Rockelmann

Rockelmann
Early 20th-century view of Rockelmann above Schwarzenberg
Highest point
Elevation	577.2 m (1,894 ft)
Geography
Location	Saxony, Germany
Parent range	Ore Mountains

The Rockelmann is a mountain in the Ore Mountains in Saxony, southeastern Germany. It is south-southwest of Schwarzenberg. It formerly had two granite quarries, one of which was converted into an open-air theatre in the 1920s, the other into a Nazi arena (Thingplatz) in the 1930s, and is also the site of a memorial to soldiers killed in World War I; all three are within Rockelmann Park, which was laid out in the 1930s.

The first extant mention of the Rockelmann is in a church document dated 1552. The origin of the name is unknown. The mountain is a source of granite as well as of augen gneiss, and rock was quarried for centuries at two points on the mountain above the town; granite from the Rockelmann was used to build the castle, to build St. George's Church (St.-Georgen-Kirche) in the 1690s and to rebuild the town after a disastrous fire in 1709. A section of the town is named after the mountain.

In 1908 there were efforts to build a lookout tower on the mountain. The dialect poet Curt Rambach composed a poem entitled "Wos iech erlabt hoo off'n Rokelmaa!" (What I experienced on the Rockelmann) which was printed on postcards in aid of the campaign.

In the 1920s the lower quarry on the mountain was converted into an open-air theatre, which opened on 9 July 1924. It originally seated 700 and had a moveable stage in front of a rock wall with risers and steps. After renovations, it has a capacity of about 800 and is used for visiting theatrical performances by a troupe from Annaberg-Buchholz and for club events.

On 10 October 1926, the Soldiers' Memorial (Kriegerehrenmal), a memorial to the men of Schwarzenberg fallen in the First World War, was dedicated by the members of the König Albert (King Albert) military association on the meadow previously known as the Jahnwiese. It consists of a masonry pillar 8 metres (26 ft) high, originally topped by the figure of a warrior swearing an oath. The statue, the work of Ziegler of Chemnitz, was melted down in the Second World War. In 2008, during renovations of the column made necessary by leaching salts, a welded capsule was discovered under the top; it contained contemporary banknotes, a newspaper, a programme from the dedication ceremony and a report on the construction of the monument written by the sculptor's grandfather, Hans Brockhage, also a sculptor.