Halberstadt | |
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Liebfrauenkirche St. Martini Timber framed houses in the city centre Cathedral treasure Halberstadt city centre | |
Location of Halberstadt within Harz district ![]() | |
Coordinates: 51°53′45″N11°2′48″E / 51.89583°N 11.04667°E | |
Country | Germany |
State | Saxony-Anhalt |
District | Harz |
Subdivisions | 7 Ortschaften |
Government | |
• Mayor (2020–27) | Daniel Szarata [1] (CDU) |
Area | |
• Total | 142.97 km2 (55.20 sq mi) |
Elevation | 119 m (390 ft) |
Population (2022-12-31) [2] | |
• Total | 40,457 |
• Density | 280/km2 (730/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
Postal codes | 38820 |
Dialling codes | 03941 |
Vehicle registration | HZ, HBS, QLB, WR |
Website | www.halberstadt.de |
Halberstadt (Eastphalian: Halverstidde) is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center, which was largely destroyed by Allied bombings in the late stages of World War II after local Nazi leaders refused to surrender. The town was rebuilt in the following decades.
In World War I Halberstadt was the site of a German military airbase and aircraft-manufacturing facilities. In World War II Halberstadt was a regional production center for Junkers aircraft, which also housed an SS forced labor camp. Halberstadt now includes the area where the Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp was situated.
Today the city has around 450 timber framed houses in its city centre and timber framed old villages like Langenstein. [3] [4]
Halberstadt is situated between the Harz in the south and the Huy hills in the north on the Holtemme and Goldbach rivers, both left tributaries of the Bode. Halberstadt is the base of the Department of Public Management of the Hochschule Harz University of Applied Studies and Research.
The town center retains many important historic buildings and much of its ancient townscape. Notable places in Halberstadt include Halberstadt Cathedral, the Church of Our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche) and St Martin's, churches built in the 12th and 13th centuries. Halberstadt is the site of the first documented large, permanent pipe organ installation in 1361. [5] The cathedral is notable among those in northern European towns in having retained its medieval treasury in virtually complete condition. Among its treasures are the oldest surviving tapestries in Europe, dating from the 12th century. [6] [7] The town is also a stop on the scenic German Timber-Frame Road.
The town of Halberstadt consists of Halberstadt proper and the following Ortschaften or municipal divisions: [8]
These are all formerly independent municipalities: Emersleben was absorbed into Halberstadt in 1995, Klein Quenstedt in 1996 and Aspenstedt, Athenstedt, Langenstein, Sargstedt and Schachdorf Ströbeck in 2010. [8]
In 814 the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious made the Christian mission in the German stem duchy of Saxony the episcopal see of the Diocese of Halberstadt. It was granted market rights by King Otto III in 989. The town became the administrative centre of the Saxon Harzgau and an important trading location. The Halberstadt bishops had the Church of Our Lady erected from about 1005 onwards. In his fierce conflict with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the forces of the Saxon duke Henry the Lion devastated the town in 1179.[ citation needed ]
On Henry's downfall, the Halberstadt diocese was elevated to a prince-bishopric about 1180. Its cathedral was rebuilt from 1236 and consecrated in 1491. Halberstadt, Quedlinburg and Aschersleben joined a league of towns (Halberstädter Dreistädtebund) in 1326; from 1387 the city was also a member of the Hanse.[ citation needed ]
From 1479 the diocese was administered by the Archbishops of Magdeburg. While the Halberstadt citizens turned Protestant around 1540, the cathedral chapter elected Prince Henry Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel first Lutheran bishop in 1566. During the Thirty Years' War the town was occupied by the troops of Albrecht von Wallenstein in 1629 and temporarily re-Catholicized according to the imperial Edict of Restitution. According to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia the prince-bishopric was finally secularized to the Principality of Halberstadt held by Brandenburg-Prussia. The first secular governor was Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal.[ citation needed ]
Halberstadt became part of the newly established Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. From 1747 Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim worked here as a government official and made his home an intellectual centre of the Enlightenment (Aufklärung) movement. Under the 1807 Treaty of Tilsit the town became part of the Kingdom of Westphalia, a Napoleonic client-state and administrative seat of the Westphalian Department of Saale. On 29 July 1809 a Westphalian regiment was defeated by the Black Brunswickers under Prince Frederick William of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in the Battle of Halberstadt. [9]
After the defeat of Napoleon the town was restored to Prussia and subsequently administered within the Province of Saxony. From 1815 Halberstadt was home to the Prussian 7th (Magdeburg) Cuirassiers "von Seydlitz" regiment, with Otto von Bismarck in the rank of an officer à la suite from 1868. The town's economy was decisively promoted by the opening of the Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway in 1843. The tramway was inaugurated in 1903.[ citation needed ]
In 1912 the Halberstädter Flugzeugwerke aircraft manufacturer was founded followed by the opening of a military airbase, providing the German Luftstreitkräfte in World War I. After the war it had to close down in accordance with the regulations of the Treaty of Versailles, until in the course of the German re-armament, it opened again in 1935 as a branch of the Junkers company in Dessau. The aircraft factory was the site of an SS forced labor camp, one of several subcamps of Buchenwald; the production facilities and the nearby Luftwaffe airbase were targets of Allied bombing during the 'Big Week' in February 1944. [10]
In the last days of World War II, in April 1945, US forces approached Halberstadt as they attacked remaining Nazi troops in the short-lived Harz pocket. They dropped leaflets instructing Halberstadt's Nazi ruler to fly a white flag on the town hall as a token of surrender. [11] He refused, no white flag was raised and on 8 April 1945, 218 Flying Fortresses of the 8th Air Force, accompanied by 239 escort fighters, dropped 595 tons of bombs on the center of Halberstadt. This killed about 2,500 people and converted most of the old town into some 1.5 million cubic meters of rubble, which American troops briefly occupied three days later. [12] Around 450 of 1600 timber framed houses survived in the city centre. [13] By June 1945, the town and its garrison was handed over to the 3rd Shock Army of the Soviet Red Army forces.
Halberstadt was part of newly established Saxony-Anhalt from 1945 to 1952, after which it was within Bezirk Magdeburg in East Germany. During the Peaceful Revolution in Autumn 1989 St Martin's Church was a centre of the Swords to ploughshares movement. After the reunification of Germany Halberstadt became part of the restored state of Saxony-Anhalt.[ citation needed ]
Halberstadt's Jewish community is mentioned in records from the 13th century and the town had a synagogue in 1464. [14] In the early 18th century, Halberstadt had one of the largest Jewish communities in central Europe and was known as a center of theology and learning after Berend Lehmann (1661–1730) founded a beth midrash there in 1703. The building, called the"Klaus", included a library and living quarters for scholars to study the Talmud. [15] Lehmann also financed an impressive Baroque synagogue that was completed in 1712. [14]
Halberstadt's synagogue was ransacked and burned in the 9 November 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. [16] The synagogue's Torah scrolls were removed and burned in the street. On 18 November 1938, the local building authority ordered the demolition of the synagogue and required the Jewish community to pay the cost of the work. [17]
Today the Moses Mendelssohn Academy is based in the "Klaus", providing exhibitions, presentations, and information about Jewish culture.
A performance of John Cage's organ piece As Slow As Possible began in the Burchardikirche in Halberstadt in September 2001; the performance is scheduled to take 639 years. The concert began on 5 September 2001 with a rest lasting 17 months. On the dates of the sound changes the church is usually well visited.[ citation needed ]
Halberstadt is site of the Harz University of Applied Studies.
The town can be reached via the Bundesstraße 6n (since 2019 called Bundesautobahn 36), 79, 81, and 245 federal highways. Halberstadt station is an important railway hub on the Magdeburg–Thale and Halle–Vienenburg lines, mainly served by Transdev Sachsen-Anhalt.
Halberstädter Verkehrs-GmbH operates the city's public transport system, comprising the Halberstadt tramway network of two lines, and six city bus lines.
Germania Halberstadt is a football club that plays in Halberstadt.
Halberstadt is twinned with: [18]
Quedlinburg is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. As an influential and prosperous trading centre during the early Middle Ages, Quedlinburg became a center of influence under the Ottonian dynasty in the 10th and 11th centuries. The castle, church and old town with around 2,100 timber houses, dating from this time of influence, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994 because of their exceptional preservation and outstanding Romanesque architecture.
Saxony-Anhalt is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of 20,451.7 square kilometres (7,896.4 sq mi) and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the 8th-largest state in Germany by area and the 11th-largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Magdeburg.
Halberstadt was a district (Kreis) in the middle of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Neighboring districts were Bördekreis, Quedlinburg, Wernigerode, Goslar, Wolfenbüttel, Helmstedt.
The Province of Saxony, also known as Prussian Saxony, was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg.
Schachdorf Ströbeck is a village in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, which since 1 January 2010 is part of the town of Halberstadt in the Harz district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Located about 8 km (5.0 mi) west of the city centre, the Schachdorf is known for its long historic connection with chess.
Eastphalia is a historical region in northern Germany, encompassing the eastern Gaue (shires) of the historic stem duchy of Saxony, roughly confined by the River Leine in the west and the Elbe and Saale in the east. The territory corresponds with modern southeastern Lower Saxony, western Saxony-Anhalt, and northern Thuringia. Together with Westphalia, central Angria, and Nordalbingia, it was one of the four main Saxon administrative regions.
The Diocese of Halberstadt was a Roman Catholic diocese from 804 until 1648. From 1180, the bishops or administrators of Halberstadt ruled a state within the Holy Roman Empire, the prince-bishopric of Halberstadt. The diocesan seat and secular capital was Halberstadt in present-day Saxony-Anhalt.
Blankenburg (Harz) is a town and health resort in the district of Harz in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, at the north foot of the Harz Mountains, 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Halberstadt.
Falkenstein/Harz is a town in the Harz district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was created in 2002 by merging the town of Ermsleben with the former municipalities of Endorf, Meisdorf, Neuplatendorf, Pansfelde, Reinstedt und Wieserode. The new community was named after Falkenstein Castle.
Harzvorland-Huy was a Verwaltungsgemeinschaft in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was situated between Wernigerode and Halberstadt. The seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft was in Ströbeck. It was disbanded on 1 January 2010.
Schwanebeck is a small town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is part of the Verbandsgemeinde Vorharz.
Wegeleben is a town in the Harz district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Vorharz.
Osterwieck is a historic town in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Oberharz am Brocken is a town in the Harz District, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was formed on 1 January 2010 by the merger of the town of Elbingerode with the municipalities of the former Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Brocken-Hochharz.
The Magdeburg–Thale railway is a predominantly single-track, non-electrified main line railway that connects Thale, in the northern Harz, with Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt. Its eastern section between Magdeburg and Halberstadt was opened in 1843 and it is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
Transdev Sachsen-Anhalt is a regional railway company, a subsidiary of Transdev Germany. It provided passenger services on the North Harz network from 2005 to 2018 under the name HEX (HarzElbeExpress).
Halberstadt is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt and the capital of the district of Harz.
The Halberstadt tramway network is a network of tramways forming part of the public transport system in Halberstadt, a city in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Halberstadt station is a station on the Magdeburg–Thale railway in Halberstadt in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. A terminal station was opened in the town in 1843. A new through station was opened in another part of the town in 1868. The first service from Halberstadt ran to Magdeburg. Two more lines were added during the next few decades. In the Second World War, the station suffered heavy damage. Extensive modernisation work took place between 2008 and 2010. The entrance building and the locomotive depot are listed buildings.
The Halberstadt–Blankenburg railway is a non-electrified, single-track railway line, from Halberstadt via Langenstein and Börnecke to Blankenburg in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The Rübeland Railway connects to the line at Blankenburg (Harz) station. Until 1968, there was a branch to Derenburg. The branch line originally ran to Minsleben.