Saxony

1. Introduction

First of all I want to welcome the aim of developing a systematic review of hagiotoponymy in Germany, i.e. of settlement names with reference to saints of the Christian church. Neither such a fundamental manual like ADOLF

BACH’S “Deutsche Namenkunde” (Heidelberg³,1978) nor the “International Handbook of Onomastics” (HSK 11, Berlin–New York, 1995–1996) could realise this intention, because already for one European state it needs the co-operation of a team to work on this theme.

Settlement names with the element Sankt in their official forms are relatively rare in Eastern Germany. While in Southern, Western, and North-Western Germany we can find a lot of them, their occurrence or representation is very limited in the regions of Saxony, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. On the one hand German Sankt is a sure sign for such a patrociny settlement name, on the other hand it is very difficult to find out whether a personal name like Peter in an official toponym represents the name of the saint, i.e. of the church in the settlement, or of the founder or owner of the village, etc.

On checking the lexicon “Müllers Großes Deutsches Ortsbuch 2005” we found this result: Names with Sankt + hagionym (the name of the saint) can be names of villages, of localities, i.e. parts of villages, of small places with only a few inhabitants, even of groups of single houses, and of ecclesiastical institutions. But here we will mainly refer on the names of settlements.

St. Michaelis, originally a village, now part of the town Brand-Erbisdorf:

1348: Sanct Michahelen, 1409: zcu sente Michel, 1428: Michillsdorff, 1503:

Michel, 1532: St. Michael, 1791: St. Michael, wird auch Michels genannt—

named after the church (HON Sachsen 2: 36).

In addition there are three monasteries founded in the 13^th century around which settlements developed. Now their official names are compounded with St. ‘saint’ plus Maria ‘Saint Mary’ and -stern ‘star’ respectively -thal ‘valley’:

St. Marienstern in Eastern Saxony near Bautzen: 1248: Stella Sanctae Mariae, 1354: Clostir Merienstern, 1367: Merginstern (HON Sachsen 2: 13).

St. Marienthal in Northern Saxony near Mügeln: 1243: vallis sancte Marie

… prope Mogelin, 1389: Mergintal (HON Sachsen 2: 13).

St. Marienthal in Eastern Saxony near Görlitz: 1234: monasterium, quod vallis sancte Marie dicitur, 1360: in valle Sanctae Mariae, 1394: Mergintall, 1491:

Marientall (HON Sachsen 2: 13–14).

Only solid historical name studies show us still more names of villages based on the names of patron saints. But up till now only the federal states Saxony and Brandenburg possess such complete lexicons with all toponyms recorded from the Middle Ages in Eastern Germany. So we can present two observations in Saxony.

An original Sankt existing in the period of settlement can be lost later on:

Lorenzkirch is an example: 1274: plebanus sancti Laurencii, 1308: Sanctus Laurentius, 1350: apud sanctum Laurentium, 1406: Lorenczkirche, 1513:

Lorentzkirch (EICHLER–WALTHER 1966: 177).

Marienthal, a former village, now part of Zwickau: 1192: villa, que vallis sancte Marie nuncupatur, 1212: villa, que dicitur Vallis sancte Marie, 1348:

Meriental, 1354: Mergental (HON Sachsen 2: 13).

Mergendorf a village, now part of Riesa: 1214: Sentemariendorf, 1234: villa sancte Marie, 1266: Mergendorf, 1297: Mariendorf, 1336: Mergendorf (EICHLER–WALTHER 1966: 197, HON Sachsen 2: 28).

Martinskirchen, a village near Bad Liebenwerda in Brandenburg: 1251:

Martinskirche, 1253: ad Sanctum Martinum, 1314: villa beati Martini (CROME

1968: 67).

Niklasgasse, in former times a little village near to Chemnitz: 1493: yn Sant Niclasgassen (HON Sachsen 2: 116).

Sankt ‘saint’ plus the name of the patron can follow after another name. In this way the result is an official name with three constituents. The first of them is the name of a small river or stream. And the following names of the

patron saints allow us to differentiate between the villages along the waters.

These names are documents of the primary official differentiation:

Mülsen St. Jacob in Western Saxony near Zwickau: 1421: zcu sente Jacoffe, 1460: Milsen ad sanctum Jacobum (HON Sachsen 2: 65, HENGST 2003: 77–

79).

Mülsen St. Micheln near Zwickau: 1421: zcu sente Michele, 1460: Milsen ad michaelem, Milsen ad sanctum Michaelem (HON Sachsen 2: 66, HENGST

2003: 79).

Mülsen St. Niclas near Zwickau: 1421: zcu sente Nigklause, c. 1470: Nicolai in der Mulsen, 1540: Millesen zu S. Niclas (HON Sachsen 2: 66, HENGST

2003: 79–80).

Later on people differentiated such settlements only by Ober- ‘Upper’ and Nieder- ‘Lower’, and these forms could get official status:

Niedermülsen near Zwickau: 1453: in der nyder Milßin, 1460: nyder Milsen, 1519: ym dorff der Nidermilsen (HON Sachsen 2: 66, HENGST 2003: 80).

Niederlungwitz near Zwickau: 1460: Lungkwicz ad sanctum Petrum, 1489:

in der Nider-Lungkwitz, 1531: Inn der Lunckewitz zu Sant peter, 1720:

Niederlungwitz (HON Sachsen 1: 628, HENGST 2003: 72–73).

Oberlungwitz near Zwickau: 1482: in der obirn Lungkewitzt, 1547: Ober Lunnkwitz zu S. Mertten (HON Sachsen 1: 628), with a church named St.

Martin (HENGST 2003: 73–74).

According to historical documentation official or popular name-giving practice resulted in single unofficial saint-forms in the 14^th century:

Jahna, a village in Saxony: 1203: ecclesia in Gan, 1250: Heidenricus de Gana, 1313: in villa Gana ad sanctum Gothdehardum vulgariter nominata, 1317: in Gana, 1338: in villa apud sanctum Gothardum, 1552 Gane (EICHLER– WALTHER 1966: 120, HON Sachsen 1: 449).

And in the 15^th century the patron’s name could be temporarily incorporated into the official name of a village:

Dittelsdorf in Eastern Saxony near Löbau and Zittau: 1369: Ditlichstorf, 1420:

Dittelsdorf, 1424: Dytrichsdoff alias S. Pancracii, 1437: in Pankraz, 1558:

Dittelsdorf (HON 1: 184).

Finally there are settlement names of towns founded only in the 15–16^th centuries. They were named with the help of patrons’ names, but in the meantime the names in German use lost Sankt respectively the abbreviation St.

Annaberg: 1496: St. Annabergk, 1500: zu der Nawenstadt … sanntt Anna-bergk, 1535: vff Sant Anaberg, 1555: Annebergk (HON Sachsen 1: 20).

Marienberg: 1523: S. Marien Berg, 1530: unsrer neuen Berg-Stadt Marien-berg, 1586–87: S. Mariabergk (HON Sachsen 2: 12).

These names of towns in mining regions were given to secure blessing and abundance.

This is also true for the following names of towns having already belonged to Bohemia for a century:

Sankt Joachimsthal, now Jachimov: 1522: sant Joachimstal, 1526: Perkwerch Joachimsthal (LUTTERER–ŠRÁMEK 1997: 112).

(St.) Katharinaberg, now Hora Svaté Kateřiny: 1480: Catternpergk, 1528:

Hora Swate Katherziny, 1787: Katharinaberg, Katerberg, Mons S. Catharinae (LUTTERER–ŠRÁMEK 1997: 93–94).

(St.) Sebastiansberg, now Hora Sv[atého] Šebestiána: 1571: Bastianperk, 1596: Sanct Sebastian, 1626: Städtell S. Sebastiansbergk (Profous 1: 690).

Of course there are too single St.- dwelling-places in such towns with former mining activities. These names continue to be primary mine names:

St. Georg in Marienberg—a mine in the 16^th century (BOGSCH 1966: 262).

St. Johannis in Wolkenstein—a mine in the 16^th century and once more revived from 1947–1954 (BOGSCH 1966: 266).

One name represents a very late formation without Sankt in the official name of a village:

Petersbach near Bautzen in Eastern Saxony got its name only after 1730 with respect to St. Peter because the settlement was an ecclesiastical donation (HON Sachsen 1: 167, EICHLER–WALTHER 1975: 224). But it is not possible to conclude that names with the compound Peter or another holy person’s would be due to a patron’s name.