Middle Ages In the course of the
eastern colonisation the area of today's Bleckede became a part of the
Duchy of Saxony. The current name derives from an older variant Bleketsa, a
Slavic term. After the
Welf Saxon, Duke
Henry the Lion, had been overthrown and deposed in 1180, the Welfs lost most of Saxony, including the ducal title which was granted to the
House of Ascania. The Ascanians also claimed Bleckede. However, Henry's son
William of Winchester disputed that claim and made Bleckede the Welf outpost upon Elbe in 1209, in order to have a step towards the trans-Elbian areas which were in the process of colonisation by settlers from the west. William also levied a toll from ships passing Bleckede and renamed the city in honour of his father Lowenstat (Lion's town; Löwenstadt). A castle was erected to protect the Elbe crossing and the toll station. The castle was first mentioned in 1270 and today's castle uses the foundations of the old one. But the Ascanians did not give up and Duke
Albert II of Saxony fought for Bleckede with William's son
Otto the Child, who gained the support of Prince-Archbishop Gilbert of Bremen. However, no party could subject the other so they agreed in 1287 to let King
Rudolph I of Germany decide. He conceded Bleckede to Saxony, so the Welf name of Lowenstat was dropped and Bleckede prevailed. In 1293 the Saxon dukes granted Bleckede - together with other towns - the privilege of
coinage. The co-ruling Saxon dukes Albert II and his nephews
Albert III,
Eric I and
John II partitioned Saxony into
Saxe-Lauenburg and
Saxe-Wittenberg before 20 September 1296. Bleckede was then a part of Saxe-Lauenburg, colloquially also called
Lower Saxony, as opposed to
Upper Saxony for Saxe-Wittenberg. Saxe-Lauenburg ceded Bleckede - with toll and castle - to Margrave
Waldemar of Brandenburg-Stendal, who quickly sold his new acquisition in 1308 to the Welf duke
Otto the Strict, ruling the branch
Principality of Lunenburg (Lüneburg). Two years later the duke granted Bleckede
town privileges, comprising the obligation to fortify the town. In 1379 Duke
Albert of Lunenburg-Celle pawned Bleckede castle to his creditors
Hamburg,
Lübeck,
Hanover and
Lunenburg (Lüneburg). The latter managed to hold Bleckede by way of pawn until 1600.
Modern era In 1666 Bleckede burnt down almost completely. After the
Brunswick and Lunenburgian Duke
George William, prince of the branch of
Lunenburg (Celle), died in 1705, Bleckede — like all the principality — merged by way of inheritance with the
Electorate of Brunswick and Lunenburg, colloquially called after its capital Electorate of Hanover. After the
French victory over the electorate Bleckede was occupied, before it was annexed to the ephemeric
Kingdom of Westphalia in March 1810, forming part of its
Lower Elbe département. After the
Great French War Bleckede was restored to the Electorate of Hanover in 1813, which was elevated to
Kingdom of Hanover two years later. After the Prussian annexation of Hanover Bleckede became a part of the new
Province of Hanover in 1866. At the introduction of
Prussian-style district administration in Hanover on 1 April 1885 Bleckede became the capital of the new '''', which merged into the
District of Lunenburg (Lüneburg) on 1 October 1932.
World War II and post-war period During the Nazi era the Hanoveran provincial administration was superseded by the Nazi party Gau administration of
Eastern Hanover under gauleiter
Otto Telschow. A subcamp of the
Neuengamme concentration camp existed from August 24, 1944 to February 15, 1945 in the Alt Garge quarter, whose prisoners were mostly
Poles deported from
Warsaw following the unsuccessful Polish
Warsaw Uprising. With the
Allied occupation of Germany the situation changed again. There was no bridge between the bulk of the Hanover province south of the
Elbe, being part of the British zone of occupation in Germany, and the small north Elbian quarters of Bleckede, namely Neu Bleckede and Neu Wendischthun, actually also part of the British zone. So the British decided a territorial redeployment and ceded Bleckede's north Elbian quarters to the
Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany, state of Mecklenburg, making Bleckede one of the divided towns in a divided Germany. With Mecklenburg that area became part of the East
German Democratic Republic in 1949. The East German control zone along the
Inner German border, hermetically sealed off since 1952, made the West and the Elbe banks inaccessible for the inhabitants of Neu Bleckede and Neu Wendischthun. Families considered to be living too close to the border were evacuated and their houses demolished. After
World War II the British opened a
displaced person camp in their part of Bleckede. After the downfall of the communist regime in East Germany in 1989 (
Die Wende) the inhabitants of Bleckede's north Elbian quarters (part of the new state of
Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania) demanded the reunification with western Bleckede, which belonged since 1946 to the West German state of
Lower Saxony. So both states stipulated in an interstate treaty to disentangle Neu Bleckede and Neu Wendischthun, as well as the neighbouring municipality of
Amt Neuhaus from Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania with effect of 30 June 1993, when they were annexed to Lower Saxony. In a referendum the inhabitants of Amt Neuhaus voted for a merger with Bleckede on 7 June 2009. Bleckede, however, has not decided yet. ==Notable people==