Sagan/Żagań
Sagan/Żagań
Etymology
‘Sagan’ is probably derived from the Proto-Slavic field name‘Zagon’(= a ploughed patch of arable land).
Location
Once described as the ‘north-western gatewayto Silesia’,[1] Sagan lies at 51° 37’ north latitude and 15° 19’ east longitude, approximately 100 metres above sea level, on both banks of the middle Bober (Bóbr), a left-bank tributary of the Oder (Polish/Czech: Odra); the Tschirne (Czerna) flows into the Bober at Luthrötha/Lutnia, which is still within the Sagan area. It is approximately 140 km to Breslau/Wrocław (to the south-east) and approximately 60 km to Görlitz/Zgorzelec (to the south-west).
The foothills of the Lusatian Border Forest (Wzniesienia Żarskie) surround the town to the west, whilst to the east lie the foothills of the Dalkau Hills (Wzgórza Dalkowskie). The forested area of the Lower Silesian and Lusatian Heath (Bory Dolnośląskie) extends as far as the town’s boundaries in the south.
Political and administrative affiliation
Republic of Poland; Sagan is the administrative centre of Żagań County (Powiat Żagański) in the Lubusz Voivodeship (Województwo Lubuskie).
Common symbolism
The coat of arms granted to the town of Sagan by Emperor Rudolf II (1576–1612) in 1602 remained in use until 1968. It is quartered; the first and fourth quarters each feature a golden crowned lion on a black background. The second and third quarters each depict a city gate with two towers on a red background. A grille connects the towers, beneath which stands a large ‘S’.
The coat of arms, which has been in use since 1993, is based on the design of the town’s oldest seal from 1305. On a red background stands a defensive wall with battlements; in the centre rises a gate tower with two windows and a triangular roof. In the open gate below stands a knight without a headdress, holding a lance in his right hand and a triangular eagle shield in his left. Above the wall, to the right of the tower, is depicted a helmet with a peacock-feather crest, and to the left, the Silesian eagle with a rising crescent moon on its breast.
The colours of the town of Sagan are red and white; the town flag features the colours red, yellow and red, the historic colours of the Principality of Sagan.
Principality of Sagan
From 1252, Sagan belonged to the Piast Principality of Glogau; around 1280, Sagan became the seat of a sub-principality, and in 1413 it was definitively separated from the Principality of Glogau. In 1473, the Principality of Sagan passed to the House of Wettin; in 1549, it was exchanged for the Crown of Bohemia. From 1553 to 1601, the princely estates were pledged as security; from 1558, they were held by the von Promnitz family of Sorau/Żary. From 1601 to 1646, Sagan was once again in the possession of the Habsburgs; from 1628 to 1634, it was held as a fief by the imperial commander Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583–1634). In 1646, Prince Wenzel Eusebius von Lobkowitz (1603–1677) acquired the estate. With the transfer of Silesia to Prussia (1742), the Principality of Sagan also came under Prussian sovereignty. In March 1786, the Lobkowitz family sold Sagan to Peter Biron, Duke of Courland, Livonia and Semigallia (1724–1800). Following Peter’s death, Wilhelmine, Princess of Courland (1781–1839), inherited the principality, the administration of which she assumed in 1805. She was succeeded by Peter’s second daughter, Pauline, Princess of Hohenzollern-Hechingen (1782–1845). In 1844, she ceded Sagan to her younger sister, Dorothea, Duchess of Talleyrand-Périgord and Dino (1793–1862). With the establishment in 1844 of the Prussian hereditary principality of Sagan by Frederick William IV (1840–1861), the legal status of the principality was established for Duchess Dorothea and her descendants as Dukes of Talleyrand-Périgord and Valençay. From 1862 to 1898, Dorothea’s son Ludwig Napoleon (1811–1898) was Duke of Sagan; he was succeeded by his son Boso I (1832–1910). Duke Howard (1909–1929) was the last Duke of Sagan; upon his death in 1929, the ducal title became extinct. In 1935, the feudal status of the Waldgut Sagan estate, founded in 1929, came to an end.
Middle Ages
In 1202, a certain Stephanus de Sagan, castellanus , appeared as a witness in a document for Leubus/Lubiąż Abbey. The Polish castellany, dating from the second half of the 12th century, was situated on what would later become Galgenberg. To the north-west of this lay the Slavic village of Sagan, with St Vincent’s Church, mentioned in 1284; recorded after 1400 as ‘Alden-Sagan’, it was later known as Altkirch/Stary Żagań. In the course of the High Medieval eastward expansion, the town of Sagan was founded before 1260 on the right bank of the Mühlgraben, a tributary of the Bober, under Magdeburg law, with a rectangular town wall and a chequerboard-like street layout. In 1280 and 1284, Sagan is referred to as a ‘civitas ’. Around 1280, the town was extended eastwards with the ‘New Ring’ (known as Ludwigsplatz [pl. Słowiański] since 1886).
After 1270, the old castellany ceased to function, and a new castle complex was built at the Sorau Gate. In 1284, Duke Primko I of Sagan-Sprottau/Szprotawa-Steinau/Śinawa (d. 1289) relocated the Augustinian canons’ monastery from Naumburg am Bober/Nowogród Bobrański to Sagan.
Following the town’s expansion, the original timber-and-earth fortifications were replaced by a stone wall with a moat and three gates, as well as two smaller entrances.
Modern times
Between 1351 and 1730, Sagan was ravaged by fires on several occasions; the last one destroyed almost the entire town. Between 1312 and 1696, the plague broke out in the town on fifteen occasions. Sagan’s location in the Boba Valley often led to extensive damage caused by flooding, particularly in 1804 and 1897.
From the 15th century onwards, Sagan suffered increasingly from acts of war: the Hussite Wars (1419–1439), the fratricidal war between the Piast dukes of Sagan (1461–1472), the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) and the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763). However, following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a more peaceful era began in 1815. With the support of the House of Biron, Sagan was able to develop into a modern community in the decades that followed.
Contemporary History
In 1923, Fischendorf/Rybaki was incorporated into the town, followed in 1928 by part of Luthrötha and numerous estates (1905: 23.73 km², 1928: 32.54 km²).[2] New settlements sprang up in the late 1920s, particularly in the north, east and west of the town.
The NSDAP, which had been active in Silesia since 1925, won 18,109 votes in Sagan in the Reichstag elections of July 1932; by contrast, its share of the vote was significantly lower in the March 1933 election, at 6,077 votes.[3]
After several days of fighting, units of the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front occupied the town on 16 February 1945. By the end of the war, over 80 per cent of Sagan had been destroyed. Due to a lack of housing, new Polish residents were not settled there until 1947; the German population had already been largely expelled in 1945–46.
Administration
Sagan’s first town hall stood in the middle of a block of houses on the Old Ring (Rynek). Following the town fire of 1486, a new town hall was built on the corner of the Old Ring and Sorauer Straße (ul. II Armii Wojska Polskiego); it was last renovated in 1879–80 and remained in use until its destruction in 1945.
A mayor is mentioned for 1303; from 1354 onwards, the proconsul served as his deputy. Councillors, elders and jurors were elected by the civic community; the first recorded ducal confirmation dates from 1477. The municipal code enacted in Prussia in 1808 also brought municipal self-government (town councillors) to Sagan.
From 1810, Sagan had its own municipal court; from 1877, the royal district court was housed in the former Augustinian monastery.
After 1741, the town and the principality were initially under the jurisdiction of the War and Domains Chamber in Glogau/Głogów; from 1815/16, they fell under the administrative district of Liegnitz/Legnica. In 1741, the district of Sagan was formed, with Sagan as its district town. In 1932, the districts of Sagan and Sprottau were merged to form the district of Sprottau, with Sagan remaining the district town.
Population
In 1620, the town and its suburbs had a population of approximately 4,000.[4] At the start of the Seven Years’ War (1756), the population stood at 2,900,[5] after which a steady increase in population was observed. A provisional peak of 22,700 inhabitants was reached in 1944.[6] Following the expulsion of the German population and the resettlement of Polish refugees from the East, the population stood at 19,200 in 1961 and 21,500 in 1970.[7] Sagan currently has 26,931 inhabitants (as of 2015).[8]
Economy
Together with the Augustinian canons, the Dukes of Sagan, Konrad II Köberlein (d. 1304) and Primko I (d. 1289), encouraged the settlement of clothmakers from Meissen and Thuringia. Thanks to Sagan’s favourable location on the Niedere Straße, a thriving trade in cloth with Poland and Russia was able to develop. The Sagan cloth-making trade, which had been highly successful in the 14th and 15th centuries, initially experienced a decline due to repeated fires, the plague and war; this decline only came to an end with the introduction of steam power and the transition from small-scale craft production to industrial-scale cloth manufacture. Despite the particularly difficult economic situation in Silesia after 1918, cloth manufacturing in Sagan remained the dominant branch of industry until 1944/45. Alongside the textile industry, dye works, machine factories, metal and iron foundries, and cloth wholesale businesses sprang up.
In 1351, Sagan was granted the right to brew beer with the conferral of the ‘Bierschrotamt’ (beer brewing licence). Industrial-scale beer brewing began in 1820 with the founding of the Tivoli Moritz Baudach Brewery; in 1863, the brewing cooperative was transformed into the Bergschlößchen GmbH Brewery.
In 1873, the Commercial Association was founded; in 1879, the Chamber of Commerce for the districts of Sagan and Sprottau began its work in Sagan.
In July 1846, Sagan was connected to the Lower Silesian branch line betweenHansdorf/Jankowa–Sprottau–Glogau. Direct connections to Wrocław and Berlin were not established until 1875. During the winter half-year of 1937–38, 13 express and fast trains stopped at Sagan; today, the station is used solely for regional services (as of 2015).
Military history
Sagan has been a garrison town since 1742. The first barracks in Sagan were situated near the old Sorau Bridge. In 1884–86, the Treasury commissioned the construction of the Planitz (Artillery) Barracks on Kasernenplatz/Pestalozziplatz (Orląt Lwowskich Square). Of great importance to the Sagan garrison was the Neuhammer/Świętoszów military training area, established in 1898 south of Sprottau in the Mallmitz Heath. After the First World War, the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht made use of the existing military facilities. In addition, the Großgörschen Barracks were built between Kasernenstraße and Artilleriestraße (ul. Bolesława Kędzierzawego). In 1937, the Dachsberg tank barracks were built on the Sorauer Chaussee (przy Szosie Żarskiej). The Luftwaffe used the Küpper airbase near Sagan/Stara Kopernica.
During the Second World War, the Stalag (= main camp) VIII C prisoner-of-war camp was situated on a former parade ground on Halbauer Chaussee (ul. Lotników Alianckich), and from 1942 onwards, Stalag Luft III was located in the Sagan Forest, the scene of an escape attempt by 80 pilots from the Allied forces in March 1944, which ended with the shooting of most of the escapees; only three prisoners managed to escape.
After 1945, the barracks in the town and on the Dachsberg continued to be used by Russian and Polish units, which shaped life in the town for many years. Currently, the headquarters of the Polish Armed Forces’ 11th Armoured Division, ‘King Jan III Sobieski’, is stationed in Sagan (as of 2015).
History of Religion and the Church
Until the Reformation, there were only two monasteries: the Augustinian Canons’ Priory, whose collegiate church also served as the town’s parish church, and the Franciscan monastery (until 1539). It was under Paul Lemberg (born 1480), the abbot of the Augustinian monastery, that Martin Luther’s teachings found their way into the town. Whilst Sagan became predominantly Protestant, the Augustinian monastery continued to exist under the protection of the Habsburgs. From 1524 to 1633, the denomination of the town’s parish church changed several times; until 1628, the Franciscan church was also Protestant for many years.
In 1628, Duke Wallenstein (1583–1634) summoned the Jesuits to Sagan and handed over the Franciscan church and monastery to them. Prince Lobkowitz’s Counter-Reformation measures (from 1667) culminated in the church reduction carried out in the Principality of Sagan in 1668. Until 1668, the Kreuzkirche was still used for Protestant worship; thereafter, the Protestant inhabitants of Sagan attended so-called ‘border’ and ‘refuge’ churches along the borders of the Principality. Following the Convention of Altranstadt (1707), the Church of the Holy Trinity (Gnadenkirche) was built in 1709–10 outside the town on the right bank of the Bober. From then on, the Protestant residents of Sagan had their own church, whilst the Catholic citizens continued to use five churches for their services.[9]
There was a small community of Old Lutherans in Sagan who had separated from the Protestant Church of the Old Prussian Union after 1830.
Around 1825, there were 71 Jews recorded in Sagan. By 1885, the number had risen to 164, before falling again (1895: 144, 1905: 113).[10] In 1925, there were still 97 Jews in Sagan; by 1933, the number had fallen to 64, and by 1939, only seven Jews remained in the town.[11] In 1856–57, the Jewish community had built its synagogue in a bastion of the old city wall on what later became Nizzaplatz (now pl. Wolności) ; it was destroyed on 9–10 November 1938.
Cultural institutions
In the former Augustinian monastery, above St Anne’s Chapel, lies the Baroque monastery library, whose most valuable holdings were transferred to Breslau following secularisation.
In 1905, the Sagan People’s Education Association had set up a public reading room and a public library in the boys’ secondary school. The same building also housed the Museum of Antiquities and Local History, founded in 1891, until 1928.
The first theatre performance by the Jesuits in Sagan is recorded as having taken place in 1659. Under Duke Peter Biron (d. 1800), a theatre was established in the castle. Performances took place only during the winter months, and admission was open to all. Sagan did not have its own theatre company; various Silesian travelling theatre troupes gave guest performances at the Apollo Theatre, the ‘Stadttheater’ on Ludwigsplatz (pl. Słowiański) and the concert hall on the Stadtwiese (ul. Jana Pawła II).
Musical life was dominated by the Sagan Music Society and the Sagan Symphony Orchestra.
Education and Science
The state grammar school, the Herzog-Friedland-Schule, had its origins in the Jesuit school founded by Wallenstein in 1628/29.
From 1873 to 1923, Sagan had a Protestant teacher-training college and, until the end of the First World War, a preparatory college; a state secondary school for girls existed until 1929. The municipal vocational and technical schools, the adult education centre, the agricultural school and the army technical college complemented Sagan’s educational institutions.
The astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) lived and worked in Sagan from 1628 to 1630 at Wallenstein’s invitation. It was here that the *Ephemerides*, Kepler’s tables of celestial calculations, were published in 1630.
Johann Ignaz von Felbiger (1724–1788), the 50th abbot of the Sagan Canons’ Priory, who headed the priory from 1758 to 1778, is regarded as a reformer of the Catholic school system in Silesia. In 1770, Felbiger had a lightning conductor fitted to the roof of the parish church – the first in Silesia.
Adolf Engler (1844–1930) was also a native of Sagan; in 1889, he was appointed full professor and director of the Botanical Garden and Museum in Berlin.
Art History and Architecture
The Catholic parish church of St Mary’s Assumption on Klosterhof (plac Klasztorny), formerly the Augustinian church, was built in the second half of the 14th century as a three-nave basilica. Following the town fires of 1472 and 1486, it was rebuilt as a hall church; from 1515 onwards, the nave and vaults were raised. On the west side, the façade is designed as a five-step stepped gable; the brick tower was given its mansard hipped roof following the town fire of 1730. The predominantly Baroque interior has been preserved. – The three-winged monastery complex, adjoining the town walls to the north and west, was built at the beginning of the 14th century; the outbuildings date from the 15th and 16th centuries. After 1810, the town initially established the tax office in part of the monastery buildings, and later the magistrates’ court and prison. The former seminary now houses a tourist hotel.
The present-day Catholic grammar school church of St Peter and St Paul traces its origins back to the Franciscan monastery founded in 1284/85. Originally a Gothic hall church, the nave was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century; the church acquired its present external appearance in 1495. Following the fire of 1688, it was rebuilt as a Jesuit church with Baroque furnishings. – The former Franciscan monastery on Gymnasialstraße was demolished in 1652, and a Jesuit college and school were built on the site in 1653. Following the town fire of 1688, work began in 1689 on the construction of a new college building. Following the dissolution of the order in 1773, the Jesuit school continued to operate in the college building (southern part) as the ‘Royal School Institute’, whilst the Jesuit church became the grammar school church. The seminary building (northern part) served as a women’s prison from 1838 to 1928; from 1928 to 1945, it housed the local history museum and district authorities. Since its reconstruction following the Second World War, the buildings have been used to house a textile and commercial college and the police.
The Catholic Church of St Mary’s Visitation, situated in a cemetery on the left-hand side of the bobsleigh track – the Gothic ‘Bergelkirche’ dating from 1484 – was extended and given a Baroque makeover in the 17th and 18th centuries. Next to it stands the Holy Sepulchre Chapel, a sandstone block-built structure erected in 1598 as a replica of the Emmerich family’s burial chapel in Görlitz.
In 1334, the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross on Szprotawska Street (ul. Szprotawska) was built; a hospital for lepers had existed on this site since 1284. Between 1845 and 1849, Duchess Dorothea had the church converted into a burial place for the Catholic members of the ducal family. Nearby, she founded St Dorothea’s Hospital, comprising the Marienhaus and the Dorothea School (1859). Today, the complex houses the European Music Centre.
In 1296, the Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Provost’s Church (‘Hospital Church’), situated on Freystädter Straße (ul. Armii Krajowej), was first mentioned; the associated hospital had already been mentioned as early as 1292.Between 1701 and 1702, a Baroque hall church was erected on the site of the previous building dating from 1444/1482. The Baroque interior dating from the early 18th century has been preserved.
The Protestant Church of the Holy Trinity on Kirchplatz (pl. Królowej Jadwigi) was originally a wooden hall church with bevelled corners and a small tower on the south side. In 1809, work began on enclosing the church within a brick wall (completed in 1859). Between 1843 and 1845, the Church of the Holy Trinity was given a new tower with an openwork spire made of cast iron, along with a sacristy on the north side. For the Protestant members of the Biron family, the ducal crypt was established in the basement of the tower, with the crypt chapel situated above it. After the Second World War, the church—which had sustained only minor damage during the fighting in February 1945—fell into disrepair; used as a quarry, it was demolished in 1965. The tower remained standing and, following extensive renovation, was opened as a viewing tower in 2004. In the empty Kurland crypt, only the foundation stone from 1843, set into the vault, can be seen (as at 2015).
To the south of Ludwigsplatz (pl. Słowiański) stands the ducal Baroque palace. It had been the seat of the Dukes of Sagan since 1299. In 1629, Wallenstein commissioned the construction of a four-winged complex with bastions at the corners. Under his successor, von Lobkowitz, work began on a new building – a three-winged, horseshoe-shaped complex – based on designs by the architect Antonio della Porta (c. 1631–1702), built on the foundations of the previous structure. The Wallenstein-Lobkowitz Palace was largely completed in 1693. Under Curonian rule, only essential safety measures were carried out on the exterior of the palace; by contrast, work on the interior and the expansion of the art collections continued. At the end of 1944, the relocation of the works of art began; their current whereabouts remain largely unknown. The palace is now used by municipal institutions and as a cultural centre.
Duchess Dorothea and her son Ludwig Napoleon had the palace gardens and the extensive grounds redesigned as a landscape park, which was partially destroyed in 1945 and in the years that followed.
There are two further ducal buildings near the palace. The Ducal Country House, built on Ludwigsplatz in 1793 as a widow’s residence for Duchess Dorothea of Courland – a late Baroque city palace with classical elements – later housed ducal administrative offices. Today, it houses the town council. – Opposite the castle, the Ducal Chamber was built around 1800 as the ducal administrative building; today it is the seat of the district court, and is also a late Baroque building with Neoclassical elements.
Next to the palace at Stadtwiese 7 (ul. Jana Pawła II), built around 1800 as a rectangular structure with a ground floor and mezzanine level and a low hipped roof, and the Meyer family’s manufacturer’s villa from 1847 at Stadtwiese 15, a number of patrician houses have been preserved on the Alter Ring; scattered throughout the town, one can still find Baroque and town houses from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Sagan’s landmark on the Alter Ring, the Town Hall Tower dating from 1331, had to be renovated in 1868–69; at that time, it was fitted with a loggia modelled on the Florentine style and an illuminated clock.
Following the war damage in 1945, damaged and dilapidated houses were demolished, the old, organically developed street network was abandoned, and new blocks of flats were built haphazardly on the cleared sites. On the left bank of the Bober, the large housing estates XXX-lecia PRL and Bema were built in the 1970s; on the right bank of the Bober lies the Osiedle Ląkowa estate.
In 1996, Sagan was included in the government programme for the preservation and revitalisation of historic towns in Poland. Archaeological investigations into the planned reconstruction of old town houses were subsequently carried out in the areas of Hohe Straße (ul. Warszawska), Ludwigsplatz (pl. Słowiański) and Brüderstraße (ul. Bracka); the former vacant plots there have since been largely filled in (as of 2015).
History of Books and Printing
In 1629, Wallenstein had a printing works set up for Johannes Kepler, which ceased trading around 1630. In 1765, there was a printing works on Sorauer Straße which printed Felbiger’s schoolbooks (e.g. the Sagan or Silesian Catechism). In 1793, Duke Peter Biron commissioned the establishment of the Ducal Court Printing House, which was last owned by Benjamin Krause. From 1796, the Court Printing House published the *Niederschlesische Allgemeine Zeitung* ( *Saganer Wochenblatt*). The *Saganer Tageblatt* was published by Schlesinger and Lenich. In 1929, the Kurt Liebig Printing and Calligraphy Works was founded.
Bibliography
Carl Weisflog (1770–1828), who was born in Sagan, who served as a magistrate in Sagan in 1802 and as director of the town court in 1827, wrote – inspired by his acquaintance with E.T.A. Hoffmann – a large number of fantastical novellas and was one of the most widely read authors in the third decade of the 19th century.
In the novella *Journey to Sagan* by Traud Gravenhorst, (1882–1968), written in 1921 and published in 1932, Sagan Castle, the Bober landscape and the town’s surroundings in the year 1808 form the backdrop for the budding passion between the ageing Prince Charles Maurice Talleyrand and the young Courland princess Dorothea Biron.
Culture of memory and remembrance
In the park at Stadtwiese (ul. Jana Pawła II) stands a memorial stone erected in 2000, bearing a picture and the inscription ‘Johannes Kepler. Astronomer. 1571–1630’. The stone is a reconstruction of the Kepler monument from 1930 in Kammerau, the upper part of the ducal parklands (Park Górny). Another reminder of the town’s German past is the Bismarck Tower, built in 1909 on Galgenberg in Belaria Park.
The Tourist Information Centre (Centrum Informacji Turystycznej) has established the Żagań Princely Trail (Żagański Szlak Książęcy), a multilingual signposted circular route taking in old and new sights.
On Halbauer Chaussee (ul. Lotników Alianckich), on the site of the former prisoner-of-war camps, the Museum of the Martyrdom of Allied Prisoners of War (Muzeum Martyrologii Alianckich Jeńców Wojennych) has been located since 1971; now the Museum of the Prisoner-of-War Extermination Camp (Muzeum Obozów Jenieckich w Żaganiu).
Since 1976, the Sagan-Sprottau Local History Room had been housed at the Detmold Adult Education Centre; its collections have been held at Haus Schlesien (Königswinter) since 2014/15.
Bibliography
- Katarzyna Adamek, Marian Ryszard Świątek: Żagań znany i nieznany [Sagan – known and unknown]. Żagań 2002.
- Werner Bein (ed.): Sagan and Sprottau in Silesian History. ‘Les vues de Sagan’. Published p.p. by the Silesian Cultural Foundation. Würzburg 1992.
- Commemorative publication for the Sagan Local Festival. Whitsun 1927. Edited by the Festival and Press Committee. Sagan 1927.
- Felix Hoffmann: The Kurland Crypt in the Church of the Holy Trinity. A commemorative leaflet marking the last burial on 13 March 1878. In: Illustrated House Calendar for the District of Sagan (Principality Calendar) 1938. Sagan 1937, pp. 25ff.
- Artur Hryniewicz: Żagań/Sagan. In: Ernst Badstübner, Dietmar Popp, Andrzej Tomaszewski, Dethard von Winterfeld (eds.), Sławomir Brzezicki, Christine Nielsen (eds.): Dehio Handbook of Art Monuments in Poland. Silesia. Munich, Berlin 2005, pp. 1196–1204.
- Hans Lauschke: Guide to Sagan and the Surrounding Area. Edited P.p. by the Sagan Tourist Association [1910].
- Kurt Liebig: Memories of Sagan. Cologne-Rodenkirchen 1953.
- Local Urban Regeneration Programme for the Town. Żagań 2005.
- Georg Steller: Wallenstein Builds Sagan Castle (1628–1634). In: Felix Matuszkiewicz, Georg Steller: Our Sagan-Sprottau Homeland. Cologne-Rodenkirchen 1956, pp. 50–90.
- Georg Steller: Sagan. In: Hugo Weczerka (ed.): Handbook of Historical Sites. Silesia. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Stuttgart 2003 (Kröners Taschenausgabe 316), pp. 462–467.
- Marian Ryszard Świątek: Żagań on Old Postcards / Sagan on Old Postcards. Żagań 1999.
- Marian Ryszard Świątek: Greetings from Żagań. Żagań on old postcards 1896–1918. Wrocław 2002.
- Marian Ryszard Świątek, Katarzyna Adamek-Pujszo: The Palace and Park in Żagań on Old Postcards. Lubsko [2006].
- Ute Ueberschär-von Livonius: Sagan 1944. In: Gerd R[olf] Ueberschär [ed.]: Places of Horror. Crimes during the Second World War. Darmstadt 2003, pp. 217–223.
- J[ulius] Wohlfahrt, G[eorg] Michael: Commemorative leaflets for the Protestant congregation of Sagan to mark the 200th anniversary of their Church of Grace, 14–16 May 1909. Sagan 1909.
- Żagań. In: Jerzy Kwiatek, Teofil Lijewski (eds.): Leksykon miast polskich [Encyclopaedia of Polish Towns]. Warsaw 1998, pp. 1078–1080.
- Robert Zarzycki: Żagań 1945–50 [Sagan 1945–50]. Żagań 2005.
Web links
- urzadmiasta.zagan.pl/de/turystyka/historia/ (Żagań Town Council website, multilingual)
- www.herder-institut.de/bildkatalog/wikidata/Q158459 (Images relating to Sagan/Żagań in the image archive of the Herder Institute, Marburg)
Notes
[1] Karl Baedeker: Silesia. The Giant Mountains. The County of Glatz. Travel Guide. 2nd ed. Leipzig 1938, p. 6.
[2] Karl Handke, Georg Steller: Description of the Silesian districts of Sagan and Sprottau (based on the boundaries of the district of Sprottau from 1 October 1932). Lippstadt 1968, pp. 171, 196.
[3] The Reichstag elections on 31 July and 6 November 1932 and on 5 March 1933 (sixth to eighth legislative periods). Compiled by the Reich Statistical Office. Berlin 1935 (Statistics of the German Reich 434). pp. 47, 178.
[4] Handke, Steller: Description (note 2), p. 57.
[5] Handke, Steller: Description (note 2), p. 57.
[6] Handke, Steller: Description (note 2), p. 244.
[7] Steller: Sagan, p. 467.
[8] umzagan.nazwa.pl/um/ (accessed 3 July 2015).
[9] Of the 20,441 inhabitants (1939), 15,373 were Protestants, 4,227 were Catholics and 115 were other Christians (Michael Rademacher: German Administrative History from the Unification of the German Empire in 1871 to Reunification in 1990. URL: treemagic.org/rademacher/www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/sprottau.html [accessed 2 March 2021]).
[10] Handke, Steller: Description (note 2). pp. 132, 155, 171.
[11] treemagic.org/rademacher/www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/sprottau.html (note 9).
Citation
Klaus Lindner: Sagan/Żagań. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2015. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p38962 (as at 30 July 2021).
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