Haldensleben (; Eastphalian: ''Halslä'') is a town in

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is the administrative seat of the

Börde A ''börde'' (; plural: ''börden'') is a region of highly fertile lowland in North Germany, a "fertile plain". These landscapes often cover great areas and are particularly important for arable farming on account of their rich soils. These reg ...

district.

Geography

It is situated on the

Ohre The Ohre () is a river in northern Germany, left tributary to the Elbe. Its total length is . Its source is north of Wolfsburg, in Lower Saxony. It flows generally south-east, at first following the border of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. After ...

river, near the confluence with its Beber tributary, and the parallel

Mittelland Canal The Mittelland Canal, also known as the Midland Canal, (, ) is a major canal in central Germany. It forms an important link in the waterway network of the country, providing the principal east-west inland waterway connection. Its significanc ...

, running from the fertile

Magdeburg Börde The Magdeburg Börde () is the central landscape unit of the state of Saxony-Anhalt and lies to the west and south of the eponymous state capital Magdeburg. Part of a loess belt stretching along the southeastern rim of the North German Plain, it ...

basin to the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

river in the east. The town centre is located approximately northwest from

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

. It is connected by railway to the neighbouring towns of Magdeburg,

Oebisfelde Oebisfelde () is a town and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen. It is accessed by Bundesstraße (German federal highway) 188. Geography ...

and

Eilsleben Eilsleben is a municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In January 2010 it absorbed the former municipality Wormsdorf and in September 2010 the former municipalities Drackenstedt, Druxberge and Ovelgünne.Süplingen Süplingen is a village and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2014, it is part of the town Haldensleben Haldensleben (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Halslä'') is a town in Saxony-Anh ...

, incorporated in 2014.

Prehistory

In Haldensleben Forest, south-west of the town, is a group of more than 80 megalithic tombs of the Neolithic Age, the largest such group in central Europe.

History

The

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

fortress of ''hahaldeslevo'' in

Eastphalia Eastphalia ( �stˈfaːlən Eastphalian: ''Oostfalen'') is a historical region in northern Germany, encompassing the eastern '' Gaue'' (shires) of the historic stem duchy of Saxony, roughly confined by the River Leine in the west and the Elbe a ...

was first mentioned in a 966 deed of donation issued by Emperor

Otto I Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), known as Otto the Great ( ) or Otto of Saxony ( ), was East Francia, East Frankish (Kingdom of Germany, German) king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the eldest son o ...

. The Counts of Haldensleben rose to considerable power, most notably

Dietrich Dietrich () is an ancient German name meaning "ruler of the people", but also "keeper of the keys" or "lockpick" (either the tool or the profession). Given name * Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg (c. 1398–1440) * Thierry of Alsace (; 1099–1168), ...

and

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

, who ruled as

margrave Margrave was originally the Middle Ages, medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or a monarchy, kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain Feudal ...

s of the

Northern March The Northern March or North March (, ) was created out of the division of the vast ''Marca Geronis'' in 965. It initially comprised the northern third of the ''Marca'' (roughly corresponding to the modern state of Brandenburg) and was part of the ...

. Soon after a trading place (''Neuhaldensleben'') arose nearby, which was vested with

market rights A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

about 1150. Besieged and devastetd by the forces of Archbishop Wichmann in 1181, the Haldensleben estates belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Magdeburg from 1215. Rebuilding of the town began in 1223, and Archbishop

Albert I Albert I may refer to: People Born before 1300 * Albert I, Count of Vermandois (917–987) * Albert I, Count of Namur () * Albert I of Moha *Albert I of Brandenburg (), first margrave of Brandenburg * Albert I, Margrave of Meissen (1158–1195) *Al ...

established a

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

abbey at Althaldensleben. The citizens again received market rights in 1526. The

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

was implemented in 1541 and in 1680 the former episcopal lands were

secularized In sociology, secularization () is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatica ...

as the

Duchy of Magdeburg The Duchy of Magdeburg () was a province of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1680 to 1701 and a province of the German Kingdom of Prussia from 1701 to 1807. It replaced the Archbishopric of Magdeburg after its secularization by Brandenburg, gi ...

, held by the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, ; , ; ) is a formerly royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) German dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. ...

rulers of Brandenburg-Prussia. Nearby Hundisburg Castle was owned by the

House of Alvensleben The House of Alvensleben is an ancient, Low German (''niederdeutsch'') noble family from the Altmark region, whose earliest known member, ''Wichard de Alvensleve'', is first mentioned in 1163 as a ministerialis of the Bishopric of Halberstadt. Th ...

from 1452 until 1811, enlarged in baroque style, with formal gardens, by

Hermann Korb Hermann Korb (1656, Niese (near Lügde) - 23 December 1735, Wolfenbüttel) was a German architect who worked mainly in the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Life Little is known of his early life. It is generally believed that he starte ...

from 1693 on the order of Johann Friedrich II. von Alvensleben (1657–1728), a Hanoverian minister of

George I of Great Britain George I (George Louis; ; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. ...

. It was partly destroyed by fire in 1945 and reconstructed since 1994. Althaldensleben Kirche.JPG, Althaldensleben Simultaneum Schloss Hundisburg Luftbild 2.jpg, Hundisburg Castle Today Haldensleben has a Protestant and a Catholic church. An old equestrian statue of Roland symbolized the rights of a medieval settlement to be accepted as a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

. It is the only statue of Roland sitting on a horse in the world. Before 1938, when it merged with Althaldensleben, the town was called Neuhaldensleben.

International relations

Haldensleben is twinned with: *

Helmstedt Helmstedt (; Eastphalian: ''Helmstidde'') is a town on the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. The historic university and Hanseatic city conserves an important monumental heritage o ...

, Germany (since 1990) *

Ciechanów Ciechanów is a city in north-central Poland, seat of the Ciechanów County in the Masovian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, it has a population of 43,495. A city with almost a thousand years of history, recorded in 1065, Ciechanów is one of ...

, Poland (since 1992) **

Viernheim Viernheim () is a midsize industrial town on Mannheim's outskirts and is found in the Rhine Neckar Area, Rhine Neckar agglomeration and economic area. It is the second biggest town in Kreis Bergstraße, Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. Since ...

, Germany (since 1992)

Notable people

Heiko Bonan Heiko Bonan (born 10 February 1966) is a German football coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of FC 99 Aa Nethetal. Playing career In the East German and (unified) German top-flight the midfielder In the sport of as ...

(born 1966), footballer *

Reinhard Höppner Reinhard Höppner (2 December 1948 – 9 June 2014) was a German politician ( SPD) and writer. Höppner held a Dr. rer. nat. in mathematics. In 1990, in the first (and last) free election in the assembly's history, he was elected a member of the ...

(1948–2014), politician * Kevin Schlitte (born 1981), footballer *

Heinrich Schnee Heinrich Albert Schnee (Albert Hermann Heinrich Schnee; 4 February 1871 – 23 June 1949) was a German lawyer, colonial civil servant, politician, writer, and association official. He served as the last Governor of German East Africa. Early ...

(1871–1949), lawyer and colonial civil servant * Reinhild Solf (born 1941), stage and television actress *

Friedrich von der Trenck Friedrich Freiherr von der Trenck (16 February 1726 – 25 July 1794) was a Prussian officer, adventurer, and author. Coat of arms The coat of arms of the Trenck family depicts in red the head of a silver bull with golden tongue and golden ...

(1726–1794), officer, adventurer, and author * Philipp von Nathusius (1815–1872), publisher

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Börde (district)