Colditz

Colditz is situated in the Leipzig Bay, southeast of the city of Leipzig. The town centre is located on the banks of Zwickau Mulde river, south of its confluence with the Freiberg Mulde. The municipality had a population of 8,374 in 2020. The town Colditz consists of Colditz proper and the Ortsteile (divisions) Bockwitz, Collmen, Commichau, Erlbach, Erlln, Hausdorf, Hohnbach, Kaltenborn, Koltzschen, Lastau, Leisenau, Maaschwitz, Meuselwitz, Möseln, Podelwitz, Raschütz, Schönbach, Sermuth, Skoplau, Tanndorf, Terpitzsch, Zollwitz, Zschadraß, Zschetzsch and Zschirla. ==History==

The first record of a burgward on the Mulde river, called Cholidistcha, dates to the year 1046, Since German reunification in 1990, efforts have been made to increase visits by tourists. The castle was restored and has become a much visited museum. The great flood of August 2002 as well as the flood of 2013 caused some damage to the old town, but it has since been restored. ==Sights==

• Colditz Castle • St. Nicholas Church – Originally built in the middle of the 12th century. • Old Marketplace – Markt, the houses at #13 and #21 were built around 1600. • Lower Market #3 – Untermarkt 3 – a Gothic house with steep gabled roof with date 1564. • Johann David Köhler house – the grandfather of information science and a grandfather of library science was born here 16 January 1684. ==Transport==

The nearest airports are Leipzig-Altenburg Airport (26 km) and Leipzig/Halle Airport (52 km). Traffic on the section of the Glauchau-Großbothen railway line, which ran through Colditz, ceased in 2000. Public transport is provided by buses, with services to Grimma, Leisnig, Hartha, Rochlitz, and Bad Lausick, as well as to several villages in the vicinity. ==Wartime dramatisations==

The story of the wartime prisoners at Oflag IV-C was documented by Patrick Robert ("Pat") Reid in his books The Colditz Story and The Latter Days At Colditz, and the former was used as the basis for a 1955 film directed by Guy Hamilton. In the early 1970s the BBC broadcast a series, Colditz, created by Brian Degas and Gerard Glaister, with Reid as technical advisor. In 1973 the TV comedy series The Two Ronnies shot a sketch "Colditz" featuring Ronnie Corbett in the role of the new detainee and Ronnie Barker as camp commandant. Beginning in 1973 a board game Escape from Colditz was marketed by Parker Brothers, followed by a computer game in 1991. == Notable people ==

From the city • Johann David Köhler (1684–1755), historian and numismatic • Paul Nitsche (1876–1948), psychiatrist and one of the men responsible for the medical murders during the Nazi era, executed for crimes against humanity • Ernst Bergmann (1881–1945), professor of philosophy and pedagogy and proponent of a new German national religion. • Werner Gruner (1904–1995), mechanical engineer and university lecturer • Jürgen Schumann (1940–1977), pilot of the Lufthansa, victim of the Red Army Faction • Clemens Pickel (born 1961), bishop of the diocese of Saratov in Russia Others related to the city • Christian Führer (1943–2014), priest in Colditz from 1968 to 1980, an initiator of the peaceful revolution in the GDR as pastor of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig • Ernest, Elector of Saxony (1441–1486), died on 26 August 1486 near Colditz, when he fell from his horse on a ride ==References==