Bernburg

Bernburg (Saale) is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance castle.
Geography
The town centre is situated in the fertile Magdeburg Börde lowland on the Saale river, approx. downstream from Halle and up stream from Magdeburg. It is dominated by the huge Bernburg Castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its moat.
The municipal area comprises the town Bernburg proper and eight Ortschaften or municipal divisions:
Aderstedt (incorporated in 2003), Baalberge, Biendorf, Gröna, Peißen, Poley, Preußlitz, and Wohlsdorf, all incorporated on 1 January 2010.
Bernburg is a stop on the scenic Romanesque Road (Strasse der Romanik).
History
Several archaeological sites in the area refer to the Walternienburg-Bernburg Culture, a mid-neolithic funnelbeaker culture from about 3200 to 2800 BC. Agriculture on the fertile Loess soil was already common in prehistoric times. Around 150 AD, a local settlement named Luppia was mentioned in the Geography by Ptolemy. In the Early Middle Ages, the Saale river marked the border between the German stem duchies in the west and the lands of the Polabian Slavs in the east.
The present-day borough of Waldau (which became part of Bernburg in 1871) was first mentioned in a 782 deed and again in 806 as Waladala in the chronicles of Moissac Abbey; the village church dedicated to St Stephen first appeared in 964, the nowadays building dates from around 1150. Bernburg itself was first mentioned as civitas Brandanburg in a 961 deed issued by King Otto I of Germany. According to the Annalista Saxo, Berneburch Castle, then a possession of the Ascanian prince Albert the Bear, was set on fire by his enemies in 1138. In 1252 the rebuilt castle became the residence of Albert's great-grandson Prince Bernhard I of Anhalt-Bernburg.
Bernburg memorial
In the Nazi era during World War II, a wing of the town's mental hospital was used for the so-called T-4 Euthanasia Programme. The site today houses a memorial to commemorate the suffering of more than 14,000 victims.
Gallery
Twin towns – sister cities
Bernburg is twinned with:
Anderson, United States (1998)
Fourmies, France (1967)
Rheine, Germany (1990)
Tarnowskie Góry, Poland (1983)
Chomutov, Czech Republic (1992)
Notable people
Honorary citizen
Date of award
April 10, 1890: Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898)
April 7, 1937 – March 26, 1946: Hermann Göring (1893–1946)
June 12, 1938 – March 26, 1946: Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk (1887–1977)
All appointments of honorary citizens and the like from 1933 to 1945 were annulled.
February 24, 1950: Johannes R. Becher (1891–1958)
February 19, 1953: Hermann Henselmann (1905–1995)
February 5, 1967 – ?: Hilde Benjamin (1902–1989)
Sons and daughters of the city
Christoph Rothmann (1550–1600), mathematician and astronomer of the 16th century
Sibylla of Anhalt (1564–1614), Duchess of Württemberg
Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz (1734–1798), official physician
Heinrich Friedrich von Diez (1751–1817), diplomat and orientalist
Isaak Markus Jost (1793–1860), historian
Ferdinand Reich (1799–1882), chemist and physicist
Herrman S. Saroni (1824–1900), writer, composer and inventor
Hans Reinowski (1900–1977), politician
Herbert Weißbach (1901–1995), actor
Ernst Busch (1900–1980), East German singer and actor, Busch was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize for 1970–71
Hilde Benjamin (1902–1989), presiding judge in a series of political trials in the 1950s and Justice Minister of the GDR
Ruth Lange (1908–1994), shot putter and discus thrower
Otto Knefler (1923–1986), soccer coach and player
Gerhard Dünnhaupt (born 1927), bibliographer and cultural historian
Michael Müller (born 1948), politician
Rolf Milser (born 1951), weight lifter
Heike Hartwig (born 1962), athlete
Ingo Weißenborn (born 1963), fencer
People who have worked on the ground
Christian II, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg (1767–1834), Prince and Duke of Anhalt-Bernburg
Friedrich Adolf Krummacher (1767–1845), theologian, general superintendent in Bernburg 1812–1824
Wilhelm von Kügelgen (1802–1867), early-romantic painter and author, in the service of the court of Bernburg
Richard Wagner (1813–1883), worked in 1834 in the Bernburg Hoftheater (Mozart operas)
Hermann Hellriegel (1831–1895), biologist and agricultural scientist in Bernburg 1880–1895
Wilhelm Krüger (1857–1947), 25 years director of the agricultural test station Bernburg
See also
Bernburg Euthanasia Centre
Wacker Bernburg (1910-1945)
References
External links
Official Website of the city (in German)
Bernburg Zoo at Zoo-Infos.de (in English)
Bernburg Castle
Salzlandkreis
Duchy of Anhalt