Before the
Migration Period, the Old Germanic
Lombards had settled the future Altmark, but later migrated towards the southeast, resettling in
Pannonia by the first half of the 6th century. Subsequently, the Germanic
Saxon tribes expanded their territory by integrating northwestern regions into the
Old Saxony, while
Polabian Slavic tribe of
Drevani settled in the northeastern territories along the Elbe river. During the
Saxon Wars (772-804), the
Old Saxony became integrated into the
Carolingian Empire. In the same time, the eastern Saxon region, known as
Eastphalia, was entrusted by
Charlemagne to Odo, an imperial legate () under whose command was the frontier fortress of
Höhbeck on Elba, that was temporarily captured by the neighboring Slavic
Wilzi in 810, but was soon retaken by Franks in 811, and already by 822 the region of
Arendsee in Altmark was considered as integral part of Eastphalia (Eastern Saxony), bordering the Slavs (
Sorbian March). From 843 onwards, the
Duchy of Saxony with its frontier regions on the Elbe river constituted the eastern borderland of
East Francia, under king
Louis the German and his successors. The
bishops of Verden and
of Halberstadt promoted the
Christianisation of the Saxon population. Subjugation of
Drevani and other Slavic tribes along the Elbe river was intensified during the 10th century. German king
Otto I (936-973) allotted Eastphalian frontier regions (including the later Altmark) to the Saxon Count
Gero, in order to subdue the Slavic tribes along the Elbe. Gero thereafter campaigned in the Slavic lands far beyond the river Elbe, and established the
march (known in historiography as the
March of Gero), that was expanding towards the river
Oder in the east. Upon Gero's death in 965, his march was split, and its northern part (known as the
Northern March) was entrusted to count
Thiadricus (
Dietrich of Haldensleben). As a margrave, he was tasked to defend the northeastern Eastphalian regions, including Altmark, and was placed in charge over the pacification of neighboring Slavic tribes over the Elbe river, such as
Redarians and
Hevellians. Dietrich turned out to be an unsuccessful margrave, and lost all the territories east of the Elbe in the Slavic
Slavic uprising of 983. He retained his margravial title and the initial land basis of his predecessor Gero's conquests west of the river Elbe. The question of whether the region of later Altmark was included directly and to what extent into Gero's and Dietrich's frontier jurisdictions is debated among scholars. For more than one and a half centuries, the lands east of the Elbe defied German control, until in 1134 Emperor
Lothair of Supplinburg bestowed the Northern March on the
Ascanian count
Albert the Bear. Albert signed an inheritance contract with the Slavic
Hevelli prince
Pribislav and in 1150 succeeded him in his eastern territory around the fortress of
Brandenburg an der Havel, which became the nucleus of his newly established
Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1157. As the Brandenburg margraves expanded their territory during the course of the , the original western territory of the Northern March became known as the Altmark (literally "Old
March") in contrast to the (Middle March) and (New March) beyond the Oder river; the written record first mentions it in 1304 as . As part of Brandenburg, from 1415 held by the
House of Hohenzollern, the Altmark became part of
Brandenburg-Prussia and (from 1701) of the
Kingdom of Prussia. After Prussia's defeat at the hands of
Napoleon in 1806, the terms of the
Treaty of Tilsit (1807) assigned the territory of the Altmark to the new
Kingdom of Westphalia. Prussia regained the area upon Napoleon's defeat (per Article XXIII of the Final Act of the
Congress of Vienna, 1815); however, it was incorporated into the new Prussian
Province of Saxony rather than being attached to the
Province of Brandenburg. Within Prussian Saxony, the Altmark was subdivided into the districts of
Salzwedel,
Gardelegen,
Osterburg, and
Stendal, all administered within the of
Magdeburg. After
World War II the Altmark, lying to the east of the
inner German border, became part of the new state of
Saxony-Anhalt in the
Soviet occupation zone. The regional administration of
East Germany saw it administered within from 1952 to 1990. With
German reunification in 1990, the Altmark became part of a reconstituted Saxony-Anhalt. == Rivers and lakes ==