Wegeleben () is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Harz The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

district, in

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

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 the administrative seat of the ''

Verbandsgemeinde A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns. Rhineland- ...

'' ("collective municipality")

Vorharz Vorharz is a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the Harz district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated east of Halberstadt. It was created on 1 January 2010. The seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' is in Wegeleben. The ''Verba ...

Geography

It is situated at the confluence of the Goldbach and Bode rivers, east of

Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bombi ...

. The municipal area comprises the villages of Adersleben, Deesdorf, and Rodersdorf. Wegeleben station is a stop on the Halberstadt–Vienenburg and

Magdeburg–Thale railway The Magdeburg–Thale railway is a predominantly single-track, non-electrified main line railway that connects Thale, in the northern Harz, with Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt. Its eastern section between Magdeburg and Halberstadt was open ...

lines.

History

Wegeleben in the Saxon

Harzgau The Harzgau was a medieval shire ('' Gau'') in the northeastern foorhils of the Harz mountains, part of the Eastphalia region of Saxony. It included the towns of Halberstadt, Quedlinburg, and Osterwieck, and was bounded by the Oker in the west, b ...

was the site of a fortress possibly erected at the behest of King

Henry the Fowler Henry the Fowler (german: Heinrich der Vogler or '; la, Henricus Auceps) (c. 876 – 2 July 936) was the Duke of Saxony from 912 and the King of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. As the first non-Frankish king of East Francia, he ...

during the

Hungarian invasions The Hungarian invasions of Europe ( hu, kalandozások, german: Ungarneinfälle) took place in the 9th and 10th centuries, the period of transition in the history of Europe in the Early Middle Ages, when the territory of the former Carolingian Em ...

in the 10th century. The castle later served as a residence of the Prince-Bishops of Halberstadt. The adjacent settlement was mentioned as a

(''civitas'') in the 13th century, when it had been fortified with

defensive wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

s and city gates. The ruling

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 ...

counts ceded their fief in pawn to the Bishop of Halberstadt in 1288 and finally sold it in 1318. Ravaged by the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

, Wegeleben with the Bishopric of Halberstadt passed to

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 ...

in 1648. It was finally seized as a reverted fief by the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

king

Frederick I Frederick I may refer to: * Frederick of Utrecht or Frederick I (815/16–834/38), Bishop of Utrecht. * Frederick I, Duke of Upper Lorraine (942–978) * Frederick I, Duke of Swabia (1050–1105) * Frederick I, Count of Zoller ...

in 1704. From 1815 it was incorporated into the 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 ...

. The town received railway access in 1862. Until 2010 Wegeleben was part of the disbanded ''Verbandsgemeinde''

Bode-Holtemme Bode-Holtemme was a ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' ("collective municipality") in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was situated along the rivers Bode and Holtemme, east of Halberstadt. The seat of the ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' wa ...

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (''Stadtrat'') as of 2014 local elections: * Christian Democratic Union: 10 * Free Democratic Party: 1 * Independents: 3

Notable people

* Wilhelm Schmidt (1858–1924), engineer and inventor *

Martin Bormann Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. He gained immense power by using his position as Adolf Hitler's private secretary to control the flow of information ...

(1900–1945), Nazi official *

John Bura John Bura ( uk, Іван Бура; June 12, 1944 – January 17, 2023) was a bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the United States. He served as the Auxiliary Bishop of Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia from 2006 to 20 ...

(born 1944), bishop *

Jürgen Pommerenke Jürgen Pommerenke (born 22 January 1953 in Wegeleben) is a former German football midfielder and manager. Pommerenke played his entire professional career for 1. FC Magdeburg, though he began his career as an youngster with BSG Traktor Wege ...

(born 1953), footballer

References

{{Authority control Towns in Saxony-Anhalt Towns in the Harz