Genthin () is a town in Jerichower Land district, in

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

Geography

Genthin is situated east of the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) 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 Rep ...

river on the Elbe-Havel Canal, approx. northeast of

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label= Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Mag ...

and west of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 square ...

. The municipal area consists of Genthin proper and the following ''Ortschaften'' or municipal divisions:Hauptsatzung der Stadt Genthin
November 2014. *Fienerode * Gladau *Mützel * Paplitz *Parchen * Schopsdorf * Tucheim The formerly independent municipalities Gladau, Paplitz and Tucheim were incorporated in July 2009, followed by Schopsdorf in July 2012. Genthin was the administrative seat of the ''

Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Municipal associations (german: Verwaltungsgemeinschaften) are statutory corporations or public bodies created by statute in the German federal states of Bavaria, Saxony, Thuringia, and Schleswig-Holstein. In Baden-Württemberg the term ''sti ...

'' ("collective municipality") Elbe-Stremme-Fiener until its merger into the newly established Jerichow municipality in 2010.

History

Genthin Castle was first mentioned in an 1144 deed, it was the residence of the Plotho noble family who then served as ''

ministeriales The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minist ...

'' of the

Archbishops of Magdeburg The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Roman Catholic archdiocese (969–1552) and Prince-Archbishopric (1180–1680) of the Holy Roman Empire centered on the city of Magdeburg on the Elbe River. Planned since 955 and established in 968, the R ...

. The surrounding settlement was documented as a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

in 1459, its citizens were vested with market rights in 1539. When the last administrator of the Magdeburg archbishopric, Duke

Augustus of Saxe-Weissenfels Augustus of Saxe-Weissenfels (Dresden, 13 August 1614 – 4 June 1680, Halle), was a Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels-Querfurt of the House of Wettin and administrator of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. He was the fourth (but second surviving) son of J ...

, died in 1680, Genthin with the Duchy of Magdeburg fell to the Electors of Brandenburg. The Baroque Trinity parish church was erected from 1707 to 1722. Neuer Bahnhof Genthin

The town's economy was decisively promoted by the building of the Elbe–Havel Canal from 1743 onwards and the opening of the Berlin–Magdeburg railway line in 1846. A

detergent A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with cleansing properties when in dilute solutions. There are a large variety of detergents, a common family being the alkylbenzene sulfonates, which are soap-like compounds that are m ...

factory was opened in 1921 by

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, commonly known as Henkel, is a German multinational chemical and consumer goods company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. It is active in both the consumer and industrial sectors. Founded in 1876, the DAX company is organ ...

. On the night of 21–22 December 1939, at least 186 (according to other sources: 278) people were killed in a train crash at Genthin station, making it one of the most deadliest railway accidents in Germany. A monument to the victims was erected in the town. In 1943 a subcamp of Ravensbrück concentration camp was built in Genthin for about 1,000 female prisoners and forced labourers. After World War II, Genthin was part of the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...

Mayor

Thomas Barz was elected mayor in 2013.

Twin towns

Genthin is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: * Datteln, Germany, since 1990 * Radlin, Poland, since 2008

Notable people

* Herms Niel (Hermann Nielebock) (1888-1954), conductor and composer * Kurt von Manteuffell (1853-1922), Prussian General of the Infantry * Walter Model (1891–1945), field marshal in WW II * Norbert Dürpisch (born 1952), cyclist * Bernd Dittert (born 1961), racing cyclist, Olympic champion and trainer

References

{{Authority control Jerichower Land