Teicha (Rietschen)

Teicha is a village and district of the municipality of Rietschen in the Saxon district of Görlitz.

Geography
Teicha lies on the northern edge of the Teichaer Hill Chain, the last foothills of the Lusatian Hill Country, southeast of Rietschen on the northwest side of the railway line Berlin-Görlitz between the stations Rietschen and Hähnichen. The place is surrounded with mainly meadows and fields in the south and west. This is followed a wooded area in the north and east. Southeast of the settlement border, is the mill pond and the larger Oats Pond.

The adjacent places are Rietschen and Neuhammer in the northwest, Daubitz in the northeast, Quolsdorf and Hähnichen in the southeast, Zedlig in the southwest, and Prauske in the west. The village is divided into the areas of Dorfteile Teicha, Neu-Teicha, Buschmühle, and Alte Ziegelei.

History
The oldest known written mention of Teicha was in 1402. By the beginning of the following century, the village belonged to Daubitz.

Teicha then became a parish after Daubitz. During or shortly after the reformation, a school was established.

In the wake of the Peace of Prague, Teicha created Upper and Lower Lusatia.

In the 18th and 19th Century, Teicha had two water-powered mills (including an oil mill) and a water-powered Garnbleiche. They existed until 1895.

Teicha has had a fire department since 1915.

Demographics
Year	Population
 * 1825 	190
 * 1863 	220
 * 1871 	246
 * 1885	228
 * 1905 	263
 * 1925	344
 * 1939	329
 * 1946	283
 * 1950 	312
 * 1964	276
 * 1971	288
 * 1988	218
 * 1990      218
 * 1999     222
 * 2002	244
 * 2009 	208

From the first population census in 1825, the population nearly doubled from 190 to 344 in 1925, but then fell back to around 280 in 1946. Apart from some fluctuations, it remained in this state until the 1970s, then, the population fell to about 220 in the 1980s and 1990s. Around the beginning of the 2000s, Teicha had almost 250 inhabitants, there were only 208 in 2009.

Around the end of the 19th century, Teicha was almost purely German and was near the edge of the Sorbian area.