Rudolstadt

The former princely residence of Rudolstadt lies in the valley of the River River surrounded by forest, which in this place turns from south to east. In the north and west of the city there is a plateau of shell rock, in the south the Thuringen shale mountains begin, and to the east of the Zale River there is a vast wasteland. The city is located at an altitude of 200 meters above sea level, and its individual areas are at an altitude of 300-400 m. In the urban district of Schwartz, the Schwartz River flows into the River Hall . The climate in Rudolstadt due to its location in the valley is much milder than in the surrounding area.

In Rudolstadt, they speak the Ilmturingen dialect.

Rudolstadt is divided into 12 districts. In addition to the main part of the city, the following villages belong to it:

Volkstedt, Schwartz and Kumbach form a single whole with the main part of the city, while the rest of the villages are in the vicinity of the city.

According to archaeological data, about 500 in the territory of the city was a Slavic settlement. The first documentary mention of Rudolfestat (a settlement of Rudolf), the gift of Charles the Great to the monastery in Hersfeld , dates back to 776 .

At the beginning of the XIII century, Rudolstadt belonged to the Earl of Orlamunde , from whom he partially, in 1300 , and in 1334 completely passed into the possession of the Earl of Schwarzburg. Between 1264 and 1334, Rudolstadt consisted of the Lower Castle and the Upper Castle (Heidexburg).

In the XIV century, Rudolstadt grew, and in 1326 received the city rights from Count Orlamunde.

From 1340, Rudolstadt was in the possession of the Earls of Schwarzburg , from 1599 to 1920 it was its main city. The cultural heyday of the city came in the XVIII - XIX centuries, when numerous artists lived and worked in the city. Friedrich Schiller often visited here. In 1345, both the castles and the city were badly damaged by the Erfurt troops during the Thuringian war between the counties.

During the restoration from 1345 to 1437, the city ​​acquired a completely different look. Two more wings were attached to the Upper Castle. In 1573, the castle was partially burnt down, and in its place the Heidexburg Castle was built in the Renaissance style .

Until 1918, Rudolstadt served as the capital of the principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt , his last prince had no heirs, and after his death, the castle-residence of Heidexburg passed into the possession of the land of Thuringia .

Until 1932, the majority in the municipality of Rudolstadt was the Social Democratic Party . But already in December 1932 the National Socialist Workers' Party received as many seats as the Social Democratic and Communist Parties (4 out of 19 each). After the transfer of power to Hitler in 1933, the self-government bodies created by the Weimar Republic were actually dissolved. From 1936 to 1945, Rudolstadt was a garrison city of the Wehrmacht . In 1938, a rally of the German Hitler Youth took place here.

As early as 1918, about 80 Jews lived in the county. Those who did not manage to escape were deported and killed, and the Jewish cemetery was razed to the ground.

A lot of people became victims of fascism, for example, Werner John, a member of the German Communist Party, municipal council member and chairman of the Volkshtet Paul Herger, anti-fascist Catholics and their pastor Caspar Schulte. In 1933-1944 , 597 people became victims of forced sterilization in a city hospital, 126 residents of the Rudolstat-Kumbakh nursing home were killed in 1940 as part of the Euthanasia program. During World War II, 953 Polish men and women were here in forced labor. The monument erected in 1947 on the Victims of Fascism square recalls all the dead.

In the last days of World War II, April 10, 1945 , Volkstedt was subjected to American bombing. Its victims were 35 people and 165 houses, among them the church. Before his escape in 1941, the president of France, François Mitterrand , was in prison as a prisoner of war.

After the Second World War, Schwartz, the district of Rudolstadt, became one of the centers of the chemical industry of the GDR . Wilhelm Peak Chemical Fiber Plant employed more than 6,000 people, and several thousand more were employed in related industries.

In 1952, the land of Thuringia was abolished, and Rudolstadt began to belong to the district of Hera .

Municipality. Consists of 30 people.

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In 1996, Rudolstadt received the Thuringia Prize for the preservation of cultural traditions.

The most significant historical buildings include the city palace of Ludwigsburg and the castle of Hydexburg , as well as the magnificent evangelical church of St. Andreaskirche, which was built in the XV - XVI centuries. Mention should also be made of the neo-Gothic evangelical church of Lutherkirche (1906) and the neo-Roman Catholic Church of Pfarkirche (1886). The old town hall on Stiftsgasse is a late Gothic building of 1524 , supplemented with a tower in 1603 . The new town hall was opened in 1912 at the Market Square.

Three Thuringian peasant houses in Rudolstadt are the oldest open-air museum in Germany. The houses built in the 17th and 18th centuries in the surrounding villages were demolished and reassembled in the city park of Rudolstadt in 1914 - 1915 . The building of the old city pharmacy is especially impressive.

Not far from Rudolstadt in the town of Groskohberg is Baron von Stein's Kochberg Palace, where Goethe often stayed. On the way there is a small Romanesque church in Weitersdorf. It is one of the oldest religious buildings in Thuringia.

The theater of Rudolstadt is of particular cultural importance, the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra is also located in it.

On Mount Zeigerheimer is the Bismarck Tower, renamed in 1950 the tower of Scholl's brother and sister. Its construction was the embodiment of the idea of ​​German students to build Bismarck observation towers in Germany. The construction was carried out according to the project of the architect Gottwald Schinzel from Schala. The grand opening took place on April 1, 1899, 200 people took part in it. In World War II, the tower suffered from vandalism and was only renovated in 1985 . The entrance to the tower is closed today.

Every year, on the first weekend of July, the largest international dance and folklore festival in Germany takes place in Rudolstadt. He collects guests and artists from around the world in Thuringia. The annual festivals of the amateur theater "United Europe" are also held annually. The shooter festival in Rudolstadt at the end of August is one of Thuringia's most significant national holidays. Every year, at the end of June, the Old Town Festival is held on the Market Square.

Along with traditional enterprises: a porcelain factory in Volksstedt (founded in 1760 ) and an anchor factory, there are also BASF factories in Schwartz, Siemens Medical Solutions, a Pörze brewery, a paper mill and a fruit juice factory Schlör ".

• Famous ^{[to whom? ] The} novel of the writer George Sand is called "Countess Rudolstadt." The action of the second part of the novel takes place in medieval Germany.
• Three characters of the domestic military television series "Scouts" (2013, series XI -: - XII) greeted the end of World War II in Rudolstadt ^[2] .

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  Heidexburg Castle

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  City Church

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  Villa Friedrich Richter

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  Town Hall

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