Pößneck

Pößneck
Coat of arms
Pößneck
Location of Pößneck within Saale-Orla-Kreis district
Coordinates:
Country	Germany
State	Thuringia
District	Saale-Orla-Kreis
Government
• Mayor	Michael Modde
Area
• Total	24.45 km2 (9.44 sq mi)
Population (2014-12-31)
• Total	12,072
• Density	490/km2 (1,300/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	07371–07381
Dialling codes	03647
Vehicle registration	SOK
Website	www.poessneck.de

Pößneck (also spelled Poessneck) is a town in the Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 19 km east of Rudolstadt, and 26 km south of Jena.

Its chief industries are the making of flannel, porcelain, furniture, machines, musical instruments and chocolate. The town has also tanneries, breweries, dyeworks and brickworks.

Pößneck, which is of Slavonic origin, passed about 1300 to the Landgrave of Thuringia. Later it belonged to Saxony and later still to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, passing to Saxe-Meiningen in 1826.

A Gothic church built about 1390 now serves a Lutheran congregation. Pößneck also contains a Gothic town-hall erected during the succeeding century.

Notable residents

Pößneck was the home of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families prior to 15 September 1979, when both families flew out of East Germany in a homemade hot air balloon. Following the end of the Cold War and German reunification, they eventually moved back to Pößneck. Their story was the subject of the 1982 film Night Crossing. Stoessner, Hans Melchior dragoon during the Great Northern War (1678-?) Volker Emde -politician (1964-) is from the town

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