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:''See German tanker Altmark for the ship named after Altmark and Stary Targ for the Polish village named Altmark in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
.'' The (English: Old MarchHansard, ''The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time ...'', Volume 32. 1 February to 6 March 1816, T.C. Hansard, 1816
pp. 82
Article XXIII of the
Final Act of the 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 ...
) is a historic region in Germany, comprising the northern third of Saxony-Anhalt. As the initial territory of the March of Brandenburg, it is sometimes referred to as the "Cradle of Prussia", as by
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
, a native from
Schönhausen Schönhausen (Low Saxon: ''Schöönhusen'') is a municipality in the district of Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Elbe-Havel-Land. Geography The village is situated on a ...
near Stendal.


Geography

The Altmark is located west of the Elbe river between the cities of Hamburg and Magdeburg, mostly included in the districts of Altmarkkreis Salzwedel and Stendal. In the west, the
Drawehn The Drawehn is a partly wooded and partly agricultural region of hills in the northeastern part of the German state of Lower Saxony, lying between the districts of Lüneburg and Uelzen in the west and Lüchow-Dannenberg in the east. It is named af ...
hill range and the Drömling depression separate it from the
Lüneburg Heath Lüneburg Heath (german: Lüneburger Heide) is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen a ...
in Lower Saxony; the Altmark also borders the
Wendland The Wendland is a region in Germany on the borders of the present states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Its heart is the Hanoverian Wendland in the county of Lüchow-Dannenberg in Lower Saxony. In 2 ...
region in the north and the
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 ...
in the south. Adjacent east of the Elbe is the historical Prignitz region. The population is small. The
cultural landscape Cultural landscape is a term used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies, to describe a symbiosis of human activity and environment. As defined by the World Heritage Committee, it is the "cultural properties hatrepresent the co ...
within the North European Plain is rural and widely covered with forests and
heathlands A heath () is a shrubland habitat (ecology), habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great B ...
. The largest towns are Stendal, with a population of 39,000, and Salzwedel (21,500).


History

Before the
Migration Period The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
of 300 to 700 AD, the Lombards had settled the future Altmark. Subsequently, Old Germanic
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 ...
tribes lived in the northwest and Polabian Slavs in the eastern territories along the Elbe. After the
Saxon Wars The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the thirty-three years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of tribesmen was defeated. In all, 18 campaigns were fought ...
, waged by Charlemagne from 772 to 804, the lands became part of the Carolingian Empire. They formed part of the Eastphalian territory of the Duchy of Saxony, which, from 843 onwards, constituted the eastern borderlands of
East Francia East Francia (Medieval Latin: ) or the Kingdom of the East Franks () was a successor state of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire, empire ruled by the Carolingian dynasty until 911. It was created through the Treaty of Verdun (843) which divided t ...
under Louis the German. The bishops of Verden and of Halberstadt promoted the Christianisation of the Saxon population. In 936 the German king Otto I allotted the territory of the later Altmark to the Saxon Count
Gero Gero I ( – 20 May 965), sometimes called the Great ( la, magnus),Thompson, 486. Also se was a German nobleman who ruled an initially modest march centred on Merseburg in the south of the present German state of Saxony-Anhalt, which he expande ...
, in order to subdue the West Slavic Wends settling on the Elbe. Gero thereafter campaigned in the Slavic lands far beyond the river Elbe and thereafter established the Saxon stretching up to the
Oder The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows thr ...
in the east. Upon Gero's death in 965, his was split and 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 ...
was granted to Dietrich of Haldensleben, who nevertheless turned out to be an incapable ruler and lost all the territories east of the Elbe in the Slavic Lutici uprising of 983. He retained only his margravial title and the initial land basis of his predecessor Gero's conquests west of the river. For over one and a half century, the lands east of the Elbe defied German control, until in 1134 Emperor
Lothair of Supplinburg Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg (1075 – 4 December 1137), was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of Germany in 1125 before ...
bestowed the Northern March on the
Ascanian 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 ...
count Albert the Bear. Albert signed an inheritance contract with the Slavic
Hevelli The Hevelli or Hevellians/ Navellasîni (sometimes ''Havolane''; german: Heveller or ''Stodoranen''; pl, Hawelanie or ''Stodoranie''; cs, Havolané or ''Stodorané'') were a tribe of the Polabian Slavs, who settled around the middle Havel river ...
prince Pribislav and in 1150 succeeded him in his eastern territory around the fortress of Brandenburg an der Havel, which became the nucleus of his newly established Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1157. As the Brandenburg margraves expanded their territory during the course of the , the original western territory of the Northern March became known as the Altmark (literally "Old March") in contrast to the (Middle March) and (New March) beyond the Oder river; the written record first mentions it in 1304 as . As part of Brandenburg, from 1415 held by the House of Hohenzollern, the Altmark became part 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 ...
and (from 1701) of the Kingdom of Prussia. After Prussia's defeat at the hands of
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
in 1806, the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) assigned the territory of the Altmark to the new Kingdom of Westphalia. Prussia regained the area upon Napoleon's defeat (per Article XXIII of the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna, 1815); however, it was incorporated into the new Prussian
Province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (german: link=no, Provinz Sachsen), also known as Prussian Saxony () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merge ...
rather than being attached to the Province of Brandenburg. Within Prussian Saxony, the Altmark was subdivided into the districts of Salzwedel,
Gardelegen Gardelegen (; nds, Garlä) is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Milde, 20 m. W. from Stendal, on the main line of railway Berlin-Hanover. History Gardelegen has a Roman Catholic and three Evangelical chur ...
, Osterburg, and Stendal, all administered within the of Magdeburg. After World War II the Altmark, lying to the east of the
inner German border The inner German border (german: Innerdeutsche Grenze or ; initially also ) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. Not including the ...
, became part of the new state of Saxony-Anhalt in the Soviet occupation zone. The regional administration of East Germany saw it administered within from 1952 to 1990. With
German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990, the Altmark became part of a reconstituted Saxony-Anhalt.


Rivers and lakes

The region is drained by the Elbe, joined by the
Havel The Havel () is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe and long. However, the direct distance from its source to its mo ...
at Havelberg, and its left tributaries of the Milde-Biese- Aland system and the Jeetzel river. The largest natural lake of the Altmark is the Arendsee.


Transport


Road

The Altmark is located off the main traffic routes. The
Bundesautobahn 14 is an autobahn in eastern Germany. The route comprises two disconnected sections: * The old A 241. A North-South route in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern which runs from Wismar to Schwerin. * The original A 14. A West-East route which start ...
leads to the
Bundesautobahn 2 is an autobahn in Germany that connects the Ruhr area in the west to Berlin in the east. The A 2 starts at the junction with the A3 near the western city of Oberhausen, passes through the north of the Ruhr valley, through the Münsterland ...
from Hanover to Berlin, it however ends north of Magdeburg. A continuation through the Altmark towards Schwerin is planned. Beside which the Federal roads B71, B107, B188, B189, B190, B248 run through the region.


Rail

Stendal station is a stop on the
Hanover–Berlin high-speed railway The Hanover–Berlin high-speed railway is a high-speed rail line linking the German cities of Hanover and Berlin. The Wolfsburg-Berlin section was built as a new line and runs largely parallel to the Lehrter Bahn (the old Berlin-Hanover railwa ...
. Other lines include: * Stendal–Salzwedel–Uelzen * WittenbergeSalzwedelOebisfelde * Magdeburg–Stendal–Wittenberge * Bismark
Kalbe (Milde) Kalbe is a town in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel (district), in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated approximately 15 km north of Gardelegen, on the river Milde. To avoid confusion with Calbe, it is also called ''Kalbe an der Milde''. Kalbe ...
* StendalTangermünde


Towns

* Salzwedel * Oebisfelde * Arendsee * Seehausen *
Diesdorf Diesdorf is a municipality (''Flecken'') in the district Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Geography Diesdorf is situated in the western Altmark about east of the border between Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, which between 1 ...
* Beetzendorf *
Klötze Klötze is a town in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel (district), in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated approximately 20 km northwest of Gardelegen, and 35 km northeast of Wolfsburg. It was mentioned first in 1144 with the name ''Cloetze'' ...
*
Mieste Mieste is a village and a former municipality in the district Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2011, it is part of the town Gardelegen Gardelegen (; nds, Garlä) is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situa ...
*
Gardelegen Gardelegen (; nds, Garlä) is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Milde, 20 m. W. from Stendal, on the main line of railway Berlin-Hanover. History Gardelegen has a Roman Catholic and three Evangelical chur ...
*
Kalbe (Milde) Kalbe is a town in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel (district), in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated approximately 15 km north of Gardelegen, on the river Milde. To avoid confusion with Calbe, it is also called ''Kalbe an der Milde''. Kalbe ...
* Bismark * Osterburg * Stendal * Havelberg * Tangermünde * Tangerhütte * Uchtspringe


External links


Altmarkwiki
the regional wiki for the Altmark


Notes and references

{{Authority control Margraviate of Brandenburg Regions of Saxony-Anhalt Former states and territories of Saxony-Anhalt Historical regions in Germany