Oranienburg

Oranienburg (German: [oˈʁaːni̯ənˌbʊʁk] ) is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.

Oranienburg
Town
Schloss Oranienburg
Coat of arms
Location of Oranienburg within Oberhavel district
Oranienburg Oranienburg
Coordinates: 52°45′16″N 13°14′13″E
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Oberhavel
Subdivisions	9 districts
Government
• Mayor (2017–25)	Alexander Laesicke (Ind.)
Area
• Total	162.37 km2 (62.69 sq mi)
Elevation	34 m (112 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)
• Total	47,752
• Density	290/km2 (760/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	16515
Dialling codes	03301
Vehicle registration	OHV
Website	www.oranienburg.de

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 nine districts:

• Friedrichsthal
• Germendorf
• Lehnitz
• Malz
• Oranienburg
• Sachsenhausen
• Schmachtenhagen
• Wensickendorf
• Zehlendorf

History

Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Originally named Bötzow, the town of Oranienburg dates from the 12th century and was first mentioned in 1216. Margrave Albert the Bear (ruled 1157–1170) allegedly ordered the construction of a castle on the banks of the Havel. Around the castle stood 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 the construction of a new castle in the Dutch style and called it Oranienburg or Schloss Oranienburg. In 1653 the town of Bötzow was renamed Oranienburg.

Silvio Gesell, the founder of Freiwirtschaft ("free economy"), lived in Oranienburg between 1911 and 1915, publishing his magazine, Der Physiocrat. He returned to the town in 1927 and lived there until his death in 1930. The town remained a center of the "free economy" movement until the Nazi régime outlawed it in 1933, and many of Gesell's followers ended up as prisoners in the town's concentration camp.

The Oranienburg concentration camp (established in March 1933) was among the earliest of the Nazis concentration camps. In 1936, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the outskirts of Oranienburg replaced it; there 200,000 people were interned over the nine years that the Nazis operated it. Approximately 22,000 people died at the camp before the liberation of the camp by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. Thereafter the site 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 closed in 1950. Their remains were not discovered until the 1990s.

Oranienburg became the center of Nazi Germany's nuclear-energy project because it was the location of the Auergesellschaft Oranienburg Plant, Germany's uranium production facility; the town also had an armaments hub, aircraft plant, and railway junction, all of military importance. According to military historian Antony Beevor, Stalin's desire to acquire the nuclear facility motivated him to launch the Battle for Berlin of April–May 1945. It has been claimed that the pre-emptive destruction of these nuclear facilities by the USAAF Eighth Air Force on 15 March 1945 aimed to prevent them from falling into Soviet hands.

On 23 April 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front of the Red Army captured Oranienburg.

Between 1949 and 1990, Oranienburg was part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

Due to its heavy bombing, Oranienburg is the "most dangerous town in Germany"; it is the only town in Germany which pursues a systematic search for unexploded ordnance (UXO) based on postwar aerial photos and magnetic or radar underground measurements for metal. By 2017 about 200 had been disposed of, and 350 to 400 were estimated to remain. It is estimated that the search and disposal will continue throughout the rest of the century. In one case 12,000 residents had to be evacuated. The federal government does not finance the removal of foreign UXO.

Public institutions

The Zehlendorf transmission facility, a large facility for radio broadcasting in longwave, medium wave and FM-range, was located near Oranienburg, at Zehlendorf.

Transport

The town is served by the Berlin Northern Railway and provide a direct connection to Rostock.

Demography

• 
  Development of Population since 1875 within the Current 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 and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the Census in Germany in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005–2030 (yellow line); for 2020–2030 (green line); for 2017–2030 (scarlet line)

Oranienburg: Population development
within the current boundaries (2020)

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1875 9,514 —     1890 11,568 +1.31% 1910 20,179 +2.82% 1925 23,656 +1.07% 1933 27,043 +1.69% 1939 42,982 +8.03% 1946 31,893 −4.17% 1950 32,781 +0.69% 1964 33,379 +0.13% 1971 33,426 +0.02% 1981 35,433 +0.58% 1985 37,234 +1.25% 1989 37,544 +0.21% 1990 37,113 −1.15% 1991 36,909 −0.55%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1992 36,777 −0.36% 1993 36,885 +0.29% 1994 37,138 +0.69% 1995 37,577 +1.18% 1996 38,151 +1.53% 1997 39,001 +2.23% 1998 39,541 +1.38% 1999 39,949 +1.03% 2000 40,148 +0.50% 2001 40,403 +0.64% 2002 40,378 −0.06% 2003 40,593 +0.53% 2004 41,055 +1.14% 2005 41,115 +0.15% 2006 41,267 +0.37%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 2007 41,488 +0.54% 2008 41,577 +0.21% 2009 41,590 +0.03% 2010 41,810 +0.53% 2011 41,370 −1.05% 2012 41,621 +0.61% 2013 42,028 +0.98% 2014 42,894 +2.06% 2015 43,526 +1.47% 2016 44,079 +1.27% 2017 43,982 −0.22% 2018 44,512 +1.21% 2019 44,862 +0.79% 2020 45,492 +1.40%

Twin towns – sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Oranienburg is twinned with:

• Bagnolet, France (1964)
• Hamm, Germany (1990)
• Mělník, Czech Republic (1974)
• Vught, Netherlands (2000)
• Kfar Yona, Israel (2021)

Notable people

Friedrich Ludwig Dulon

• Friedrich Ludwig Dulon (1769–1826), flautist and composer
• Walther Bothe (1891–1957), physicist and Nobel laureate
• Carl Gustav Hempel (1905–1997), philosopher
• W. Michael Blumenthal (born 1926), business leader, economist and political adviser
• Bernd Eichwurzel (born 1964), rower, Olympic champion
• Alexander Walke (born 1983), footballer
• Marcus Mlynikowski (born 1992), footballer
• Silvio Gesell, lived between 1911 and 1915 and between 1927 and his death in 1930

See also

• Oranienburg railway station
• Stellwerk Fichtengrund

External links

• Official website (in German)