Oranienburg

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Oranienburg
Schloss Oranienburg

Coat of arms
Oranienburg
Coordinates: 52°45′16″N 13°14′13″E / 52.75444°N 13.23694°E / 52.75444; 13.23694Coordinates: 52°45′16″N 13°14′13″E / 52.75444°N 13.23694°E / 52.75444; 13.23694
Country Germany
State Brandenburg
District Oberhavel
Subdivisions 9 districts
Government
 • Mayor Hans-Joachim Laesicke (SPD)
Area
 • Total 162.37 km2 (62.69 sq mi)
Elevation 34 m (112 ft)
Population (2012-12-31)[1]
 • Total 41,621
 • Density 260/km2 (660/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 16515
Dialling codes 03301
Vehicle registration OHV
Website www.oranienburg.de

Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.

Geography

Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.

Division of the town

Oranienburg consists of 9 districts

  • Friedrichsthal
  • Germendorf
  • Lehnitz
  • Malz
  • Oranienburg
  • Sachsenhausen
  • Schmachtenhagen
  • Wensickendorf
  • Zehlendorf

History

The original name of Oranienburg was Bötzow. The town was founded in the 12th century and was first mentioned in 1216. Albert the Bear is believed to have ordered the construction of a castle on the banks of the Havel. Around the castle there was a settlement of traders and craftsmen.

In 1646, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg married Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau (German: Oranien-Nassau). She was so attracted by the town of Bötzow, that her husband presented the entire region to her. The princess ordered a new castle to be built in the Dutch style and called it Oranienburg or Schloss Oranienburg. In 1653, the town of Bötzow was renamed Oranienburg.

Silvio Gesell, the founder of Freiwirtschaft, lived in Oraninburg between 1911 an 1915, publishing his magazine, "Der Physiocrat". He returned to the town in 1927 and lived there up to his death in 1930. The town remained a center of the free economy movement until it was outlwed by the Nazi regime in 1933, and many of Gessel's followers ended up as prisoners in the town's concentration camp.

One of the first Nazi concentration camps was built in Oranienburg in 1933. In 1936 it was replaced by the Sachsenhausen concentration camp which continued to operate until the end of the Nazi regime; 200,000 people were interned in Sachsenhausen over the 9 years the camp was operational under the Nazis. 22,000 were murdered by the Nazis before the liberation of the camp by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. Following this the site was 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 was closed in 1950. Their remains were not discovered until the 1990s.

Oranienburg was also the center of Nazi Germany's nuclear energy project and according to military historian Antony Beevor, the launching of the Battle for Berlin by Stalin was motivated by his desire to acquire that facility.[2] It has also been claimed that the preemptive destruction of these facilities by the USAAF Eighth Air Force on March 15, 1945, was done so as to prevent it from falling into Soviet hands.[3]

International relations

Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Oranienburg is twinned with:

Public institutions

The Zehlendorf transmission facility, a large facility for broadcasting in longwave, medium wave and FM-range, is located near Oranienburg, at Zehlendorf.

Runge plaque

See also

Demography

  • Development of Population since 1875 within the Actual 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)

  • Recent Population Development (Blue Line) and Forecasts

Oranienburg:
Population development within the actual boundaries[4]
Year Population
1875 9 514
1890 11 568
1910 20 179
1925 23 656
1933 27 043
1939
1946 31 893
1950 32 781
1964 33 379
1971 33 426
Year Population
1981 33 433
1985 37 234
1989 37 544
1990 37 113
1991 36 909
1992 36 777
1993 36 885
1994 37 138
1995 37 577
1996 38 151
Year Population
1997 39 001
1998 39 541
1999 39 949
2000 40 148
2001 40 403
2002 40 378
2003 40 593
2004 41 055
2005 41 115
2006 41 267
Year Population
2007 41 488
2008 41 577
2009 41 590
2010 41 810
2011 41 370
2012 41 621

Detailed data sources are to be found in the Wikimedia Commons.[5].

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Bevölkerung im Land Brandenburg nach amtsfreien Gemeinden, Ämtern und Gemeinden 31. Dezember 2012 (XLS-Datei; 83 KB) (Einwohnerzahlen auf Grundlage des Zensus 2011)". Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg (in German). 31 December 2012. 
  2. ↑ Antony Beevor Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Penguin Books, 2002, ISBN 0-670-88695-5 Preface xxxiv
  3. ↑ Richard G. Davis,Bombing the European Axis Powers. A Historical Digest of the Combined Bomber Offensive 1939–1945 Alabama: Air University Press, 2006, page 518
  4. ↑ Boundaries as of 2013
  5. ↑ Population Projection Brandenburg at Wikimedia Commons

External links

Media related to Oranienburg at Wikimedia Commons

Towns and municipalities in Oberhavel
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