Malchow () is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

Mecklenburgische Seenplatte The Mecklenburg Lake Plateau or Mecklenburg Lakeland
- Federal Ministry of Economics ...

district, in

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

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 ...

Geography

It is situated on the river

Elde The Elde () is a river in northern Germany (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and a few km in Brandenburg), a right tributary of the Elbe. Its total length is . The Elde originates near Altenhof, south of Malchow. It first flows southeast towards the southe ...

, 25,5 km west of Waren, and 35 km north of

Wittstock Wittstock/Dosse is a town in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in north-western Brandenburg, Germany. Geography It is located in the eastern Prignitz region on the Dosse River near the confluence with its Glinze tributary, about east of Pritzwal ...

History

The site of Malchow was a center for

Slavic paganism Slavic mythology or Slavic religion is the Religion, religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation of the Slavs, Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The So ...

during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. It was sacked by

Saxons 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 ...

during the 1147

Wendish Crusade The Wendish Crusade (german: Wendenkreuzzug) was a military campaign in 1147, one of the Northern Crusades and a part of the Second Crusade, led primarily by the Kingdom of Germany within the Holy Roman Empire and directed against the Polabian Sl ...

against the

Polabian Slavs Polabian Slavs ( dsb, Połobske słowjany, pl, Słowianie połabscy, cz, Polabští slované) is a collective term applied to a number of Lechitic ( West Slavic) tribes who lived scattered along the Elbe river in what is today eastern German ...

. The German town of Malchow, founded on an island between the Plauer See (Lake) and Fleesensee, was first mentioned in writing in 1147 and received a town charter under Schwerin Law in 1235. Malchow Klosterkirche 2011

In 1298,

Malchow Abbey Malchow Abbey (''Kloster Malchow'') is a former Cistercian nunnery in Malchow in the district of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The monastic buildings are on the east shore of the ''Malchower See'' (Lake Malchow) a ...

, a

Cistercian nunnery Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church. History The first Cistercian monastery for women, Le Tart Abbey, was established at Tart-l'Abbaye in t ...

, moved to the south shore of the Malchower See, opposite the island. Over several following centuries, the town expanded to the mainland in the northwest, to which the original settlement was linked by a succession of bridges, and gradually this mainland settlement came to predominate. A munitions factory of the Alfred Nobel Co. was established in Malchow in 1938, during the Nazi period, and during World War II hundreds of prisoners of war and also women and children were used as forced labor there. In 1943, the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German 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 o ...

extended to Malchow, and during the next two years many inmates, including numerous Hungarian Jewish women, lost their lives there under appalling conditions. After the war, Soviet Occupation authorities accused some 30 teen-aged Malchow residents of anti-Soviet activities, and 12 of these eventually lost their lives in Soviet captivity or were executed. Rathaus_Malchow

After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the historic town center of Malchow was extensively restored. Today the former Cistercian abbey houses the Mecklenburg Organ Museum.

Natural environment

The town is surrounded by the lakes of the ''

Mecklenburgische Seenplatte The Mecklenburg Lake Plateau or Mecklenburg Lakeland
- Federal Ministry of Economics ...

'' and the woods of the

Müritz National Park The Müritz National Park (german: Müritz-Nationalpark) is a national park situated roughly in the middle between Berlin and Rostock, in the south of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It extends over large portions of the Müritz lake ...

Notable people

Dietrich von Müller __NOTOC__ Dietrich von Müller (16 September 1891 – 3 January 1961) was a German general during World War II. Just before the end of World War II he was promoted to Generalleutnant and awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves ...

(1891-1961), Generalleutnant of the Wehrmacht

References

External links

Cities and towns in Mecklenburg 1230s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1235 establishments in Europe Populated places established in the 13th century Holocaust locations in Germany {{MecklenburgischeSeenplatte-geo-stub