Gardelegen

Gardelegen
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Coat of arms of Gardelegen Coat of arms
Gardelegen
Location of Gardelegen within Altmarkkreis Salzwedel district 250px
Coordinates:
Country	Germany
State	Saxony-Anhalt
District	Altmarkkreis Salzwedel
Government
• Mayor	Konrad Fuchs (SPD)
Area
• Total	632.43 km2 (244.18 sq mi)
Population (2013-12-31)
• Total	23,110
• Density	37/km2 (95/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	39638, 39649
Dialling codes	03907, 039004, 039006, 039056, 039085, 039087, 039088
Vehicle registration	SAW, GA, KLZ
Website	www.gardelegen.info

Gardelegen (German pronunciation: [ˈɡaʁdəleːɡən]) is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Milde, 20 m. W. from Stendal, on the main line of railway Berlin-Hanover.

History

Under the direction of an American soldier, German civilians from Gardelegen carry wooden crosses to the site where they were ordered to bury the bodies of concentration camp prisoners killed by the SS in a barn just outside the town. It had been widely reported that members of the local population provided support to the SS during the operation

It has a Roman Catholic and three Evangelical churches, a hospital, founded in 1285, and a high-grade school. There are considerable manufactures, notably agricultural machinery and buttons, and its beer has a great repute. Gardelegen was founded in the 10th century (first named 1196), and was for a long time the seat of a line of counts. In 1358 Gardelegen became a city of the Hanse. It suffered considerably in the Thirty Years' War, and in 1757 barely avoided being burned by the French. On the neighboring heath Margrave Louis I. of Brandenburg gained, in 1343, a victory over Otto the Mild of Brunswick.

On 13 April 1945, 1016 concentration camp prisoners were burned alive by the Germans in the Isenschnibbler Feldscheune. Today this area is the site of a memorial for the dead.

At the height of the cold war, a USAF RB-66 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by Soviet fighters near the town on 10 March 1964. Her crew bailed out and was rescued and eventually handed back to West-Berlin by Soviet forces.

After having incorporated 18 neighboring towns and villages in 2011, Gardelegen is now Germany's third largest city by area, trailing only Berlin and Hamburg. It is actually the largest municipality in area in what was formerly East Germany.

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Gardelegen is twinned with:

• Waltrop, Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany
• Gifhorn, Lower-Saxony, Germany
• Darłowo, Poland
• Dumfries, United Kingdom

External links

• www.gardelegen.info

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: