Bad Belzig (), until 2010 Belzig, is a historic
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
in
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, 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 ar ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
located about southwest of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. It is the capital of the
Potsdam-Mittelmark
Potsdam-Mittelmark is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the western part of Brandenburg, Germany. Its neighbouring administrative units are (clockwise from the north) the district of Havelland, the free cities of Brandenburg and Potsdam, the state of Berl ...
district.
Geography
![Gross Briesen church](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Gross_Briesen_church.jpg)
Bad Belzig is located within the
Fläming hill range and in the centre of the
High Fläming Nature Park
High Fläming Nature Park (german: Naturpark Hoher Fläming) is an 827 km2 nature park in Potsdam-Mittelmark district in the German state Brandenburg. It is the third largest of 11 nature parks in the state of Brandenburg. In 1997, it was dec ...
. The plains north of the town are home to one of the few
great bustard
The great bustard (''Otis tarda'') is a bird in the bustard family, the only member of the genus ''Otis''. It breeds in open grasslands and farmland from northern Morocco, South and Central Europe, to temperate Central and East Asia. European po ...
populations in Germany.
Since 2003, when 14 surrounding villages were incorporated into Bad Belzig, some of them voluntarily, others by Brandenburg
Landtag
A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non- ...
(state parliament) legislation, Bad Belzig has an area of 234.83 km². These villages became districts (''Ortsteile'') of Belzig:
The forest of Verlorenwasser near Werbig encompassed the
geographical centre
In geography, the centroid of the two-dimensional shape of a region of the Earth's surface (projected radially to sea level or onto a geoid surface) is known as its geographic centre or geographical centre or (less commonly) gravitational centre. I ...
of
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
.
History
A
Slavic fort of ''Belizi'' was first mentioned in a 997 deed issued by
Emperor Otto III
Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu.
Otto III was crowned as King of G ...
in favour of the
Archbishopric 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 Roma ...
. Whether this denotation refers to Bad Belzig or the neighbouring town of
Beelitz
Beelitz is a historic town in Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is chiefly known for its cultivation of white asparagus (''Beelitzer Spargel'').
Geography
Beelitz is situated about 18 km (11 mi) south of Potsdam, ...
has not been conclusively established. Nevertheless, both towns celebrated their 1000 years anniversary in 1997.
The estates however had actually already been lost in the Slavic uprising of 983 and were not conquered again until 1153 by
Albert the Bear
Albert the Bear (german: Albrecht der Bär; 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 Bal ...
from the
House of Ascania
The House of Ascania (german: Askanier) was a dynasty of German rulers. It is also known as the House of Anhalt, which refers to its longest-held possession, Anhalt.
The Ascanians are named after Ascania (or Ascaria) Castle, known as ''Schloss ...
. In 1251 the castle ''(Burg Eisenhardt)'' and the adjacent settlement became part of
Saxe-Wittenberg
The Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg () was a medieval duchy of the Holy Roman Empire centered at Wittenberg, which emerged after the dissolution of the stem duchy of Saxony. The Ascanian dukes prevailed in obtaining the Saxon electoral dignity until ...
under Albert's successor
Duke Albert I. However it was claimed by the archbishops of Magdeburg, whose forces devastated Belzig in 1406. The rebuilt castle was again seized by the
Hussite
The Hussites ( cs, Husité or ''Kališníci''; "Chalice People") were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, who became the best known representative of the Bohemian Reformation.
The Hussit ...
general
Prokop the Great
Prokop the Great ( cs, Prokop Veliký, la, Procopius Magnus) or Prokop the Bald or the Shaven ( cz, Prokop Holý, link=no, ) (c. 1380 – 30 May 1434) was a Czech Hussite general and a prominent Taborite military leader during the Hussite Wars ...
when he invaded Saxony in 1429, after which
Elector Ernest of
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
from the
House of Wettin
The House of Wettin () is a dynasty of German kings, prince-electors, dukes, and counts that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its ori ...
enlarged it to a fortress. During the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
it was seized by the troops of the
Swedish Empire
The Swedish Empire was a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic region during the 17th and early 18th centuries ( sv, Stormaktstiden, "the Era of Great Power"). The beginning of the empire is usually ta ...
in 1636, after
Elector John George I had allied with
Emperor Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II (9 July 1578 – 15 February 1637) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1619 until his death in 1637. He was the son of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria and Maria of Bavaria. His parents were de ...
in the
Peace of Prague.
The
Romanesque St Mary's Church was built in the late 13th century. According to an inscription in the
keystone of the western entrance,
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
preached here on January 14, 1530. Eisenhardt Castle. Bad Belzig was granted
town privileges
Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...
in 1702. During the
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition (March 1813 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, and a number of German States defeated F ...
on August 27, 1813 troops of the
French Empire and Saxony were attacked by
Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
forces near the village of Hagelberg. The encounter ended in a French defeat, while several Saxon units went over to the Prussians. According to the Final Act of the 1815
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
Bad Belzig was ceded to Prussia and became part of the
Province of Brandenburg
The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...
, after having belonged to the Saxon Electorate for centuries.
In 1934 ammunition works were established in Bad Belzig including a
labor camp
A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
with about 1500 forced laborers. During the years 1936–1945, Burg Eisenhardt was the site of the Reichsschule (leadership school) for the Technischen Nothilfe ('technical emergency relief'). (The Technische Nothilfe was abolished in May, 1945, but the idea was revived by Otto Lummitzsch in the form of the
Technisches Hilfswerk
The (THW, English: ''Federal Agency for Technical Relief'') is the federal civil protection organisation of Germany. It is controlled by the German federal government. 99% of its 79,543 members (2019) are volunteers.
Tasks
The tasks of t ...
in 1950, which exists to this day as one of the pillars of the German civil protection infrastructure.) Between 1940 and 1945 a subcamp of the women's concentration camp
Ravensbrück with about 750 inmates was also located nearby. Bad Belzig was also the site of a large
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
transmitter station, erected in 1939. In 1952 the town became the capital of the Belzig district and in 1993 of the newly created district of
Potsdam-Mittelmark
Potsdam-Mittelmark is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the western part of Brandenburg, Germany. Its neighbouring administrative units are (clockwise from the north) the district of Havelland, the free cities of Brandenburg and Potsdam, the state of Berl ...
. In 1995 Bad Belzig was awarded the official title of a climatic health resort. Effective March 2010, the town's name was changed to "Bad Belzig".
Demography
File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Bad Belzig.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 (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
; Red Background: Time of communist East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
)
File:Bevölkerungsprognosen Bad Belzig.pdf, Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the Census in Germany
A national census in Germany (german: Volkszählung) was held every five years from 1875 to 1910. After the World Wars, only a few full population censuses have been held, the last in 1987. The most recent census, though not a national census, wa ...
in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line); for 2020-2030 (green line)
Politics
Mayors
* 1990–2008: Peter Kiep (SPD)
* 2008–2016: Hannelore Klabunde-Quast (independent)
* since 1. Dezember 2016: Roland Leisegang (independent)
Peter Kiep could work in office only till 2006. He died in 2013.
Hannelore Klabunde-Quast became in 2006 the substitute of Peter Kiep. She was elected mayor in 2008.
Roland Leisegang (a founding member of the band
Keimzeit) was elected mayor in 2016 with 65,4 % of the votes.
Ergebnis der Bürgermeisterstichwahl am 9. Oktober 2016
/ref>
The municipal assembly ''(Stadtverordnetenversammlung)'' has 22 members. The 2014 elections showed the following results:
*Social Democrats (SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been t ...
): 6 seats
*Left Party ( Die Linke): 3 seats
*Christian Democrats ( CDU): 3 seats
*"We, the villagers" group: 3 seats
*Free Voters
Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...
: 2 seats
* Grüne: 2 seats
*Liberals ( FDP): 1 seat
* NPD: 1 seat
*Belzig Business Association: 1 seat
The town's shield depicts the coat of arms of Saxony
The coat of arms of the present-day German free state of Saxony shows a tenfold horizontally-partitioned (''Barry of ten'') field of black (''sable'') and gold/yellow ('' or'') stripes, due to the long-time affiliation with the Saxon Electorate.
International relations
Bad Belzig is twinned with Ritterhude
Ritterhude (Northern Low Saxon: ''Hu’e'') is a municipality in the district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Hamme, approx. 6 km southwest of Osterholz-Scharmbeck, and 13 km northwest of Bremen.
Ge ...
, a town in the German state of Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, and is also twinned with Workington
Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207.
Loca ...
, a town in Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Bad Belzig exchanges students with Even Yehuda
Even Yehuda ( he, אֶבֶן יְהוּדָה) is a town in the central Sharon region of Israel east of Netanya. In it had a population of .
History
The area of Even Yehuda has been inhabited intermittently since the Middle Paleolithic age, wit ...
, Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. Yet, there is not official agreement between the cities.
Places of interest
Main attractions are medieval Eisenhardt castle and the thermal bath SteinTherme. There is also a picturesque historic town centre with the town hall and the market place in the middle.
Places of interest in the incorporated villages include Glien Manor (Klein Glien) in Hagelberg and the windmill in Borne.
There is also a set of sculpture walks starting from Bad Belzig, heading towards Wiesenburg
Wiesenburg ( official name: ''Wiesenburg/Mark'') is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 10 km west of Bad Belzig, and 34 km southwest of Brandenburg. It is located in the High Flä ...
.
Economy
The district administration is the major employer in Bad Belzig.
Bad Belzig is the main town in the rural Higher Fläming area, with schools, shops, supermarkets, a hospital and a cinema all used by the inhabitants of surrounding towns and villages.
There is a successful rehabilitation clinic (sanatorium) in Bad Belzig.
In 1989, Bad Belzig launched an ambitious programme to become a spa town (achieving recognition in 2009) and promote tourism.
Sons and daughters of the town
* Carl Gottlieb Reißiger
Carl Gottlieb Reißiger (also ''Karl Reissiger'', ''Carl Reissiger'', ''Karl Reißiger'') (31 January 1798 – 7 November 1859) was a German Kapellmeister and composer.
Biography
Born in Belzig, Reissiger attended the Thomasschule zu Leipzig an ...
(1798-1859), composer and Kapellmeister in Dresden
* Joachim Herrmann (1932-2010), prehistorian, born in Lübnitz
* Matthias Rudolph (born 1982), football coach and player
* Felix Holzner (born 1985), football player
* Fabian Wiede (born 1994), handball player
References
External links
official website
official website of the Tourist Board
Stein Therme - thermal bath
High Fläming Nature Park
{{Authority control
Spa towns in Germany
Localities in Potsdam-Mittelmark
Fläming Heath