page_title: Bautzen
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bautzen / History
caption_attribution_description: English: city hall in Bautzen. Deutsch: Rathaus von Bautzen
context_page_description: Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree. In 2018 its population was 39,087.
  Bautzen is often regarded as the unofficial, but historical capital of Upper Lusatia. The town is also the most important cultural centre of the Sorbian minority, which constitutes about 10 percent of Bautzen's population. Its hilltop position and multiple towers are often compared to some of the hilltop towns of Tuscany. The town has a long association with mustard and is one of the few places in the world to boast a mustard museum.
  Asteroid 11580 Bautzen is named in honour of the city.
context_section_description: In the 3rd century AD an eastern Germanic settlement existed here, but excavations have proved that the region was already inhabited as early as the late Stone Age. Sorbs arrived in the area during the Migration period in the 6h century AD.
  The first written evidence of the city is from 1002 under the name Budusin (Polish: Budziszyn, Upper Sorbian: Budyšyn). In 1018 the Peace of Bautzen was signed between the German king Henry II and the Polish ruler Bolesław I the Brave. The treaty left Budziszyn under Polish rule. In 1032 the town passed to the Margraviate of Meissen within the Holy Roman Empire, in 1075 to the Czech (Bohemian) Duchy, elevated to a kingdom in 1198 (with short periods of Brandenburgian and Hungarian rule), in 1635 to Saxony, and from 1697 to 1763 it was also under rule of Polish kings in personal union. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the town at that time.
  From 1346 to 1815 it was a member of the Six Cities' Alliance of the Upper Lusatian cities of Görlitz, Zittau, Löbau, Kamenz, Lubań and Bautzen.
  In 1429 and 1431 the town was unsuccessfully besieged by the Hussites. In 1634 it was destroyed by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War. It was the site of one of the battlefields of the Napoleonic War Battle of Bautzen in 1813. In 1868 the name was officially changed to the more Germanized form Bautzen.
  In 1839 the Sorbian student organization Societas Slavica Budissenensis was founded in the city. In 1845 the Sorbian national anthem was publicly performed for the first time in the city. The Sorbian House (Upper Sorbian: Serbski Dom), a Sorbian cultural centre, was opened in the city in 1904.
  After the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933, many political prisoners were held in the Bautzen I and Bautzen II prisons, built in 1904 and 1906, respectively. During the Kristallnacht in 1938, local Jews were persecuted and Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed. During World War II, the AL Bautzen subcamp of the Groß-Rosen concentration camp operated in Bautzen. At least 600 men, mostly Poles, but also of other nationalities, were imprisoned there, about 310 of whom died. Ernst Thälmann was imprisoned there before being deported to Buchenwald. In April 1945, the Germans evacuated many prisoners on foot to Mikulášovice, where they were liberated by Polish troops on May 8, 1945, while the remaining prisoners were liberated in Bautzen by the Soviets on April 20, 1945. Between 21 April and 30 April 1945, the Battle of Bautzen was fought.
  Bautzen was infamous throughout East Germany for its two penitentiaries. "Bautzen I" was used as an official prison, soon to be nicknamed Gelbes Elend ("Yellow Misery") due to its outer colour, whereas the more secretive "Bautzen II" was used as a facility to hold political prisoners, dissidents and prisoners of conscience. Today, Bautzen I is known as the Bautzen Correctional Institution and is used to hold prisoners who are awaiting trial. Bautzen II which was also operated by the GDR's Ministry of States Security, has served as an open memorial since 1993, operated by the Saxon Memorials Foundation. It is accessible to the public. Guided tours are provided and occasionally, films are screened. A permanent exhibition depicts the misery suffered by occupants; visitors may tour detention cells, the isolation area and the yards where prisoners were allowed to exercise.
  In 2002 the city commemorated its 1000th birthday. In 2010 it was hit by a flood.
caption: Bautzen town hall
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