Oranienburg is the largest city in the Ruppiner Land in Brandenburg,
north of Berlin. The place was first mentioned in 1216 as Bothzowe,
which later became Bochzowe and finally Bötzow. During the Thirty Years'
War the city was plundered and burned down. From 1650, however, the
place gained in importance, when the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm had
Oranienburg Castle built here for his wife Louise Henriette von Orange.
The name of the castle was then also transferred to the baroque planned
city. The electress recruited Dutch experts and Huguenot religious
refugees, whom she settled in Oranienburg in order to set up model farms
here (which laid the foundation for the later economic success of
Brandenburg-Prussia). Under Friedrich Wilhelm and Louise Henriette's son
Friedrich (r. 1688-1713), the first king of Prussia, the palace was once
again embellished and expanded.
In the 19th century, Oranienburg
became an industrial site where, among other things, cotton was woven
and sulfuric acid, aniline, carbolic acid and paraffin candles were
produced. Oranienburg gained notoriety during the Nazi era as the site
of the Oranienburg concentration camp (one of the first concentration
camps ever) and Sachsenhausen, which played a central role in the Nazi
concentration camp system. It was mainly political opponents who were
imprisoned here and 100,000 people murdered. During World War II, the
city was severely damaged by bombing raids.
In the GDR era,
Oranienburg was an important military base. After reunification and
reunification, many businesses had to close here too, but compared to
other East German cities, the economic situation is quite good and the
population is stable or even slightly increasing. After several
incorporations in 2003, it is over 40,000, making Oranienburg the fifth
largest city in Brandenburg.
Oranienburg Palace with park, museum and orangery
Evangelical St.
Nicolai Church, built in the neo-Romanesque style by Friedrich August
Stüler, rebuilt after being destroyed in World War II. There also a
memorial from 1985 to commemorate the victims of the Sachsenhausen
concentration camp in a self-critical look back at the church history of
the “German Christians”; as well as the triptych “Wende-Altar”, painting
(1994) by Brunolf Metzler (* 1940).
Roman Catholic Herz-Jesu-Kirche
on the corner of Augustin-Sandtner-Strasse and Emil-Polesky-Strasse;
with a memorial for the victims of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
on the front wall of the church, created in 1984 at the instigation of
Pope John Paul II after a pilgrimage of GDR citizens to Rome
Former
orphanage at St. Nicolai Church (donated by Louise Henriette of Orange)
Blumenthal's house, Schlossplatz (former court gardener's house)
Amtshauptmannshaus (1657) next to the castle (former district museum)
Louise-Henriette Monument by Wilhelm Wolff (1858), Schlossplatz
Sculpture of the first Oranienburg official, Otto Reichsfreiherr von
Schwerin, Schlossplatz
"The Accusing", plastic by Fritz Cremer,
Schlossplatz
The most important and also internationally known memorial in
Oranienburg is the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum with various
permanent exhibitions on the so-called “early” Oranienburg concentration
camp, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and the Sachsenhausen Soviet
special camp from the period after the Second World War. It is located
on the site of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
The
memorial was inaugurated in 1961 as the Sachsenhausen National Memorial
to commemorate the concentration camps. After reunification in the GDR,
the concept of the memorial was fundamentally revised. In this context,
the former Soviet special camp was also integrated into the memorial.
The Brandenburg Memorials Foundation is the sponsor of this memorial and
is based in Oranienburg.
In addition to this central memorial,
there are commemorative stones and commemorative plaques at relevant
locations in the city with reference to special aspects of the
concentration camp, e.g. B. at the site of the Oranienburg concentration
camp on Berliner Strasse; at the city cemetery on Kremmener Straße for
the writer Erich Mühsam, who was murdered in 1934 in the Oranienburg
concentration camp (coordinates: ♁52° 44′ 54.2″ N, 13° 13′ 37.9″ E); at
the cemetery on Kremmener Straße for 1200 murdered prisoners of the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp and around 75 forced laborers from
several countries who are buried here and at the house at Waldstraße 22
for the communist resistance fighter Emil Polesky, who died in
Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1941. A boulder with a commemorative
plaque from 1974 on the corner of Lehnitzstraße and Lindenring
commemorates the prisoners of the Auerwerke subcamp of Ravensbrück
concentration camp. A memorial wall at the lock bridge commemorates the
prisoners of the concentration camp Klinkerwerk. A clinker factory
memorial to this satellite camp is in the construction phase.
A
Soviet cemetery of honor was built in 1948/49 on the corner of Bernauer
Strasse and Mathias-Thesen-Strasse for Soviet soldiers and around 250
forced laborers and prisoners of war from various countries. A plaque at
the Jewish cemetery on Kremmener Strasse commemorates the destruction
and desecration by the National Socialists. The 1988 memorial plaque for
the Jewish community and its prayer house is erroneously located on the
neighboring property at Havelstrasse 5.
To commemorate the
individual fates of Oranienburgers who were persecuted, murdered,
deported, expelled or driven to suicide during the National Socialist
era, stumbling blocks were embedded in the sidewalks at the former
places of residence of these people. So far (as of 2017) there are 62
stumbling blocks in Oranienburg.
Cycling: On the 42 km long Dutch circular route you can discover the traces of the Dutch Electress Louise Henriette von Orange and the compatriots she recruited here in the 17th century in a quasi-Dutch flat landscape. The 60 km long bike tour "Castles and mansions of the Ruppiner Seenland" leads from Oranienburg to Neuruppin. The 57 km long circular cycle tour of the Kramer Forst begins and ends in Velten, 12 km south-west of the city center of Oranienburg.
By plane
From Berlin Brandenburg Airport (IATA: BER) it is only 64
km to Oranienburg, which can be reached by car in half an hour or by bus
and train in around 50 minutes.
By train
The regional express
line 5 (Berlin-Neustrelitz-Rostock or Stralsund) stops every hour. It
takes 25 minutes from Berlin Hbf, 40 minutes from Neustrelitz and a good
two hours from Rostock.
In addition, the Berlin S-Bahn S1, which
runs through the heart of downtown Berlin (Potsdamer Platz, Brandenburg
Gate, Friedrichstrasse) runs every 20 minutes to Oranienburg. With her
you need three quarters of an hour. From Berlin-Frohnau it is only 17
minutes to Oranienburg.
In addition, regional train line 12 of
the Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB) stops every hour from Berlin Ostkreuz
(half an hour) and Templin (50 minutes). On weekdays there is an hourly
connection to the state capital of Potsdam with the RB20 (journey time
one to one and a quarter hours).
The VBB fare zone Berlin C
applies.
In addition, the IC line 17 (Rostock-Berlin-Airport
BER-Dresden) stops every two hours in Oranienburg.
By bus
On
the street
Oranienburg is easily accessible by road. It is only 8 km
north of the A 10 motorway (Berliner Ring), Oranienburger Kreuz. Coming
from Berlin you can take the A 111, which continues as the federal road
B 96, which has been developed without crossings, to the edge of
Oranienburg.
By bicycle
The European long-distance cycle route
Berlin-Copenhagen runs through Oranienburg. From the Brandenburg Gate it
is 51 kilometers to Oranienburg. In addition, the Oder-Havel cycle path
begins/ends here, on which you can cycle here from Oderberg (approx. 80
km) or Eberswalde (55 km), for example.
Oranienburg is located in the south of the district of Oberhavel in the area connected to Berlin and is part of the natural area of the Zehdenick-Spandau Havel lowlands. Berlin city center is about 35 kilometers away. Oranienburg is located on the Havel and the Oder-Havel Canal.
Immediate neighboring municipalities are (clockwise from the north): Löwenberger Land, Liebenwalde, Wandlitz (Barnim district), Mühlenbecker Land, Birkenwerder, Hohen Neuendorf, Velten, Leegebruch, Oberkrämer and Kremmen.
The city of Oranienburg consists of the core city and the districts
of Friedrichsthal, Germendorf, Lehnitz, Malz, Sachsenhausen,
Schmachtenhagen, Wensickendorf and Zehlendorf.
In addition there
are the residential areas Albertshof, Alte Schäferei, Altstadt,
Amalienhof, fishing settlement, Annagarten, Annahof, expansion of
Rickbyhl, expansion of the settlement, Bernöwe, Dameswalde, Eden,
Fichtengrund, forester’s office in Neuholland, forester’s house in
Wensickendorf, Friedenthal, Glashütte, Grabowsee, Marx colony,
Kuhbrücke, Lehnitzschleuse, Luisenhof, Neu-Friedrichsthal, Neustadt,
Oranienhof, Pinnower Schleuse, Rehmate, Schmachtenhagen-Ost,
Schmachtenhagen-Süd, Schmachtenhagen-West, Schmachtenhagener Straße,
Schweizerhütte, settlement at Rahmer See, Süd, Summter Chaussee, tarred
oven, Tiergarten, Tiergartenschleuse, Triftwegsiedlung, Upstall, Weiße
Stadt, Wilhelmsthal and Wittenberg.
Archaeological finds show that the city emerged from a Slavic settlement, which was probably called Bochzowe. The German settlement of today's urban area took place in the course of the second eastward expansion in the 12th century while maintaining the old Slavic name. At the point where Oranienburg Castle is today, a castle was built at the beginning of the 13th century to protect the area and the important river crossings. In 1216 the place was first mentioned as “Bothzowe” when the Brandenburg Bishop Siegfried II confirmed his archdeaconate rights to the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter when he assumed office. In 1232 "Bochzowe" was granted city rights. The townspeople caught fish and traded fish and agricultural products. In 1483 the official seat of Bötzow was created from “Bochzowe”. With the conquest of areas further east of the city, the castle lost its importance, and a two-story hunting lodge was built in its place by the Brandenburg Elector Joachim II. During the Thirty Years War Bötzow was burned down and looted.
In 1650, the Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm, gave the Bötzow domain to his wife Louise Henriette of Orange. In 1652 a Dutch-style castle was built in Bötzow, which was named Oranienburg. In 1663, Louise Henriette set up the first European porcelain cabinet here. The castle name was also transferred to the city. The old name Bötzow was given again in 1694 to the nearby place, which had been named Cotzebant until then. A sister of Louise Henriette, the namesake of the city of Oranienburg, was Henriette Catharina von Oranien. She married Johann Georg II von Anhalt-Dessau and from 1683 had today's Oranienbaum Castle built, from which the town of Oranienbaum in today's Saxony-Anhalt developed. With the support of Dutch experts and religious refugees (Huguenots, Salzburgers, Jews), the Electress had model farms built in and around Oranienburg based on the Dutch model. It created an essential prerequisite for the rapid development of Brandenburg-Prussia. From the marriage of the Great Elector with Louise Henriette, Elector Friedrich III. who had the castle embellished and expanded in memory of his beloved mother. In 1701 he founded the Kingdom of Prussia as Friedrich I. After the castle had to be sacrificed to the austerity constraints of the “soldier king” Friedrich Wilhelm I, Prince August Wilhelm, a brother of the childless Frederick the Great and father of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm II, once again brought courtly splendor to Oranienburg. In his hikes through the Mark Brandenburg, Theodor Fontane reports in detail and vividly on the eventful history of Oranienburg.
In 1802 the castle was sold
to the pharmacist Johann Gottfried Hempel with the obligation to
build a cotton weaving mill. The war against France brought cotton
production to a standstill in 1807. In 1814 a sulfuric acid factory
was built in the castle, which was the first in Prussia to use the
lead chamber process. In 1833 Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge discovered
aniline and carbolic acid in coal tar, in 1835 the first stearin
candles were made in the factory, and in 1840 the first paraffin
candles. In 1848 the production facility was relocated from the
castle to the mill field. In the castle, which was renovated after a
fire, a Protestant teachers' seminar was opened in 1861, which was
operated until 1926.
On July 10, 1877, Oranienburg received a
train station for the newly opened Berlin Northern Railway Berlin –
Stralsund. On May 28, 1883, 18 Berlin vegetarians founded the first
vegetarian settlement in Germany in the western part of the city:
the "Vegetarian Fruit Growing Colony Eden GmbH", in which the money
reformer Silvio Gesell lived for many years and finally died. The
construction of the Oder-Havel Canal from 1906 to 1912 revitalized
economic life in the city. In 1912 the company Heintze & Blanckertz
set up the first factory for steel springs. The resulting cold
rolling mill in Oranienburg, which employed up to 7,000 people, was
bought up by Krupp after 1989 and closed. The most modern plant at
the time was sold to China.
On March 21, 1933, the SA set up the Oranienburg concentration
camp as the first concentration camp in Prussia in an old brewery
for the imprisonment of opponents of the National Socialist regime
from Brandenburg and the Reich capital Berlin. More than 3,000
prisoners were detained there until July 1934, at least 16 of them
died. In July 1936, the SS built the first large concentration camp
complex with the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the boundaries
of the city of Oranienburg and the independent community of
Sachsenhausen on a wooded area of initially 80 hectares. During
the war, the camp was expanded to a size of approx. 400 hectares.
Close to the main camp, on the Hohenzollern Canal, was the
Oranienburg clinker works subcamp, where the prisoners had to
produce or work on bricks and natural stones for the conversion of
Berlin to the capital Germania.
Oranienburg was badly damaged
by aerial bombs during the war. This is due to the war-important
works in the city. On the one hand there was the Auerwerke, which
stretched on the site of today's housing estate on Lindenring and at
the train station as far as the Havel, and the Heinkel-Werke, of
which only the redeveloped white city and parts of the works
airfield in the south of the city still exist . The explosive force
of the bombs that destroyed the Auerwerke production facilities
resulted in the release and distribution of the radioactive material
processed there. Since then, Oranienburg has been the most
radioactive place in Germany.
The grounds of the former Heinkel AG, the associated company
airfield and parts of the former White City factory settlement were
occupied by the Red Army and used by the Soviet Armed Forces group
in Germany until they withdrew in 1994.
In August 1945 the
Soviet special camp No. 7 von Weesow was relocated to part of the
site of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There the
Soviet occupying power interned mainly members and functionaries of
the Nazi movement and the Nazi state, including many members of
criminal organizations of the “Third Reich”, on the basis of Allied
decisions on automatic arrest. Increasingly, the Soviet secret
service also locked people who had been convicted by Soviet military
tribunals in an area on the same site that was specially separated
from the “internees”. Above all, there were also people who, for
political or other reasons, had actually or supposedly rebelled
against the Soviet occupation regime. Of the total of 60,000
prisoners, including women, young people and even children, 12,000
died by 1950, the year the camp was closed, due to hunger and
epidemics as well as from the consequences of catastrophic prison
conditions.
On April 23, 1952, Oranienburg became the
district town of the newly formed district of the same name in the
GDR district of Potsdam. Sachsenhausen has been part of the city of
Oranienburg since April 1, 1974.
Various military units,
associations and institutions were stationed in Oranienburg during
the Cold War. At the end of the 1980s, for example, the Motorized
Rifle Regiment 1 "Hans Beimler" of the National People's Army of the
GDR and the border training regiment 40 "Hans Coppi" of the border
troops of the GDR as well as the 239th Independent Helicopter
Regiment of the Soviet Western Group of Troops.
With the district reform of 1993, Oranienburg
became the district town of the new Oberhavel district, in which the
Oranienburg and Gransee districts were incorporated. In June 1994
the units and associations of the former Soviet and now Russian
western group of troops withdrew from Oranienburg.
In the
course of the collapse of the GDR and the reunification of Germany,
many companies were closed and many jobs were lost. However, a
number of companies could also be restructured and continued and new
businesses settled. Residential areas were newly built and
fundamentally renovated, streets, footpaths and cycle paths were
newly laid out. A mixture of old and new residential and commercial
buildings characterizes the historically grown cityscape. So were z.
B. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, the houses in the
White City were renovated, and a quiet residential area was created.
On October 26, 2003 Friedrichsthal, Germendorf, Lehnitz, Malz,
Schmachtenhagen, Wensickendorf and Zehlendorf were incorporated. On
September 23, 2008 the city received the title Place of Diversity
awarded by the federal government.
In 2007 there were plans to build a Chinatown in Oranienburg.
Under this name they also included activities and possible residents
with other Asian backgrounds. However, these plans were abandoned in
2008 for economic reasons and because the distance to the center of
Berlin was felt to be too great.
In 2009, Oranienburg hosted
the fourth Brandenburg State Horticultural Show under the title
Dream Landscapes of an Electress. It ran from April 25 to October
18, 2009. The main preparation project was the redesign of the
military wasteland behind the palace into a park and thus the
restoration of the palace gardens. For this purpose u. a. a new
castle harbor and a Havel promenade created. In addition, the
routing of the main road was changed and the bridge route used until
1901 was restored with a newly built castle bridge. This is how the
palace square regained its central importance for the city. At the
same time, a previously missing third axis was created with the
construction of Nehringstrasse between the palace and the district
office, thus taking into account the baroque city layout. The city
of Oranienburg bought numerous ruins and properties in order to
remedy the urban grievances. As a result of these measures, the
historical center of Oranienburg was significantly redesigned and
sustainably upgraded. In addition to the city administration, the
renovated palace now houses a museum of the Prussian Palaces and
Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg and the regional museum of the
Oberhavel district.
The Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum
have been extensively renovated and modernized by the Brandenburg
Memorials Foundation since 1993. With over 700,000 visitors
annually, it is now the third largest concentration camp memorial
after Auschwitz and Dachau. The history of the Oranienburg and
Sachsenhausen concentration camps as well as the history of the
Soviet special camp and the GDR national memorial site are presented
in 13 permanent exhibitions, almost all of which are in original
buildings, with numerous original artefacts, documents and help
different media illustrated. An educational department offers
projects, guided tours and an audio guide, and the archive and
library are also accessible to visitors. If interested, visitors can
deepen their knowledge in numerous publications issued by the
memorial, including various interactive media.
In connection
with the state horticultural show, a block of flats, the so-called
sound barrier, was torn down on Berliner Strasse. A small park was
created there to further improve the quality of stay in the
medium-sized town. In terms of content and design, the park refers
to the first German radio play on radio. It dealt with the rescue of
participants in Umberto Nobile's failed North Pole expedition with
the airship Italia and was written by Friedrich Wolf, who spent the
last years of his life in the Oranienburg district of Lehnitz.
Because of the extraordinarily intense bombing of Oranienburg in
World War II, several duds - more than half of them with chemical
long-term detonators - have to be recovered every year. In 2012,
around 300 explosive bombs with LZZ were still suspected in the soil
of the inhabited urban area. After more than 70 years in the ground,
self-detonations are becoming more and more likely due to the aging
processes of the trigger mechanism. The federal government has so
far rejected the requests from the state of Brandenburg for
financial support to clear the explosive bombs. Although Oranienburg
is the only city in Germany that systematically searches for duds,
according to the current state of financing, Oranienburg soil will
not be cleared of duds until around 2070.
According to the city's website, there are at least eleven different religious communities in Oranienburg.
In addition to the Evangelical community, whose house of worship is
St. Nicolai Church, there are the Roman Catholic Church with the
Herz-Jesu-Kirche, the Seventh-Day Adventists with the Advent house on
Martin-Luther-Strasse, the Evangelical Methodist Church in
Julius-Leber-Strasse and other free churches in Oranienburg. In
Oranienburg there is also a New Apostolic Church on Erzbergerstrasse and
the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Sachsenhausen district on
Clara-Zetkin-Strasse.
As a young pastor, the later state bishop
Kurt Scharf worked as a parish priest in the then still independent
parish of Sachsenhausen at the beginning of the National Socialist era.
As a committed Christian of the Confessing Church, he worked to protect
Jewish fellow citizens and prisoners of the nearby concentration camp.
He was also able to visit the co-founder of the Pastors’ Emergency
League, from which the Confessing Church emerged, Pastor Martin
Niemöller, who was imprisoned from 1938 to 1941 as “Hitler’s personal
prisoner” in the “cell building” of the Sachsenhausen concentration
camp.
There has been a small, lively Jewish community in Oranienburg for a
number of years. The community of rebirth maintains a community center
in the center of Oranienburg, which functions as a house of prayer,
meeting place and administration. After the city of Oranienburg returned
the well-preserved Jewish cemetery to the Jewish community after decades
of care, a burial has now been carried out again after an interruption
of more than 60 years.
The synagogue, also known as the prayer
house, from 1848 (which also included the school, teacher's apartment
and mikveh) at Havelstrasse 6 was destroyed by SA men exactly a century
after it was inaugurated during the November pogrom of 1938. On March 6,
1944, an air raid completely destroyed the remains of the building. In
the meantime, the Jewish community has been able to build a new, small
synagogue at Sachsenhausener Strasse 2.
W. Michael Blumenthal,
former US Treasury Secretary and long-time director of the Jewish Museum
Berlin, was made an honorary citizen in 2000 by his native city of
Oranienburg.
The full-time mayor of the city has been Hans-Joachim Laesicke (SPD) since 1993. His son Alexander Laesicke (independent) was elected his successor in the mayoral runoff on October 15, 2017 with 55.8% of the valid votes for an eight-year term. He took office on January 8, 2018.
Blazon: "Growing in silver from green turf a green oak tree with
eight leaves and four golden fruits; to the right of the trunk floats a
left-turned curved red fish.”
Coat of arms justification: The coat of
arms comes from the Bötzower coat of arms of 1548. It shows the
righteous (justices, rights) of the old Bötzowers: a horizontal red fish
with black scales, which points to the fishing justice (free fishing on
the Havel between the Ruppiner and Lehnitzer Dosse) ; six crossed reeds
for the right to cut the reed in the lake (free use of the reed for
roofing); an oak tree on a green meadow, which symbolizes free logging,
fattening and pasture, whereby fattening justice in medieval pig
breeding meant that the pigs were allowed to be driven into the great
forests. In 1937 the city received the new coat of arms that is valid
today, without cattails and with golden acorns, apparently as a
decoration of the tree.
The Coat of Arms was approved by the Ministry
of the Interior on February 26, 1993.
In Oranienburg there is a branch of the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company
for the development and production of pharmaceutical products and
related services. ORAFOL Europe GmbH develops and produces self-adhesive
special films with over 850 employees. The company exports its products
to more than 70 countries and is the world market leader in its sector.
The Danish company Genan (tire recycling) and the manufacturer of
plastic products Plastimat significantly shape the economic base of the
city. In the industrial area south on the B 96 there is a logistics
center of the Rewe Group with more than 500 employees. Until 2016, the
French company Pneu Laurent operated a tire manufacturing plant in
Oranienburg.
The business location Oranienburg is part of one of
15 regional growth centers in the state of Brandenburg.
The federal highway 273 from Nauen to Wandlitz leads through the city
in west-east direction. The federal highway 96 bypasses the city center
in the west on a four-lane route, four junctions provide the connection
to the city. South of Oranienburg, the B 96 ends at the Oranienburg
interchange and connects the city with the federal highway 10 (northern
Berlin Ring) and the federal highway 111 (feeder Oranienburg to the
Berlin city highway). At the Birkenwerder junction of the A 10, the B 96
continues in the direction of Berlin.
Oranienburg station is a
category 3 station and is on the Berlin Northern Railway from Berlin to
Stralsund. Long-distance trains on Deutsche Bahn’s IC line 17 stop here
every two hours and connect the city directly with Rostock,
Berlin-Brandenburg Airport and Dresden. In local transport of the VBB,
the station is in the Berlin C fare zone and is a terminus of the S-Bahn
line S1. The center of Berlin can be reached in half an hour with the
hourly regional express line RE 5 Rostock/Stralsund-Berlin Hbf-Berlin
Südkreuz. The regional train lines RB 12 (Templin–Berlin Ostkreuz), RB
20 (Oranienburg–Potsdam Hbf–Potsdam Griebnitzsee) and RB 32
(Oranienburg–Berlin Ostkreuz–Airport BER – Terminal 5) also operate.
In addition to the train station in Oranienburg, there is the
Sachsenhausen stop on the RB 12 regional train line. The districts of
Schmachtenhagen and Wensickendorf are connected to Berlin-Karow via the
Heidekrautbahn. The S-Bahn line S1 stops in the district of Lehnitz.
Fichtengrund station on the Nordbahn and Zehlendorf (b Oranienburg)
on the Heidekrautbahn were closed after 1990. The branch lines to
Kremmen (part of the bypass) with the stations Oranienburg Süd, Eden and
Germendorf and to Velten via Germendorf Süd and between Fichtengrund and
Schmachtenhagen have been shut down and partially dismantled.
The
Oberhavel Verkehrsgesellschaft is based in the district of Germendorf.
It is a regional bus company owned by the district and a member of the
VBB. The company operates 42 lines with 85 buses, mainly in the district
of Oberhavel. Oranienburg is a central link between several of the
company's bus lines and with the Berlin S-Bahn and regional rail
services.
The most important waterways are the Oder-Havel Canal
with the Lehnitzsee, the Oranienburg Canal, the Ruppin Canal and the
Havel. Northwest of the city, the Oranienburg and Ruppin Canals form the
Oranienburg canal junction. Locks in the city area are the Lehnitz lock
in the Oder-Havel canal, the Pinnow lock in the Oranienburger and the
Tiergarten lock in the Ruppin canal. The Sachsenhausen sluice, the
Friedenthal sluice and the Malz sluice are not functional, although the
city is discussing repair and recommissioning in order to improve the
infrastructure for the increasing water tourism.
The
Berlin-Copenhagen long-distance cycle route runs through the districts
of Lehnitz, the city center, Friedrichsthal and Schmachtenhagen (Bernöwe
residential area).
The city lies on the German-Dutch holiday
route Orange Route.
In Oranienburg, the Oranienburger Generalanzeiger and a local edition of the Märkische Allgemeine appear as daily newspapers. In the district of Zehlendorf there was a large radio transmission system for LW, MW and VHF with one of the most powerful long-wave transmitters in Europe. The last transmission mast was blown up on March 25, 2017. From March 2005 to 2009, the radio station oldiestar* broadcast a radio program for Brandenburg and Berlin from the T.U.R.M. Erlebniscity. The local television station OHV-TV provides information from the region via the cable network.
There are 20 schools and 9 secondary schools in Oranienburg. The
general schools in Oranienburg include the Runge-Gymnasium, the
Louise-Henriette-Gymnasium and the Torhorst-Gesamtschule.
The
Police University of the State of Brandenburg conducts police training
for the middle, upper and higher level of the police force for the
Brandenburg police force. The first year of study for the higher service
is carried out here jointly for the Brandenburg and Berlin police. Since
2006, the police of the German Bundestag have also had police officers
trained in Oranienburg.
The football clubs Oranienburger FC Eintracht and TuS 1896 Sachsenhausen are playing in the Brandenburg League in the 2018/2019 season. Other Oranienburg sports clubs are the Oranienburger HC, the TSV 1997 Oranienburg, the VSV Havel Oranienburg, the chess club Oranienburg, the SV Athletik Oranienburg, the DLRG local group Oranienburg and the dance school Tiphop from the Oberhavel family sports club.
The list of honorary citizens of Oranienburg includes 20 people,
including
1838 Karl von Paschwitz (1793–1872), Prussian officer
1883: Georg Scharnweber (1816–1894), Prussian politician
2000: W.
Michael Blumenthal (* 1926), American politician, director of the Jewish
Museum Berlin
Tharsander, pseudonym of the evangelical pastor Georg Wilhelm Wegner
(1692–1765)
Friedrich Gustav Hagemann, actor and dramaturge
(1760–around 1830)
Friedrich Ludwig Dulon, flutist and composer
(1769–1826)
Ewald Dittmar, engineer and chairman of the Association
of German Engineers (VDI) (1832–1890)
Oskar Linke, writer and
journalist (1854–1928)
Otto Böckler, writer (1867–1932)
Walter
Klamroth, bank manager (1873–1946)
Arthur Neisser, music critic
(1875–1943/1944)
Emil Franke, politician (DNVP), district mayor in
Berlin-Wilmersdorf (1880–1945)
Wilhelm Kiesow, Reich Court Councilor
(1881–1938)
Otto W. A. Schreiber, Shipowner (1884–1967)
Walther
Bothe, physicist and Nobel Prize winner (1891–1957)
Eta
Harich-Schneider, harpsichordist, musicologist and writer (1897–1986)
Wilhelm Dumstrey, politician (CDU), district mayor in Berlin-Wilmersdorf
(1899–1990)
Carl Gustav Hempel, philosopher (1905–1997)
Annemarie
Norden, writer (1910–2008)
Klaus Wetzel (1921–1999), lawyer, judge at
the Federal Administrative Court
Heinz Fengler, numismatist
(1923–1999)
W. Michael Blumenthal, US Secretary of the Treasury,
Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin (b. 1926)
Karl-Heinz Schoenfeld,
caricaturist (b. 1928)
Uwe Karsten Groß, organist and composer
(1930–2015)
Waldemarspender, author of children's books (1931–1998)
Harry Jeske, co-founder of rock group Puhdys (1937–2020)
Gisela
Lindemann, née Möller (1938–1989), literary critic, literary scholar and
radio editor
Uwe Böschemeyer, psychotherapist (* 1939)
Jürgen
Hoika, prehistorian and early historian (1941–2005)
Gert Mattenklott,
comparatist (1942–2009)
Frank Badur, painter and draftsman (b. 1944)
Stefan Döring, writer and translator (born 1954)
Annett Kruschke,
actress (born 1964)
Bernd Eichroot, rower, Olympic champion 1988 (*
1964)
Kathrin Angerer, actress (born 1970)
Alexander Walke, soccer
player (born 1983)
Marcus Mlynikowski, soccer player (born 1992)
Marcel Franz, cyclist (b. 1996)
Prisoners and staff of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp can be
found in the “Prisoner in Sachsenhausen” category and in the “Personnel
in Sachsenhausen” category, respectively.
Luise Henriette von Oranien
(1627–1667), Electress of Brandenburg and who gave her name to the city
of Oranienburg, established a model economy
Friedrich I (1657–1713),
the first Prussian king, expanded Oranienburg Palace in honor of his
mother and used it as a summer residence
August Wilhelm of Prussia
(1722–1758), brother of Frederick the Great and father of King Frederick
William II, died in Oranienburg Palace
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge
(1794–1867), chemist, died in Oranienburg
Fritz Skowronnek
(1858–1939), writer, died in Oranienburg
Silvio Gesell (1862-1930),
founder of free economics, spent many years of his life in Eden and died
there
Max Rehberg (1882–1945), teacher and local historian, died in
Oranienburg
Wilhelm Groß (1883–1974), sculptor, preacher of the
Confessing Church, died in Eden
Friedrich Wolf (1888–1953), doctor
and writer, died in Lehnitz
Inge Müller (1925-1966), poet, wife of
playwright Heiner Müller, lived in Lehnitz for a while
Kurt Kelm
(1925–2009), translator, lived in Oranienburg from 1949 to 2009
Wieland Förster (* 1930), sculptor, lives in Wensickendorf