European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 28, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Hartenfels Castle was the site of the first German opera performance in 1627, according to a Tougau  nurse of the reformation Story and photographs by Joseph Owen Stuttgart Bureau when Europe s giants rewrote history Tougau was often their inkwell. The innocuous tranquil East German City of 30,000 heralded the demise of Adolf Hitler and the Rise of Martin Luther. For Napoleon it became both a Symbol of Power and a Harbinger of doom. Tougau played those roles because of its location. It huddles on the West Bank of the Elbe dinging to the River like a spider on a Tightrope. Like Many historic East German communities Tougau s spit and polish 16th-Century City hallmarked Square and pedestrian shopping Street contrast jarringly with the blocks of Gritty grading buildings that surround them. The River lends the otherwise nondescript City its Only natural Beauty so it seems fitting that it provide the history. Tougau s name stems from the slavic word Torg Market because germans and slavs traded there on the Riverbank in the 12th Century. The City took on religious significance when the princes of Saxony who lived in Tougau tolerated Martin Luther s teachings. That fostered the spread of Luther s reforms almost As much As Luther s nailing his 95 theses to a Wittenberg Church door in 1517. Quot there s a saying if Wittenberg is the Mother of the reformation then Tougau is its wet nurse Quot said Joachim Jeschke an Engineer and Tougau native who teaches an adult education course on its history. Wars not Trade have had the greatest Impact on Tougau in the last four centuries. The town still commemorates the end of world War ii because it is where the . And soviet armies met and Cut Hitler s collapsing Germany in two on april 25,1945. Hitler killed himself five Days later in Berlin. The princes who harboured lutheranism also suffered a setback in Tougau. The movement they helped sponsor eventually produced religious wars that forced them to vacate the City s Hartenfels Castle and move to Dresden in the 16th Century. The last full scale Battle of the seven years War occurred in Tougau. Soldiers from Prussia and Austria clashed there in 1760, resulting in staggering casualties on both sides. As Napoleon expanded his control of Europe in the Early 19th Century Saxony became one of his client states. The French emperor decided to build fortifications at Tougau so one third of the City s building s were blown up to make room for a Wall Jeschke said adding that Tougau became Quot one of the Best built fortresses on the  later As russians and prussians began hacking away at Napoleon s Empire they trapped some 28,000 French soldiers including 6,000 sick or wounded ones inside those Walls. A typhus epidemic broke out during the siege. The French doctors were 40 Miles away in Leipzig with the rest of the French army so about 24,000 French soldiers died in Tougau before the City surrendered in january 1813. Quot there was no other medical catastrophe of this kind in the 19th Century Quot Jeschke said adding that modern medical researchers study the event to learn More about typhus. With Napoleon s defeat Prussia absorbed Tougau ending two centuries of Saxon Rule there. Tougau s strategic location became important again when tensions Rose Between Prussia and Saxony in the 1860s, but their absorption into the German Empire it a for. It he Cut ? a wry a Blip ill i saw Yvo  a  a is  Tougau s 16th-Century City Hall. In 1871 sharply reduced the City s significance As a Garrison. It became a military training Center earning the nickname Quot Small Potsdam Quot a reference to the prussian army s Headquarters near Berlin. Fort Zinna an outpost built in the Napoleonic Era became a prison after the emperor s demise. 1 he acting Warden maj. Horst Klauss said military offenders began serving sentences there in 1890, and it became a prison exclusively for the military in 1919. The nazis executed More than 2,000 deserters and draft resisters at fort Zinna. Jeschke said he also saw . And soviet prisoners of War there. Those who survived were freed when their respective armies arrived in 1945. Klauss said the whole Complex has been renovated since then and the world War 11-Era buildings no longer exist. Quot unfortunately that period has been researched very Little Quot Klauss said. Quot there Are hardly any  the soviets used the facility As a military prison in the late 1940s, and it became an East German civilian prison in 1950. Many prisoners held during the 195055 stalinist purges have formed organizations that Are working to reverse the court decisions that sent them to Tougau Klauss said. The prison held an average of 2,500 inmates in the 1950s the 1980s average was Only 850. Klauss said a december 1989 amnesty for minor offenders left the prison with about 200 inmates. Jeschke said the City boasts two other historical footnotes. The first German opera was performed in Hartenfels Castle in 1627 As part of a wedding Celebration. Later when Russia s Peter the great attended his son s wedding in Tougau he met Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz a mathematician and founder of the prussian science Academy in Berlin. Leibniz suggested that the russian Czar found a similar Academy which Peter later did in St. Petersburg. Most Tougau paychecks now come from its automotive Glass making Industry but civic leaders Hope East Germany s easing of travel restrictions will turn Tougau history into another source of income a tourism. About 2,000 people attended a 45th anniversary Celebration of the .-soviet linkup at the Elbe in april. Such celebrations had occurred Only every five years under the old communist government but county cultural director Rudiger Schmidt said Tougau Hopes to make it an annual event. June28, 1990 stripes Magazine