Lübben (Spreewald)

Names

The town is often known simply as Lübben or Lubin in the local languages. The suffix "Spreewald"/"Błota" denotes the Spree Forest. No other town is called Lübben, but several places in Poland are named Lubin. The name can also be rendered in German as Lübben im Spreewald (Lübben in the Spreewald).

The linguist and scholar Arnošt Muka wrote in 1927 that Lubin meant "settlement of the glory-loving" or "peace-loving". Other suggested meanings include "deep place on the Spree" and "belonging to Lubomir". Lübben derives from Lubin. The Spreewald is named after the Spree river, while Błota means "the swamps".

The German name Lübben is similar to that of the neighbouring town, Lübbenau.

Administrative structure

The districts of the town are (names given in German and Lower Sorbian):

Lübben Stadt/Lubin město

Hartmannsdorf/Hartmanojce

Lubolz/Lubolc

Groß Lubolz/Wjelike Lubolce

Klein Lubolz/Małe Lubolce

Neuendorf/Nowa Wjas

Radensdorf/Radom

Steinkirchen/Kamjena

Treppendorf/Ranchow

History

The castle of Lubin in the March of Lusatia was first mentioned in an 1150 register of Nienburg Abbey and had received town privileges according to Magdeburg law by 1220. It was located on a trade route from Luckau to Gubin and Poznań. From 1301 the town in the centre of the Spreewald floodplain was in the possession of the monks of Dobrilugk Abbey, who sold it to Duke Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg in 1329. After several conflicts with the Wittelsbach margraves of Brandenburg the March of Lusatia was finally acquired by Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg in 1367 who incorporated Lübben into the Kingdom of Bohemia. In the 15th century Lübben became the seat of the Bohemian Vogt administrator and the provincial diet (Landtag) of Lower Lusatia.

In 1526 the House of Habsburg inherited the Bohemian kingdom including Lusatia, which in 1623 Ferdinand II of Habsburg had to give in pawn to Elector John George I of Saxony. The Saxon Electorate finally acquired Lübben by signing the 1635 Peace of Prague. After the Napoleonic Wars it fell to the Prussian province of Brandenburg by the final act of the 1815 Congress of Vienna. One of the main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful Polish November Uprising from partitioned Poland to the Great Emigration led through the town.

During World War II, the Oflag III-C and Oflag 8 prisoner-of-war camps for Polish, French, British, Australian, New Zealander, Belgian and Dutch officers, a forced labour subcamp of the Nazi prison in Luckau and a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp were located in the town. Lübben was taken by Soviet troops of the 3rd Guards Army on 27 April 1945.

Politics

The municipal assembly (Stadtverordnetenversammlung) consists of 22 councillors, who were chosen in the municipal elections on 9 June 2024, and the mayor, who votes on all matters just like other members.

Distribution of the seats in the council after the elections:

At the constituent meeting of the city council, Peter Rogalla (diestadtfraktion) was elected chairman, his deputies are Andrea Freimann (Pro Lübben) and Inis Schönfelder (CDU).

Lübben is twinned with Wolsztyn in Poland and Neunkirchen, Saarland in Germany.

Places of interest

Spreewald biosphere reserve

Lübben Castle, on medieval foundations, rebuilt in the 17th century under the rule of Duke Christian I of Saxe-Merseburg

Neuhaus Manor in Steinkirchen, built in 1801, former residence of author Christoph Ernst von Houwald from 1822 on

Romanesque St Pancras fieldstone church in Steinkirchen built in the early 13th century, one of the oldest preserved churches in Lower Lusatia

Paul Gerhardt Church from the 16th century, where Paul Gerhardt preached from 1669 on

Roman Catholic Trinity Church, built in 1862

Notable people

Born in Lübben

Hans Peter Bull (born 1936), German constitutional lawyer and jurist

Karin Büttner-Janz (born 1952 in Hartmannsdorf), German Olympic medal winner in artistic gymnastics and habilitated doctor

Henry Eugene Fritz (1875–1956), American painter

Hans Walter Gruhle (1880–1958), German psychiatrist

Benno Hann von Weyhern (1808–1890), Prussian General of the Cavalry

Louis Klopsch (1852–1910), American author and editor of the Christian Herald

Sylvio Kroll (born 1965), German Olympic medal winner in artistic gymnastics

Kornelia Kunisch (born 1959), German handball player, 1980 Olympic bronze medal with the East German team

Erich Lehmann (1890–1917), German track and field athlete

Christian Lillinger (born 1984), German musician and composer

Karl Otto von Manteuffel (1806-1879), German politician, Prussian agriculture minister

Otto Theodor von Manteuffel (1805–1882), German politician, Minister-President of Prussia

Rudolf Marloth (1855–1931), South African botanist, pharmacist and analytical chemist

Ella Mensch (1859–1935), German writer, journalist, teacher, feminist and editor

Related to Lübben

Wolfgang Figulus (c. 1525 – c. 1591), German composer and teacher, 1545 or 1546 cantor in Lübben

Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676), German hymn writer, 1668 until his death archdeacon of Lübben

Renate Holm (1931–2022), German-Austrian film actress and operatic soprano, school in Lübben

Christoph Ernst von Houwald (1778–1845), German dramatist and author, died at Neuhaus

Götz von Houwald (1913–2001), German diplomat, historian and ethnographer, completed his secondary education in Lübben

Albert Naumann (1875–1952), German fencer, died in Lübben

Jens Riewa (born 1963), German television presenter and broadcast news analyst for the Tagesschau, grew up in Lübben

Immanuel Johann Gerhard Scheller (1735–1803), German classical philologist and lexicographer, teacher in Lübben

Daniel Ziebig (born 1983), German footballer, used to live in Lübben

We Butter the Bread with Butter, German deathcore band formed in 2007