Source: Geschicte von Meffersdorf by Oscar Rühle. See link: Sachsen Digital
Meffersdorf is first mentioned in the Meissen diocese register of 1346. Beyond this, we know nothing about the village until around the middle of the 16th century: the documents were destroyed in the fire that destroyed Schwerta Castle in 1527.
The history of Meffersdorf is first and foremost a history of its surroundings. Traces of a developing cultural life appear here much later than in other parts of Germany.
But what might it have looked like here in those times when smoke from no hearth had yet risen to the clouds?
Surely Tacitus' words would have applied to our region as well: "Germania, although of diverse appearance, is as a whole full of dense forests and hideous swamps." And if Tacitus describes the climate of Germania as harsh and damp, it would have been even more true for our region, given its high elevation. As late as 1441, it is reported that 37 snows fell before and after Christmas. In the winter of 1442, the snow is said to have been 28 feet deep. In 1624, 60 snows fell, and the snow is said to have been so deep that hardly a house could be seen in the mountain villages. Such tremendous snowfalls are not reported again in the following centuries, a sign that the climate had become milder. We must probably look for the cause of this climatic change in the clearing of the forests and the cultivation of the land
While the forest is now retreating further and further into the mountains, and the cultivation of grain and potatoes is claiming strips of land, while the plains have long since been reclaimed for fields and meadows, things were once different. Mountains and plains were covered in dense forest. Even in the first half of the 17th century, Meffersdorf was completely surrounded by forest.
The vast forest was teeming with wild wolves. During the exceptionally harsh winter of 1400, the wolves were so numerous and so hungry that they attacked both people and livestock. "In 1655, on Pentecost, a mad wolf roamed the local (Meffersdorf) fields, frightening the shepherds and their livestock, and reportedly injuring several inhabitants who encountered it. After vespers, however, this ferocious animal was killed on horseback by a local farmer, Nickel Kloß, with the help of the shepherds, using a piece of wood. The slaying, however, did not go unharmed, though all the people were subsequently treated with appropriate medicines to restore their health." In 1664, a she-bear, said to be very fat, was found in a wolf pit in the Meffersdorf forest and shot. A bear is mentioned as early as 1685, which mauled Caspar Siegert's son to death in the Nabishau forest, so that he died the following day. Fortunately, as the chronicler further reports, the bear was killed.
Meffersdorf formerly belonged to the Queiskreis. Regarding the original inhabitants of the Queis district, all that is known is that three Slavic tribes—Czech, Lech, and Serb—met here, and that the Wendish Serbs, still considered pagans, were subjugated by the Germans.
The entire Queis district was divided among the three districts of Lesna, Schwerta, and Tzschocha. Marklissa, first recorded as a market town in 1329, was founded from Lesna, as were Schadewalde, Hartmannsdorf, and Ober- and Nieder-Örtmannsdorf; Meffersdorf and Gebhardsdorf from Schwerta, and Wiesa and Hartha from Tzschocha. All other villages in the Queis district originated during the time of the exiles.