Ludwigsstadt

Geschichte

Ludwigsstadt is a town in the district of Kronach, in the Upper Franconian region of Bavaria, Germany.GeographyIt is situated in the valley of the Loquitz River, a tributary of the Saale, in the Thuringian-Franconian Highlands of the Thuringian Slate Mountains and the Franconian Forest mountain ranges. Located 28km north of Kronach, the Bavarian border with the state of Thuringia runs about 3km north of the town centre, with Thuringian Saalfeld in a distance of c. 18km down the Loquitz. Ludwigsstadt is the only municipality of the State of Bavaria located north of the Rennsteig ridge.HistoryThe settlement in the Landgraviate of Thuringia was first mentioned in a 1269 deed as Ludwichsdorf, probably named after a local Vogt official of the Counts of Weimar-Orlamünde. In 1427 the area around historic Lauenstein Castle was acquired by the Hohenzollern Elector Frederick I of Brandenburg, who added it as a northern exclave to his Franconian Principality of Kulmbach. Ludwigsstadt received town privileges in 1490, which it again lost in 1525, as the citizens joined a rebellion against the landlords during the German Peasants' War.