100 years of town charter Radebeul
Radebeul, which was still the smallest of the Lößnitz villages at the turn of the Middle Ages and early modern times, underwent unprecedented dynamic development in the last third of the 19th century. It was not until 1860, with just around 500 inhabitants, that the village was connected to the Leipzig-Dresden railway with a stop and opened its first public restaurant, the "Scharfe Ecke". Forty years later, on 24 September 1900, the prestigious new town hall
new town hall, Pestalozzistraße 6, was inaugurated on 24 September 1900, Radebeul, now the most populous and economically strongest municipality between Dresden and Meissen, had overtaken Kötzschenbroda as the former capital of the Lößnitz region.
The foundation stone for this development was laid by the municipal council in 1872/73 with the designation of a generously dimensioned industrial estate in the east of the municipal area, which expressly encouraged the establishment of industrial companies. Numerous private companies soon settled here alongside the workshops of the Saxon state railway. One of the first was the rapidly growing von Heyden chemical factory in 1875, making Radebeul one of Saxony's most important centres for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Several companies for the production of lubricants, insulating agents and dyes, detergents and fine soaps followed. The metalworking industry and machine and equipment construction became at least as important. Two iron foundries were set up near the railway in 1876 and 1883, the Union-Werke (signs and tin packaging) was established on Meißner Straße in 1887 and the August Koebig machine factory in 1894. The third important sector was the food industry, which had already been established before 1900 with the Alfa biscuit factory (1875) and the fig coffee factory
by Otto E. Weber (1878). The list could go on. Most of these companies were not founded in Radebeul, but were only relocated here in the course of a necessary expansion, where land was available near the railway at favourable prices and the Dresden workforce could be utilised. This growth continued at an even faster pace until the First World War. While 2,238 workers were employed in 30 companies in 1900, by 1914 there were already 4,594 workers and employees in 180 medium-sized and larger companies in Radebeul.
This development was accompanied by an expansion of the public infrastructure. Radebeul received its own post office in 1875, its first primary school in 1878, the Radebeul church was consecrated in 1892 and the Neubrunn waterworks was completed in 1895.
was completed. The importance of transport grew with the construction of the narrow-gauge railway from Radebeul to Radeburg (1883/84) and was reflected in the new railway station buildings of 1876/78 and 1898/1901. Gas street lighting was introduced in 1893, paving of the local streets began in 1896, a second school building was built in 1897 and Radebeul received an electric tram connection to Dresden in 1899.
Robert Werner, who took over the office of municipal councillor in 1893 and was to hold it for 34 years, was one of the staunchest advocates of uniting the eastern or even all of the Lößnitz municipalities early on in order to fulfil the upcoming tasks of expanding public services.
to jointly shoulder the tasks of expanding public services and to preserve municipal independence against attempts by the state capital of Dresden to incorporate them. However, only neighbouring Serkowitz was willing to enter into negotiations in 1904, which resulted in the merger with Radebeul under the latter's name on 1 January 1905.
At the beginning of February 1924, the municipal administration submitted an application for the granting of town status.
In addition to the fulfilment of the legal requirements for this, Robert Werner expressly stated that a merger of all the municipalities in Lößnitz was no longer an option after the negative vote of the Kötzschenbroda municipal council had put an end to the efforts in this direction that had already made great progress in 1921/22. It was clear to everyone involved that this was purely a "question of title", as the constitutional distinction between urban and rural municipalities had been abolished by the municipal code of 1923.
