History of Brandenburg
The history of Brandenburg spans more than a thousand years. This long period is marked by many breaks.
The early Germanic settlement, which declined sharply in the course of the migration of peoples in the 5th century , was followed from the 6th century by Slavic tribes from the south-east ( Lausitz ) , who settled in the largely deserted area and reached the Berlin area in the late 7th century ( Traces of settlement in Marzahn around 700). This Slavic settlement wave was followed by two German expansions: a first not yet permanently successful from 928 and a second ( eastern settlement by German settlers) from 1157. The re-possession of the inherited Brandenburg Castle by Albrecht the Bear on June 11, 1157 marks the birth of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The Margraviate was elevated to the status of the Electorate of Brandenburg in 1356, later - as a result of the personal union and later the real union with the Duchy of Prussia - the Margraviate of Brandenburg was the territorial center of the Prussian state. After being converted into a province in 1815, Brandenburg was finally re-established as the State of Brandenburg in 1947 as part of the dissolution of Prussia , but was dissolved again in 1952 and essentially divided into the new districts of Potsdam , Frankfurt (Oder) and Cottbus .
With German reunification on October 3, 1990, Brandenburg was established as a state of the Federal Republic of Germany .
prehistory
Findings in the soil show that people have settled in this area since the Stone Age around 130,000 years ago. The oldest finds around the Neanderthal are around 50,000 years old. In addition, finds from the Mesolithic period were discovered in Criewen and Groß Fredenwalde in the Uckermark . In addition, on the vineyard near Groß Fredenwalde, a district of the municipality of Gerswalde in the Uckermark district , the oldest burial ground in Germany was around 7000 years old . Today's Brandenburg was also densely populated in the subsequent epochs of the Neolithic and the Bronze and Iron Ages.
In the course of the migrations , the Suebi , the Elbe-Germanic branch of the Semnones , left their home on the Havel and Spree in the direction of Upper Rhine and Swabia from the 5th century onwards, with the exception of a few remaining groups . From the end of the 7th century, Slavs moved into the largely unpopulated area (in Lusatia as early as the 6th century). So far there is no archaeological evidence for the theoretical possibility that the few remaining Germanic tribes settled together with the Slavs. The two dominant tribes were the Heveller and the Sprewanen . The Sprewanen settled east of the rivers Havel - Nuthe . The Hevellers lived in today's Havelland and in the south adjoining Zauche .
These two tribes occasionally fought with each other and with neighboring Slavic tribes over the best settlement land. The Sprewanen and Heveller operated agriculture, as well as hunting and fishing. The number of inhabitants remained small, and so the country remained sparsely populated. In general, the country was culturally poorly developed and was more of a transit country. The area was only crossed by one major road, that from Magdeburg to Lebus . This relatively quiet period lasted until 928.
History of Brandenburg
First eastward expansion and establishment of border marks (928 to 1157)
In the so-called first phase of the German eastward expansion (Ostsiedlung) that followed , the first army of the German King Heinrich I invaded the area of Brandenburg in 928 in order to defeat and subjugate the local Hevellers. He conquered the Brandenburg in the winter of 928/929 when the Havel was frozen over. After several battles, the Slavs were owed tribute to the German king as feudal lords up to the Oder .
Under King Otto I , Marken , German border regions in the Slavic region, followed in 936 . So two margraviates came into being in the eastern areas between the Elbe and Oder . The northern ( Mark der Billunger ) extended from the Lower Elbe to the Peene and was ruled by Hermann Billung . The southern ( Sächsische Ostmark ) extended from the Middle Elbe to the Saale and was ruled by Gero . This pushed the limits of his marrow to the Oder. The Diocese of Brandenburg and the Diocese of Havelberg were founded and subordinated to the Archdiocese of Magdeburg , whose task was the Christianization of the Slavic peoples living between the Elbe and Oder. After the death of Margrave Gero in 965, the Nordmark separated from the Saxon Ostmark .
In the great Slav uprising of 983, many Slavic tribes allied themselves to form the Lutizenbund and freed themselves from German rule and Christianization for another 150 years. The uprising began with the attack on the bishopric of Havelberg on June 29, 983, in which the bishop Dudo was killed. This was followed by the destruction of the castle and the bishopric of Brandenburg and the Altmark. Under the leadership of Magdeburg's Archbishop Giselher, it was only possible to keep the rebellious Slavs out of the areas west of the Elbe.
This ended the first wave of German expansion until the collapse of the Lutizenbund in the middle of the 11th century. The Slavic tribes remained fragmented, they did not pursue uniform goals and continued to fight one another. In the following century and a half, the later Margraviate of Brandenburg was repeatedly plagued by military campaigns, some of which were carried out jointly and partly in competition by the German and Polish sides. Under these circumstances, a unified Slavic state was only created temporarily, when the kingdom of the Obotrites stretched from the Baltic coast to the Havelland.
In 1127 the Heveller prince Pribislaw came to power in Brandenburg Castle . This prince realized that the constant fighting would wear out his people. Since he had close ties to the German nobility and had apparently obtained the crown of an under-king from the emperor, the German king managed to loosely bind the Heveller area, which stretched from the city of Brandenburg an der Havel to Spandau , to the empire. The new eastern border ran between the tribes of the Heveller and Sprewanen, along the rivers Havel - Nuthe . The Sprewanen prince Jaxa von Köpenick ( Jaxa de Copnic ) resided on the eastern side in Köpenick . Since that was under the Polish fiefdom, Spandau was at the time on the border of German and Polish areas of influence.
With the second phase of the eastern settlement, Albrecht the Bear decisively advanced the Ascanians' expansionist eastern policy . He turned out to be a skilled diplomat. Since 1123 Albrecht maintained equal relations with the Heveller prince Pribislaw-Heinrich, who had converted to Christianity . In 1134 Albrecht the Bear was appointed Margrave of the Nordmark by Emperor Lothar . The childless Prince of Heveller Pribislaw bequeathed his land to Albrecht. After the death of the Heveller prince in 1150, Albrecht was able to take over the Heveller's residence, Brandenburg Castle, largely without bloodshed.
The Sprewanenfürst Jaxa von Köpenick, who may have been related to the late Hevellerfürst Pribislaw-Heinrich, also raised a claim to Brandenburg after his death in 1150. In the spring of 1157, he finally succeeded in occupying Brandenburg Castle and seizing power in the Hevellerland.
The Mark Brandenburg (1157–1815)
Foundation and rule of the Ascanians (1157-1320)
On June 11, 1157, Albrecht the Bear was able to bring Brandenburg Castle back into his possession with bloody battles, drive Jaxa from Köpenick and secure his rule. From October 3, 1157 he officially called himself Margrave of Brandenburg (Adelbertus Dei gratia marchio in Brandenborch) . The Altmark, the Prignitz and the Havelland now had a center, the Nordmark became the Mark Brandenburg.
The territorial extent of this first Mark Brandenburg did not correspond to the extent of today's state. Only the Havelland and the Zauche were included. It was not until the following 150 years that the Ascani succeeded in expanding the Mark Brandenburg to the Oder.
In the period that followed, Albrecht the Bear and his successors brought craftsmen and farmers who were at a higher technological level to the new market, particularly from the Altmark , the eastern Harz foreland, Flanders (hence the term Fläming ) and the Rhine regions. So these settlers introduced new techniques, in particular the three-field economy , the iron plow and the stone building technique in the building industry. The Dutch played an important role in the settlement. After devastating storm surges in their own country, they gladly took on new settlement areas and, with their experience in dike building, contributed to the dikes of the Elbe and Havel, which were tackled in the 1160s. They were granted concessions for this, so they did not have to pay any taxes for a certain period of time, did not have to do any labor and the communities were given self-administration rights.
Nobles called to the march and their armed entourage were entrusted with the supervision of castles and newly created settlements. Under the rule of the Ascanians, new villages and towns were planted according to plan. The towns of Angermünde , Eberswalde , Frankfurt an der Oder , Perleberg , Prenzlau , Spandau and Berlin were granted city rights by the Ascanians . Agricultural productivity also increased and, in general, cultural advances were made. Nevertheless, around 1170 the mark lagged behind the more developed areas west of the Elbe. The relationship between Germans and Slavs was not an equal one. The Slavs, condescendingly called Wends , were initially not considered full-fledged residents, but they were tolerated and gradually an assimilation of the Slavs began.
Built from 1300 to 1325 as a moated castle, it was used by robber knights as a place to stay in the following years of abandonment .
Centers of spiritual life in the mark at that time were the Bishopric of Brandenburg , diocese Havelberg , Bishopric of Lebus , the monastery Lehnin , Chorin Monastery and the Monastery Zinna .
After Albrecht's death in 1170, his son Otto I became Margrave of Brandenburg. The Ascanians continued to pursue a policy of expansion to the east and northeast, with the aim of connecting to the Baltic Sea (mouth of the Oder), one of the most important international trading markets at the time. This policy brought them into conflict with its neighbors, especially Denmark . No later than 1214 was the Rhin in the former tribal area of Zamzizi presumably rich direct rule Ruppin of the counts of Lindow-Ruppin . Later the rule probably came under the suzerainty of the Margraves of Brandenburg. After the Battle of Bornhöved (1227) Brandenburg secured its claim to Pomerania. In 1231, Emperor Friedrich II gave this as a fief to the Margraves of Brandenburg, who were then underage. In 1250 the Uckermark was added.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the Mark Brandenburg extended with the Neumark east of the Oder and Warthe, in the north to Stettin and in the south far into the Lausitz . In 1320, with Heinrich II, the Ascan family died out in Brandenburg.
Under the Wittelsbachers and Luxemburgers (1319-1415)
.png)
After the Ascanian dynasty died out, the marrow fell into a crisis that threatened its very existence. Thus the mark became an object of dispute between different ruling houses. The areas gained over the decades for the Mark Brandenburg have now been brought back by its neighbors. The Mecklenburg and Pomeranians tore parts of the Prignitz in the North German Margrave War and in the Pomeranian-Brandenburg War , the Pomerania also parts of the Uckermark , the Poles invaded the Neumark .
The confused years were ended by a decision by the German king. After the Emperor Ludwig IV , an uncle of Heinrich II, had been given a free hand with his victory over the Habsburgs, the Wittelsbacher transferred the ownerless Mark Brandenburg as an imperial fiefdom to his eight-year-old son Ludwig I. In this way, rule went to the family the Wittelsbach over. This decision only served to strengthen domestic power. There had never been a connection between Bavaria and Brandenburg. Far away from the parent company, the new rulers had little interest in the development of the mark, but treated the mark more as a financially exploitable neighboring country . As a result, the march sank into chaos and anarchy without the protection of a ruler. The noble landowners, the abbots of the monasteries and the councilors of the cities presented themselves as absolute rulers. In 1325 the citizens of Berlin and Cölln killed the provost Nikolaus von Bernau , as a result of which the Pope imposed the interdict on Berlin . The rule of the Wittelsbach Elector Ludwig I was rejected by the Brandenburg nobility. In September 1345 cities and knights in Berlin allied against the margrave from Bavaria as a result of the rejection.
The resistance arose from the insecure position of the Wittelsbachers in the empire. In 1346, an anti-king was established in the empire to the ruling Wittelsbacher Ludwig IV, which further worsened the situation for the Wittelsbachers in the empire and in the Mark Brandenburg. After the death of the Wittelsbach king and the assumption of the royal dignity by the Luxembourger Charles IV, a con man appeared in the march who presented himself as the penultimate Askanian margrave Waldemar . He received a lot of support from the population and pretended that his funeral had only been staged. This False Woldemar was so successful that on October 2, 1348, King Charles IV enfeoffed him with the Mark of Brandenburg. As a result, most cities differed from the actual Wittelsbach Margrave Ludwig I from. In 1350, however, the hoax was discovered. All these difficulties ruined the margrave's possession of the mark; so he left them to his younger half-brothers Ludwig II and Otto V in the Treaty of Luckau in 1351 and retired to Upper Bavaria , where he had inherited his father.
As early as the 13th century, the Margraves of Brandenburg were among the seven electors of the empire who elected the German king. This electoral dignity was finally legally regulated in 1356 by the Imperial Basic Law , the Golden Bull . This regulation made Margrave Ludwig II the first Elector of Brandenburg . The now designated Kurmark Brandenburg consisted of the parts of Brandenburg on which the claim of the electoral dignity was based. At the time the status was raised, these were the Altmark , Mittelmark and Neumark . With this, Brandenburg's position in the empire grew. However, this did not change the internal problems.
When the Elector Ludwig II died in 1365, Otto V took over the rule, but he neglected it. In 1367 he sold Niederlausitz , which had previously been pledged to the Wettins , to Emperor Charles IV. A year later he lost the city of Deutsch Krone to the Polish King Casimir the Great .
In this situation, the Luxembourg Emperor Charles IV began to keep an eye on the mark and made several attempts to acquire the mark for his family. His main concern was Brandenburg's electoral vote (the Luxembourgers already had the Bohemian vote), with whose help the election of emperors from the House of Luxembourg was to be secured. In 1373 he was finally successful against payment of 500,000 guilders to Otto V, and at a state parliament in Guben the Electorate of Brandenburg and Lower Lusatia were "forever" linked to the Kingdom of Bohemia, which was the most important territory of the Luxembourgers . With this, the rule of the Wittelsbachers in the Mark Brandenburg came to an end and passed to the Luxembourgers. On this occasion, Charles IV's land register was created . In Tangermünde , Emperor Karl had the castle expanded as an electoral residence. Tangermünde was temporarily the second seat of Emperor Charles IV.
His descendant Jobst von Moravia (1388–1411) ruled the Mark Brandenburg even more uninterested from the outside than the Wittelsbachers did. As a result, the power of the Luxembourgers in Brandenburg against the rural nobility continued to decline. In practice, the large aristocratic families had taken power. In addition, there were wandering armies and bands of robbers who plundered and harassed the defenseless population. The rural population in particular suffered from these excesses.
This phase of civil war-like excesses brought the country close to collapse. So in 1410 representatives of the cities made their way into the Hungarian furnace and demanded decisive measures from King Sigismund to pacify the country. Soon afterwards the king sent his burgrave Friedrich VI. from Nuremberg to the Mark Brandenburg.
Under the electoral Hohenzollern (1415-1618)
The Hohenzoller Friedrich VI. von Nürnberg was appointed hereditary captain and administrator of the Mark Brandenburg in 1411 by the Luxembourg King Sigismund . Friedrich fought with an iron hand against the rebellious nobility of the Mark Brandenburg (especially the Quitzows and Putlitz ) and was finally able to restore the internal order in the Mark. Four years later, on April 30, 1415, King Sigismund conferred the hereditary dignity of margrave and elector to Friedrich VI at the Council of Constance . The tribute to the Brandenburg estates took place in Berlin on October 21 of the same year. As a Brandenburg margrave, Friedrich VI. von Nürnberg then subsequently referred to as Friedrich I of Brandenburg .
The Hohenzollern inheritance was difficult. Trade and traffic were paralyzed, and the population's economic situation was extremely poor. Friedrich I made Berlin his residence , but withdrew into his Frankish possessions after he had transferred the government of the Mark Brandenburg to his son Friedrich II in 1437 .
As a result of the Hohenzollern rule, the Mark Brandenburg stabilized further. The electors built an administration over their lands. Previous territorial losses suffered have been almost completely offset. The introduction of the line of succession from the first-born, which Albrecht Achilles decreed in 1473 with the Dispositio Achillea , prevented a possible division of the Mark Brandenburg. Securing territorial integrity was one of the prerequisites for the later rise of Brandenburg-Prussia to a great power.
In 1486, under Elector Johann Cicero, the twin cities of Berlin-Cölln became the official residence of the Hohenzollers Margraves. This laid the foundation stone for the city's later function as the capital and further strengthened the ties between the Hohenzollerns and the Kurmark Brandenburg. In 1506, Elector Joachim I founded the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt (Alma Mater Viadrina) in Frankfurt an der Oder as the first university in Brandenburg with the aim of training young men for service in the church, justice and administration. The same elector strengthened the central authority and pushed back special rights of the estates and the self-government of the cities. So he set the rights and obligations in the town code he issued and obliged the town administrations to keep more detailed records of income and exceptions. In 1524, after the death of the last Count of Lindow-Ruppin, Joachim I was able to move into the Ruppin rule and unite it with the Mark Brandenburg.
Under his successor, Elector Joachim II , the Mark Brandenburg joined the Reformation in 1539 . The associated transfer of church lands into secular possession made the elector the most important landowner in the march. This gave him an advantage in the dispute with the estates and led to a further strengthening of the electoral independence. This process was slow and dragged on well into the 17th century. Until then, the central power of the electors remained restricted by the power of the cities and the heavy weight of the landed gentry. Below the electoral court there was no complete regional administration derived from the elector. Around 1550, Brandenburg split into urban areas, manorial areas of the nobility and domain lands of the elector. Landes vogte were at their head .
In terms of foreign policy, the Hohenzollerns stood between Denmark and Sweden in particular in the north. Due to the Prussian status, they had to act cautiously towards Poland . In the west, the Brandenburgers were in a conflict of interest with France. Despite this environment, the Elector Johann Sigismund managed to acquire the Duchy of Kleve , Minden and the Counties of Mark and Ravensberg in the Treaty of Xanten in 1614 . In the empire, however, the Brandenburg electors mostly kept a low profile behind the Electorate of Saxony. Brandenburg's position in the 16th century was still too weak for an independent imperial policy and, on top of that, there was a structural debt. The relationship with the southern neighbor only changed with the acquisition of territories in the east and west at the beginning of the 17th century and people became increasingly self-confident.
In personal union with the Duchy of Prussia (1618–1701)
This victory brought Europe-wide recognition for the fact that little Brandenburg was able to defeat the then military power of Sweden.
Painting by Dismar Degen, 1740
The Elector of Brandenburg practiced since 1605 reign over the Duchy of Prussia from. After the death of the last Prussian Duke Albrecht Friedrich , who had remained childless, the Elector Johann Sigismund also formally inherited the duchy of Prussia in 1618. Thus, since 1618, the Mark Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia were ruled in personal union. From then on, both countries were ruled jointly by the Brandenburg Elector as Brandenburg-Prussia . However, it was not until the second half of the 17th century that the two territories were effectively linked.
Brandenburg was not a rich country around 1618. In 1619 the national debt amounted to 2,142,000 Reichstaler . The Mark lived exclusively from agriculture. Higher goods all had to be imported.
In the course of the Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648, the Margraviate of Brandenburg was particularly hard hit. Individual regions complained about population losses of up to 90 percent. At the end of the war in 1648, only around half of the 8,000 villages were still inhabited. The economic situation was just as devastating. Sheep breeding and wool production, on which Brandenburg largely lived, had declined sharply. The subsequent rebuilding of the mark continued well into the 18th century. In 1648, through the Peace of Westphalia , Western Pomerania also came to the Mark Brandenburg.
In the second half of the 17th century it was Friedrich Wilhelm , the Great Elector, who expanded the power of Brandenburg and strengthened the central power at the expense of the power of the estates and cities. This time was marked by the strong power of the landlords . In the Treaty of Wehlau in 1657, the elector of the Mark Brandenburg obtained sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia, which was confirmed in the Treaty of Oliva in 1660 .
The process of economic recovery that began in the Mark Brandenburg after the end of the Thirty Years War was interrupted by the Swedish-Brandenburg War , which made the Mark a war zone again with the invasion of the Swedes in 1674. A Swedish army broke into the Havelland, the Uckermark and the Neumark and plundered the villages and towns of the Mark as they did during the Thirty Years' War. In addition, the Märker suffered from the high contributions imposed by the Swedes. However, the Brandenburg-Prussian army built up under the Elector succeeded in defeating the Swedes in the Battle of Fehrbellin and driving them out of Brandenburg again. When the Swedish-Brandenburg War ended in 1679, economic development was resumed. Brandenburg received little profits from the war, but international recognition had increased considerably. The increased self-confidence was evident in a naval operation directed against Spain with the aim of collecting backward Spanish subsidy payments from the Northern War, which had recently ended.
After the peace agreement in 1679, the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I began to pursue a colonial and overseas trade policy based on the Dutch model. In 1684 the Kurbrandenburg Navy was officially founded , and in 1683 the Brandenburg-African Company was founded , with which colonies in West Africa and the Caribbean ( Groß Friedrichsburg , St. Thomas and Arguin ) were acquired in the same year .
After the Edict of Potsdam issued on October 29, 1685 , the country was opened to Huguenot immigrants. Over 20,000 Huguenots, mostly merchants and craftsmen, settled in the Mark and gave important impulses for the development of the economy and the cities of the Mark.
Due to the acquisitions of territory by the Hohenzollern since 1600, the Brandenburgers had to come to terms with the fact that the elector often paid more attention and financial support to these new possessions (the Duchy of Prussia , Duchy of Kleve , Minden and the counties of Mark , Ravensberg and so on) than to him Heartland, the Mark Brandenburg. It emerged that in 1688 of the 1.5 million inhabitants of the state of Brandenburg-Prussia, only 540,000 people, about 1/3, lived in the area of the old Mark Brandenburg. This process continued under the successors of the Great Elector , who died in 1688 .
As the core province of the Prussian state (1701–1815)
Prospect from 1747, maker unknown
Painting by Robert Warthmüller , 1886
On January 18, 1701 in Königsberg , the capital of the Duchy of Prussia, the Elector Friedrich III crowned himself. to the king in Prussia. As a result of the elector's rise in rank, only the names of state institutions such as the army, ambassadors and the authorities changed from “electoral Brandenburg” to “royal Prussian”. The importance of the central province of Mark Brandenburg with the residential landscape around Berlin and Potsdam grew all the more as Brandenburg-Prussia developed into a central, absolutist state with ambitions for Germany and Europe. Under King Frederick I's reign from 1688 to 1713, the population of the Mark increased by about a third to more than 730,000 inhabitants in 1713. The number of cities rose to 120. Among them were the cities of Brandenburg on the Havel and Frankfurt on the Oder the population of 10,000.
In the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 the mark became a theater of war again. Austrian and Russian troops repeatedly penetrated the Mark and temporarily occupied Berlin. Friedrich II devoted himself in the second half of his reign to the reconstruction and development of the Mark. In the Rhing area, on the Dosse and Netze , he had drainage ditches built and the Plauer and Finow Canal dug as a connection between the Elbe and the Oder. Solid land was wrested from the Brandenburg marshes, Bruch and Luch and given to immigrants from Bohemia and veterans to settle. From 1770 to 1786 412 villages were founded in Kurmark and Neumark and 124,720 colonists found a new home. In the Oderbruch alone , 50 villages were created.
"Here I conquered a new province in peace without losing a man."
The king also encouraged modern methods of agriculture (e.g. growing potatoes ) and the development of manufactories. Friedrich II had the Sanssouci Palace built in Potsdam . The Mark Brandenburg itself was administratively divided into two war and domain chambers . The first was the Kurmärkische Chamber with seat in Berlin and the second the Neumark Chamber with seat in Küstrin . These subordinate authorities of the General Directorate were responsible for all internal administration tasks.
After the defeat of the Prussian army near Jena and Auerstedt in 1806, the mark was occupied by French troops. The economy was shattered and the Prussian state had to go into debt. Billing and high contributions also weighed on the people of Brandenburg. The reforms that had become inevitable as a result of the defeat had a lasting and fundamental effect on the Mark Brandenburg. The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire was associated with the expiry of the electoral dignity, but did not lead to the disappearance of the name Kurmark.
Other Brandenburg principalities
In addition to the Margraviate of Brandenburg, there were other imperial direct Brandenburg principalities for many centuries . In the first place the bishops' priests should be mentioned. The Brandenburg bishopric existed until it was dissolved and absorbed in the Electorate of Brandenburg in 1571. Around 1535 it comprised areas around the cities of Ziesar , Pritzerbe , Ketzin and Teltow and other small-scale parts. The Hochstift Havelberg are extended primarily to places in the Prignitz such as Bad Wilsnack and nearby Wittstock . In addition to these episcopal principalities, there was, for example, the Ruppin rule .
Brandenburg Province (1815-1947)
Royal Province (1815 to 1918)
After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, as a result of the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna and the associated legal acts on April 30, 1815, Prussia was divided into ten provinces. With this, the Mark Brandenburg de jure ceased to exist as an administrative unit. It went up in the newly founded province of Brandenburg .
The borders of the new provinces corresponded only partially to the historical ones. The Kingdom of Saxony , which had been an ally of Napoleon for too long, was punished by having to cede around half of its land to Prussia. Part of this Saxon area came to the province of Brandenburg. These were the Saxon office of Belzig , the office of Jüterbog , the office of Dahme , the rule of Baruth and the whole of Niederlausitz . After almost 500 years, the former Ascanian Lower Lusatia returned to Brandenburg. In contrast, the Altmark , which had been closely associated with the Mark since the Middle Ages and which Prussia had to cede to the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807, did not return, but was merged with other former Saxon areas in the province of Saxony .
The Brandenburg state historian Willy Hoppe commented:
“On the whole, a division that was not based on historical foundations, but arose from administrative purposes. The new 39,000 km² area was no longer the leading part of the state, gifted with a certain special status, it was a province like the others "
.svg)
The province of Brandenburg was divided into the administrative districts of Potsdam (Prignitz, Uckermark, Mittelmark and the new Saxon areas) and Frankfurt / O. (Niederlausitz and the areas east of the Oder). Berlin became the provincial capital. At the head of the province came the so-called Upper President . With its almost 40,000 km², the province of Brandenburg was the second largest province in the Prussian state. This new administrative unit was to exist for 130 years until the Prussian state was dissolved after the end of the Second World War.
In the phase of industrialization and rapid population growth that followed in the 19th century , this meant for the province of Brandenburg the shift in political and economic weight from the state to the greater and later German capital Berlin. In 1816 the province of Brandenburg had 1,085,899 inhabitants, this number tripled by December 1, 1900 to 3,108,554 inhabitants. There was also Berlin, which had a special status, with 1,888,848 inhabitants.
In his work Walks through the Mark Brandenburg he describes the history and culture of Brandenburg in the 19th century.
"Every square mile of Brandenburg sand, like the Main and Neckarland, has its own story, only told, it just has to be found."
The peasants' liberation (from 1807 to 1849), which began in the course of the Stein-Hardenberg reforms , made slow progress. For their "liberation", the farmers had to cede 1/3 of the land they worked on to the landlords and pay substantial redemption sums. In this way, a barely viable peasantry arose in some areas of the Brandenburg region. In general, throughout the 19th century in Brandenburg, the first estate, the nobles and manor owners, remained the dominant ruling class in the country. Because of this political and social standstill in the province, the revolutionary movement of 1848 , which led to street fights and demonstrations in Berlin , found only a few supporters in the Brandenburg cities and in the Brandenburg region.
With the founding of the empire on January 18, 1871, years began for Brandenburg that were mainly characterized by the process of Berlin being separated from the provinces. The rise of Berlin to a cosmopolitan city in the 19th century was a development that seemed to be contrary to the tranquil life in the surrounding province. The function of the city of Berlin as the capital of the empire and its large population made it necessary to administratively separate the city from the province, in the form of a separate administrative district from 1881.
The independence of the Prussian provinces was considerably strengthened by the provincial order of 1875. The province was given its own area of responsibility and its own finances (state offices, social welfare, landscape maintenance , promotion of science and art, housing, settlement). The provincial parliament and the provincial committee came into being as a self-governing body at the provincial level .
As a result of the industrial revolution in Germany , the province became an agro-industrial region. The process of industrialization had such a negative impact on Brandenburg because the state did not have any significant raw materials such as iron or hard coal. The newly created branches of industry included metal processing, chemical industry and electrical industry. Locations were particularly places that were in the immediate vicinity of Berlin. So among others Hennigsdorf , Teltow , Wildau . In addition, lignite mining and limestone mining played a major role in the economic upturn in the province of Brandenburg, along with the construction and expansion of land and waterways.
In addition to these economic activities, some remote regions in the province were already lagging behind at the beginning of the 20th century. During the First World War (1914–1918), non-war industries were shut down (for example, glass or brick production). As in the other provinces and countries of the empire, the war effort was also clearly noticeable in the province of Brandenburg, which led to protests and strikes by the people of Brandenburg.
In the Free State of Prussia (1918–1947)
As a result of the Treaty of Versailles concluded in 1919 and the resulting cession of territory in the east, Brandenburg received a 35 km long border with the new Polish state.
With the formation of the new city of Greater Berlin in October 1920, the province of Brandenburg lost 800 km² and almost two million inhabitants. The industrial belt around Berlin went to the capital. As a result, the entire province only had 2.4 million inhabitants. In February 1919, municipal councils and city council assemblies were elected for the first time in the province of Brandenburg according to democratic suffrage (including women's suffrage ).
The prevailing power and rule relations remained untouched despite the newly developed democracy in Brandenburg. After the global economic crisis , the NSDAP also gained increasing support in Brandenburg .
The takeover of power by the National Socialists also fundamentally changed Brandenburg. The day of Potsdam , March 21, 1933, was an important date for the expansion of the power of the NSDAP; it was demonstrated that the old Prussian-German tradition was in agreement with the new National Socialist vision.
On December 15, 1933, the provincial parliament was dissolved in the course of the “ Gleichschaltung” . As the Gauleiter of the NSDAP, the Oberpräsident had a double function and took over the tasks of the dissolved provincial council. The office of management of the Reichsgau Mark Brandenburg was held by Emil Stürtz from 1936 to 1945 . After the dissolution and alignment of all subordinate regional authorities in the province of Brandenburg, this was only an instance of the state administration. There were no longer any separate provincial tasks.
Due to its proximity to Berlin, the province of Brandenburg was more closely involved in the Nazi regime than other regions . This manifested itself firstly in the establishment of armaments factories and military facilities and secondly in the expansion and construction of prisons, prisons and concentration camps (the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was established near Oranienburg in 1936, the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp near Fürstenberg an der Havel in 1938 ). The political opposition and “racially different” were suppressed and destroyed.
The Mark, on whose soil there had been no war since the time of Napoleon, became the scene of heavy fighting in 1945, apart from the many bombing raids on Brandenburg cities, e.g. B. Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder), Prenzlau or Guben. In the fighting between the Soviet and German divisions, more villages and towns in the Brandenburg region went up in flames in the area between the Elbe and the Oder than during the Thirty Years' War. The battle for the Seelower heights , the Halbe pocket and the battle for Berlin were particularly terrible . According to recent estimates, there were at least half a million deaths among the Brandenburg population. This was a sixth of the formerly over three million inhabitants (1939) in the province of Brandenburg.
The National Socialist rule left a largely destroyed province. After that, the Soviet occupying power initially took on all political and administrative tasks.
The victorious powers decided on the fate of Europe and thus also of Brandenburg at the Potsdam Conference (July 17 - August 2, 1945). In long negotiations of the "Big Four" ( Truman , Churchill and Attlee , Stalin ) it was decided that the Oder-Neisse line should be the border line between German and Polish territory. With this, the Brandenburg area east of the Oder ( see under East Brandenburg ) came under Polish administration. Thereupon the complete expulsion or forced resettlement of the German population there began. It is estimated that more than 600,000 people from parts of the former province of Brandenburg east of the Oder River had to leave their homes during the expulsions, which lasted for months under inhumane circumstances. The areas of the province west of the Oder-Neisse line became part of the Soviet occupation zone . They were confirmed as the Province of Mark Brandenburg on June 4, 1945 .
The first state of Brandenburg (1947–1952)
On February 6, 1947, the state of Brandenburg was established as a member state of the future German Democratic Republic (GDR) on the territory of the province . Until the founding of the GDR in 1949, it formed part of the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) in post-war Germany . The Free State of Prussia was dissolved shortly afterwards on February 25, 1947 by the Control Council Act No. 46 .
Districts (1952–1990)
With the administrative reform of 1952 in the GDR, the state of Brandenburg was effectively dissolved and divided into the new districts of Cottbus , Frankfurt (Oder) and Potsdam and partly Neubrandenburg and Schwerin . These districts existed until the federal states were reorganized in the GDR in 1990. In the three districts, the administrative system consisted of 38 districts, 6 independent cities and almost 8,000 municipalities.
As the heartland of the GDR, Brandenburg continued to be directly affected by developments in the state as a whole, for good and bad. From 1945 a land reform was carried out in Brandenburg , which fundamentally changed the ownership structure in the country. All farms over 100 hectares were expropriated without compensation. In Brandenburg this made up about 30% of the usable area. Soon after, from 1949 to 1954, the collectivization phase followed, which ended in 1960 with the full collectivization of agriculture ( LPG ).
In May 1953 there was an increase in the labor standards in the state- owned companies , which caused dissatisfaction and unrest across the country. The strike and protest march of East Berlin construction workers on June 16, 1953 was followed the next day, and on June 17, 1953 , many workers in Brandenburg cities. In Brandenburg an der Havel, 13,000 workers from twelve companies demonstrated, in Teltow 9,000 workers from three large companies, in Potsdam at least 5,000 members of several VEB factories. Strikes and demonstrations also took place in Cottbus, Frankfurt (Oder), in the Rathenow optics center, Ludwigsfelde and Premnitz. The mark was particularly affected by the construction of the wall on August 13, 1961, which interrupted the natural connections that had developed to the western part of Berlin.
Economically, the traditionally agricultural areas of the former Mark changed fundamentally in the 40 years of the GDR. Thus, among other things, the Niederlausitz industrial area, lignite power stations for energy generation with a simultaneous expansion of lignite mining south and east of Cottbus, where 2/3 of the GDR's fuel production was located. In Ludwigsfelde there was an important truck production , in Teltow electrical industry, in Schwedt / Oder oil and paper industry, in Brandenburg / Havel and Eisenhüttenstadt steel industry, in Wildau heavy engineering , in Rathenow (since 1801) optical industry in Wittstock / Dosse and Premnitz textile industry . The media of the GDR reported on these advances only in superlatives, whereby the pollution of the residents and the environment of the lignite centers was embellished or completely concealed.
After the border between East and West Berlin was opened in the course of the peaceful revolution on November 9, 1989, the next day, November 10, the first border crossings between West Berlin and the surrounding area were opened. This was followed by a mass rush of the Brandenburgers across the Glienicke Bridge on the outskirts of Potsdam and the Kirchhainer Damm in the south of Berlin. There were shocking scenes of fraternization and reunion, there were cheers and tears of joy. As a result, the democratic restructuring process also began in Brandenburg.
The second state of Brandenburg (since 1990)
On October 3, 1990, with German reunification, the state of Brandenburg was established as a member state of the Federal Republic of Germany . Potsdam became the capital . With a share of 26.8% of the land area of the former GDR, the equivalent of 29,059 km², it is the largest new federal state.
In the first free state parliament elections in Brandenburg on October 14, 1990, the SPD, which appointed Manfred Stolpe as the first Prime Minister, emerged victorious. The first years after reunification were characterized by the upheaval and development of the country. This process was supported especially in the early years by West German development aid, especially by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia , with which Brandenburg today has close friendly relations.
A new constitution for the state of Brandenburg was passed and adopted by referendum on June 14, 1992. The creation of new administrative structures also followed. In 1996 there was a referendum on a state treaty merging Brandenburg with Berlin , but it failed. After privatization and modernization, some industrial cores of Brandenburg could be secured. Brandenburg's infrastructure has also been fundamentally renewed since 1990. Nevertheless, the problems, especially between the areas near and far from Berlin, with regard to structural deficits, development opportunities and demographic change, remained evident in the first 19 years since reunification.
See also
literature
- Matthias Asche : New settlers in the devastated country. Coping with the aftermath of the war, migration management and denominational politics in the context of the reconstruction of the country. The Mark Brandenburg after the wars of the 17th century. Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-402-00417-8
- Matthias Asche, Marco Kollenberg, Antje Zeiger: Half of Europe in Brandenburg. The Thirty Years War and its Consequences. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-86732-323-9
- Hans Bentzien : Under the Red and Black Eagle - History of Brandenburg-Prussia for everyone. Volk & Welt publishing house, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-353-00897-7
- Frank Brekow: The Slavic settlement of the Havelland between the 7th and 12th centuries. In: Local history sheets. Issue 31, 2007 of the urban history working group in the Brandenburgischer Kulturbund eV
- Christopher Clark : Prussia. Rise and fall. 1600-1947. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-05392-3
- Günter de Bruyn : The Mark Brandenburg (in German landscapes ), S. Fischer Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-10-070404-5
- The Mark Brandenburg - magazine for the Mark and the State of Brandenburg. Marika Großer Verlag - Lucie Großer Edition, Berlin.
- Edwin Evers: Brandenburg-Prussian history up to the most recent time. Winckelmann & Sons, Berlin 1912.
- Frank Göse (Ed.): In the shadow of the crown. The Mark Brandenburg around 1700. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2002, ISBN 3-935035-29-2
- Franziska Heidemann: The Luxembourgers in the market. Brandenburg under Emperor Karl IV and Sigismund von Luxemburg (1373–1415) , Fahlbusch, Warendorf 2014. ISBN 978-3-925522-26-0 .
- Otto Hintze : The Hohenzollern and their work - five hundred years of patriotic history (1415–1915). Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin 1915, reprint of the original edition: Hamburg and Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-490-33515-5
- Georg Holmsten : Brandenburg - history of the country, its cities and rulers. arani-Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-7605-8627-9
- Michael Lemke: The state of Brandenburg - landscape, history, present. Verlag Rita Dadder, Saarbrücken 1992, ISBN 3-926406-64-X
- Ingo Materna , Wolfgang Ribbe (ed.): Brandenburg history. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-05-002508-5 , (standard scientific work).
- Lutz Partenheimer : The emergence of the Mark Brandenburg . With a Latin-German source attachment. 1st and 2nd edition, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2007.
- Michael Ruetz : Fontane's walks through the Mark Brandenburg. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 1987.
- Johannes Schultze : The Mark Brandenburg . 5 volumes, 3rd edition, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-428-11438-2 (standard work, covers the period up to 1815).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ History & Stone Age. Retrieved December 29, 2018 .
- ↑ Hans Bentzien: Under the Red and Black Eagle. Verlag Volk & Welt, Berlin 1992, p. 58
- ↑ Gustav Abb and Gottfried Wentz: The Diocese of Brandenburg . First part, In: Germania sacra , Berlin and Leipzig 1929, Walter de Gruyter, p. 67 ff.
- ↑ Gottfried Wentz: The intellectual property in the Mark Brandenburg and adjacent areas in the area of the dioceses Brandenburg and Havelberg around the year 1535. In: Historischer Atlas der Provinz Brandenburg , 1935.
- ^ Georg Holmsten: Brandenburg - history of the country, its cities and regents. arani-Verlag, Berlin 1991, p. 84
- ↑ Both information based on the census of December 1, 1900, see keywords “Brandenburg” and “Berlin” in: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , 6th edition, Leipzig / Vienna 1903.
- ^ Georg Holmsten: Brandenburg - history of the country, its cities and regents. arani-Verlag, Berlin 1991, p. 90.
- ^ Georg Holmsten: Brandenburg - history of the country, its cities and regents. arani-Verlag, Berlin 1991, p. 96
- ^ Constitution for the Mark Brandenburg of February 6, 1947.
- ↑ Review
History of Baden-Württemberg | History of Bavaria | History of Berlin | History of Brandenburg | History of Bremen | History of Hamburg | History of Hesse | History of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | History of Lower Saxony | History of North Rhine-Westphalia | History of Rhineland-Palatinate | History of the Saarland | History of Saxony | History of Saxony-Anhalt | History of Schleswig-Holstein | History of Thuringia