Löbau

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Löbau is a city in eastern Saxony, Germany, set between the slopes of a volcanic hill and the fertile hilly country of Upper Lusatia, roughly equidistant from Bautzen, Görlitz and Zittau. Since a document first named the settlement in 1221, calling it Oppidum Lubaw, the town has answered to an unusually long parade of crowns and kingdoms. It has also produced a piano company that still carries the Löbau name, a house designed by one of the twentieth century's most significant architects, and a cast iron tower on the hill above town. Who ruled this small corner of Saxony across the centuries, and what did all of that history leave behind?

• 2. Centuries of Changing Rule

  ›

  Oppidum Lubaw, as the 1221 record called it, grew into a town that from 1319 belonged to the Bohemian, or Czech, Crown. In 1346 it joined five neighbors, Bautzen, Görlitz, Kamenz, Lubań and Zittau, to found the Lusatian League, an alliance of six cities that would not be disbanded until 1815. In 1469 the town followed the League in recognizing King Matthias Corvinus and passed, with it, to Hungary. Barely two decades later, in 1490, Löbau returned to the Czech Crown, this time under the Polish Prince Vladislaus II. From 1635 the Electors of Saxony ruled the town, and from 1697 those same Electors also held the Kings of Poland's crown. In 1871 Löbau became part of the newly founded German Empire. Germany's defeat in World War II left the town inside East Germany until 1990. The old Lusatian League itself returned in 1991, though today it works only as a tourism board, holding no political power. That same 1635 shift to the Electors of Saxony also set the stage for a building boom whose most famous result would not appear for another three centuries.

• 3. Town Hall and Tower

  ›

  Visitors to Löbau's town hall find a noteworthy mixture of several architectural styles gathered into a single building. Elsewhere in town stands the Schminke House, designed by German architect Hans Scharoun, one of the most important exponents of organic and expressionist architecture. The building dates from the 1930s, yet it anticipated the architecture of the 1950s, and it is regarded as one of Scharoun's greatest works. On the Löbauer Berg above town rises the King Frederick Augustus Tower, Löbau's main landmark, built of cast iron in 1854 and standing 28 meters tall. It is the biggest cast iron tower in Europe, and it offers views across the Lusatian Highlands. Three decades after that tower was completed, Löbau began sending its own representatives to a national parliament far larger than the town itself.

• 4. Piano and Parliament

  ›

  Löbau is widely known for one particular export, the piano manufacturing company August Förster, whose instruments carried the town's name well beyond Saxony. Following the North German Confederation Treaty, the Kingdom of Saxony entered the North German Confederation in 1866, and this continued after the founding of the German Empire on the 18th of January 1871. From February 1867, Saxony took part in Reichstag elections, and Löbau returned a series of Reichstag Deputies until 1919, when the existing constituencies were scrapped. That parliamentary chapter closed just as a very different kind of outside relationship was beginning to take shape for Löbau, with towns across newer borders.

• 5. Twin Towns

  ›

  Makó, in Hungary, is one of three towns officially twinned with Löbau. The others are Ettlingen in Germany and Lubań in Poland. These modern partnerships stand alongside a long list of individuals the town has produced across more than two centuries, from piano makers to Olympic champions.

• 6. Notable Residents

  ›

  August Förster, who lived from 1829 to 1897, worked as the town's piano maker. Marie Wackwitz, 1865 to 1930, campaigned as a women's rights activist. Georg Scholze, 1897 to 1945, served as a general during World War II. Konrad Kujau, 1938 to 2000, became known as a forger. Bernd Böhlich, born in 1957, works as a director. Uwe Proske, born in 1961, won an Olympic gold medal in fencing in 1992. Anne-Kathrin Schade, born in 1968, played volleyball. Jana Henke, born in 1973, competed as a swimmer. Mirko Müller, born in 1974, skated as part of a pairs team. René Münnich, born in 1977, raced cars and owned a racing team. Robert Koch, born in 1986, played football, formerly for Dynamo Dresden and 1. FC Nürnberg. Christian Reitz, born in 1987, won Olympic gold in the 25 metre rapid fire pistol event at the 2016 Games and set a world record in the discipline, the most recently born name on Löbau's list of prominent residents.