Oranienburg () is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is the capital of the district of

Oberhavel Oberhavel is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the northern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Its neighbouring districts are (clockwise from the north): Mecklenburgische Seenplatte (district) in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the districts of Uckermark and Ba ...

Geography

Oranienburg is on the banks of the River

Havel The Havel () is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the States of Germany, states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. The long Havel is a right tributary of the Elbe. However, the direct distance from ...

, 35 km north of the centre of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Division of the town

Oranienburg consists of nine districts: * Friedrichsthal *

Germendorf Germendorf is a part of Oranienburg, a town in the district of Oberhavel in northern Brandenburg, Germany. In 2008, Germendorf had a population of 1,818. Geography Germendorf is located west of the main town of Oranienburg, and stretches from the ...

* Lehnitz * Malz * Oranienburg * Sachsenhausen * Schmachtenhagen * Wensickendorf * Zehlendorf

History

Sachsenhausen concentration camp airphoto

Originally named Bötzow, the town of Oranienburg dates from the 12th century and was first mentioned in 1216. Margrave

Albert the Bear Albert the Bear (; 1100 – 18 November 1170) was the first margrave of Brandenburg from 1157 to his death and was briefly duke of Saxony between 1138 and 1142. Life Albert was the only son of Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, and Eilika of Sa ...

(ruled 1157–1170) allegedly ordered the construction of a castle on the banks of the Havel. Around the castle stood a settlement of traders and craftsmen. In 1646,

Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg Frederick William (; 16 February 1620 – 29 April 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is popularly known as "th ...

married

Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau Louise Henriette of Nassau (, ; 7 December 1627 – 18 June 1667) was a Countess of Nassau, granddaughter of William I, Prince of Orange, "William the Silent", and an Electress of Brandenburg. Biography Louise Henriëtte was born in The ...

(German: ''Oranien-Nassau''). She was so attracted by the town of Bötzow that her husband presented the entire region to her. The princess ordered the construction of a new castle in the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

style and called it Oranienburg or

Schloss Oranienburg Oranienburg Palace () is a ''Schloss'' located in the town of Oranienburg in Germany. It is the oldest Baroque architecture, Baroque ''Schloss'' in the Margraviate of Brandenburg and was built from 1651 to 1655 by Countess Louise Henriette of ...

. In 1653 the town of Bötzow was renamed Oranienburg.

Silvio Gesell Johann Silvio Gesell (; 17 March 1862 – 11 March 1930) was a German-Argentine economist, entrepreneur, and social reformer. He was the founder of (German language, German for "free economy"), an economic model for market socialism. In 1900, ...

, the founder of

Freiwirtschaft (German for "free economy") is an economic theory and proposal founded by the German-Argentine economist Silvio Gesell in his 1916 book, ''The Natural Economic Order'' (). Some of the basic economic ideas of Freiwirtschaft were also independen ...

("free economy"), lived in Oranienburg between 1911 and 1915, publishing his magazine, ''Der Physiocrat''. He returned to the town in 1927 and lived there until his death in 1930. The town remained a center of the "free economy" movement until the Nazi régime outlawed it in 1933, and many of Gesell's followers ended up as prisoners in the town's concentration camp. The

Oranienburg concentration camp Oranienburg was an early Nazi concentration camp, one of the first concentration camp, detention facilities established by the Nazis in the Free State of Prussia, state of Prussia when they Hitler's rise to power#Seizure of control .281931 - 1933 ...

(established in March 1933) was among the earliest of the Nazis concentration camps. In 1936, the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

on the outskirts of Oranienburg replaced it; there 200,000 people were interned over the nine years that the Nazis operated it. Approximately 22,000 people died at the camp before the liberation of the camp by the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

in 1945. Thereafter the site reopened in August 1945 as "Soviet Special Camp 7". A further 12,000 people (mostly Nazis not awaiting trial) died under the Soviets before the Special Camp closed in 1950. Their remains were not discovered until the 1990s. Oranienburg became the center of

Nazi Germany's Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictator ...

nuclear-energy project because it was the location of the Auergesellschaft Oranienburg Plant, Germany's uranium production facility; the town also had an armaments hub, aircraft plant, and railway junction, all of military importance. According to military historian

Antony Beevor Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works, mainly on the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War, and most recently the Russian Revolution and Civil War. ...

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's desire to acquire the nuclear facility motivated him to launch the

Battle for Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–Od ...

of April–May 1945. It has been claimed that the pre-emptive destruction of these nuclear facilities by the

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces S ...

on 15 March 1945 aimed to prevent them from falling into Soviet hands. On 23 April 1945, during the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–Od ...

, troops of the

1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front (, ''Pervyy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian"), known without a numeral as the Belorussian Front between October 1943 and February 1944, was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, bein ...

of the

captured Oranienburg. Between 1949 and 1990, Oranienburg was part of the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

(East Germany). Due to its heavy bombing, Oranienburg is the "most dangerous town in Germany"; it is the only town in Germany which pursues a systematic search for

unexploded ordnance Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not e ...

(UXO) based on postwar aerial photos and magnetic or radar underground measurements for metal. By 2017 about 200 had been disposed of, and 350 to 400 were estimated to remain. It is estimated that the search and disposal will continue throughout the rest of the century. In one case 12,000 residents had to be evacuated. The federal government does not finance the removal of foreign UXO.

Public institutions

The Zehlendorf transmission facility, a large facility for radio broadcasting in

longwave In radio, longwave (also spelled long wave or long-wave and commonly abbreviated LW) is the part of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave (MW) broadcasting band. The term is historic, dati ...

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytim ...

and FM-range, was located near Oranienburg, at Zehlendorf.

Transport

The town is served by the

Berlin Northern Railway The Berlin Northern Railway () is a 223-kilometre-long main line (railway), main line route, that runs from Berlin via Neustrelitz and Neubrandenburg to Stralsund on the Baltic Sea coast. Nowadays, long-distance and regional traffic on the Nord ...

and provide a direct connection to

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

Demography

Bevölkerungsentwicklung Oranienburg.pdf, Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population Development of Brandenburg state; Grey background: Time of Nazi rule; Red background: Time of communist rule) Bevölkerungsprognosen Oranienburg.pdf, Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the

Census in Germany A national census in Germany (, ) was held every five years from 1875 to 1910. After the World Wars, only a few full population censuses have been held, the last in 1987. The most recent census, though not a national census, was the 2011 Europea ...

in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005–2030 (yellow line); for 2020–2030 (green line); for 2017–2030 (scarlet line)

Twin towns – sister cities

Oranienburg is twinned with: *

Bagnolet Bagnolet () is a Communes of France, commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. History On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighboring communes. On that occa ...

, France (1964) *

Hamm Hamm may refer to: Places ;Germany: * Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, a city north-east of Dortmund * Hamm (Sieg), a municipality in the eponymous ''Verbandsgemeinde'' in the district of Altenkirchen, Rhineland-Palatinate * Hamm, Bitburg-Prüm, part ...

, Germany (1990) *

Mělník Mělník (; ) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 20,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, urban monument zon ...

, Czech Republic (1974) *

Vught Vught () is a municipality and a town in the Province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands, and lies just south of the industrial and administrative centre of 's-Hertogenbosch. Many commuters live there, and in 2004 the town was named "Best ...

, Netherlands (2000) *

Kfar Yona Kfar Yona () is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel. It is located between the cities Netanya and Tulkarm, about 8 km east of Netanya in the central junction between Highway 6 (Israel), Highway 6 and Highway 4 ...

, Israel (2021)

Notable people

* Friedrich Ludwig Dulon (1769–1826), flautist and composer *

Walther Bothe Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe (; 8 January 1891 – 8 February 1957) was a German physicist who shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics with Max Born "for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith". He served in the military durin ...

(1891–1957), physicist and Nobel laureate *

Carl Gustav Hempel Carl Gustav "Peter" Hempel (; ; January 8, 1905 – November 9, 1997) was a German writer, philosopher, logician, and epistemologist. He was a major figure in Logical positivism, logical empiricism, a 20th-century movement in the philosophy ...

(1905–1997), philosopher * W. Michael Blumenthal (born 1926), business leader, economist and political adviser * Bernd Eichwurzel (born 1964), rower, Olympic champion *

Alexander Walke Alexander Walke (born 6 June 1983) is a German former professional football goalkeeper. Club career Born in Oranienburg, Brandenburg, Walke began his career at Energie Cottbus as a 14-year-old. In 1999, he transferred to Werder Bremen, and was c ...

(born 1983), footballer * Marcus Mlynikowski (born 1992), footballer *

, lived between 1911 and 1915 and between 1927 and his death in 1930

References

External links

* {{Authority control Localities in Oberhavel