high school
(Friedrich-Engels-Gymnasium), two high schools
(Dr.-Otto-Rindt-Oberschule and Bernhard-Kellermann-Oberschule) and four
elementary schools (one of them in Hosena), an upper school center
(Oberstufenzentrum Lausitz) as well a special school.
The oldest
school building is south of Neumarkt. It was built in 1899 and
inaugurated on September 1, 1899 as elementary school I. In the time of
the GDR, the POS I Artur Wölk, named after the first mayor of
Senftenberg after the Second World War, was housed here, and after the
political change the secondary school was housed here. After the
secondary schools in Brandenburg were dissolved and Senftenberg schools
were merged, the building is now used by clubs and other institutions.
When the capacity of elementary school I was no longer sufficient due to
population growth, elementary school III was built in 1909 in the north
of the city on Calauer Straße to relieve the strain. In 1913 it was
extended by six classes with an extension. In GDR times, the POS III
Anton Saefkow was housed here. Today the Dr. Otto Rindt High School is
located here. School II was the school for Catholic children, which was
located on the premises of the Catholic Church. In 1895, the higher
girls' school was opened on the east promenade.
In GDR times,
nine polytechnical high schools (POS) and one advanced high school (EOS)
were built in Senftenberg as part of the population increase and urban
development. After reunification, the grammar school, the junior high
school, and the comprehensive and elementary schools were set up in
these school buildings. Due to the decline in students, several schools
were merged around 2000 and school buildings (former POS V Otto
Grotewohl and IX Ho Chi Minh) were dismantled.
Until the
2008/2009 school year, the Senftenberger Gymnasium was housed at two
locations, separated into secondary levels I and II. Classes 12 and 13
were taught in the building of the former EOS Friedrich Engels on
Rudolf-Harbig-Strasse in the immediate vicinity of the Brandenburg
Technical University of Cottbus-Senftenberg; the lower secondary level
(grades 7 to 10) and the 11th grade in the building of the former POS
VII Adolf Hennecke in Fischreiherstrasse. This building was modernized
and converted in the 1990s while the school was still in operation. It
was given the shape of a ship, the basement was uncovered and converted
into the ground floor. In 2004, a new sports hall was also handed over.
The ship shape of the school building was chosen because the grammar
school is located directly on Lake Senftenberg. The grammar school was
given the name Friedrich Engels in reference to the former EOS; The
choice was still the name Gymnasium Am See.
From 1913 to 1932 the
grammar school was housed in the palace. As early as 1922 it was given
the name Walther Rathenau, as the first school in Germany. In 1932 a new
building for the grammar school was built in the Bauhaus style by the
Berlin architects Taut and Hoffmann (Bruno and Max Taut). The building
is a clearly structured construction made of traditional materials
(clinker). It consists of two building parts joined together at right
angles with a lower-lying schoolyard. The school retained the name
Walther-Rathenau School until 1933, when it was renamed the Hindenburg
School. Today the Walther Rathenau elementary school is located in the
building. In GDR times, the POS II Hans Beimler was housed here.
In addition, there is the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district adult education
center and two music schools in Senftenberg. The district adult
education center was founded on December 1, 1919 as the adult education
center in Senftenberg. The students have the opportunity to take their
Abitur or lower secondary level. In addition to foreign languages,
natural sciences and computer science are offered. The music school of
the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district offers both broad and gifted support.
In addition to Cottbus, Senftenberg is a location of the Brandenburg
Technical University of Cottbus-Senftenberg. The Lausitz University of
Applied Sciences (HSL) (University of Applied Sciences) was founded in
1991 and merged with the Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus in
2013 to form the Brandenburg Technical University of
Cottbus-Senftenberg, thus ending its existence as an independent
university. It has one campus each in Senftenberg and Cottbus. The range
of subjects offered ranges from numerous engineering disciplines to
social and economic subjects to music. A mining engineering school was
founded in Senftenberg as early as 1947. Due to a lack of space, lessons
were held in many places in the city, for example in the restaurant Zum
Löwen. In 1954 the main building of the college was completed. The
engineering school for mining and energy “Ernst Thälmann” emerged from
the mining engineering school. In front of the main building is a
larger-than-life stoneware miner sculpture by Dorothea von Philipsborn.
The front is decorated with a sgraffito showing the history of mining.
This was created by Günther Wendt and Hubert Globisch. In the 1990s and
2000s, the university was reconstructed and new laboratory buildings
were completed, such as the biotechnology laboratory in 2007 for 15.4
million euros and the computer science laboratory in 2008.
The
Senftenberg Planetarium was located in the immediate vicinity of the
university. It was inaugurated on September 10, 1966 and was the first
planetarium in the Cottbus district. In the eight-meter dome was a
projection device ZKP 1 from Carl Zeiss Jena, which enabled the display
of every degree of latitude of the starry sky (including the southern
hemisphere) at any time of the day. The planetarium closed in 2015 due
to a lack of funds.
In 1992, the city library, which had
previously been spread over several locations, was brought together in
one building in the hospital street. Over 50,000 (as of 2006) books,
magazines and data carriers can be borrowed.
Since the 15th century there have been bathhouses and hospitals in
Senftenberg to care for the sick. In 1867 a hospital was founded on the
moat in Senftenberg. Since this no longer met the requirements over
time, Mayor Blankenburg decided to build a new hospital. The foundation
stone was laid on October 12, 1888. On November 3, 1890, the hospital
was handed over to the Elisabeth Hospital and Deaconess House in Berlin.
A side wing was added as early as 1906 and an extension was completed in
1924 to accommodate the increased number of residents. Numerous
modernizations took place during the GDR era, and an intensive care unit
was set up in 1978. Klinikum Niederlausitz GmbH was founded on October
1, 1992 with its three clinical areas in Klettwitz, Lauchhammer and
Senftenberg. Since the hospital no longer met the requirements, a
partial new building and expansion was planned. On June 4, 1998, the
foundation stone for the new hospital building in Senftenberg was laid
by the then Minister Regine Hildebrandt. The construction was funded
with 53 million DM by the state of Brandenburg, around 6 million DM by
the district of Oberspreewald-Lausitz. Emergency care, endoscopy, the
X-ray department, the operating wing, the intensive care unit, the
laboratory and four wards with 122 beds are newly created. In addition,
cafeterias and a kiosk were created. The construction work was completed
in the summer of 2008. In the course of the construction work, the main
entrance was relocated, and the outdoor facilities were designed in the
shape of the former park. The historical structure of the old building
was left as is. In the entrance hall of the new building is the work of
art by Vinzenz Wanitschke "St. Barbara", the patron saint of miners.
Today the clinic has two locations in Senftenberg and Lauchhammer.
On January 3, 1956, the polyclinic on Dorothea-Erxleben-Strasse was
inaugurated and in 1979 the district polyclinic in the newly built
residential area by the lake. Since 1992, these two institutions have
been combined as a medical facility GmbH. In addition to resident
doctors of various disciplines, there is also a specialist practice for
diagnostic radiology and practices for physiotherapy and speech therapy.
At "Höhe 304" there was a ward for lung diseases.
Senftenberg
is an ADAC air rescue base. The rescue helicopters Christoph 33 and
Christoph Brandenburg are stationed in the north of the city on
Ackerstrasse.
On July 1, 1875, the first edition of the Senftenberger Anzeiger was
published. The publisher of the newspaper was Friedrich Pelz. He was
supported by the district administrator from Calau and by his uncle, the
mayor of Blankenburg. On January 1, 1882, Pelz joined forces with the
book printer Carl Georg Grubann from Ruhland. After that, the
circulation figures of the Senftenberger Anzeiger increased. In 1924,
the new premises in Laugkstraße were occupied. The company was
expropriated in 1945 and the owners Georg and Edmund Grubann were sent
to a labor camp, where Georg Grubann died. The newspaper continued to be
published. The term Lausitzer Rundschau was first used in 1952. The
Lausitzer Rundschau appears daily with regional editions in Senftenberg.
The private regional station seenluft24 can be received in
Senftenberg via the cable network. The station's office is in
Senftenberg.
For some films Senftenberg partly served as a
backdrop:
1969: "Unknown Citizens", DFF, director: Ulrich Thein
1996: "America" (TV), with Sophie von Kessel, directed by Ronald
Eichhorn
2002: "Theater landscapes", new stage Senftenberg with
Esther Schweins, director: Matthias Schmidt,
2006: "La Isla Bonita -
Army of Silence", with Dieter Hallervorden, directed by Roland Lang
On October 31, 1959, the Aktivist sports hall was inaugurated as the
largest self-supporting hall in Europe. The running tracks are 250
meters long. The first competitions took place on natural soil. A tartan
surface was only laid in the sports hall in 1971/72, and the curves were
also raised during these construction measures. Since the 1970s, the GDR
indoor championships in athletics have been held in Senftenberg. The
sports hall has been called Niederlausitzhalle since the 1990s. In
addition to sporting events, cultural events and exhibitions are held
there. Since January 1, 2005, the hall has been managed by TSV
Senftenberg. Previously there had been heated discussion about closing
the hall for cost reasons. The current German indoor record in the
women's 60-meter run was set on February 16, 1985 with 7.04 seconds by
Marita Koch in what was then the activist sports hall.
The sports
facility on Briesker Straße has a bowling alley in addition to the
soccer field with running tracks. This was completed in 1970 and is
suitable for international competitions.
A well-known Senftenberg
sports club is the football club FSV 'Glück Auf' Brieske/Senftenberg e.
V., who played as BSG Franz Mehring Marga, BSG activist Brieske-Ost and
SC activist Brieske-Senftenberg from 1949 to 1963 in the GDR Oberliga
and after 1991 in the NOFV Oberliga. The SV Senftenberg bowlers, the HSV
Senftenberg handball players and the RSV Großkoschen cycling players are
also known nationally. On July 1, 2008, the football clubs VfB
Senftenberg and Fortuna Senftenberg merged to form Senftenberger FC 08.
The new club is based in the sports facility on Briesker Strasse, which
SFC '08 manages together with SV Senftenberg. In addition, SFC '08
manages the "Michael-Bautz-Sportpark" on Rudolf-Harbig-Strasse, which
was called "Fortuna-Sportpark" until June 30, 2008. The stadium was
built in 1963 for what was then the engineering school. The new club is
active with two men's teams, one each in the state class south, and 1st
district class. The greatest success of the young club is the two-time
district cup win in Senftenberg, as well as the district championship
title in 2010 with promotion to the state class South. Other Senftenberg
football clubs are Elastisch Senftenberg 94 and Blau-Gelb Hosena.
The first district and town commander of Senftenberg after 1945, the
Soviet Colonel Ivan Demjanovich soldat, was awarded honorary citizenship
in 1978 for his services to the development of the town, including the
construction of the Senftenberg Theater.
On April 3, 2000, the
music director of the Senftenberg Theater, Kurt Natusch, became an
honorary citizen of Senftenberg. Natusch was born in Senftenberg. On
October 10, 2000, Natusch received the Cross of Merit with Ribbon for
his services. Kurt Natusch passed away on May 23, 2008.
The writer Horst Mönnich was born in Senftenberg in 1918. He attended
the municipal Reform-Realgymnasium and, after graduating from high
school, studied German and theater studies in Berlin. His literary work
includes novels, reports, radio plays and television plays. His themes
are German reality and German-German history.
The painter and
graphic artist Günther Wendt was born in Senftenberg in 1908. He has
documented the massive landscape changes in Senftenberg and Lusatia with
his works. Some of his works can be seen in Senftenberg, such as the
sgraffiti at the gallery at the castle, at the university, at the
Wendish church and a historical view of the city in the Senftenberg town
hall. He designed sets and costumes for the theater and was museum
director from the 1950s. The early history department of the museum was
set up under Wendt.
The composers Jakob Meiland and Herbert Windt
were born in Senftenberg. Meiland lived in the 16th century, was court
music director to Georg Friedrich I of Brandenburg and died in Hechingen
at the age of 35. Windt's compositions were primarily used in Nazi
propaganda films. A contemporary of Meiland was the rector of Leipzig
University and vice-principal of the St. Afra State Princely School in
Meissen, Peter Thomäus.
The Belgian General Karl Wilhelm von
Bormann was also born in Senftenberg and began his military career in
the service of the Royal Saxon Army. Bormann invented the ring-shaped
time fuse with a fixed cover for shrapnel in the Belgian army.
In
1850 the ophthalmologist and scientist Hermann Kuhnt was born in
Senftenberg. Together with Paul Junius, he is doing pioneering work in
the field of macular diagnostics.
The German professor of
physical and theoretical chemistry at the Humboldt University in Berlin,
Joachim Sauer, husband of the former Chancellor Angela Merkel, was born
in Hosena (today a district of Senftenberg) and attended the
Polytechnische Oberschule Walther Rathenau in Senftenberg.
The local historian and chairman of the Lower Lusatia Society for
History and Archeology Rudolf Lehmann moved with his family to
Bahnhofstrasse in Senftenberg. Lehmann wrote numerous treatises on the
history of Lower Lusatia. The local poet Friedrich Roch, who died in
1877, lived in the Ritterstraße in a small half-timbered house, the
poet's house, which is also mentioned in literature as a pleasure house.
The artist Ernst Sauer lived in Senftenberg for many years, and
sculptures still bear witness to his work in Senftenberg today (e.g.
fountain sculptures on the Neumarkt, monument to the anti-fascist
resistance fighters in the palace park, monument to the fallen Soviet
soldiers, fountains at the theatre). The writer Erwin Strittmatter
worked as a newspaper editor in Senftenberg after the Second World War.
Since the Senftenberg Theater was founded in 1946 as the theater of
the Senftenberg miners, numerous actors and directors have worked in
Senftenberg and some of them learned acting here. These include Armin
Mueller-Stahl, Annekathrin Bürger, Klaus-Dieter Klebsch, Erich
Petraschk, Rolf Römer, Günter Schubert and Frank Castorf. After the
political reunification and the transformation of the theater into the
new stage Senftenberg, it brought successful actors such as Manfred Möck
(awarded the Silver Bear in 1989), Alexander Sternberg (actor in the
Sat.1 telenovela Verliebt in Berlin) and Julia -Maria Köhler (actress in
the ProSieben series Crazy about Clara). The composer Harald Lorscheider
was Kapellmeister at the Neue Bühne from 1992 to 1993.
SC
activist Brieske-Senftenberg and later FSV Glückauf Brieske-Senftenberg
produced national soccer players such as Horst Franke and Heinz
Lemanczyk as well as the 1999 DFB Cup winner Sven Benken.