Pirna (German: [ˈpɪʁna] ⓘ; Upper Sorbian: Pěrno, pronounced [ˈpʲɪʁnɔ]) is a town in Saxony, Germany and capital of the administrative district Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge.

The Saxon wine region (Ger: Sächsische Weinstraße), which was established in 1992, stretches from Pirna via Pillnitz, Dresden, and Meissen to Diesbar-Seußlitz.

Later on, people belonging to the Linear Pottery culture, who farmed grain and cattle, lived here during the Neolithic (5500-4000 BC) because of a good climate and Loess soil.

In the context of the second Eastern German colonization the town was founded by Henry III, Margrave of Meissen.

With the introduction of the Reformation into Saxony in 1539, Anton Lauterbach, a friend of Martin Luther, became pastor and superintendent.

In 1811 the physician Ernst Gottlob Pienitz opened a very large mental hospital in Castle Sonnenstein.

But when on September 14, 1813, French troops occupied the Sonnenstein, they forced the evacuation of 275 patients, seized supplies and tore the roof trusses out to remove a fire threat.

During the First World War Pirna became a garrison and the engineer battalions 12 and 5 of the Royal Saxon field artillery regiment No.

In 1922/23, the town incorporated several municipalities including Posta, Niedervogelgesang, Obervogelgesang, Copitz, Hinterjessen, Neundorf, Zuschendorf, Rottwerndorf and Zehista.

It was a testing ground for initial development of certain methods, later generally adopted and refined for usage associated with the Final Solution.

From end of June 1940 until September 1942, approximately 15,000 persons were killed in the scope of the mass murder by involuntary euthanasia program and the Sonderbehandlung Action 14f13.

One third of them were reassigned to the extermination camps in occupied Poland, because of their recent experiences in deception, killing, gassing and incinerating of people.

This part of the town's history was largely unrecognized in Germany until 1989, but after the regime change which was happening during this period, efforts to remember these catastrophic events began.

When in 1989 the Teufelserkerhaus was to be torn down as part of demolition measures in the old town, public demonstrations happened with people shouting “Save Pirna”.

From this circle, the Kuratorium Altstadt (literally Old Town Board of Trustees) was formed, which provided outstanding services during the period of reconstruction which began after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The immediate transition to a market economy led to the shutdown of a considerable part of the structure-determining industrial companies.

In the three largest factories of silk, fluid machinery and cellulose fiber alone, more than 5,000 jobs were lost by the mid-1990s as a result of closure and liquidation by the Treuhandanstalt.

The market square and the surrounding alleys have developed into a district quite worth seeing with shops, bars and cafes, as well as other cultural offerings (including the Tom-Pauls-Theater).

Two factors greatly worsened the effect: First, the large earthen structure supporting the railway line acted as a dam, retaining the waters both longer and higher on the towns' side.

Second, all the shop-fronts which had been renovated post-unification were practically all kind of sealed in terms of water-tightness: the floodwaters rose outside whilst the shops themselves stayed dry inside; but when reaching certain critical points, the weight of the water then suddenly destroyed these shop-fronts when the windows broke.

Ironically, older "leaky" shopfronts did not suffer this fate, as the water built up height and thus pressure equally on both sides.

[9] Villages and other municipalities that were incorporated into Pirna: Change of population (from 1960, all figures for December 31): 1834 until 1946 1950 until 1997 1998 until 2003 1 October 29 2 August 31 Pirna station, on the Dresden S-Bahn and the Dresden to Prague railway, is located to the west of the town centre, and is the junction point for the line to Neustadt in Sachsen and Sebnitz.

Pirna is also a stop for the Sächsische Dampfschiffahrt ships, including historic paddle steamers, operating on the Elbe between Dresden and the Czech border.