Chemnitz celebrates its 875th anniversary in 2018
In 2018, Chemnitz will celebrate the 875th anniversary of its first documented mention. This was decided by the city council at its meeting yesterday. As there is no founding document in Chemnitz, as in many cities, the first documented mention of the city in 1143 was chosen as the starting point for the city's history.
With its decision, the city council followed the recommendations of Chemnitz historians and the Institute for European History at Chemnitz University of Technology, which was also consulted. This removes the ongoing uncertainty regarding the historical basis of future anniversary dates for the city.
Historicalbackground
The first documented mention of Chemnitz in 1143 was the granting of the market privilege. Although the first written and archaeological evidence of the settlement of the later city area exists, such as the church and the monastery on the Schlossberg. Emperor Lothar probably founded the monastery in 1136 and endowed it with land. In doing so, he created a starting point for the further settlement of the surrounding area, which became of decisive importance.
Emperor Lothar's successor, King Conrad III, confirmed the foundation of the monastery in 1143, which was the first time the "Chemnitz area" was mentioned in a document. The monastery was thus assigned an area for economic provision and granted a market privilege by the king. This market privilege indicates the king's intention to found a town, but is not considered a founding document for the medieval town, but merely a preliminary stage.
The 750th anniversary of the founding of the town was celebrated in 1893. The deed granting market rights to the monastery in 1143 was regarded as a binding document.
However, this is factually incorrect - the correct date would have been "750th anniversary of the first documented mention of Chemnitz".
In GDR times, an 800th anniversary celebration was held in 1965 in what was then Karl-Marx-Stadt. Based on the state of research in the 1950s, the city's origins were traced back to Emperor Barbarossa's stay in Altenburg around 1165.
A new approach was the realisation that the city of Chemnitz emerged independently of the monastery as an imperial city. Research placed the city's origins in the Emperor's endeavours to expand his imperial state of Pleißen with the later cities of Altenburg, Chemnitz and Zwickau. However, the excavations carried out in the 1950s and 1960s yielded no archaeological evidence of the town's origins around 1165; there is also no documentary evidence. The excavations carried out in the 1990s also did not provide any evidence to confirm the year 1165.
In other towns where the problem is similar, the first documentary mention of the town is celebrated if there is evidence.