Sebnitz

Sebnitz (IPA: [zɛpnɪts]) is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.

Geography

The town of Sebnitz lies in the valley of the River Sebnitz and its side valleys between 251 and 460 m above sea level between the mountains of Saxon Switzerland and the Lusatian Highlands. Topographically the town itself lies in the West Lusatian Upland, but lies right on the border with the Upper Lusatian Highlands. Because the natural region of Saxon Switzerland is also very close by, the countryside around the town is very varied. The local hill of Sebnitz is the Tanečnice (Tanzplan) which is on Czech territory.

The municipality consists of the town Sebnitz itself, Schönbach (joined 1935), Hainersdorf (joined 1920), Hertigswalde (joined 1950), Hinterhermsdorf (joined 1998) and the former municipality of Kirnitzschtal (joined 2012), that itself consisted of the villages Altendorf, Mittelndorf, Lichtenhain, Ottendorf and Saupsdorf.

History

Sebnitz was first mentioned in a document of 1223/1241 outlining the borders between the kingdom of Bohemia and the diocese of Meißen. In 1451 it was first mentioned as a town. A new town hall was built in 1714/1715, but was destroyed together with numerous other buildings, among them the school house, in a fire in 1854. Around 1900 Sebnitz became a centre of the manufacture of artificial flowers. From 1952 until 1994 the town was the administrative centre of the district Sebnitz. Sebnitz hosted the Festival "Tag der Sachsen" in 2003. In October 2015 around 3000 people protested against the migration policy of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and built a symbolic 'living frontier' ("lebende Grenze") against asylum seekers.

Sebnitz (river)

The Sebnitz (Czech: Sebnice) is the left, larger headstream of the Lachsbach and runs through both the Czech Republic as well as the German Free State of Saxony. The upper section in the Czech Republic is known as Vilémovský potok in Czech and Wölmsdorfer Bach in German.

Geography

The Sebnitz rises in the Šluknov Hook in a broad valley between the 608-metre-high Hrazený (Pirsken) and the 593-metre-high Plešný (Plissenberg), 2 kilometres northwest of the village of Brtníky (Zeidler). The stream flows in a northwesterly direction to Velký Šenov (Groß Schönau), where it swings southwest and follows the valley of Šenov Stream (Czech: Šenovský potok), passing between Vilémov (German: Wölmsdorf) and Mikulášovice.

Below these villages the Wölmsdorfer Bach between the hills of Spálený vrch (Hillebrand, 443 m) and the Wolfstein (392.9 m near Dolina (Franzthal) the stream forms the border between the Czech Republic and the tip of the Sebnitz Forest that throws a salient into Bohemian territory. From this section it is known as the Sebnitz or Sebnitzbach. After passing the border crossing of Sebnitz-Dolní Poustevna it continues for several hundred meters along the border before flowing through the town of Sebnitz named after it as well as the picturesque Sebnitz valley before uniting with the Polenz after 30.8 kilometres above Porschdorf to form the Lachsbach. With an average discharge of around 1.9 m³/s the Sebnitz can actually be considered the upper section of the Lachsbach, because the Polenz carries less water (discharge: ~1.1 m³/s). The lower part of the Sebnitz valley is largely known for being the route of the Sebnitz Valley Railway with its 7 tunnels.