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Chemnitzer Golf Club Plaue-Flöeha. (1927 -1939)

The first golf club in Chemnitz was founded in 1927 as Chemnitzer Golf-Club Plaue-Floeha. An 18-hole golf course was designed and laid out by young German golf architect Bernhard von Limburger from Leipzig, who was only 26 years old but already a three time German Amateur Champion. The course was officially opened in 1928.

 

Chemnitzer Golf Club, Plaue-Flöeha. The golf course layout 1928.

The layout of the course in 1928.

 

Chemnitzer Golf Club, Plaue-Flöeha. View of the golf course late 1920s.

 

Chemnitzer Golf Club, Plaue-Flöeha. View of the golf course late 1920s.

Above are views of the course from the late 1920s. Chrisoph Meister Archive.

 

The club initiator and president (from 1932 on) was Rittmeister a.D. Erich Barfurth, director of the silk spinning factory “Clauß” in Plaue-Floeha. The course, 13 km SE of Chemnitz was 5,268m long for gentlemen and 5,231m for ladies. Standard Scratch was 72 respectively 74. In 1931 the club had 116 members.

One particular feature of the course was that it was laid out on two pieces of land linked by a small path. This was due to the fact that a stretch of land was reserved for the railway as it was planned to connect the both railway lines (Chemnitz-Floeha-Dresden and Chemnitz-Floeha-Annaberg) adjacent to the golf course on the northern and south western side.

Due to the world economic crisis plans to build a modern Bauhaus style clubhouse failed to materialise. The idea to build a clubhouse was taken up again in 1939. Due to the outbreak of WWII this clubhouse was never built. Because of this “Gasthof Plaue” at the foot of Schweddey Str. was used as a clubhouse during the clubs existence.

Georg Lange, one of the first German born golf professionals and co-founder of the German PGA in 1927, had learnt the game as a young man caddying on the links at Berlin-Westend and had started a golf professional apprentice with Fred Richardson in 1907. Georg Lange was the first and only golf professional at Plaue-Floeha were he began working in 1928 and stayed there until at least 1939.

The German professional golfer’s championship was played in Plaue-Floeha in September 1931, with Franz Bessner form Kissingen winning the championship.

Emil Grossmann, Erich Barfurth, Carl Starke, Dr. Erhard Fechner, Hugo Isenburg, Max Köhler, Graf Platen. Erich Schaarschmidt and Horst Böhme were on the board of the golf club (1933). Ruth Starke, Fritz Esche and Paul Walther were on the Greens committee (also 1933).

It’s unlikely that any golf was played on the course after 1939 and by March 1946 the land used as a golf course was split up in the so-called ‘Bodenreform’ and the land was given to three different farmers.

In 2001 Christoph Meister visited the site of the former course. His picture below shows the location of the proposed clubhouse which would have been adjacent to the ninth and eighteenth greens.   

 

Chemnitzer Golf Club, Plaue-Flöeha. The golf course in 2001.

The above picture was taken by Christoph Meister in 2001.

 

Today the area is used as agricultural land, during recent years a beltway (ring road) was built on parts of the former golf course.

 

Chemnitzer Golf Club, Plaue-Flöeha. The golf course on the 2012 Google Map.

The above Google Map is from 2012, before the construction of the road. Above Image © Google Earth.

 

 The current Google Map below shows the encroachment of the ring road.