Scheßlitz

Scheßlitz

Coat of arms
Scheßlitz

Coordinates: 49°58′36″N 11°2′2″E / 49.97667°N 11.03389°ECoordinates: 49°58′36″N 11°2′2″E / 49.97667°N 11.03389°E
Country Germany
State Bavaria
Admin. region Oberfranken
District Bamberg
Government
  Mayor Franz Zenk
Area
  Total 94.88 km2 (36.63 sq mi)
Population (2013-12-31)[1]
  Total 7,184
  Density 76/km2 (200/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 96110
Dialling codes 09542
Vehicle registration BA
Website www.schesslitz.de

Scheßlitz (or Schesslitz) is a town in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg and lies on the rise to the Franconian Switzerland on the A 70 between Bamberg and Bayreuth, lying 14 km northeast of the former.

Geography

The town is surrounded by the following hills:

Stammberg (559 m)
Giechburg (530 m)
Gügel (515 m)
Kulm (553 m)
Heidenstein (577 m)
Rabenstein (572 m)
Würgauer Höhe (518 m)
Reisberg (554 m)
Roter Stein (518 m)
Wattendorfer Höhe (555 m)
Hohe Metze (577 m)

This basin’s sheltered setting with roads that come together from Heiligenstadt, Hollfeld, Weismain, Bad Staffelstein and Zapfendorf favoured settlement in prehistoric times.

Constituent communities

Scheßlitz’s main town and namesake centre is by far the biggest of its Ortsteile with a population of 2,548. The town furthermore has these outlying centres, each given here with its own population figure:

(as of 31 March/4 April 2005)

Constituent communities Inhabitants Other notes
Burgellern
378
amalgamated in 1972
Burglesau
203
amalgamated in 1978
Demmelsdorf
312
Dörnwasserlos
82
amalgamated in 1972
Doschendorf
24
Ehrl
119
Giechburg
2
Gügel
0
actually a pilgrimage church
Köttensdorf
125
Kübelstein
126
amalgamated in 1978
Ludwag
145
amalgamated in 1978
Neudorf bei Scheßlitz
115
amalgamated in 1978
Pausdorf
102
amalgamated in 1972
Peulendorf
174
Pünzendorf
72
Roschlaub
73
amalgamated in 1972
Roßdach
97
Schlappenreuth
86
Schrautershof
6
Schweisdorf
187
Starkenschwind
199
Straßgiech
555
Stübig
215
amalgamated in 1978
Weichenwasserlos
73
amalgamated in 1978
Weingarten
21
Wiesengiech
571
Windischletten
224
Würgau
329
Zeckendorf
231

The amalgamation of these Stadtteile into Scheßlitz on 1 May 1972 and 1 May 1978 made the town the district's biggest municipality by land area.

History

Old map with Scheßlitz

Scheßlitz had its first documentary mention about 805. Scheßlitz is among the area’s oldest settlements and has held town rights since 1230.

Linear Pottery remains in the Kohlstatt (“cabbage place”) make clear that there were settlers here as long ago as 2500 BC.

Concrete clues as to the town’s history are yielded by the Codex Eberhardi in which it is documented that a Count Bernhard and his wife Ratbirg bequeathed their property on what is now Scheßlitz’s abutting rural area to the Fulda Monastery about the year 800. The town has seized on this event as its historical beginnings and thus celebrated its 1,200-year jubilee in 2005.

It is said that confirmation of the existence of a parish of Scheßlitz is the underwriting of a protocol about the Bamberg Synod in 1059 by Arnold de Sieslice.

The town gained importance through the Andechs Meranians’ activities, who rose to dukes in 1178. In 1230, one of Duke Otto VIII’s fortified Andechs Meranian castles in the civitas of Scheßlitz was mentioned, making Scheßlitz the Bamberg district’s oldest town.

The town of Scheßlitz was an Obervogtamt (“higher reeve’s office”) of the High Monastery of Bamberg, and with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, it became part of Bavaria.

Entry in a travel guide

In his travel guide about Bamberg and the surrounding area from about 1912, the compiler Dietrich Amende also describes the town of Scheßlitz:

“Originally a Slavic settlement, Scheßlitz was already named in history in 805 and already styled an ‘oppidum’ (small town) in 1062. Today the picturesque small town with its admirable inns is a popular outing destination for people from Bamberg, Nuremberg and Coburg. Worth seeing are the parish church, a Gothic hall church with interesting gravestones from 1360, 1569 and 1570, the hospital church built in 1780 with the prebendary building built in 1739-74 in whose gable is a lovely relief by the Bamberg sculptor Gollwitzer, the Dillig’sche Haus with stately woodcarvings from 1612, the warriors’ memorial, etc. In the graveyard is found an exceptionally beautiful statue of the Holy Virgin from 1450, which comes from St. Martin’s Church in Bamberg.” – Quoted and translated from Dr. Dietrich Amende: “Bamberg und das Frankenland”. Bamberg o. J. (about 1912).

Amalgamations

In the course of administrative reform in Bavaria, many nearby communities were amalgamated with the town, thereby giving the town the greatest land area of any municipality in the district. The amalgamations are listed here by date.

Population development

Date Population
December 31, 1993
6,916
December 31, 1997
7,034
December 31, 2004
7,174

Politics

Town council

The town council is made up of 20 members:

Mayors

Scheßlitz’s “First Mayor” is Franz Zenk (CSU), and the “Second Mayor” is Roland Kauper (CSU).

Coat of arms

Scheßlitz’s arms might heraldically be described thus: A wall embattled argent, the chief party per pale Or a lion rampant sable armed and langued gules surmounted by a bendlet of the first and argent a fishhook reversed of the fourth.

The lion recalls the Bamberg High Monastery. The fishhook comes from Bamberg Bishop Lamprecht von Brunn’s family coat of arms. The wall stands for the town’s fortification.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

Giechburg and Gügel
Guildhall on Hauptstraße (with oriel)
St. Kilian’s parish church

Economy and infrastructure

After the Second World War, various firms settled in Scheßlitz:

Within the town’s limits are five breweries, of which the Schmitt, Senger and Drei Kronen breweries are in Scheßlitz itself. In Köttensdorf is found the Hoh Brewery and in Würgau the Hartmann Brewery. By 2008 at the latest, for the 700th anniversary, the Drei Kronen Brewery in Straßgiech will also be brewing again. Until the 1990s, the Ellertal Brewery was still brewing its own beer.

All together, Scheßlitz offers about 2,000 jobs.

Transport

A planned train connection between Scheßlitz and Hollfeld was once again put off in 1906 after widespread groundwork had already been done because both places wanted the project to fail for political reasons. The reason, however, was not the high building cost (2 million Marks), but rather that both towns were seeking the lucrative status of being the last station on the line.

Four of the variations on the plan for a railway line on the Franconian Jura that were discussed were as follows:

  1. by way of Würgau and Königsfeld (building cost 1.89 million Marks)
  2. through the Burglesau Valley by way of Steinfeld and Königsfeld (building cost 2.125 million Marks)
  3. from Memmelsdorf by way of Litzendorf, Tiefenellern and Königsfeld (building cost 2.170 million Marks)
  4. from Gundelsheim by way of Melkendorf, Herzogenreuth and Königsfeld (building cost 2.77 million Marks)

The line envisaged by the planners would have run from Scheßlitz towards Würgau, and then climbed left at the Schlappenreuther Berg in the Jura. The line would then have stretched through Gräfenhäusling to Steinfeld, in the end reaching the town of Hollfeld through the Wiesent and Aufseß Valleys.

Near Demmelsdorf a forest aisle was already being cut and a new canal harbour was being discussed to afford ore shipping from the Jura Mountains.

In 1918, there were once more stirrings aimed at getting the Jurabahn railway built. In 1920, however, the Transport Ministry (Reichsverkehrsministerium) made it known that in view of the bad state of the economy, any new railway building projects would have to be abandoned for the time being. Eventually, in 1930, a postal busline from Bamberg by way of Scheßlitz and Hollfeld to Bayreuth was opened.

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town

Sister cities

References

  1. "Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes". Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik und Datenverarbeitung (in German). 31 December 2013.
  2. "Interactive City Directory". Sister Cities International. Retrieved 11 March 2014.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scheßlitz.

Picture gallery