Wunsiedel

Wunsiedel is the seat of the Upper Franconian district of Wunsiedel in northeast Bavaria, Germany. The town have become widely recognized for its annual Luisenburg Festival and the Rudolf Hess Memorial March held there by way of Neo-Nazis till 2005. Wunsiedel become first mentioned in 1163 as the seat of a ministerialis, Adelbertus or Albert. The name possibly originates from wunne = glades and sedel = noble seat. In 1285, Burgrave Friedrich III of Nürnberg acquired the fiefdom of the town from King Rudolph I of Habsburg. In 1326, Wunsiedel changed into given town rights through Burgrave Friedrich IV and this turned into confirmed in 1328 through Emperor Louis the Bavarian.

In 1430 Hans of Kotzau defeated the Hussites in the Battle of Katharinenberg, a low mountain at once south of Wunsiedel, and in 1652 Jobst of Schirnding beat the Bohemians also on the Katharinenberg. In the Middle Ages, Wunsiedel became a centre of tin mining and finished high-quality economic significance thru the manufacture of tin plate. In 1613, it became capital of the Sechsämterland – a place comparable in length to the present day district Wunsiedel im Fichtelgebirge. The bailiffs in Hohenberg, Weißenstadt, Kirchenlamitz, Selb and Thierstein were all subordinated to the excessive bailiff in Wunsiedel.