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Berlin-Oranienburg
51km

Oranienburg Berlin
51km

At the Gates of Berlin

This stage connects the city of Berlin, the capital of Germany, with Oranienburg- another historically steeped city.

While in Berlin you can find sights as the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag at the route, that also leads you along the former Berlin Wall, the Spandau Ship Canal and the Havel River.

In Oranienburg, north of Berlin, the chateau at the Havel River- that was once Home of the Great Elector and his wife- with its big park and gardens, is waiting for visitors.
 

Oranienburg

By the year 1652 the City that is today called Oranienburg was a settlement named Bötzow . Two years earlier, the Great Elector , Frederick William  gave the domain Bötzow as a present to his wife, Luise Henriette Princess of Orange. She built the Oranienburg palace and persued the reconstruction of the domain that was heavily damaged during the 30-year war. The name of the castle was transferred to the settlement.

Oranienburg has a "sister city "- Oranienbaum. This small town is surrounded by the Woerlitz- Garden- Empire and was built in the 17th century by Henriette Catharina of Orange, a sister of the Electress Louise Henriette .

At the end of the Second World War, the city and the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was liberated. During the bombardments Oranienburg suffered heavy losses -60 percent of the houses were destroyed , 40 percent of residents were homeless. Even today, bombs are found during earthworks, for their defusing the population has always to be evacuated.  " Lest we forget " in 1961 , the Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen were built on the site of the former prison camp , to keep alive the memory of the Nazi terror.  

Hennigsdorf

Hennigsdorf was first mentioned in 1375 but only in 1938 it obtained its present coat of arms.

Due to the construction of the Berlin Wall the route of the direct S-Bahn to Berlin Heiligensee was cut off. This compound was not restored until 1998.

In the district of Nieder Neuendorf is one of the three remnant border observation towers of the Berlin Wall with an exhibition of the history of the object.

 

(c) Picture: Stadt Hennigsdorf, Matthias Jurisch

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