Aschersleben (ˈaʃɐsleːbən) is a
townA town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in the
SalzlandkreisSalzland is a district in the middle of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is bounded by the districts Harz, Börde, Magdeburg, Jerichower Land, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Mansfeld-Südharz and Saalekreis.- History :...
district, in
Saxony-AnhaltSaxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It is situated approx. 22 km east of
QuedlinburgQuedlinburg is a town located north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994 the medieval court and the old town was set on the UNESCO world heritage list....
, and 45 km northwest of Halle (Saale).
Pre-20th century
Aschersleben was first mentioned in 753. The
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
name of the town's castle,
Ascharia, provided the name of the House of Ascania. From 1252–1315 Aschersleben was the capital of Anhalt-Aschersleben, after which it passed to the
Bishopric of HalberstadtThe Bishopric of Halberstadt was a Roman Catholic diocese from 804 until 1648 and an ecclesiastical state of the Holy Roman Empire from the late Middle Ages...
. After the 1648
Peace of WestphaliaThe Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...
it became part of the
Principality of HalberstadtThe Principality of Halberstadt was a state of the Holy Roman Empire ruled by Brandenburg-Prussia. It replaced the Bishopric of Halberstadt after its secularization in 1648. Its capital was Halberstadt. In 1807, the principality was made a state or regional capital of the Kingdom of Westphalia...
. Aschersleben became part of the
PrussiaPrussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n
Province of SaxonyThe Province of Saxony was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945. Its capital was Magdeburg.-History:The province was created in 1816 out of the following territories:...
in 1815.
Nazi Germany
A Junkers serial fuselage production facility was located in Aschersleben during the time of
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. In April 1935 tools were transferred to Aschersleben and by May 1935 the first fuselages were built there. The facility was located in the Wilslebener Strasse 9 near the so-called Seewiesen, where an airfield was erected as well. The Aschersleben shop area reached 564,000 square metres and about 6,000 people were employed at it.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, a subcamp of the
Buchenwald concentration campBuchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
was located in the town. It was established to provide slave labour for Junkers (aircraft) and Motorenwerk (automotive).
Since July 1944 about 950 KZ prisoners were forced to work at the Junkers Flugzeugwerke in Aschersleben. In April 1945 the production was ceased. On 17 April U.S. forces occupied Aschersleben, but on 23 May the city was handed over to the British forces and later on 1 July it was finally handed over to the Soviets.
Aschersleben was bombed on the following dates during the war:
- 1 April 1942 first British bomb attack
- 20 February 1944 U.S. day attack, failed target due to cloudy weather
- 31 March 1945
- 14 April 1945
At the end of World War II Junkers-Aschersleben was mostly intact and the production was just changing for the Heinkel He162 production. Most installations were dismantled and transferred to
KievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
by the Soviets in 1946. The remaining facility buildings at Aschersleben were later used by VEB Kombinat Fritz Heckert. Today the area is used by Schiess AG.
Post-1945
Aschersleben was part of East Germany until 1990, when it became part of Saxony-Anhalt during
German reunificationGerman reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
. On 1 January 2008, the municipalities of
DrohndorfDrohndorf is a former municipality in the district of Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2008, it is part of the town Aschersleben.-See also:*Freckleben*Mehringen...
,
FrecklebenFreckleben is a former municipality in the district of Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2008, it is part of the town Aschersleben.-See also:*Drohndorf*Mehringen...
and
MehringenMehringen is a former municipality in the district of Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2008, it has been part of the town of Aschersleben.-See also:*Drohndorf*Freckleben...
were incorporated into Aschersleben.
Architecture
Several architectural styles are represented in Aschersleben. The historic centre is dominated by
romanesqueRomanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
(
Grauer Hof),
gothicGothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
(St. Stephani Church),
renaissanceRenaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
(City Hall,
Krukmannsches Haus) and
baroque architectureBaroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
.
There is a ring of buildings in
neoclassicalNeoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
and Jugendstil styles around the historic Old Town. This, in turn, is surrounded and interspersed with buildings of early
modernismModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
like the Heckner-Bauten and buildings from the GDR era. Large new areas are mainly in the north and south-east of the city.
There are few half-timbered buildings in the old town of Aschersleben. The reasons for this is the availability of good stone material and the absence of large forests in the vicinity, as well as numerous fires before the 16th century. Nevertheless, there are numerous buildings, which are partly half-timbered, usually the upper floors.
Others
Wendell Lewis Willkie (February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was a corporate lawyer in the United States and the Republican Party (GOP) nominee for the 1940 presidential election, despite having never held a prior elected political office.
Born Lewis Wendell Willkie in Elwood, Indiana, he was the son of Herman Willkie, a German immigrant from Aschersleben, and Henrietta Tisch.
People
- Adam Olearius
Adam Olearius , born Adam Ölschläger or Oehlschlaeger, was a German scholar, mathematician, geographer and librarian...
(1603–1671), writer and diplomat
- Johann Esaias Silberschlag (1721–1791), theologian and scientist
- Johann August Ephraim Goeze
Johann August Ephraim Goeze was a German zoologist from Aschersleben.He was the son of Johann Heinrich and Catherine Margarete . He studied theology at University of Halle. He married Leopoldine Maria Keller in 1770, by whom he had four children. In 1751, he became a pastor at Aschersleben in...
(1731–1793), zoologist
- Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht
Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht was a German musical conductor, composer and inventor.-Early life and career:Wieprecht was born at Aschersleben, where his father was town musician....
(1802–1872), composer
- Rudolf Christian Böttger
Rudolf Christian Böttger was a German inorganic chemist. He conducted most of his research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
(1806–1881), chemist and physicist
- Gerd von Rundstedt
Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt was a Generalfeldmarschall of the German Army during World War II. He held some of the highest field commands in all phases of the war....
(1875–1953), World War II general
- Hermann Gieseler (1889–1948), union leader
- Walter Andreas Schwarz
Walter Andreas Schwarz was a German singer, songwriter, novelist, Kabarettist, author of radio dramas and translator.- Biography :...
(1913–1992), singer
- Lilo Ramdohr
Lieselotte Fürst-Ramdohr was a member of the Munich branch of the student resistance group White Rose in Nazi Germany. She was born in Aschersleben.- Early life :...
(born 1913), member of the anti-fascist group White RoseThe White Rose was a non-violent/intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor...
.
- Ernst Klodwig
Ernst Klodwig was a racing driver from East Germany. He participated in two Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, driving privately run BMWs with different engines. He was classified in both races with a best finish of 12th.-Complete Formula One World Championship results:...
(1903–1973), Formula 1 driver
- Otto Arndt (1920–1992), politician
- Gerd Höfer (born 1943), politician
- John Leuschner (born 1980), German survival expert
External links