Product Code Database
Bleckede (, Polabian Bleketsa) is a town in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, in northern Germany. It is situated mostly on the left bank of the Elbe, approx. east of Lüneburg.
Bleckede is located on the German Timber-Frame Road.
But the Ascanians did not give up and Duke Albert II of Saxony fought for Bleckede with William's son Otto the Child, who gained the support of Prince-Archbishop Gilbert of Bremen. However, no party could subject the other so they agreed in 1287 to let King Rudolph I of Germany decide. He conceded Bleckede to Saxony, so the Welf name of Lowenstat was dropped and Bleckede prevailed. In 1293 the Saxon dukes granted Bleckede - together with other towns - the privilege of .
The co-ruling Saxon dukes Albert II and his nephews Albert III, Eric I and John II partitioned Saxony into Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg before 20 September 1296.Cordula Bornefeld, "Die Herzöge von Sachsen-Lauenburg", in: Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg De, Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 373-389, here p. 375. Bleckede was then a part of Saxe-Lauenburg, colloquially also called Lower Saxony, as opposed to Upper Saxony for Saxe-Wittenberg.
Saxe-Lauenburg ceded Bleckede - with toll and castle - to Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg-Stendal, who quickly sold his new acquisition in 1308 to the Welf duke Otto the Strict, ruling the branch Principality of Lunenburg (Lüneburg). Two years later the duke granted Bleckede town privileges, comprising the obligation to fortify the town. In 1379 Duke Albert of Lunenburg-Celle pawned Bleckede castle to his creditors Hamburg, Lübeck, Hanover and Lunenburg (Lüneburg). The latter managed to hold Bleckede by way of pawn until 1600.
After the French victory over the electorate Bleckede was occupied, before it was annexed to the ephemeric Kingdom of Westphalia in March 1810, forming part of its Lower Elbe département. After the Napoleonic Wars Bleckede was restored to the Electorate of Hanover in 1813, which was elevated to Kingdom of Hanover two years later. After the Prussian annexation of Hanover Bleckede became a part of the new Province of Hanover in 1866. At the introduction of Prussian-style district administration in Hanover on 1 April 1885 Bleckede became the capital of the new , which merged into the District of Lunenburg (Lüneburg) on 1 October 1932.
With the Allied occupation of Germany the situation changed again. There was no bridge between the bulk of the Hanover province south of the Elbe, being part of the British zone of occupation in Germany, and the small north Elbian quarters of Bleckede, namely Neu Bleckede and Neu Wendischthun, actually also part of the British zone. So the British decided a territorial redeployment and ceded Bleckede's north Elbian quarters to the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany, state of Mecklenburg, making Bleckede one of the divided towns in a divided Germany. With Mecklenburg that area became part of the East German Democratic Republic in 1949. The East German control zone along the Inner German border, hermetically sealed off since 1952, made the West and the Elbe banks inaccessible for the inhabitants of Neu Bleckede and Neu Wendischthun. Families considered to be living too close to the border were evacuated and their houses demolished.
After World War II the British opened a displaced person camp in their part of Bleckede.
After the downfall of the communist regime in East Germany in 1989 (Die Wende) the inhabitants of Bleckede's north Elbian quarters (part of the new state of Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania) demanded the reunification with western Bleckede, which belonged since 1946 to the West German state of Lower Saxony.
So both states stipulated in an interstate treaty to disentangle Neu Bleckede and Neu Wendischthun, as well as the neighbouring municipality of Amt Neuhaus from Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania with effect of 30 June 1993, when they were annexed to Lower Saxony. In a referendum the inhabitants of Amt Neuhaus voted for a merger with Bleckede on 7 June 2009. Bleckede, however, has not decided yet.http://www.amt-neuhaus.de/index.htm?baum_id=8953
|
|
