Schwanewede is a municipality in the district of Osterholz, in

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 ...

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 betwee ...

. It is situated approximately 14 km west of Osterholz-Scharmbeck, and 22 km northwest of

Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state cons ...

. It belonged to the

Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (german: Fürsterzbistum Bremen) — not to be confused with the modern Archdiocese of Hamburg, founded in 1994 — was an ecclesiastical principality (787–1566/1648) of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic ...

. In 1648, the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the

Duchy of Bremen ), which is a public-law corporation established in 1865 succeeding the estates of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (established in 1397), now providing the local fire insurance in the shown area and supporting with its surplusses cultural effor ...

, which first was ruled by the Swedish in

personal union A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interli ...

. In 1715, the Hanoverian Crown started to rule over Schwanwede until 1823, in which the Duchy was abolished, leading all of its territory to become part of the Stade Region. Schwanewede consists of 12 smaller villages which form the municipality of Schwanewede, namely Beckedorf, Löhnhorst, Meyenburg, Aschwarden, Neuenkirchen, Brundorf, Eggestedt, Harriersand, Hinnebeck, Leuchtenburg and Rade. The Farge concentration camp is located in Schwanewede-Neuenkirchen.

References

Osterholz {{Osterholz-geo-stub