History of the city of Aken (Elbe)

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Site plan from 1901

This article deals with the history of the city of Aken (Elbe) from the 12th century to the present day.

12th to 16th centuries

The area around Aken was already in the first century BC. Settled; This is proven by excavations of a Germanic burial ground from the 1960s and 1980s. During the first millennium AD, Slavs settled in the western part of today's urban area , who built a settlement surrounded by earthen walls and a castle (Gloworp) on the Lorfberg. Both were probably destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 2nd millennium. The actual founding of the city is attributed to Albrecht the Bear , who brought Flemish settlers to the area around 1150 . Aken is first mentioned in a document from the Archbishop of Magdeburg , Wichmann , in which a witness from Aken is named in 1162. A little later, the name is often documented in Latin, for example as in Aquis (Latin aqua water). It probably goes back to settlers from the Lower Rhine who named the new foundation after Aachen (ndl./ndt. Aken ). The castle name Gloworp ( -worp raised elevation) is also linked to the west, so the same name link is e.g. B. Contained in Antwerp .

During the reign of the Ascanian prince Johann I (1249–1285), under whose reign Gloworp Castle was rebuilt as a castle, urban development advanced rapidly , benefiting from its location on the important trade routes to Koethen and Zerbst . A checkerboard road network was created, and the two town churches St. Marien (1188) and St. Nikolai (1270) were built. In 1266 the rectangular market square was first mentioned, on which the Marienkirche and the town hall, which was built from a department store in 1265, were located. Aken was protected by a city wall with four towers since 1335 at the latest. Between 1277 and 1389 war raged between the Ascanian princes and the Archdiocese of Magdeburg over the pledging of Akens, as a result of which Gloworp Castle was completely destroyed. During the war, Duke Rudolf III founded in Aken a Komturhof as a branch of the Teutonic Knight Order , which existed until 1717. In 1389 the Ascanians ceded the city of Aken to the Archdiocese of Magdeburg for 2000 silver marks. Under Archbishop Albrecht IV , a new castle-like castle was built in the north-west of the city in 1392. In the spring of 1485, Aken fell victim to a fire that destroyed most of the houses, the castle, the town hall and the Marienkirche. A similar disaster occurred in 1532, in which 65 houses were destroyed.

16th to 17th centuries

In 1541, the city council committed to the Protestant faith and employed Georg Steinmetz as the first Protestant preacher. In 1560 the school, which had been run by the church since the 13th century, was transferred to the city. At the end of the 16th century, Aken suffered again from catastrophes, in 1595 the city was flooded again after a dyke breach, and in 1598 the first plague epidemic occurred, killing over 400 residents. Another 500 people fell victim to a second wave of plague in 1611. At the beginning of the Thirty Years War , the Akeners lived mainly from agriculture, trade and brewing. The city had to pay a war tax for the first time in 1620, and the first 1,000 soldiers were billeted for five years. Another plague epidemic followed in 1626 with over 600 deaths, so that afterwards only 94 houses were inhabited. Further waves of plague repeated themselves again and again until 1815. Since the alternating warring parties demanded contributions from the city, the economic situation worsened from year to year. At the end of the war, Aken was close to decay and the population was impoverished.

17th to 19th century

After the Archbishopric of Magdeburg had already been secularized in 1648, Aken came under the rule of the Electorate of Brandenburg with the Duchy of Magdeburg in 1680 and was placed under the territorial administration of the Holzkreis . After the Kingdom of Prussia was formed in 1701 , Aken was a garrison town until 1790 . In 1711 the Reformed Akeners who immigrated from Anhalt founded their own congregation and received the Nikolaikirche, which until then had only been used for funerals, until it was dissolved in 1831. There was another influx of ten Swabian families in 1714 . As a result of immigration, the population of Aken increased to around 2000. The Seven Years' War brought Aken again in 1759 and 1760 with contributions and looting. Napoleon's campaign against Prussia touched Aken from October 1806, when for four weeks various French troops marched through the city, pillaging. Subsequently, the city had to pay 6750 Reichstaler war contributions to Prussia. After Prussia's defeat, Aken came under the control of the French-ruled Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807 . The city was renamed Acken and became the administrative seat of the canton of the same name in the Magdeburg district . During his foray through Westphalen, the Prussian irregular Ferdinand von Schill also came through Acken in 1809. During the wars of liberation against Napoleon in 1813–1815 , French and later Prussian-Russian troops moved into the city, each of which demanded accommodation and food for the soldiers. Although the Prussian General von Hühnerbein had already declared French law in Aken to be terminated on April 14, 1814, the Napoleonic troops were not finally expelled from the city until September 1814.

19th century

Burgstrasse around 1910

After the Prussian administrative reform in 1815, Aken was incorporated into the newly formed Calbe district within the administrative district of Magdeburg . In 1821 Aken's population had risen to over 3000 (3035) for the first time. On May 1, 1890, the Köthen – Aken railway was opened, via which Aken was also connected to the Magdeburg – Leipzig railway . In 1890 Aken already had 6,109 inhabitants, was the seat of a district court, and several factories were located. In addition, shipping had developed into an important line of business with over 130 owners. In 1889 the port of Aken was expanded and a customs office was set up. During the time of National Socialism , IG Farben built a light metal plant as a supplier for the Junkers factories and an aluminum plant. At the beginning of the Second World War , Aken had 11,490 inhabitants.

1945 to 1990

Aken was occupied by the US Army in April 1945 and handed over to the Red Army in July . In 1946, the company dismantled the two IG Farben factories, while the construction of a flat glass plant in Aken began in the same year. This was followed in 1948 by the construction of the first magnesite plant in the Soviet occupation zone. In 1949 200 industrial and handicraft businesses worked in Aken; the population had risen to over 15,000, including around 3,000 refugees from the German eastern regions . After that, the number of inhabitants decreased steadily. In 1950, the connection to Zerbst was re-established with the reconstruction of the Saale Bridge, which had been destroyed in the war . Eight months after the founding of the GDR , it carried out its first regional reform in 1950, as a result of which Aken was incorporated into the district of Köthen . On July 1, 1950 the places Kühren (300), Mennewitz (120) and Susigke (250) with a total of 670 inhabitants were incorporated. In 1952, a far-reaching administrative reform followed, with which the previous states were dissolved and replaced by districts . Aken was assigned to the Halle district together with the Köthen district .

In 1953, the magnesite factory founded the company sports association (BSG) Stahl Aken. With over 1000 members and twelve sports sections, it became the second largest SPA in the Köthen district. Your soccer team played in the fourth class district class in the 1960s and 1970s. Bernd Dießner was GDR youth champion over 3000 m for BSG Stahl in 1964 and was later one of the best middle distance athletes in the Magdeburg district. After moving to ASK Vorwärts Potsdam , he was a multiple GDR master in the men's division and an Olympic participant.

A flood in 1956 mainly affected the agricultural areas around Aken. From the 1960s on, the magnesite plant, the flat glass plant and the injection device plant were leading producers in the GDR; the port of Aken was the largest inland port in the GDR. The state-owned Aken shipyard, which had previously been involved in the construction of passenger ships, was closed in 1964 due to its unprofitable nature and converted into a scrapping yard. The Georg Placke shipyard, which had existed since 1825, remained a private company until it was expropriated in 1972. On May 1, 1961, the " Steckby-Lödderitzer Forst " nature reserve was created northwest of Aken, which was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1979 . The Marienkirche, which was no longer usable due to considerable roof damage and sponge infestation, was closed by the building authorities in 1983.

Development from 1990

City coat of arms in the 1970s

After the reunification of Germany in 1990 and the restoration of the states on the territory of the former GDR, the city of Aken and the district of Köthen came to the state of Saxony-Anhalt on October 3, 1990 . Despite the far-reaching economic changes in the course of reunification, Aken managed to keep the three large companies located there. The magnesite factory was taken over by the Luxembourg company Sidermin SA and later went to Didier-Werke Wiesbaden . The British company Pilkington took over the flat glass plant and the injection plant went to the US company Woodward Governor Company in December 1993. Akener Hafen was converted into a GmbH in 1993 and developed into an important interface between water, road and rail. The Plackewerft was returned to its owners in 1991, but went into bankruptcy in 2014 and was then taken over by the Roßlauer Schiffswerft . In addition, numerous new businesses were founded. After the reunification, associations could be founded again. So BSG Stahl Aken became TSV Aken, numerous other sports clubs, the cultural and homeland clubs and numerous hobby clubs were created.

In 1994 the neighboring village of Kleinzerbst with its 275 inhabitants was incorporated. However, the population of Aken kept falling, in 2011 it had lost 20 percent of its population compared to 1990. The Marienkirche, which had been abandoned until then, was taken over by the city in 1992 and then restored to a concert hall. The Steckby-Lödderitzer Forest nature reserve was incorporated into the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve in 1997. The old town of Aken was declared an area monument due to its many historical buildings. As a result of the district reform of Saxony-Anhalt in 2007 , Aken came to the newly formed district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld .

literature

  • Friedrich Gottfried Carl Pfeffer: Chronicle of the city of Aken on the Elbe . Zerbst 1821. ( Google Book )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Eichler, Hans Walther: City name book of the GDR. 2nd edition, Leipzig 1988, p. 37.