Neuhardenberg


Neuhardenberg is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the site of Neuhardenberg Palace, residence of the Prussian statesman Prince Karl August von Hardenberg. The municipal area comprises the villages of Altfriedland, Quappendorf and Wulkow. Neuhardenberg is part of the Amt Amt Neuhardenberg.

Names of the place

The oldest record mentioning the place, then named Quilicz, dates back to 1348. Later the spelling was changed into Quilitz. When in 1814 Karl August von Hardenberg received the manor, he renamed the place right away into Neu-Hardenberg. On Labour Day, 1 May 1949, the place was renamed into Marxwalde after Karl Marx. This was reversed on January 1, 1991. Since then the place bears again the old name Neuhardenberg in this slightly altered spelling.

History

The construction of Neuhardenberg Manor with interior designs by Carl Gotthard Langhans dates back to the late 18th century. In 1763 the Prussian general Joachim Bernhard von Prittwitz had received Quilitz, a former property of the Pfuel noble family. The historic village was devastated by a blaze in 1801 and reconstructed as a Neoclassical model settlement according to plans designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. In 1814 King Frederick William III vested Hardenberg with the locality together with the princely title as a gratification for his merits as Prussian state chancellor. From 1820 on Schinkel also rebuilt the mansion, while the gardens were redesigned by Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau and Peter-Joseph Lenné.
Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg held conspirative meetings here in preparation of the 20 July plot after which he was arrested and his properties were seized by the Nazi authorities. In 1945 Hardenberg again had to face the condemnation of his estates by the Soviet Military Administration. The mansion was turned into a school building. From 1957 on the Marxwalde airfield built in the 1930s was extended as the base of an East German Air Force wing.
After reunification the manor was restored to the Hardenberg family and acquired by the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband saving banks association in 1996. After renovation it was reopened in 2002 in the presence of German President Johannes Rau. It is today used as a conference building but also for cultural events.

Demography

Twin towns