Calbe (; official name: ''Calbe (Saale)'') is a town in the district of

Salzlandkreis Salzland is a district in the middle of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Its area is . It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts Harz, Börde, Magdeburg, Jerichower Land, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Mansfeld-Südharz and Saalekreis. History ...

, 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 ...

, in east-central

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 ...

Geography

It is situated on the river

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...

, approx. north of

Bernburg Bernburg (Saale) () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance castle. Geography The town centre is situated in the fertile Magdeb ...

, and southeast of

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 known as Calbe an der Saale, to distinguish it from the smaller town of Kalbe on the Milde in the same state. Historically it was a railway junction, and among its industries were wool-weaving and the manufacture of cloth, paper, stoves, sugar and bricks. Cucumbers and onions were cultivated, and soft coal was mined in the neighborhood. The river Saale runs on the east side of the town, and over a

weir A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

. This is a small kind of dam where the water flows over the structure allowing passage of shallow draft barges up or down — moreover rather than being channeled through it the water is used off this flow to generate

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

and it raises the water level only a relatively small amount. At the weir, the Saale is partly diverted, while some of the river flows over the weir and continues on its natural path, the rest is channeled through an artificial path, known as "Mühlgraben". This takes the water between two (now abandoned) buildings which used to harness the power of the water to mill grain into flour, and the other to make paper. After flowing between the mills, the water continues on an artificial path for a couple of miles before returning to the Saale proper. The small island of land between the Saale and the artificial "Mühlgraben" is called "Heger" in German. The local sports area and the swimming bath are located at the island. The island is connected to the city of Calbe by a bridge on the far side and also by a small ferry on the opposite side, which swings back and forth between the urban district "Gottesgnaden" (engl.: God's Grace) and island using an anchor and cable system.

Etymology

The name of the town comes from the verb "kalben", which means to calf (for a cow to give birth) in German, but it could also come from the Latin adjective "calvus", which describes a bleak landscape.

History

In 1710, a commune of French

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

was founded in the town.

Sights

The town has a statue of Roland outside its city hall. Roland is a symbol who represents many small and medium-sized towns in Saxony-Anhalt, symbolising free trade and prosperity. The town also has a very old church , and a tower known as the "Hexenturm" ("Witchtower"), in which the townspeople imprisoned accused witches and tortured them in the Middle Ages. There is a Bismarck Tower at the Wartenberg in Calbe.

Culture

Calbe is famous for the long tradition for growing onions, which are regionally called "Bollen".

Personality

Sons and daughters of the town

* Anna Margareta von Haugwitz (1622–1673) *Carl Miller (1860–1930), local politician in Magdeburg * Constantin von Dietze (1891–1973), agricultural scientist and theologian * Hermann Bley (1936–2011), football player *Christina Berger (born 1946), professor of materials science at the

Darmstadt University of Technology Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

* Steffen Kammler (born 1965), Norwegian conductor

Personalities associated with Calbe

Till Eulenspiegel Till Eulenspiegel (; ) is the protagonist of a European narrative tradition. A German chapbook published around 1510 is the oldest known extant publication about the folk hero (a first edition of is preserved fragmentarily), but a background i ...

, trickster figure * Wilhelm Loewe (1814–1886), politician, President of the Rump Parliament * Marie Nathusius, (1817–1857), narrator * Christian Scriver, (1629–1693), theologian

References

{{Authority control Salzlandkreis