Knappensee and the adjoining district of Groß Särchen have for decades enjoyed the status of a popular local recreation area offering numerous leisure activities. The lake, which was flooded between 1951 and 1953, originated from the opencast mine Werminghoff I, where some 59 million metric tons of coal were extracted from 1917 to 1945. For this, the Sorbian village Bukojna/Buchwalde with its 350 inhabitants, which was first mentioned in a document in 1401, had to give way. In Koblenz (Lohsa[A1] ), a memorial commemorates the devastated village. In the nearby Werminghoff briquette factory, named after the president of Eintracht AG, Joseph Werminghoff (1848 - 1914), the “black gold of Lusatia” was processed into briquettes. The exciting history of the industrialisation of the region, of the town of Knappenrode/Werminghoff, of the factory and the people, from the foundation to the decommissioning in 1993, is told by the Saxon Industrial Museum, the Energiefabrik Knappenrode. The museum is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage and a site of the Lusatian Energy Route.
Koblenz, a mining village of Sorbian origin, was first mentioned in documents in 1419 and was incorporated into Lohsa in 2005. Today, the village nestles amid the scenic landscape between the Lusatian Lake District and the Oberlausitzer Heide- und Teichlandschaft (Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve).
Probably the best-known legendary figure in Lusatia “Krabat” has his historical prototype in the Croatian cavalry colonel Johann von Schadowitz, who lived in Groß Särchen from 1691 to 1704. His role and his charisma gave rise to the legendary figure. With his magical powers, Krabat rendered barren ground fertile, watered withered crops, dried swamps and was regarded as the protector of Sorbian peasants and herdsmen.
The gravestone of Johann von Schadowitz can be found in the Catholic Church in Wittichenau. The tourism centre and meeting place “Krabat’s Neues Vorwerk” in Groß Särchen is dedicated to the legendary Sorbian figure and the rural Sorbian history of the region.