Brandenburg an der Havel (; ) is a town in

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

, Germany, which served as the capital of the

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg () was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that, having electoral status although being quite poor, grew rapidly in importance after inheriting the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 and then came ...

until it was replaced by

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1417. With a population of 72,040 (as of 2020), it is located on the banks of the River Havel. The town of Brandenburg provided the name for the medieval Bishopric of Brandenburg, the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the current state of Brandenburg. Today, it is a small town compared to nearby Berlin but was the original nucleus of the former realms of Brandenburg and

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

History

Middle Ages

The name of the city is a combination of two words ''braniti'' – to protect/defend and ''bor'' – forest/wood. Brenna, which had been a fort of the West Slavic tribe Stodoranie, was conquered in 929 after the Battle of Lenzen by the German King

Henry the Fowler Henry the Fowler ( or '; ; – 2 July 936) was the duke of Saxony from 912 and the king of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. As the first non- Frankish king of East Francia, he established the Ottonian dynasty of kings and emper ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. It was at this time first mentioned in documents as ''Brennaburg''. By the death of King Henry all the tribes between the Middle Elbe and Middle Oder paid tribute to the German King. At the Magdeburg Assembly of Princes in 948 the Bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelburg were established. The Holy Roman 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 ...

took control of these new sees. In Slavic revolt of 983 there was a major Slav uprising involving numerous tribes and until the middle of the 12th century the area east of the Elbe remained under their control. During this period the area was ruled by Slavic chiefs of the Hevelli tribe. The last of them, Pribislav, died in 1150. Following Pribislav's death his widow Petrissa enabled

Albert I of Brandenburg Albert the Bear (; 1100 – 18 November 1170) was the first margrave of Brandenburg from 1157 to his death and was briefly duke of Saxony between 1138 and 1142. Life Albert was the only son of Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, and Eilika, d ...

to take over Brandenburg fort by agreement and provide it with a joint German-Slav garrison. Albert now styled himself

Margrave of Brandenburg This article lists the Margraves and Electors of Brandenburg during the time when Brandenburg was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Mark, or ''March'', of Brandenburg was one of the primary constituent states of the Holy Roman Emp ...

. By 1160 systematic settlement of the Elbe-Havel-Spree basin by nobility, burghers, and peasants from the Schwabengau area (Harz), the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

, and

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

was in progress. In 1165 the foundation stone for a cathedral was laid on the cathedral island of Brandenburg. It was consecrated five years later in the presence of Albert the Bear and his sons. The town was restricted to the western bank of the Havel until 1196, when it was extended to the eastern side. The parts on either side of the river were regarded as three towns (Old Town, New Town and Brandenburg cathedral district) for centuries. In 1314–1315 the Old and New Towns joined the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

. In the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

(1618–1648) the towns suffered plundering and destruction; this caused

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

to become the new capital, and the court left the town of Brandenburg. In 1715, Old Town and New Town were merged to form a single town. In 1928, the Brandenburg cathedral district was added.

Modern history

In the late 19th century Brandenburg an der Havel became a very important industrial center in the German Empire. Steel industries settled there, and several bicycle brands such as '' Brennabor'', ''Corona'' and ''Excelsior'' were manufactured in the city. A toy industry was also established. A giant industrial complex, the

Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' (), also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the Weimar Republic, German national Rail transport, railway system created after th ...

(German Imperial Railways) was located in Brandenburg-Kirchmöser between the two world wars and under the former GDR. In 1933/34, a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

, one of the first in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, was located on ''Neuendorfer Straße'' in Brandenburg Old Town. After closing this inner city concentration camp, the Nazis used the Brandenburg-Görden Prison, located in the suburb of Görden. Later the old gaol became the

Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre The Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre (), officially known as the Brandenburg an der Havel State Welfare Institute (''Landes-Pflegeanstalt Brandenburg a. H.''), was a killing centre established in 1939 as part of the Nazi euthanasia programme, known af ...

where the Nazis murdered people with mental diseases, including children. This programme later came to be known as "

Action T4 (German, ) was a campaign of Homicide#By state actors, mass murder by involuntary euthanasia which targeted Disability, people with disabilities and the mentally ill in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-WWII, war trials against d ...

" because of the Berlin address, Tiergartenstraße 4, the headquarters of this planned and well-organized forced euthanasia organisation. Brandenburg an der Havel was one of the first locations in Nazi Germany where the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

s experimented with murdering their victims by gas. The lessons here were later applied for mass murders in

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

and other

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

s. In 1934, the Arado

Aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

Company ( Arado Flugzeugwerke), which originated in

Warnemünde (, literally ''Mouth of the Warnow'') is a seaside resort and a district of the city of Rostock in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mecklenburg, Germany. It is located on the Baltic Sea and, as the name implies, at the estuary of the river Warnow (river ...

, built a

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

factory in Brandenburg that began producing planes in 1935. The factory was expanded over the next five years, and produced trainers and other aircraft for the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

during World War II. The existence of this factory was one of the reasons Brandenburg was heavily bombed in later stages of the war; by 1945, 70% of the city was destroyed. Friedrich Fromm, a German officer involved in the

20 July plot The 20 July plot, sometimes referred to as Operation Valkyrie, was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the chancellor and leader of Nazi Germany, and overthrow the Nazi regime on 20 July 1944. The plotters were part of the German r ...

to assassinate

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, was executed here in March 1945 for his part in the plot, even though Fromm betrayed those conspirators he knew and ordered their execution. On 25 July 1952 Plaue and Kirchmöser were incorporated in the city of Brandenburg an der Havel. After

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

the city's population declined from around 100,000 in 1989 to roughly 75,000 in 2005 through emigration. The migration was mainly by young people.

Demography

File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Stadt_Brandenburg.pdf, Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population Development of Brandenburg state) File:Bevölkerungsprognosen Stadt_Brandenburg.pdf, Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the Census in Germany in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2017-2030 (purple line); for 2020-2030 (green line)

Transport

The city is located on the navigable River Havel, a European Waterway, and vessels travelling through the city have a choice of two routes. The original route used the Brandenburg City Canal, a route through the city centre that descends through the ''Stadtschleuse Brandenburg'', but this route is constrained in size and now limited to leisure craft. Commercial traffic instead uses the Silo Canal that passes through the eastern and northern fringes of the city. The city is located at the junction of Federal Highways 1 and 102 and the A2 autobahn is nearby. The Berlin and Magdeburg railway also runs through Brandenburg an der Havel. The centrepiece of the city's urban public transport system is the Brandenburg an der Havel tramway network.

Sights

The ''Dominsel'' (Cathedral Island) is the historic heart of the town. Here stands its oldest edifice: the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral. Although construction began in the Romanesque style in 1165, it was completed as a Gothic cathedral during the 14th century. While the exterior is rather austere, the cathedral surprises the visitor with its sumptuous interior, especially the painted vault of the ''Bunte Kapelle'' (Coloured Chapel) and the Wagner organ (1725), one of the most famous Baroque organs in Germany. The ''Katharinenkirche'' (St. Catherine's Church) built in 1401 in the Neustadt is an impressive example of northern German

brick Gothic Brick Gothic (, , ) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Baltic region, Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock (though Glacial erratic, ...

architecture. The ''Gotthardtkirche'' (St. Gotthardt's Church) was built of the same material just a few years later. Another interesting building is the ''Altstädtisches Rathaus'' (Old Town Hall), a late Gothic brick building with stepped gables and an ornate portal. In front of it stands a 5.35m high statue of the knight Roland. Made of sandstone, the statue was erected in 1474 as a symbol of the town's independence. There is also a part of Brandenburg's medieval

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or Earthworks (military), earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as ...

, with four preserved

watchtower A watchtower or guardtower (also spelt watch tower, guard tower) is a type of military/paramilitary or policiary tower used for guarding an area. Sometimes fortified, and armed with heavy weaponry, especially historically, the structures are ...

s: ''Steintorturm'' and ''Mühlentorturm'' (in the New Town), and ''Rathenower Torturm'' and ''Plauer Torturm'' (in the Old Town). The ''Brandenburg Industrial Museum'' is an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage. Brandenburg has its own theatre (Brandenburger Theater), a professional symphony orchestra ( Brandenburger Symphoniker) and a wide range of local history and archaeology museums. Image:Brandenburger-dom-aussenansicht.JPG, Brandenburg Cathedral Image:Gotthardkirche Brandenburg 2.jpg, St. Gotthardt's Church Image:BRBHavel asv2022-07 img13 Rathaus.jpg, Altstädtischer Markt, Old Town Hall Image:Roland - Brandenburg an der Havel.jpg, Roland statue in front of the Old Town Hall Image:Steintorturm Brandenburg.jpg, Steintorturm Image:Hauptstrasse-katharinenkirche.jpg, Hauptstraße and St. Catherine's Church Image:Innenansicht-katharinenkirche-brb.JPG, St. Catherine's Church Image:Paulikloster-landesmuseum.jpg, Archaeological Museum (former St. Paul's Church) File:Mahlenzien_manor.jpg, Manor in Mahlenzien File:Mahlenzien_church.jpg, Church in Mahlenzien

Notable people

* Judith of Poland, (c. 1130/35–1171/75), buried in the cathedral * Georg Sabinus (''Georg Schuler''; 1508–1560), academic and rector of the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...

Christian Konrad Sprengel Christian Konrad Sprengel (22 September 1750 – 7 April 1816) was a German naturalist, theologist, and teacher. He is most famous for his research on plant sexuality. Sprengel was the first to recognize that the function of flowers was to ...

(1750–1816), theologian, botanist and naturalist * Julius von Voss (1768–1832), officer and writer * Friedrich de la Motte, Baron Fouqué (1777–1843), writer. * Wilhelm Eugen Ludwig Ferdinand von Rohr (1782–1851), Prussian general * Theodor Hosemann (1807–1875), painter, illustrator and cartoonist in Berlin * Wilhelm Rüstow (1821–1878), freedom fighter and revolutionary, military writer and historian. * Ludwig Chronegk (1837–1891), actor and director of the Meiningen Court Theatre * Georg von Waldersee (1860-1932), Imperial German Army general in World War I *

Paul Matschie file: Paul Matschie (BerlLeben 1901-09).JPG, Paul Matschie Paul Matschie (11 August 1861, Brandenburg an der Havel – 7 March 1926, Friedenau) was a German zoologist. He studied mathematics and natural sciences at the Universities of Universi ...

(1861–1926), zoologist * Gustav Noske (1868–1946), politician (SPD), Minister of Defence between 1919 and 1920 * Paul Hausser (1880–1972), army general *

Kurt von Schleicher Kurt Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann von Schleicher (; 7 April 1882 – 30 June 1934) was a German military officer and the penultimate Chancellor of Germany#First German Republic (Weimar Republic, 1919–1933), chancellor of Germany during the Weim ...

(1882-1934), army general,

Chancellor of Germany The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of the federal Cabinet of Germany, government of Germany. The chancellor is the chief executive of the Federal Government of Germany, ...

and Minister of Defence between 1932 and 1933 * Józef Unrug (1884–1973), Polish vice admiral * Vicco von Bülow (1923–2011), known as Loriot, comedian, film director, actor and writer * Joachim Kemmer (1939–2000), film actor * Angelika Barbe (born 1951), biologist

Governance

Mayor and city council

The current mayor is Steffen Scheller of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2018. The most recent mayoral election was held on 28 February 2018 and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Candidate ! Party ! Votes ! % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Steffen Scheller , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 16,109 , 66.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Jan van Lessen , align=left,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

( SPD/

Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

/ Greens) , 8,080 , 33.4 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 24,189 ! 98.7 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 316 ! 1.3 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 24,505 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 60,799 ! 40.3 , - , colspan=5, Source
City of Brandenburg
The city council governs the city alongside the mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 9 June 2024, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

(AfD) , 24,228 , 23.8 , 9.6 , 11 , 4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , 23,990 , 23.6 , 3.2 , 11 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD) , 18,990 , 18.7 , 1.7 , 9 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Brandenburg Free Voters (BVB/FW) , 9,642 , 9.5 , 1.3 , 5 , 0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

(Grüne) , 9,087 , 8.9 , 4.9 , 4 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , 7,318 , 7.2 , 5.8 , 3 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice ( , BSW) is a List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany founded on 8 January 2024. It has been described as a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-le ...

(BSW) , 5,066 , 5.0 , New , 2 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , 2,863 , 2.8 , 1.7 , 1 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Wenzel (

) , 616 , 0.6 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=2, Valid votes ! 101,800 ! 100.0 ! ! 46 ! ±0 , - ! colspan=2, Invalid ballots ! 684 ! 2.0 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Total ballots ! 34,857 ! 100.0 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout ! 60,140 ! 58.0 ! 9.9 ! ! , - , colspan=7, Source
City of Brandenburg

Twin towns – sister cities

Brandenburg an der Havel is twinned with: *

Ballerup Ballerup is a Danish town, seat of the Ballerup Municipality, in the Region Hovedstaden. There are approximately 25 schools in Ballerup Municipality. Ballerup has its own educational institution specialized in the study, training and research o ...

, Denmark *

Ivry-sur-Seine Ivry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the ...

, France *

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; ) is a town in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, 666 kilometers (414 m ...

, Germany *

Magnitogorsk Magnitogorsk ( rus, Магнитого́рск, p=məɡnʲɪtɐˈɡorsk, ) is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. Its population is curre ...

, Russia

References

Bevölkerungszahlen

External links

* *
Cathedral of Brandenburg

Brandenburg guide

Potsdamer Brandenburger Havelseen
Tourist information {{DEFAULTSORT:Brandenburg An Der Havel Urban districts of Brandenburg