Editing Brandenburg an der Havel (section)

==History==
===Middle Ages===
{{see|Prince-Bishopric of Brandenburg}}
[[File:Goldfund von Eberswalde.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Items from the [[Eberswalde Hoard]] ([[replica]]; [[Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Berlin)|Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte]], [[Berlin]])]]
The name of the city is a combination of two words ''braniti'' – to protect/defend and ''bor'' – forest/wood. 
Brenna, which had been a fort of the [[West Slavs|West Slavic]] tribe [[Stodoranie]], was conquered in 929 after the [[Battle of Lenzen]] by the German King [[Henry the Fowler]] of [[Saxony]]. It was at this time first mentioned in documents as ''Brennaburg''. By the death of King Henry all the tribes between the Middle Elbe and Middle Oder paid tribute to the German King. At the Magdeburg Assembly of Princes in 948 the Bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelburg were established. The Holy Roman Emperor [[Otto the Great|Otto I]] took control of these new sees. In [[Slavic revolt of 983]] there was a major Slav uprising involving numerous tribes and until the middle of the 12th century the area east of the Elbe remained under their control.<ref>Streidt, Gert, & Feierabend, Peter, editors, ''Prussia'', Konemann pubs., Cologne, 1999, p.14. {{ISBN|3-8290-2590-4}}</ref> During this period the area was ruled by Slavic chiefs of the [[Hevelli]] tribe. The last of them, [[Pribislav of Brandenburg|Pribislav]], died in 1150.

Following Pribislav's death his widow Petrissa enabled [[Albert I of Brandenburg]] to take over Brandenburg fort by agreement and provide it with a joint German-Slav garrison. Albert now styled himself [[Margrave of Brandenburg]]. By 1160 systematic settlement of the Elbe-Havel-Spree basin by nobility, burghers, and peasants from the Schwabengau area (Harz), the [[Netherlands]], the [[Rhineland]], and [[Westphalia]] was in progress. In 1165 the foundation stone for a cathedral was laid on the cathedral island of Brandenburg. It was consecrated five years later in the presence of Albert the Bear and his sons.<ref>Streidt & Feierabend, 1999, p.15.</ref> The town was restricted to the western bank of the Havel until 1196, when it was extended to the eastern side. The parts on either side of the river were regarded as three towns (Old Town, New Town and [[St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Brandenburg|Brandenburg cathedral]] district) for centuries.

In 1314–1315 the Old and New Towns joined the [[Hanseatic League]]. In the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–1648) the towns suffered plundering and destruction; this caused [[Potsdam]] to become the new capital, and the court left the town of Brandenburg. In 1715, Old Town and New Town were merged to form a single town. In 1928, the Brandenburg cathedral district was added.

===Modern history===
[[File:Hauptstraße in Brandenburg an der Havel 2015.JPG|thumb|right|Brandenburg an der Havel old town in 2015]]
In the late 19th century Brandenburg an der Havel became a very important industrial center in the German Empire. Steel industries settled there, and several bicycle brands such as ''[[Brennabor]]'', ''Corona'' and ''Excelsior'' were manufactured in the city. A toy industry was also established. A giant industrial complex, the [[Deutsche Reichsbahn]] (German Imperial Railways) was located in Brandenburg-Kirchmöser between the two world wars and under the former [[East Germany|GDR]].

In 1933/34, a [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camp]], one of the first in [[Nazi Germany]], was located on ''Neuendorfer Straße'' in Brandenburg Old Town. After closing this inner city concentration camp, the Nazis used the [[Brandenburg-Görden Prison]], located in the suburb of Görden. Later the old gaol became the [[Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre]] where the Nazis murdered people with mental diseases, including children. This programme later came to be known as "[[Action T4]]" because of the Berlin address, Tiergartenstraße 4, the headquarters of this planned and well-organized [[forced euthanasia]] organisation. Brandenburg an der Havel was one of the first locations in Nazi Germany where the [[Nazi]]s experimented with murdering their victims [[gas chamber|by gas]].{{fact|date=March 2023}} The lessons here were later applied for mass murders in [[Auschwitz]] and other [[extermination camp]]s. 

In 1934, the Arado [[Aircraft]] Company ([[Arado Flugzeugwerke]]), which originated in [[Warnemünde]], built a [[satellite]] factory in Brandenburg that began producing planes in 1935. The factory was expanded over the next five years, and produced trainers and other aircraft for the [[Luftwaffe]] during World War II. The existence of this factory was one of the reasons Brandenburg was heavily bombed in later stages of the war; by 1945, 70% of the city was destroyed.

[[Friedrich Fromm]], a German officer involved in the [[20 July plot]] to assassinate [[Adolf Hitler]], was executed here in March 1945 for his part in the plot, even though Fromm betrayed those conspirators he knew and ordered their execution.

On 25 July 1952 [[Plaue, Brandenburg|Plaue]] and [[Kirchmöser]] were incorporated in the city of Brandenburg an der Havel.<ref>Gemeinden 1994 und ihre Veränderungen seit 01.01.1948 in den neuen Ländern, Verlag Metzler-Poeschel, Stuttgart 1995, {{ISBN|3-8246-0321-7}}, Hrsg.: Statistisches Bundesamt</ref>

After [[German reunification]] the city's population declined from around 100,000 in 1989 to roughly 75,000 in 2005 through emigration. The migration was mainly by young people.