Panel 1 The settlement of the Zwota-Döbra Valley

Geographically, Klingenthal is located on the western foothills of the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) ridge. It was not until the end of the 16th century that a structured settlement with village character began in Klingenthal. The decisive factors were forest wealth and ore mining. A hammer mill was established. The first core settlement was located here, at the confluence of the Döbra and Zwota rivers. The population increased significantly from the middle of the 17th century, when Bohemian religious exiles moved to Saxony and brought with them the art of violin making. In the following centuries, instrument making became the most important source of income for the population and also ensured economic and cultural progress.

Due to its natural conditions (altitude, dense forests, poor soils, harsh climate), the Zwota-Döbra Valley remained unsettled for a long time.
It was not until the end of the 16th century that two periods of settlement began to merge. Constantly increasing demand for iron, ore veins as well as the great abundance of wood in this region attracted miners to the mountains. From the south in the direction of Bohemia they had a passage-free access to the Zwota Valley.
The Saxon Elector August allowed the construction of the iron hammer mill “In der Helle” and assured the miners suitable land and logging freedom. In 1591, Sebastian Köppel from Schlaggenwald in Bohemia (today Horní Slavkov) began building an iron hammer mill, the “Hellhammer” 2, near the confluence of the Döbra and the border river Zwota 1. This was the beginning of the first settlement period - the Hammer period. By 1597, a blast furnace, the iron hammer, a cutting mill, the hammer estate and a small village for the hammer servants had been built.

Under the already third owner of the Hellhammer, Nicol Klinger from Sachßenfeld (district of Schwarzenberg/Erzg.), the settlement received the place name "Klingenthall” in 1604. This was the nucleus of Klingenthal. Around 1600, the later owners of Klingenthal, the Boxbergers from Nuremberg, came to the neighbouring Bohemian town of Graslitz (a mining town since 1541) and engaged in joint mining. Wilhelm Boxberger, the founder of the Graslitz copper hammer mill on the Zwota River in the direction of Klingenthal, bought the Klingenthal hammer and forest estate from the Klinger’s heirs for 16,000 gulden in 1621 to his son brother Georg Christoph von Boxberg.

The Hellhammer and the hammer estate burned down in 1628. This was the end of the first settlement period. There were other settlement beginnings to it: upstream the Upper Zwotahammer 3 as well as on the western slope of the Aschberg a glassworks 4 at the Steindöbra.

Georg Christoph von Boxberg built until 1635 a new hammer and forest estate above the Hellhammer west of today’s Lutheran church “Zum Friedefürsten” (To the Prince of Peace) 5 until 1635. A hammer mill was not rebuilt. In the meantime, the Thirty Years’ War (1618 to 1648) had broken out in Bohemia in 1618. It led to the re-Catholicization of the Protestant population there. Those who were not willing to change their faith had to leave the country. They settled as religious exiles (displaced persons for the sake of Christ) near the border, also here in the Protestant Electorate of Saxony. And they brought violin making with them. This new trade and the influx of religious exiles were the basis for a sustainable settlement in this second settlement period - the religious exile period. The mountain city of Klingenthal became an early site of violin making in the Vogtland region.
The population increased rapidly for the third time at the end of the 19th century, when the production of harmonicas and button accordions in particular provided new jobs, an urban infrastructure was formed in the Sounding Valley and the transitions between the individual villages became fluid.