Pößneck

Pößneck
Pößneck
Coordinates
Administration
Country Germany
State Thuringia
District Saale-Orla-Kreis
Town subdivisions 6
Mayor Michael Modde
Basic statistics
Area 24.45 km2 (9.44 sq mi)
Elevation 220 m  (722 ft)
Population 12,882 (31 December 2010)[1]
 - Density 527 /km2 (1,365 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate SOK
Postal codes 07371–07381
Area code 03647
Website www.poessneck.de

Pößneck (also spelled Poessneck) is a town in the Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 19 km east of Rudolstadt, and 26 km south of Jena.

Its chief industries are the making of flannel, porcelain, furniture, machines, musical instruments and chocolate. The town has also tanneries, breweries, dyeworks and brickworks.

Pößneck, which is of Slavonic origin, passed about 1300 to the Landgrave of Thuringia. Later it belonged to Saxony and later still to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, passing to Saxe-Meiningen in 1826.

It has a Gothic Lutheran church built about 1390, and a Gothic town-hall erected during the succeeding century.

Notable residents

Pößneck was the home of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families prior to 15 September 1979, when both families flew out of East Germany in a homemade hot air balloon. Following the end of the Cold War and German reunification, they eventually moved back to Pößneck. Their story was the subject of the 1982 film Night Crossing. Stoessner, Hans Melchior dragoon during the Great Northern War (1678-?) Volker Emde -politician (1964-) is from the town

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

References