Timeline of Chemnitz

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Chemnitz, Germany.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Prior to 20th century

• 1136 – Benedictine monastery [de] founded near Chemnitz.[1]
• 1143 – Chemnitz "becomes a market town."[1]
• 1398 – Paper mill established.[2]
• 1466 – Population: 3,455.
• 1498 – Town Hall [de] built near the Markt (Chemnitz) [de].
• 16th. C. – "The manufacture of cloth was very flourishing."[1]
• 1539 – Protestant Reformation.[1]
• 1546 – Benedictine monastery, founded in 1136 by the emperor Lothair II is dissolved.[1]
• 1551 – Population: 5,616.
• 1630 – Battle of Chemnitz.
• 1700 – Population: 4,873.
• 1801 – Population: 10,835.
• 1811 – Schwalbe manufactory in business (later Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz [de] engineering firm).
• 1833 – Chemnitz City Orchestra [de] formed.[3]
• 1836 – Royal Mercantile College established.
• 1840 – Population: 23,476.[4]
• 1852 – Chemnitz Hauptbahnhof opens.[1]
• 1864 – Population: 54,827.[4]
• 1868 – Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz [de] founded.
• 1869 – Volksbank Chemnitz [de] (bank) founded.
• 1878 – Jewish Cemetery, Chemnitz [de] in use (approximate date).
• 1880
  • Horsecar tram begins operating.
  • Population: 95,123.[4]
  • Schlosschemnitz [de] becomes part of city.
• 1884 – Chemnitz Tar Mummy discovered.
• 1885 – Population: 110,817.[1] [5]
• 1888 – St. Peter's Church, Chemnitz [de] built.
• 1890 – Population: 138,954.[4]
• 1893 – Electric tram begins operating.
• 1895 – Population: 161,017.[1]
• 1898 – Horsecar tram stop operating.
• 1899 – Chemnitz Synagogue [de] built.

20th century

Castle Church at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries

• 1905 – Population: 244,927.[1] [6]
• 1907 – Bernsdorf [de] becomes part of city.
• 1909
  • Chemnitz Opera hall built.
  • König-Albert-Museum (Chemnitz) [de] opens.
• 1910 – Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe-Gymnasium (school) established.
• 1911 – New City Hall, Chemnitz [de] built.
• 1913 – Borna-Heinersdorf [de] becomes part of city.
• 1919 – Population: 303,775.[7]
• 1920 – Chemnitzer Polizeisportverein [de] sport club formed.
• 1926 – Airport Chemnitz opens.
• 1926 – Südkampfbahn stadium opens.
• 1930 – Modernised classification yard Hilbersdorf opens.
• 1933 – Theaterplatz (Chemnitz) [de] renamed "Adolf Hitler Platz".
• 1934 – Stadion an der Gellertstraße (stadium) opens.
• 1938 – 9 November: Kristallnacht antisemitic unrest; synagogue destroyed.
• 1944 – Subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp established. Over 500 women, mostly Russian, Polish, Italian and Slovenian, were held there as slave labour.[8]
• 1945
  • Bombing of Chemnitz in World War II [de].
  • April: Subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp dissolved. Its prisoners were sent on a death march to German-occupied Rtyně nad Bílinou.[8]
  • City becomes part of East Germany.
• 1946 – Population: 250,188.
• 1947 – Wismut (mining company) headquartered in Chemnitz.
• 1950 – Adelsberg [de] becomes part of city.
• 1953 – City renamed "Karl-Marx-Stadt".
• 1955 – Chemnitz Botanical Garden rebuilt.[9]
• 1959 – Red Tower, Chemnitz [de] reconstructed.

Arbeiterfestspiele participants in front of City Hall, 1960

• 1960 – Arbeiterfestspiele [de] (workers' cultural festival) held.
• 1961
  • HKW Chemnitz-Nord power station begins operating.
  • City twinned with Tampere, Finland.
• 1966
  • Chemnitzer FC (football club) formed.
  • City twinned with Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
• 1967 – City twinned with Arras, France.
• 1968 – City twinned with Timbuktu, Mali.
• 1970 – City twinned with Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia.
• 1971 – 9 October: Karl Marx Monument unveiled.[10]
• 1972
  • City twinned with Łódź, Poland.
  • Population: 301,502.
• 1974 – Wohngebiet Fritz Heckert [de] (housing) construction begins.
• 1986 – City hosts the 1986 European Weightlifting Championships.
• 1988 – City twinned with Düsseldorf, West Germany.
• 1990
  • City renamed "Chemnitz".
  • Chemnitzer Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft [de] (transit entity) established.
  • Population: 294,244.
• 1991 – Annual "Days of Jewish Culture" begins.[11]
• 1993 – Peter Seifert [de] becomes mayor.
• 1997 – City-Bahn Chemnitz (transit entity) established.
• 1999 – Röhrsdorf [de] and Wittgensdorf [de] become part of city.

21st century

• 2001 – Villa Esche [de] restored as a cultural space.[10]
• 2002 – Neue Synagoge opens.
• 2002 – Multi-system tramway network ("Chemnitzer Modell") starts.
• 2003 – Chemnitz Industrial Museum [de] opens.^[citation needed]
• 2006 – Barbara Ludwig [de] becomes mayor.
• 2007 – Gunzenhauser Museum opens.[10]
• 2010 – Population: 243,248.
• 2012 – Thor Steinar "Brevik" shop in business.[12]
• 2014 – March: Neo-Nazi Nationale Sozialisten Chemnitz [de] group banned.^[citation needed]
• 2014 – SMAC (Saxonian Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz) opens in the restored historical Mendelsohn building (former "Schocken").
• 2018 – Protests.
• 2020 – Stefan-Heym-Forum opens in a restored historical building (today "Kulturkaufhaus Tietz").
• 2020 – Sven Schulze becomes mayor.
• 2020 – Central academic library of the TU Chemnitz opens.
• 2020 – Schauplatz Eisenbahn is part of the Saxon Exhibition "Boom".
• 2021 – Chemnitz becomes German main part of the Hydrogen and Mobility Innovation Center ("HIC").

See also

• Chemnitz history
• History of Chemnitz [de]
• List of mayors of Chemnitz [de]
• List of heritage sites in Chemnitz [de]

Other cities in the state of Saxony:

• Timeline of Dresden
• Timeline of Leipzig

References

1. Britannica 1910.
2. Wilhelm Sandermann (2013). "Beginn der Papierherstellung in einigen Landern". Papier: Eine spannende Kulturgeschichte (in German). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-662-09193-7. (timeline)
3. Colin Lawson, ed. (2003). "Orchestras Founded in the 19th Century (chronological list)". Cambridge Companion to the Orchestra. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00132-8.
4. Brockhaus 1896.
5. "German Empire: Area and Population: Principal Towns". Statesman's Year-Book. London: Macmillan and Co. 1890. hdl:2027/nyp.33433081590527.
6. "Germany". Statesman's Year-Book. London: Macmillan and Co. 1908. hdl:2027/nyp.33433081590592.
7. "Germany: Area and Population: Principal Towns". Statesman's Year-Book. London: Macmillan and Co. 1921. hdl:2027/njp.32101072368440 – via HathiTrust.
8. "Chemnitz Subcamp". KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
9. "Garden Search: Germany". London: Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
10. "In Germany, an Unlikely Art Hub Honed by Enthusiasm", New York Times, 27 July 2012
11. "Kurt Weill's Heritage: Honor Replaces Scorn; A German City Performs His Jewish Opera", New York Times, 28 June 1999
12. "Furore over German 'Brevik' clothing shop in Chemnitz", BBC News, 6 March 2012

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.

Bibliography

in English

• "Chemnitz". Handbook for North Germany. London: J. Murray. 1886. hdl:2027/hvd.hn1imr.
• "Chemnitz". Chambers's Encyclopaedia. London. 1901. hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t0vq37095.
• "Chemnitz", Northern Germany (15th ed.), Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1910, OCLC 78390379
• "Chemnitz" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). 1910. pp. 76–77.

in German

• C. W. Zoellner (1886). Geschichte der Fabrik- und Handelsstadt Chemnitz.
• "Chemniz". Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon (in German) (14th ed.). Leipzig: Brockhaus. 1896. hdl:2027/njp.32101064064445.
• P. Krauss und E. Uetrecht, ed. (1913). "Chemnitz". Meyers Deutscher Städteatlas [Meyer's Atlas of German Cities] (in German). Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut.
• Harald Weber. Aus der Geschichte von Chemnitz und Umgebung. Verlag für sächsische Regionalgeschichte, Nördlingen 2000, ISBN 3-9805106-3-8.

External links

• Links to fulltext city directories for Chemnitz via Wikisource
• Europeana. Items related to Chemnitz, various dates.
• Digital Public Library of America. Items related to Chemnitz, various dates