Oranienburg

Oranienburg
Schloss Oranienburg
Oranienburg
Location of the town of Oranienburg within Oberhavel district
Coordinates	52°45′16″N 13°14′13″E
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Oberhavel
Town subdivisions	9 districts
Mayor	Hans-Joachim Laesicke (SPD)
Basic statistics
Area	162.37 km2 (62.69 sq mi)
Elevation	34 m  (112 ft)
Population	41,966 (31 December 2011)
- Density	258 /km2 (669 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	OHV
Postal code	16515
Area code	03301
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.

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. 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.

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.

Runge plaque

See also

• Oranienburg railway station
• Stellwerk Fichtengrund

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

External links

Media related to Oranienburg at Wikimedia Commons

• Official site (German)