100 years of the town charter of Kötzschenbroda

Kötzschenbroda was the largest village in Lößnitz from time immemorial and already had a church in the 13th century. From the Middle Ages until the early 19th century, the local documents that laid down the rights of the municipality always referred to Kötzschenbroda as being "gifted with town rights" by the sovereigns, and official documents in the 16th century also referred to Kötzschenbroda as a "small town". While the town lost its higher jurisdiction "over neck and belly" in the early modern period and elected "councillors" are last mentioned at the beginning of the 17th century, the remaining municipal powers underpinned Kötzschenbroda's role as the capital of Lößnitz. These included market rights (weekly market and three annual markets), brewing rights in the two taverns and the right to establish craftsmen, merchants and, as early as the 18th century, a pharmacist.

The best-known product of the market town, which has also been able to claim a place in history since the armistice treaty between Saxony and Sweden in the 30-year war was signed in the local vicarage on 27 August 1645, remained the wine grown here for a long time. From the 1820s onwards, the first small factories were established, initially for the production of pottery, tools and tobacco processing. By the middle of the 19th century, the connection to steamship transport and the first German long-distance railway line between Dresden and Leipzig, which cut through the village, created important conditions for the further development of the rural community both as a business location and as a tourist destination. At the same time, the development and construction of spacious villa neighbourhoods began north of the railway on former vineyards that had been abandoned due to a lack of profitability and later due to the phylloxera plague.
Between 1850 and 1900, the population of Kötzschenbroda quadrupled to over 6,000, and the immediately neighbouring new municipality of Niederlößnitz, which was established in 1839 on the former Kötzschenbroda vineyard land, grew even faster in the same period, from around 650 to a good 4,300 inhabitants. In 1912, a travel guide described the two towns together as "a nice little Saxon town" that combined all the amenities of a town with the charm of the surrounding countryside. Since 1899 there had also been a tram connection with Dresden, and in 1910 Kötzschenbroda had also become the seat of a newly established district court.
While efforts to unite Kötzschenbroda and Niederlößnitz or all of the Lößnitz municipalities from the middle of the 19th century onwards regularly failed due to differences in the economic and social structure and the resulting conflicts of interest, a rethink began in the economically difficult years after the First World War. After neighbouring Lindenau had already been incorporated into Kötzschenbroda at the beginning of 1920, representatives of Kötzschenbroda, Niederlößnitz, Naundorf and Zitzschewig agreed in spring 1923 to initiate a merger of the western Lößnitz municipalities, which took place on 1 October 1923 under the name Kötzschenbroda after approval by the municipal councils.
As the new large municipality had a population of around 17,000, it was a logical step to apply for city status. The new town was represented by the previous municipal councillors of Niederlößnitz and Naundorf, Oswald Hans and Selmar Prasse, as 1st and 2nd mayors. The new town coat of arms took up the almost identically designed old municipal seals of Kötzschenbroda and Niederlößnitz and showed a green bunch of grapes on a golden shield.