Oranienburg Information & Oranienburg Links at HealthHaven.com

Oranienburg
	Oranienburg
	Schloss Oranienburg
	; Oranienburg
Coordinates	52°45′16″N 13°14′13″E / 52.75444°N 13.23694°E
	Administration
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Oberhavel
Town subdivisions	9 districts
Mayor	Hans-Joachim Laesicke (SPD)
	Basic statistics
Area	162.37 km2 (62.69 sq mi)
Elevation	34 m (112 ft)
Population	41,194 (30 June 2006)
- Density	254 /km2 (657 /sq mi)
	Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	OHV
Postal code	16515
Area code	03301
Website	www.oranienburg.de
Location of the town of Oranienburg within Oberhavel district

Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.

[edit] Geography

Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.

[edit] Division of the town

Oranienburg consists of 9 districts

Friedrichsthal
Germendorf
Lehnitz
Malz
Oranienburg
Sachsenhausen
Schmachtenhagen
Wensickendorf
Zehlendorf

[edit] History

The original name of Oranienburg was Bötzow. The town was founded in the 12th century and was first mentioned in 1216. Albert the Bear is believed to have ordered the construction of a castle on the banks of the Havel. Around the castle there was a settlement of traders and craftsmen.

In 1646, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg married Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau (German: Oranien-Nassau). She was so attracted by the town of Bötzow, that her husband presented the entire region to her. The princess ordered a new castle to be built in Dutch style and called it Oranienburg. In 1653, the town of Bötzow was renamed Oranienburg.

Oranienburg became a showplace of terror during the Nazi era. One of the first Nazi concentration camps was built there in 1933; in 1935 the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was established in the quarter of Sachsenhausen. While the first camp was dissolved as early as 1934, the Sachsenhausen camp continued to exist until the end of the Nazi regime; 100,000 people were killed in Sachsenhausen before the liberation of the camp by the Soviet Red Army in 1945.

According to the military historian Antony Beevor, possession of as much of the German nuclear energy project was a primary motive for Stalin authorising the launching of the Battle for Berlin.^[1] The preemptive destruction of as much of this infrastructure as possible, so that it would not fall into Soviet hands, was the motive behind the raid on 15 March 1945 by the USAAF Eighth Air Force on the German atomic energy research facility in Oranienburg.^[2]