Town Twinning Friedrichroda

Friedrichroda in Thüringia

Friedrichroda, in the former East Germany, is connected with Knaresborough through its partnership with Bebra, Knaresborough's twin town. Friedrichroda has been twinned with Bebra since just after re-unification, and developed a friendship with Knaresborough since 1993. In June of that year, a team came from Friedrichroda to Knaresborough Bed Race to advertise their region as a holiday centre. They enjoyed this event so much, making many friends in the process, that they have attended each year since then and in 1996 started their own Bed Race.

Location

Friedrichroda is situated in the Northwest of the Thüringian Forest - Germany's 'Green heart'. On its south side it is bordered by the 'Rennsteig', the longest ridgeway path in Germany, which runs along the ridges of the Thüringian mountains for 168 km through beautiful scenery. Friedrichroda is easily accessible to visitors, being on the railway and near to Autobahn 4 which connects Eisenach, Gotha, Erfurt and Weimar. An interesting tramway - the Thüringer Waldbahn' runs through the forest from Gotha to Friedrichroda and Tabarz. Nearest airports are Erfurt, Leipzig and Frankfurt/Main.

Main Street

History of Friedrichroda

Friedrichroda was founded in 1039 by Graf Ludwig the Bearded who came here from Mainfranken. The story goes that he granted the right to clear the forest and make a settlement (Rodungssiedlung) to a vassal with the name of Friedrich. This is how Friedrichroda aquired its name - 'Frederick's clearing'.

An early fortress, the Schauenburg, was destroyed in 1265 because of its bad reputation as a robbers' den. Local people lived by mining iron, brown coal and minerals. The Benedictine monks built a monastery at Renhardsbrunn and lived there until driven out by the Reformation in 1525, Friedrichroda being situated in an area where Martin Luther was quite active.

There is a quaint legend telling how the Gottlob Mountain which overlooks the town, aquired its name. In medieval times a local lord took into his household the personable young son of a farmer. As he was not of noble birth, this caused problems for the young squire, especially when he fell in love with a beautiful lady far above him in rank. The young couple approached the Lord in some trepidation, seeking his permission to marry. To their surprise, the Lord agreed provided that the young man could fulfil a task, namely to carry his betrothed down the hill, across the valley and up to the mountain top on the other side. The young man set off with his betrothed in his arms. It was no easy task for the mountain is steep but eventually he staggered to the top. Sinking to his knees, he gasped "God be praised (Gott lob) - at last you're mine.", whereupon he fell down dead. From this time on the mountain is known as the 'Gottlob'.

After the Reformation, the monastery at Reinhardsbrunn was turned into an office for the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha who subsequently converted it to a hunting lodge in 1827. Queen Victoria stayed here during her travels to her husband's beloved Thüringia. During the early Nineteenth Century, due to the purity of the water and the quality of the meadows for bleaching linen, the town was famous for its laundry industry and washed for rich people all over Germany. On Sundays, men from the town would carry large baskets of washing on their backs to towns as far away as Erfurt. People in the town were forbidden to keep poultry to avoid polluting the meadows used for bleaching linen. Similarly, cattle could be kept in the town but each day, herds led a procession of cows, with bells around their necks, through the town and up to the mountain pastures. This practice went on until the 1960's and was a very picturesque sight.

St. Blasius Kirche

Since 1837 Friedrichroda has been famous as a holiday resort and 'Kur' or 'spa' centre. This was due to the patronage of Friedrich Justus Perthes, a wealthy bookseller from Gotha, who first visited the town in that year. He was so impressed that he recommended the town to all his customers and so its popularity grew. Large Victorian villas were built to accomodate all the visitors, each guest room requiring its own balcony. During the Second World War, the railway tunnel at Freidrichroda was used both as an air raid shelter and a factory for making rocket parts. On 6th February 1945 135 people were killed by an American airstrike. American occupying troops entered the town on 7th and 8th April. Later, Thüringia was handed over to the Russians in exchange for West Berlin. The Russians entered Friedrichroda on 3rd July 1945.

From 1945 to 1991 Friedrichroda was ruled by Communist East Germany. The Lutheran Church in the town centre was the first church in the region to provide a forum for the inhabitants to discuss their grievances under the Communist regime. People attended the Thursday meetings in hundreds at great risk to themselves, and the Pastor, Herr Schurig, was personally heroic. Because, in those days, the inhabitants of East Europe could not visit Capitalist countries, holiday centres like Friedrichroda became extremely important. The modern Berg Hotel, which dominates the skyline, was once a Communist holiday home for workers. The Treff Hotel, now a luxury hotel, was formerly a 'Stasi' home - on its front wall there are some interesting 'worker' motifs from this period. Today there are also other hotels and many friendly guest houses with modern comforts. Nearby 'PuschkinPark' has lost most of its Communist statues now.

After the 'Change', which is how the local people refer to Re-unification, people were faced with a totally new way of life, problems of unemployment and the falling away of the Friedrichroda holiday industry - people were now free to travel and exercised this right. Hence, in 1993, the first team to come from Friedrichroda to the Knaresborough Bed Race, came as a deliberate attempt to pick themselves up and publicise their region. For some time much building work and remaking of roads was necessary because of the severe neglect under the old system and for a while Friedrichroda resembled a building site. Much work has been done and the town is coming alive again.

Today it has a population of 6200 inhabitants, but this swells during the summer months due to its poplarity as a tourist resort. Furniture making is another local industry but the former mining industry is long gone, the remains only to be seen in the "Marienglashöhle" and in a display in the Heimatstube or 'folk museum'.

Activities and Places of Interest to Visit

There are 100 km of marked footpaths through the forest around Friedrichroda and the town is not far from the famous 'Rennsteig' mountain ridgeway. There is a large open-air swimming pool in the town and large indoor pools at the Berg and Treff hotels, which may be used by both hotel guests and others. Rowing is available on the lakes at Reinhardsbrunn and there are saunas and solariums and facilities for horse-riding and playing tennis.

Culture lovers can enjoy organ concerts in the local church and folk singing by local groups. The 'Spenglersborngemeinde' is a group devoted to keeping alive the story of the old laundry industry as well as folk songs and legends of the district.

Folk festival in the Bergtheater

The 'Marienglashöhle', a former gypsum mine, is well worth visiting. It has the most attractive and largest crystal cavern in Europe. It is also worth seeing the former ducal hunting lodge at Reinhardsbrunn where Queen Victoria stayed during some of her many visits to the region. Friedrichroda is not far from the cities of Eisenach (the Wartburg Castle and also Johann Sebastian Bach's house), Gotha (Scloss Friedenstein), Erfurt (the Krämerbrücke) and Weimar (Goethe and Schiller). There are some wintersports in Friedrichroda, weather permitting - bob sledging, cross-country skiing; down-hill ski runs are to be found in the villages near the Inselsberg or in the south of the region at Oberhof.

Marienglas crystals

Thanks to the encouragement from Bebra and Knaresborough, the Friedrichroda Bed Race has taken off in a big way.

More information about Friedrichroda can be obtained from:
Kurverwaltung, Markstrasse 13/15, 99894 FRIEDRICHRODA, Thüringen;
telephone (from England/Germany) 0049 3623 304575/03623 304575; Fax 0049 3623 200694/03623 200694