Haldensleben (; Eastphalian: ''Halslä'') is a town 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, 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 ...

. It is the administrative seat of the

Börde A ''börde'' (plural: ''börden'') is a region of highly fertile lowland in North Germany, a "fertile plain". These landscapes often cover great areas and are particularly important for arable farming on account of their rich soils. These region ...

district.

Geography

It is situated on the

Ohre The Ohre is a river in northern Germany, left tributary to the Elbe. Its total length is . Its source is north of Wolfsburg, in Lower Saxony. It flows generally south-east, at first following the border of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. After B ...

river, near the confluence with its Beber tributary, and the parallel

Mittelland Canal The Mittelland Canal, also known as the Midland Canal, (german: Mittellandkanal, ) is a major canal in central Germany. It forms an important link in the waterway network of that country, providing the principal east-west inland waterway conne ...

, running from the fertile

Magdeburg Börde The Magdeburg Börde (german: Magdeburger Börde) is the central landscape unit of the state of Saxony-Anhalt and lies to the west and south of the eponymous state capital Magdeburg. Part of a loess belt stretching along the southeastern rim of th ...

basin to 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 Repu ...

river in the east. The town centre is located approximately northwest from

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 Magdebur ...

. It is connected by railway to the neighbouring towns of Magdeburg,

Oebisfelde Oebisfelde () is a town and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen. It is accessed by Bundesstraße (German federal highway) 188. Geography O ...

and

Eilsleben Eilsleben is a municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In January 2010 it absorbed the former municipality Wormsdorf and in September 2010 the former municipalities Drackenstedt, Druxberge Druxberge is a village and a ...

. The municipal area includes the village of

Süplingen Süplingen is a village and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2014, it is part of the town Haldensleben Haldensleben (; Eastphalian: ''Halslä'') is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is t ...

, incorporated in 2014.

Prehistory

In Haldensleben Forest, south-west of the town, is a group of more than 80 megalithic tombs of the Neolithic Age, the largest such group in central Europe.

History

The

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

fortress of ''hahaldeslevo'' in

Eastphalia Eastphalia (german: Ostfalen; Eastphalian: ''Oostfalen'') is a historical region in northern Germany, encompassing the eastern ''Gaue'' (shires) of the historic stem duchy of Saxony, roughly confined by the River Leine in the west and the Elbe a ...

was first mentioned in a 966 deed of donation issued by Emperor

Otto I Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (german: Otto der Große, it, Ottone il Grande), was East Francia, East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the olde ...

. The Counts of Haldensleben rose to considerable power, most notably Dietrich and

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, who ruled as

margrave Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Emp ...

s of the

Northern March The Northern March or North March (german: Nordmark) was created out of the division of the vast ''Marca Geronis'' in 965. It initially comprised the northern third of the ''Marca'' (roughly corresponding to the modern state of Brandenburg) and ...

. Soon after a trading place (''Neuhaldensleben'') arose nearby, which was vested with

market rights A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

about 1150. Besieged and devastetd by the forces of Archbishop

Wichmann Wichmann or Wichman may refer to: * Wichmann (crater), a lunar impact crater *Wichmann the Elder (d. 944), medieval German nobleman *Wichmann the Younger (d. 967), son of the Elder, medieval German nobleman *Wichmann von Seeburg (1115–1192), Arch ...

in 1181, the Haldensleben estates belonged to the

Prince-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 ...

from 1215. Rebuilding of the town began in 1223, and Archbishop Albert I established a

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

abbey at Althaldensleben. The citizens again received market rights in 1526. The

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

was implemented in 1541 and in 1680 the former episcopal lands were

secularized In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

as the

Duchy of Magdeburg The Duchy of Magdeburg (german: Herzogtum Magdeburg) was a province of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1680 to 1701 and a province of the German Kingdom of Prussia from 1701 to 1807. It replaced the Archbishopric of Magdeburg after its secula ...

, held by the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

rulers of

Brandenburg-Prussia Brandenburg-Prussia (german: Brandenburg-Preußen; ) is the historiographic denomination for the early modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohenz ...

. Nearby Hundisburg Castle was owned by the

House of Alvensleben The House of Alvensleben is an ancient, Low German (''niederdeutsch'') noble family from the Altmark region, whose earliest known member, ''Wichard de Alvensleve'', is first mentioned in 1163 as a ministerialis of the Bishopric of Halberstadt. The ...

from 1452 until 1811, enlarged in baroque style, with formal gardens, by

Hermann Korb Hermann Korb (1656, Niese (near Lügde) - 23 December 1735, Wolfenbüttel) was a German architect who worked mainly in the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Life Little is known of his early life. It is generally believed that he started ...

from 1693 on the order of Johann Friedrich II. von Alvensleben (1657-1728), a Hanoverian minister of

George I of Great Britain George I (George Louis; ; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first ...

. It was partly destroyed by fire in 1945 and reconstructed since 1994. Althaldensleben Kirche.JPG, Althaldensleben Simultaneum Schloss Hundisburg Luftbild 2.jpg, Hundisburg Castle Today Haldensleben has a Protestant and a Catholic church. An old equestrian statue of Roland symbolized the rights of a medieval settlement to be accepted as a

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 ...

. It is the only statue of Roland sitting on a horse in the world. Before 1938, when it merged with Althaldensleben, the town was called Neuhaldensleben.

International relations

Haldensleben is twinned with: *

Helmstedt Helmstedt (; Eastphalian: ''Helmstidde'') is a town on the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. The historic university and Hanseatic city conserves an important monumental heritage of ...

, Germany (since 1990) *

Ciechanów Ciechanów is a city in north-central Poland. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Ciechanów Voivodeship. Since 1999, it has been situated in the Masovian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, it has a population of 43,495. History The ...

, Poland (since 1992) **

Viernheim Viernheim is a midsize industrial town on Mannheim's outskirts and is found in the Rhine Neckar agglomeration and economic area. It is the second biggest town in Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. Since 1994 it has also borne the title '' Br ...

, Germany (since 1992)

Notable people

Heiko Bonan Heiko Bonan (born 10 February 1966) is a German football coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of FC 99 Aa Nethetal. Playing career In the East German and (unified) German top-flight the midfielder A midfielder ...

(born 1966), footballer *

Reinhard Höppner Reinhard Höppner (2 December 1948 – 9 June 2014) was a German politician ( SPD) and writer. Höppner held a Dr. rer. nat. in mathematics. In 1990, in the first (and last) free election in the assembly's history, he was elected a member of th ...

(1948–2014), politician * Kevin Schlitte (born 1981), footballer *

Heinrich Schnee Heinrich Albert Schnee (Albert Hermann Heinrich Schnee; 4 February 1871 – 23 June 1949) was a German lawyer, colonial civil servant, politician, writer, and association official. He served as the last Governor of German East Africa. Early l ...

(1871–1949), lawyer and colonial civil servant * Reinhild Solf (born 1941), stage and television actress *

Friedrich von der Trenck Friedrich Freiherr von der Trenck (16 February 1726 – 25 July 1794) was a Prussian officer, adventurer, and author. Coat of arms The coat of arms of the Trenck family depicts in red the head of a silver bull with golden tongue and golden ...

(1726–1794), officer, adventurer, and author * Philipp von Nathusius (1815–1872), publisher

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Börde (district)