Historically Brandenburg was an independent state which grew to become the core of modern Germany (see below). The state of Brandenburg was named after the town of Brandenburg.

Some statistics

Capital: Potsdam

Area: 29,478.14 km²

Inhabitants: 2.568.507 (31/12/2004)

pop. density: 87 people/km²

Geography

Brandenburg is bordered by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the north, Poland in the east, Saxony in the south, Saxony-Anhalt in the west and Lower Saxony in the northwest.

The Oder river forms a part of the eastern border, the Elbe river a portion of the western border. The main rivers in the state itself are the Spree and the Havel. In the southeast there is a wetlands region called the Spreewald; it is the northernmost part of the Lausitz, where the Slavic people of the Sorbs still live. These areas are bilingual, i.e. German and Sorbian are both used.

Administration

Brandenburg is divided into fourteen (rural) counties (Landkreise),

Barnim ;Dahme-Spreewald ;Elbe-Elster ;Havelland ;Märkisch-Oderland ;Oberhavel ;

Oberspreewald-Lausitz ; Oder-Spree ;Ostprignitz-Ruppin ;Potsdam-Mittelmark ;

Prignitz ;Spree-Neiße ;Teltow-Fläming ;Uckermark 

and four independent cities (Stadtkreise),

Brandenburg an der Havel

Cottbus

Frankfurt (Oder)

Potsdam

History

In late medieval and early modern times, Brandenburg was one of seven Electorships of the Holy Roman Empire, and, along with Prussia, formed the original core of the modern federal state of Germany. It contained the future German capital Berlin and since 1618 both Brandenburg and Prussia, then Brandenburg-Prussia, were ruled by Hohenzollern dukes and later kings of Prussia. The Frankish Nuremberg, Ansbach and southern German Hohenzollern and the eastern European connections of Berlin and the prince-elector together were instrumental in the rise of that state.

Brandenburg (Slavic Branibor) is situated entirely in territory of Germania recorded by Tacitus in 98 AD. By 600 first groups of Slavic people arrived. In 948 Emperor Otto I the Great established German control within the policy of Drang nach osten over the now largely Slavic inhabitants of the area and founded the dioceses of Havelberg and Brandenburg; he died in 983. In the great uprising in 983 the Slavs wiped out German control from the territory of present day Brandenburg. The monasteries were buried, priests and Germans officials killed or expelled. The Slavic tribes living east of Elbe remained independent and pagan for the next 150 years.

12th Century

In the beginning of the 12th century the Saxon German kings and emperors conquered the Slavic-inhabited lands of present-day Brandenburg. Many Slavic inhabitants survived the conquests and live there still today - Sorbs, Lusatians. The church brought bishoprics, which with their walled towns, afforded protection for the townspeople from attack. With the monks and bishops, the history of the town of Brandenburg, which in time became the state of Brandenburg, began. In 1134, in the wake of a German crusade against the Wends, the German magnate Albert the Bear was granted the Northern March by the Holy Roman Emperor Lothar II. For some time up until the 15th century, some part of the area that would become Brandenburg was inhabited by the Slavic Wends, who still make up a part of the area's modern population.

Albert's control of the region was nominal for several decades, but he engaged in a variety of campaigns against the Wends, as well as more diplomatic efforts which saw his control become more real by the middle of the century. In 1150, he formally inherited Brandenburg from its last Wendish ruler, Pribislav. Albert, and his descendants the Ascanians, then made considerable progress in Christianizing and cultivating the lands. There was never any distinction made by any of the German rulers and the Slavic and German tribes intermarried.

13th Century

In 1320 the Brandenburg Ascanian line came to an end, and from 1323 until 1373 Brandenburg was under the control of the Wittelsbach family, better known as rulers of Bavaria. After a period of rule by the Imperial Luxembourg dynasty, however, the margravate was granted 1415 by the Emperor Sigismund to the house of Hohenzollern, which would rule until the end of World War I. From 1356 until the Empire's end in 1806, the Margrave of Brandenburg was also one of the electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

16th Century

Brandenburg was one of the German states to switch in 1539 to Protestantism in the wake of the Reformation, and generally did quite well in the century following, as the dynasty expanded its lands to include the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 and along the lower Rhine Duchy of Cleves (1614) and elsewhere. The result was a sprawling, disconnected country that was in poor shape to defend itself during the Thirty Years' War.

Towards the end of that devastating conflict and after, however, Brandenburg (and its successor states) enjoyed a string of talented rulers who gradually maneuvered their country towards the heights of power in Europe. The first of these was Frederick William I, the so-called "Great Elector", who worked tirelessly to rebuild and consolidate the nation. He moved the capital from the town of Brandenburg to Potsdam.

When Frederick William died in 1688, he was followed by his son Frederick, third of that name in Brandenburg. As the lands that had been acquired in Prussia were outside the formal boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick assumed (as Frederick I) the title of "King in Prussia" (1701), basing this promotion from margrave on his title to what were, in actuality, vast but less agriculturally valuable stretches of sandy ground. Brandenburg was still the most important portion of the kingdom (and the state was often referred to informally as Brandenburg-Prussia) but for the purposes of accuracy, the continuation of this history can be found at Prussia.

When Prussia was subdivided into provinces in 1815, the territory of the Margraviate of Brandenburg became the Province of Brandenburg. In 1881, the City of Berlin was separated from the Province of Brandenburg. Brandenburg had an area of 39,039 km² and a population of 2.6 million (1925). After World War II, those parts of Brandenburg that were east of the Oder-Neiße Line were annexed by Poland; the remainder of the province became a state when Prussia was dissolved in 1947. The State of Brandenburg was dissolved in 1952 by the government of East Germany.

Reunification

The present State of Brandenburg was established after German reunification in 1990. In 1995 the governments of Berlin and Brandenburg proposed to merge the states in order to form a new state with the name of Berlin-Brandenburg. The merger was rejected in a plebiscite in 1996: While West Berliners voted for a merger, East Berliners and Brandenburgers voted against it.

Miscellaneous

Brandenburg is served by the same three airports that serve Berlin. They are Tegel International Airport, Tempelhof International Airport, and Schönefeld International Airport. Schönefeld Airport will eventually become Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, while Tegel and Tempelhof will close after BBI is established.