The town was founded in 1182 by the
Ascanian Duke
Bernard of
Saxony, the ancestor of the
Dukes of Lauenburg. It took its name from that of the castle of
Lowenborch (erected here between 1181 and 1182), deriving from , the
Polabian-language name of the Elbe (compare modern
Czech ). In 1296 the
duchy of
Saxe-Lauenburg was partitioned from Saxony (the other part becoming
Saxe-Wittenberg), which persisted until the 19th century. Lauenburg served as the ducal capital until 1616, when the castle burnt down. In 1619 the capital was moved to
Ratzeburg. The area of the duchy was roughly coterminous with today's district. From 1689 the duchy was in a
personal union with
Lüneburg-Celle, from 1705
Brunswick-Lüneburg (commonly known as Hanover) and from 1714 also
Great Britain and
Ireland. During the
Napoleonic Wars the area was briefly incorporated into the
First French Empire as part of the
Bouches-de-l'Elbe department. After the Napoleonic Wars Lauenburg was acquired by
Prussia from
Hanover in exchange for
East Frisia; Prussia then ceded it to
Denmark in exchange for its part of
Pomerania (which had been
Swedish Pomerania). It remained in Danish hands until 1864 when they lost it in
Treaty of Vienna following the
Second Schleswig War. It entered a personal union with Prussia in 1865 and on 1 July 1876 it was incorporated into the Prussian
Province of Schleswig-Holstein. In medieval times Lauenburg was a waypoint on the
Old Salt Route, while today it is the southern terminus of the
Elbe-Lübeck Canal. Between 1945 and 1982, Lauenburg served as a
West German Inner German border crossing for cars travelling along
Bundesstraße 5 between the
Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany (until 1949, thereafter the East
German Democratic Republic, or
West Berlin) and the British zone of occupation (until 1949 and thereafter the West German Federal Republic of Germany). The traffic was subject to the
Interzonal traffic regulations that between West Germany and West Berlin followed the special regulations of the
Transit Agreement (1972). ==Culture and sights==