The town of Mühlberg is located on the east bank of the Elbe in
the extreme south of the federal state of Brandenburg. Mühlberg is
historically famous for the victory of Emperor Charles V over Johann
Friedrich the Magnanimous on April 24, 1547, which ended the
Schmalkaldic War.
Mühlberg is located on the Elbe in the
southwest of the state of Brandenburg in the Elbe-Elster district. A
special feature is the approximately 1.2 km² large area belonging to
Mühlberg around the former ferry dock at the mouth of the Dahle west
of the Elbe, including a section of the federal highway 182. It is
the only area on the left bank of the Elbe in Brandenburg. The town
has the following districts and parishes: Altenau with the parish of
Wendisch-Borschütz, Brottewitz, Fichtenberg with the parishes of
Borschütz, Gaitzsch and Schweditz, Koßdorf with the parish of
Lönnewitz, Martinskirchen with the parish of Altbelgern and
Mühlberg/Elbe itself with its parishes of Köttlitz and vineyards.
There is also the Alte Ziegelei residential area.
Based on
archaeological excavations and burial finds, Slavic settlements can
be traced back to around 600 AD. Mühlberg was first mentioned in
documents around 1230. Shortly before that, in 1228, Otto and Bodo
von Ileburg founded the Marienstern monastery here. The town was
founded on a valley sand island at the Elbe crossing under the
protection of an existing moated castle, whose lords were initially
the ministeriales of Ileburg, who also donated the Marienstern
monastery here in 1228. The city and rulers were under the
alternating influence of Bohemian and Meissen lords. In 1397,
Mühlberg finally fell to the Margraviate of Meissen, which was
absorbed into the Electorate of Saxony in 1423. In 1443, the town
and dominion passed to the Bohemian nobleman Hincko Birke von der
Duba, who exchanged them for the Hohenstein dominion.
On
April 24, 1547, the decisive battle of the Schmalkaldic War took
place near Mühlberg, in which the army of Emperor Charles V captured
the leader of the Protestants, Elector Johann Friedrich von Sachsen,
and thus won the war. The Mühlberg 1547 Museum, located in the
monastery's former provost, now has a permanent exhibition devoted
to this battle.
After the wars of liberation, Mühlberg fell
to Prussia in 1815 along with other Saxon areas. A few decades
later, the straightening of the Elbe in 1854 meant that Mühlberg is
no longer directly on the Elbe, which previously flowed through the
city. However, in 1883 a remaining arm of the Elbe was expanded into
a port.
Since January 1, 2020, the small town has belonged to
the Liebenwerda association along with Bad Liebenwerda,
Falkenberg/Elster and Uebigau-Wahrenbrück.
Mühlberg has a historic town center and has joined the AG "Cities
with historic town centers" of the state of Brandenburg. In this
context, the city center has been generously restored, even if not
everything is done yet.
In the eastern part of the city center,
the former Marienstern Monastery is particularly impressive. The
Cistercian monastery was already abandoned in the 16th century as part
of the Reformation, but there are recent efforts to revive it. The
former monastery church, a single-nave, Gothic brick building with
Romanesque elements, was restored as a parish church after a fire in
1565. Next to the monastery is the provost, which has housed the town
museum since 1926. On the Altmarktplatz in front of the monastery there
are some other historical buildings, including the city pharmacy.
In contrast to the other buildings, the castle on the northern
outskirts of the city is currently in a poor state. It was a hunting
lodge from 1545, although it was first mentioned in the 13th century. On
the Schlossplatz a monument from 1949 to commemorate the anti-fascist
resistance.
In the western part of the city center you will find
the town hall with information boards and the Frauenkirche to the left
behind it. Behind the town hall and the church is the Old Elbe with the
port. There is a memorial there that commemorates the flood of 2002,
from which the city could be saved. The memorial for the victims of the
prisoner of war camp Stalag IV B and the adjoining special camp No. 1
Mühlberg after 1945 is located about 4 km northeast.
Also worth
seeing are the Villa Güldenstern, built between 1898 and 1900, and a
Dutch windmill in the district of Koßdorf.
North of Mühlberg runs the state road L 66 to Bad Liebenwerda. The L
67 touches the city in the east and connects it with several districts.
Federal highway 182 runs between Torgau and Riesa on the opposite
bank of the Elbe. As a crossing over the Elbe there was a yaw cable
ferry until 2008. The Mühlberg ferry crossing in the Köttlitz district,
consisting of Gierponte, two ferry ramps and a Gierseilanlage, is a
technical monument. With the handover of the Mühlberger road bridge over
the Elbe on December 22, 2008, the yaw cable ferry was decommissioned.
It was the only yaw cable ferry in Brandenburg. In 2013 the ferry was
transferred to the historic port of Berlin. The nearest ferries are in
Strehla about 15 km upstream and in Belgern about 10 km downstream.
Mühlberg (Elbe) station was on the Neuburxdorf–Mühlberg railway
line. From July 6 to September 29, 2007, Mühlberg was again accessible
by train on Saturdays for the first time in 46 years.[28] As part of a
citizens' railway project of the DBV-Förderverein Niederlausitzer
Eisenbahn, the association's own Elbe-Elster-Express ran from Mühlberg
via Falkenberg/Elster and Herzberg (Elster) to Schlieben. In 2008,
however, traffic was stopped after just two months on July 12, 2008. On
the ten days of travel since May 1, only eight passengers had used the
journeys between Mühlberg (Elbe) and Luckau-Uckro, which meant that
cost-covering operations were not possible.[29] While goods are still
being transported to the local gravel works, the last section of the
route to the station was shut down and interrupted in favor of the
bypass (L 67).
The inland port, which was shut down in 1998, was
modernized in 2011 and expanded into the Mühlberg industrial port
(upgrading of the sheet piling, installation of two heavy-duty plates,
creation of a storage and handling area, redesign of the access roads).
EDEKA Werner, Boragker Str. 26, 04931 Mühlberg. Tel.: +49 (0)35342
376. Open: Mon – Sat 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. Edit info
Netto, Liebenwerdaer
Strasse 33, 04931 Mühlberg,
"Residenz Mühlberg", Am Bahnhof 2, 04931 Mühlberg. Tel.: (0)173
6446418, e-mail: info@bahnhof-muehlberg.de.
Pension Wendland, Am
Viertelfeld 2, 04931 Mühlberg. Tel.: (0)35342 233, fax: (0)35342 70025,
e-mail: pension-wendland@gmx.de. Sauna and beer garden are available.
The restaurant is closed. Feature: pension. Price: Single room from €45,
double room from €74 (each including breakfast).
Pension Zum
Zwerghahn, Hohe Strasse 14, 04931 Mühlberg. Tel.: (0)35342 870677,
e-mail: zum-zwerghahn@gmx.de. Feature: pension. Price: Single room from
€26, double room from €48 (each including breakfast).
Pension and
restaurant Seeblick, Am Hafen 1b, 04931 Mühlberg. Tel: (0)35342 72147,
Fax: (0)35342 87739, Email: seeblick.muehlberg@googlemail.com. The
restaurant has been closed since October 18th, 2021. Feature: pension.
Price: Overnight stay from €20 plus breakfast.
District police, Neustädter Markt 1, 04931 Mühlberg. Phone: +49 (0)35342 336.
Löwen Pharmacy, Altstädter Markt 3, 04931 Mühlberg. Tel: (0)35342 312.
Muehlberg Museum, Klosterstr. 9, 04931 Mühlberg. Phone: +49 (0)35342 837000, fax: +49 (0)3535 465102, e-mail: museum-muehlberg1547@lkee.de. The tourist information is located in the Mühlberg Museum. Open: Apr – Sep Tue – Sun 10am – 6pm; Oct – Mar Tue – Sun 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Mühlberg was first mentioned in a document in 1230. Long before
this, Slavic settlements since around 600 AD can be proven through
archaeological excavations and grave finds. The city was founded on
a valley sand island at the Elbe crossing under the protection of a
moated castle. The lords of the castle were initially the
ministerials of Ileburg (Eilenburg), who also founded the
Marienstern monastery here in 1228. The city and its rulers were
under the changing influence of Bohemian and Meissen lords. In 1397
Mühlberg fell to Meissen, but in 1443 it was exchanged for the rule
of Hohnstein to Hincko Birke von der Duba. After the death of his
descendants, Mühlberg came back to Meissen in 1520, and after the
Schmalkaldic War was integrated into the now Albertine Electoral
Saxony. During the war, the decisive battle took place on April 24,
1547 near Mühlberg. In the electoral state the Mühlberg office
belonged to the Meißnische Kreis formed in 1547.
In 1815, as
a result of the Congress of Vienna, Mühlberg went to Prussia
together with other Saxon areas and became part of the newly founded
district of Liebenwerda. In 1854, straightening the Elbe resulted in
Mühlberg no longer lying directly on the Elbe. A preserved Elbarm
was converted into a harbor in 1883.
In 1939 the
prisoner-of-war camp, main camp IV B, was set up near Neuburxdorf,
in which around 3,000 prisoners died by the end of the war. From
September 1945 to November 1948 this camp was operated as special
camp No. 1 Mühlberg of the NKVD, in which around 7,000 of a total of
22,000 people died of starvation and secondary diseases and are
buried in mass graves near a shooting range in the north.
After the end of the Second World War, Mühlberg, which previously
belonged to the Prussian administrative district of Merseburg,
became part of the newly founded state of Saxony-Anhalt. In the GDR,
as part of the administrative reform of 1952, it was assigned to the
Cottbus district. The official name of the city was Mühlberg (Elbe)
until 1990. When the borders of the new federal states were
determined with the reunification in 1990, Mühlberg came to the
state of Brandenburg with a large part of the Cottbus district. In
1992 Mühlberg was accepted into the working group "Cities with
historic town centers" of the state of Brandenburg.
On July
21, 1992 the Mühlberg / Elbe office was established. The
municipalities of Altenau, Brottewitz, Fichtenberg, Koßdorf,
Martinskirchen and the city of Mühlberg / Elbe from the then Bad
Liebenwerda district were combined in this administrative
association. On August 31, 2001, the new city of Mühlberg / Elbe,
which was free of charge, was approved from the municipalities of
Altenau, Brottewitz, Fichtenberg, Koßdorf, Martinskirchen and the
city of Mühlberg / Elbe, with effect from August 31, 2001. The
Mühlberg / Elbe office was dissolved on the same date.
The
high water level of the Elbe during the floods in August 2002 forced
the district and state administration to completely evacuate
Mühlberg. But the dikes held, celebrated by the locals as the
“miracle of Mühlberg”.
Another severe natural disaster hit
the city on May 24, 2010. A hailstorm was followed by a tornado that
destroyed over 300 houses, some severely, including the tower of the
monastery church. Mühlberg was cut off from the outside world for
several hours.
When the Elbe floods in 2013, three quarters
of the residents were evacuated by June 8th and the dykes were
raised and reinforced, which - as in 2002 - held. The Elbe level
reached 9.62 m.
In March 2019, the city council decided that
Mühlberg / Elbe should merge with Bad Liebenwerda, Falkenberg /
Elster and Uebigau-Wahrenbrück (all districts of Elbe-Elster) to
form the community of Liebenwerda on January 1, 2020.
sons and daughters of the town
Johann Narhammer (1549–1593),
Protestant theologian
Georg Gottfried Wagner (1698–1756), cantor and
composer
Johann Christoph Erdmann (1733–1812), theologian and church
historian
Wilhelm Becher (1812–unknown), Evangelical Lutheran
theologian and local historian
Heinrich Matthey (1825–1913),
German-American publicist
Emil Heinrich Schneider (1839–1928), pastor
and writer
Wilhelm Hasemann (1850–1913), Black Forest painter
Rudolf Schneider (1852–1911), high school teacher and military historian
Walter Falk (1895–1963), theater manager
Martin Bartholdy
(1904–1965), archivist and writer, born in Altbelgern
Peer Baedeker
aka Ernst-Max Hacke (1912-1999), opera singer, writer and antiquarian,
born in Alt-Löhnewitz
Karl-Heinz Krug (* 1922), official of the GDR
block party LDPD
Werner Drechsler, (1923-1944), U-boat driver in the
German Navy during World War II
Paul Kienberg (1926-2013), Stasi
officer
Peter Eichhorst (1943–2008), software pioneer
Michael
Gundermann (* 1945), painter and graphic artist, born in Brottewitz
Personalities associated with Mühlberg
Augustin Gotthelf
Irschhausen († 1794), magistrate in Mühlberg
Max Pauly (1849-1917),
director of the Brottewitz sugar factory 1878-1897, optician, invented
the so-called Pauly cooker for sugar production
Werner Kube
(1923–1945), resistance fighter, shot after a failed attempt to escape
at the Brottewitz cemetery wall
Matthias Taatz (* 1959), 1988-1992
pastor in Mühlberg, 1990 president of the Mühlberg city council, since
2001 chairman of the initiative group camp Mühlberg.