Salzwedel is situated at the Jeetze River in the northwestern part of the Altmark. It is located between Hamburg and Magdeburg. Distances from Uelzen are E, S of Lüchow, N of Gardelegen and W of Arendsee. In 1968 test drillings reveal a significant reservoir of natural gas near the city.
History
The castle of Salzwedel in the Altmark was first documented in 1112. As part of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the settlement was first mentioned as a town in 1233. To the northeast of the old town, a new town began development in 1247. In the Middle Ages Salzwedel belonged to the Hanseatic League from 1263 to 1518. As to religion Salzwedel belonged to the Diocese of Verden. The city from 1247 began developing as a reestablishment from the old part of the town. In 1701 it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1713, the two towns Altstadt and Neustadt became one. Salzwedel became part of the Prussian Province of Saxony in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars. In 1870 it received a railroad connection. The medieval part of the town remains the commercial and administrative center of the town until today. As in other German cities during the time of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, the Jewish residents of the city were systematically deprived of their rights, then expelled from the city. In 1943, the Neuengamme concentration camp built a female subcamp in Salzwedel, capable of holding more than 1,000 female prisoners. Eventually more than 3,000 women were held there, both Jews and non-Jews. The guard staff at the camp included sixty SS men and women. One Aufseherin is known today by name, Lieselotte Darnstaedt, who was born in 1908. Darnstaedt also served at Ravensbrück before coming to Salzwedel. On April 29, 1945, the US Army liberated the Salzwedel women's subcamp, and also a men's camp nearby for male non-German political prisoners. They were shocked to find more than ninety corpses of women who had died of typhus, dysentery and malaria. At the beginning of 1945, prior to the arrival of American ground forces, Allied war planes attacked the main train station of Salzwedel, killing 300 people. The US Army eventually turned over control of the city to the Soviet Red Army, causing Salzwedel to become part of the German Democratic Republic. On November 9, 1989 the East-West German border crossing near Salzwedel was opened, along with East-West border crossings in the rest of the country, allowing East Germans residing in Salzwedel and elsewhere to travel freely to West Germanyfor the first time since the building of the Berlin Wall. In 1990 Salzwedel received its first democratically elected city government. The official name of the city was changed into Hansestadt Salzwedel on 1 April 2008, in reference to its history as a member of the Hanseatic League. In 2010 the town incorporated the village and former municipality of Riebau.
Population development
1998 – 20,614
1999 – 20,499
2000 – 20,349
2001 – 20,130
2002 – 19,926
2003 – 21,360
2004 – 21,070
2005 – 21,316
2006 – 20,777
2015 – 24,410
Mayors
Sabine Danicke was elected as the mayor in 2008. From January 2011 she was the Lord Mayor. Since March 2016 Sabine Blümel is the Lord Mayor.
Culture and sights
Main sights
Salzwedel's sites of interest include the historic part of town, encompassed by the historic city wall and town gates. The city also contains the birth house of Jenny von Westphalen, later the wife of Karl Marx.
numerous half-timbered houses
town gates and medieval city fortifications
remains of a castle
Townhall
Townhall Tower
The Monk Church
gothic Brickchurches St.Marien, St.Katharina und St.Lorenz
another churches: St. Georg and Holy-Spirit-Church
