Description of the coat of arms: divided; above in gold a left-turned, red-tongued, growing, black lion, below divided five times diagonally left by black and silver.
Colditz has been historically attested since 1046 as a German Burgward in the Slavic residential district of "Chutici". Until about the end of the 13th century, its further fate corresponded to that of Leisnig (see no. 24). It was first given to Wiprecht II of Groitzsch from royal possession in 1083, passed from his heirs to the Bamberg collegiate bailiff Rapoto of Abenberg in 1143, and was sold to Emperor Frederick I in 1147, who in 1158 converted this Hohenstaufen manor into an imperial manor and incorporated it into the imperial land of Pleißen (see no. 37). The appointed servants of Colditz rose to become imperial ministerials and in the 13th century, in connection with the decline of imperial power, attained a quite independent position - de facto sovereignty of the land.
In the 14th century, the lords of Colditz secured themselves against Wettin annexation efforts by offering their imperial fiefdom to the Crown of Bohemia in order to receive it back as an imperial fiefdom. However, this did not save them from the pledge in 1396 and the sale of their dominion to the Wettins in 1404, who incorporated Colditz into their Margravian territory as an office. In 1485 it was added to the Ernestine portion; in 1547 it came to the Albertines, under whom it was the centre for the witticism government over the offices of Colditz, Rochlitz, Leisnig and Borna from 1591 onwards.
|
