Kraftwerk Hirschfelde

The former Hirschfelde power station stands beside the B99 road between Zittau and Görlitz, right on the Polish border in the Zittauer Ortsteil of Hirschfelde. It was the first large-scale power station in Saxony, built in 1911 after a decision taken in 1909. The plant grew through successive expansions, reaching a peak output of 330 MW by 1960. Over its eighty-one years of operation it produced 71.3 million MWh of electricity, with the single largest annual total of 2.038 million MWh recorded in 1961.

The site is notable for its long service records. Machine 5 ran for 413 499 hours from 1929 until 1992, while Boiler 21 operated for 410 252 hours between 1921 and 1982. During the DDR period the station burned coal from the nearby Polish Turów mine under the name Friedensgrenze. When deliveries stopped, coal came from Olbersdorf and Berzdorf, and ash was piped three kilometres to a disposal site at Wittgendorf.

Visitors can still see the brick-built machine hall of Works II, the main warehouse, Pump Station 1, the canteen and the Gießmannsdorfer weir. All date from between 1921 and the 1950s and form part of a protected industrial ensemble. The surviving archive has been digitised so that the station’s history can be explored online, while the foundation now promotes regional industrial heritage and sustainable development projects across the region.