Oranienburg

Oranienburg
Schloss Oranienburg
Coat of arms of Oranienburg Coat of arms
Oranienburg
Location of Oranienburg within Oberhavel district 250px
Coordinates:
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Oberhavel
Government
• Mayor	Hans-Joachim Laesicke (SPD)
Area
• Total	162.37 km2 (62.69 sq mi)
Population (2013-12-31)
• Total	42,028
• Density	260/km2 (670/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

Originally named Bötzow, the town of Oranienburg dates from the 12th century and was first mentioned in 1216. Margrave Albert the Bear (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 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 the construction of a new castle 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 ("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 (established in March 1933) was one of the first Nazi concentration camps. In 1936 the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the outskirts of Oranienburg replaced it; there 200,000 people were interned over the 9 years that the Nazis operated it. The Nazis murdered about 22,000 people there before the liberation of the camp by the Soviet Red Army 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 nuclear-energy project. According to military historian Antony Beevor, Stalin's desire to acquire that facility motivated him to launch the Battle for Berlin of April-May 1945. It has been claimed that the pre-emptive destruction of these facilities by the USAAF Eighth Air Force on 15 March 1945 aimed to prevent them from falling into Soviet hands.

On 23 April 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front of the Red Army captured Oranienburg.

As of 2014, almost 70 years after World War II, about 300 pieces of unexploded ordnance (UXO) remain below the pavement. Oranienburg is the only city in Germany which pursues a systematic search for UXO based on postwar aerial photos and magnetic or radar underground measurements for metal. It is estimated that the search and safe detonation 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.

International relations

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

Oranienburg is twinned with:

• Bagnolet (France) -- since 1964
• Hamm (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) -- since 1990
• Mělník (Czech Republic) -- since 1974
• Vught (Netherlands) -- since 2000
• Friedrichsthal (Saarland, Germany) -- since 1991

Public institutions

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

File:Oranienburg Runge Gedenktafel.jpg

Runge plaque

See also

• Oranienburg railway station
• Stellwerk Fichtengrund

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 (Blue Line) and Forecasts

Oranienburg:
Population development within the current boundaries

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.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Official site (German)