Rheinsberg () is a town and a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, 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 ...

, in north-eastern Germany. It is located on lake and the river Rhin, approximately north-east of Neuruppin and north-west of

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 ...

History

Frederick the Great, while still Crown Prince, designed and moved into a restored chateau in Rheinsberg shortly after his 1733 marriage to Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern. Here he experienced his "Rheinsberg Period", an era marked by regular correspondence with Voltaire, boisterous celebration in the company of minor philosophers and musicians, and the writing of several works of political theory, including the '' Anti-Machiavel.'' Crown Prince Frederick lived in the castle in Rheinsberg with his wife until he became King of Prussia in 1740 upon the death of his father, Frederick William I. He immediately banished his wife to Schönhausen Castle in the district of Berlin that is today called Pankow. King Frederick never visited his Queen and she was not allowed to visit him. She lived alone in her castle in Pankow until her death in 1797. In June 1744, Frederick the Great gave his castle in Rheinsberg to his younger brother, Prince Henry of Prussia. Frederick also gave Prince Henry the great castle on Unter den Linden, which is today

Humboldt University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public university, public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III of Prussia, Frederick W ...

. Prince Henry often said that his older brother improperly took credit for a series of military victories. Four years after the death of Frederick the Great in 1786, Prince Henry erected a large obelisk at his castle in Rheinsberg. The obelisk was erected in honor of Prince Henry's younger brother, Prince August Wilhelm. In 1757 King Frederick dismissed his brother Prince August Wilhelm from the army in disgrace after Frederick's humiliating defeat at Kolin in Bohemia. Frederick unjustly blamed his brother of being a coward and incompetent as a military leader. Prince August Wilhelm died the following year. He probably died of meningitis, but many contemporaries, including Prince August's brother Prince Henry, believed that August Wilhelm died because of Frederick's demeaning and humiliating treatment of his brother. On the obelisk, Prince Henry placed 28 medallions honoring a number of prussian generals for military victories that Frederick had falsely claimed as his. On the obelisk, Frederick the Great is not mentioned with one single word. In private correspondence, Prince Henry made no secret of the fact that the obelisk was a criticism of his brother. The obelisk in Rheinsberg can be seen to this day. In 1870, the painter Eduard Gaertner and his family decided to leave the hectic atmosphere of Berlin and settle in Flecken Zechlin, a suburb of Rheinsberg - where he lived until his death in 1877. Rheinsberg is the location for Kurt Tucholsky's ''

Rheinsberg Rheinsberg () is a town and a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, in north-eastern Germany. It is located on lake and the river Rhin, approximately north-east of Neuruppin and north-west of Berlin. History Freder ...

'', a 1912 picture book for lovers based on an autobiographical weekend trip. A subcamp of the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a Nazi concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure of 1 ...

was operated in Rheinsberg during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Demography

File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Rheinsberg.pdf, Development of population since 1875 within the current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population development in Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of

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 ...

; Red Background: Time of communist

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

) File:Bevölkerungsprognosen Rheinsberg.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 (scarlet line); for 2020-2030 (green line)

Geography

Lakes

* Großer Prebelowsee * Großer Zechliner See * Schwarzer See * Tietzowsee * Zootzensee

Photogallery

Rheinsbergehrendenkmal1.jpg, Monument opposite castle Rheinsbergschloss3.jpg, Castle seen from monument place Rheinsberg Schloss und Park asv2024-03 img01.jpg, Concerthall (part of the castle) Dierberg_church.jpg, Church in Dierberg Heinrichsdorf_fire_house.jpg, Fire engine house in Heinrichsdorf

Twin towns

* Huber Heights (

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, USA)

People from Rheinsberg

* Gad Granach (1915–2011), German writer * Erhard Egidi (1929–2014), German cantor, composer and organist * Lothar Baumgarten (1944–2018), German artist * Rambow Richard (1917-1943), German soldier, holder of the Knight's Cross

References

External links

* {{Authority control Localities in Ostprignitz-Ruppin