Scheßlitz


Scheßlitz is a town in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg and lies on the rise to the Franconian Switzerland on the A 70 between Bamberg and Bayreuth, lying 14 km northeast of the former.

Geography

The town is surrounded by the following hills:
This basin's sheltered setting with roads that come together from Heiligenstadt, Hollfeld, Weismain, Bad Staffelstein and Zapfendorf favoured settlement in prehistoric times.

Constituent communities

Scheßlitz's main town and namesake centre is by far the biggest of its Ortsteile with a population of 2,548. The town furthermore has these outlying centres, each given here with its own population figure:
Constituent communitiesInhabitantsOther notes
Burgellern378amalgamated in 1972
Burglesau203amalgamated in 1978
Demmelsdorf312
Dörnwasserlos82amalgamated in 1972
Doschendorf24
Ehrl119
Giechburg2
Gügel0actually a pilgrimage church
Köttensdorf125
Kübelstein126amalgamated in 1978
Ludwag145amalgamated in 1978
Neudorf bei Scheßlitz115amalgamated in 1978
Pausdorf102amalgamated in 1972
Peulendorf174
Pünzendorf72
Roschlaub73amalgamated in 1972
Roßdach97
Schlappenreuth86
Schrautershof6
Schweisdorf187
Starkenschwind199
Straßgiech555
Stübig215amalgamated in 1978
Weichenwasserlos73amalgamated in 1978
Weingarten21
Wiesengiech571
Windischletten224
Würgau329
Zeckendorf231

The amalgamation of these Stadtteile into Scheßlitz on 1 May 1972 and 1 May 1978 made the town the district's biggest municipality by land area.

History

Scheßlitz had its first documentary mention about 805. Scheßlitz is among the area's oldest settlements and has held town rights since 1230.
Linear Pottery remains in the Kohlstatt make clear that there were settlers here as long ago as 2500 BC.
Concrete clues as to the town's history are yielded by the Codex Eberhardi in which it is documented that a Count Bernhard and his wife Ratbirg bequeathed their property on what is now Scheßlitz's abutting rural area to the Fulda Monastery about the year 800. The town has seized on this event as its historical beginnings and thus celebrated its 1,200-year jubilee in 2005.
It is said that confirmation of the existence of a parish of Scheßlitz is the underwriting of a protocol about the Bamberg Synod in 1059 by Arnold de Sieslice.
The town gained importance through the Andechs Meranians’ activities, who rose to dukes in 1178. In 1230, one of Duke Otto VIII's fortified Andechs Meranian castles in the civitas of Scheßlitz was mentioned, making Scheßlitz the Bamberg district's oldest town.
The town of Scheßlitz was an Obervogtamt of the High Monastery of Bamberg, and with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, it became part of Bavaria.

Entry in a travel guide

In his travel guide about Bamberg and the surrounding area from about 1912, the compiler Dietrich Amende also describes the town of Scheßlitz:

Amalgamations

In the course of administrative reform in Bavaria, many nearby communities were amalgamated with the town, thereby giving the town the greatest land area of any municipality in the district. The amalgamations are listed here by date.

Politics

Town council

The town council is made up of 20 members:
Scheßlitz's “First Mayor” is Franz Zenk, and the “Second Mayor” is Roland Kauper.

Coat of arms

Scheßlitz's arms might heraldically be described thus: A wall embattled argent, the chief party per pale Or a lion rampant sable armed and langued gules surmounted by a bendlet of the first and argent a fishhook reversed of the fourth.
The lion recalls the Bamberg High Monastery. The fishhook comes from Bamberg Bishop Lamprecht von Brunn's family coat of arms. The wall stands for the town's fortification.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

After the Second World War, various firms settled in Scheßlitz:
Within the town's limits are five breweries, of which the Schmitt, Senger and Drei Kronen breweries are in Scheßlitz itself. In Köttensdorf is found the Hoh Brewery and in Würgau the Hartmann Brewery. By 2008 at the latest, for the 700th anniversary, the Drei Kronen Brewery in Straßgiech will also be brewing again. Until the 1990s, the Ellertal Brewery was still brewing its own beer.
All together, Scheßlitz offers about 2,000 jobs.

Transport

A planned train connection between Scheßlitz and Hollfeld was once again put off in 1906 after widespread groundwork had already been done because both places wanted the project to fail for political reasons. The reason, however, was not the high building cost, but rather that both towns were seeking the lucrative status of being the last station on the line.
Four of the variations on the plan for a railway line on the Franconian Jura that were discussed were as follows:
  1. by way of Würgau and Königsfeld
  2. through the Burglesau Valley by way of Steinfeld and Königsfeld
  3. from Memmelsdorf by way of Litzendorf, Tiefenellern and Königsfeld
  4. from Gundelsheim by way of Melkendorf, Herzogenreuth and Königsfeld
The line envisaged by the planners would have run from Scheßlitz towards Würgau, and then climbed left at the Schlappenreuther Berg in the Jura. The line would then have stretched through Gräfenhäusling to Steinfeld, in the end reaching the town of Hollfeld through the Wiesent and Aufseß Valleys.
Near Demmelsdorf a forest aisle was already being cut and a new canal harbour was being discussed to afford ore shipping from the Jura Mountains.
In 1918, there were once more stirrings aimed at getting the Jurabahn railway built. In 1920, however, the Reich Transport Ministry made it known that in view of the bad state of the economy, any new railway building projects would have to be abandoned for the time being. Eventually, in 1930, a postal busline from Bamberg by way of Scheßlitz and Hollfeld to Bayreuth was opened.

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town