Hohenlockstedt is a municipality in the district of

Steinburg Steinburg () is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, administered from Itzehoe. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Dithmarschen, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, Segeberg and Pinneberg, and by the Elbe River (and the dist ...

, in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

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 situated approximately 8 km northeast of

Itzehoe Itzehoe (; nds, Itzhoe) is a town in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As the capital of the district Steinburg, Itzehoe is located on the Stör, a navigable tributary of the Elbe, 51 km (31.7 mi) northwest of Hamburg and 24 ...

. Hohenlockstedt was formerly known as ''Lockstedter Lager'' and was used as a training area in Holstein until 1927. Hohenlockstedt is part of the ''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'' ("collective municipality")

Kellinghusen Kellinghusen () is a town in the district of Steinburg in the ''Bundesland'' of Schleswig-Holstein. Geography Kellinghusen is located northeast of Itzehoe on both sides of the Stör River. The federal highway Bundesstraße 206 passes Kellinghu ...

History

Hohenlockstedt, formerly known as ''Lockstedter Lager'' military camp, was founded in 1872 as a training ground for the IX. Army Corps of the German army. In 1900, the German troop contingent for the mission against the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

in China was set up, under the leadership of

Alfred von Waldersee Alfred Ludwig Heinrich Karl Graf von Waldersee (8 April 1832 in Potsdam5 March 1904 in Hanover) was a German field marshal (''Generalfeldmarschall'') who became Chief of the Imperial German General Staff. Born into a prominent military family, ...

. A small wooded ridge nearby bears the name ''Waldersee-Höhe''. The military training area reached its greatest extent at the beginning of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when it covered an area of about 60 km², on which up to 18,000 soldiers were stationed. From 1915, Finnish volunteers in the

Jäger Movement The Jäger Movement ( fi, Jääkäriliike sv, Jägarrörelsen) consisted of volunteers from Finland who trained in Germany as Jägers (elite light infantry) during World War I. Supported by Germany to enable the creation of a Finnish sovereign ...

were trained as soldiers at the Lockstedter Lager, and would later form the core of a new Finnish army.

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

was then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

as a

Grand Duchy A grand duchy is a sovereign state, country or territory whose official head of state or ruler is a monarch bearing the title of grand duke or grand duchess. Relatively rare until the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the term was oft ...

. In 1917, Finland was able to gain independence, among other things with the help of these volunteers, who formed the elite core of the

White army The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв� ...

in the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

. From 1927, it was made into a parish of the same name. During the Weimar Republic, the camp grounds were a rallying point of various far-right groups, including

Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regar ...

groups and

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. The place was considered the cradle of the Schleswig-Holstein SA. Because of its bad reputation, the community changed its name to Hohenlockstedt in 1956.

Sister cities

Lapua Lapua (; sv, Lappo) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located next to the Lapua River in the region of South Ostrobothnia. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The mun ...

, Finland

References

Steinburg {{Steinburg-geo-stub