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BRANDENBURG
- GERMANY
Surrounding but excluding the national
capital Berlin, Brandenburg is one of Germany's sixteen Bundesländer
(federal states). Lying in the east of the country, it is one of the new
states created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and
East Germany. The capital is Potsdam.
Geography
Brandenburg surrounds the city of Berlin. It is bounded by Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania in the north, Poland in the east, Saxony in the south, Saxony-Anhalt
in the west and Lower Saxony in the northwest.
The Oder river forms a part of the eastern
border, the Elbe river a portion of the western border. The main rivers in
the state itself are the Spree and the Havel. In the southeast there is a
wetlands region called the Spreewald; it is the northernmost part of the
Lausitz, where the Slavic people of the Sorbs still live. These areas are
bilingual, i.e. German and Sorbian are both used.
Administration
Brandenburg is divided into fourteen Kreise (districts):
Barnim
Dahme-Spreewald
Elbe-Elster
Havelland
Märkisch-Oderland
Oberhavel
Oberspreewald-Lausitz
Oder-Spree
Ostprignitz-Ruppin
Potsdam-Mittelmark
Prignitz
Spree-Neiße
Teltow-Fläming
Uckermark
Furthermore there are four independent towns, which don't belong to any
district:
Brandenburg an der Havel
Cottbus
Frankfurt (Oder)
Potsdam
History
Historically, Brandenburg was a quasi-independent country and the core of
the unified German state. It contained the future German capital Berlin and
since 1618 both Brandenburg and Prussia, then Brandenburg-Prussia, were
ruled by Hohenzollern dukes and later kings of Prussia. The Frankish
Nuremberg, Ansbach and southern German Hohenzollern and the eastern European
connections of Berlin and the prince-elector together were instrumental in
the rise of that state.
Brandenburg is situated entirely in territory of Germania recorded by
Tacitus in 98 AD. By 600 first groups of Slavic people arrived. In 948
Emperor Otto I the Great established German control over the now largely
Slavic inhabitants of the area and founded the dioceses of Havelberg and
Brandenburg; he died in 983. In the great uprising in 983 the Slavs wiped
out German control from the territory of present day Brandenburg. The
monasteries were buried, priests and Germans officials killed or expelled.
The Slavic tribes living east of Elbe remained independent and pagan for the
next 150 years.
In the beginning of the 12th century the Saxon German kings and emperors
conquered the Slavic-inhabited lands of present-day Brandenburg. Many Slavic
inhabitants survived the conquests and live there still today - Sorbs,
Lusatians. The church brought bishoprics, which with their walled towns,
afforded protection for the townspeople from attack. With the monks and
bishops, the history of the town of Brandenburg, which in time became the
state of Brandenburg, began. In 1134, in the wake of a German crusade
against the Wends, the German magnate Albert the Bear was granted the
Northern March by the Holy Roman Emperor Lothar II. For some time up until
the 15th century, some part of the area that would become Brandenburg was
inhabited by the Slavic Wends, who still make up a part of the area's modern
population.
Albert's control of the region was nominal for several decades, but he
engaged in a variety of campaigns against the Wends, as well as more
diplomatic efforts which saw his control become more real by the middle of
the century. In 1150, he formally inherited Brandenburg from its last
Wendish ruler, Pribislav. Albert, and his descendants the Ascanians, then
made considerable progress in Christianizing and cultivating the lands.
There was never any distinction made by any of the German rulers and the
Slavic and German tribes intermarried. In 1320 the Brandenburg Ascanian line
came to an end, and from 1323 until 1373 Brandenburg was under the control
of the Wittelsbach family, better known as rulers of Bavaria. After a period
of rule by the Imperial Luxembourg dynasty, however, the margravate was
granted 1415 by the Emperor Sigismund to the house of Hohenzollern, which
would rule until the end of World War I. From 1356 until the Empire's end in
1806, the Margrave of Brandenburg was also one of the electors of the Holy
Roman Empire. Brandenburg was one of the German states to switch 1539 to
Protestantism in the wake of the Reformation, and generally did quite well
in the century following, as the dynasty expanded its lands to include the
Duchy of Prussia in 1618 and along the lower Rhine Cleves (1614) and
elsewhere. The result was a sprawling, disconnected country that was in poor
shape to defend itself during the Thirty Years' War.
Towards the end of that devastating conflict and after, however, Brandenburg
(and its successor states) enjoyed a string of talented rulers who gradually
maneuvered their country towards the heights of power in Europe. The first
of these was Frederick William I, the so-called "Great Elector", who worked
tirelessly to rebuild and consolidate the nation. He moved the capital from
the town of Brandenburg to Potsdam. When Frederick William died in 1688, he
was followed by his son Frederick, third of that name in Brandenburg. As the
lands that had been acquired in Prussia were outside the formal boundaries
of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick assumed (as Frederick I) the title of
"King in Prussia" (1701), basing this promotion from margrave on his title
to what were, in actuality, vast but less agriculturally valuable stretches
of sandy ground. Brandenburg was still the most important portion of the
kingdom (and the state was often referred to informally as
Brandenburg-Prussia) but for the purposes of accuracy, the continuation of
this history can be found at Prussia.
The present state of Brandenburg was established after the German
reunification in 1990. In 1995 the governments of Berlin and Brandenburg
decided to merge the states in order to form a new state with the name
Berlin-Brandenburg. This resolution was surprisingly rejected in a
plebiscite in 1996: While the Berliners agreed with a small margin, the
Brandenburgers voted against it (also with a small margin). So at this time,
the two states remain separate.
Miscellaneous
Brandenburg is served by the same three airports that serve Berlin. They are
Tegel International Airport, Tempelhof International Airport, and Schönefeld
International Airport. Schönefeld Airport will eventually become Berlin
Brandenburg International Airport, while Tegel and Tempelhof will close
after BBI is established.
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