Northern March By the eighth century,
Slavic Wends, such as the
Sprewane and
Hevelli (Havolane or Stodorans), started to move into the Brandenburg area. They intermarried with Saxons and Bohemians. The Bishoprics of
Brandenburg and
Havelberg were established at the beginning of the tenth century (in 928 and 948, respectively). They were
suffragan to the
Archbishopric of Mainz; the Bishopric of Brandenburg reached to the
Baltic Sea. King
Henry the Fowler started governing in the region in 928–929, allowing Emperor
Otto I to establish the
Northern March under Margrave
Gero in 936 during the German . However, the march and the bishoprics were overthrown by a
Slavic rebellion in 983; until the collapse of the
Liutizian alliance in the middle of the 11th century, the
Holy Roman Empire government through bishoprics and marches came nearly to a standstill for approximately 150 years, even though the bishopric was retained. Prince
Pribislav of the Hevelli came to power at the castle of Brenna () in 1127. During Pribislav's reign, in which he cultivated close connections with the
German nobility, Germans succeeded in binding to the Holy Roman Empire the Havolane region from to
Spandau. The disputed eastern border continued between the Hevelli and the Sprewane, recognized as the Havel-Nuthe line. Prince
Jaxa of Köpenick (
Jaxa de Copnic) of the Sprewane lived in Köpenick east of the dividing line.
Ascanians statue of
Albert the Bear, flanked by Bishop Wigger of Brandenburg and Bishop
Otto of Bamberg Early Ascanian rule of then-fragmented Poland. Territories annexed by Brandenburg from Poland marked in yellow (
Lubusz Land) and green (northwestern
Greater Poland) During the second phase of the German ,
Albert the Bear began the expansionary eastern policy of the
Ascanians. From 1123 to 1125, Albert developed contacts with Pribislav, who served as the godfather for the Ascanian's first son,
Otto, and gave the boy the Zauche region as a christening present in 1134. In the same year, Emperor
Lothair III named Albert margrave of the
Northern March and raised Pribislav to the status of king, although that was later rescinded. Also in 1134, Albert succeeded in securing for the Ascanians the inheritance of the childless Pribislav. After the latter's death in 1150, Albert received the Havolane residence of Brenna. The Ascanians also began to build the
castle of
Spandau. In contrast to their leaders, who had accepted Christianity, the Havolane population still worshipped old Slavic deities and opposed Albert's assumption of power.
Jaxa of Köpenick, a possible relative of Pribislav and a claim-holder to Brandenburg, controlled Brandenburg with
Polish help, and ruled the land of the Stodorans. Older historical research dates this conquest to 1153, although there are no definite sources for the date. More recent researchers (such as Lutz Partenheimer) date it to spring 1157, as it is doubtful that Albert would have responded to Jaxa's actions for four years. With bloody victories on 11 June 1157, Albert the Bear was able to reconquer Brandenburg, exile Jaxa, and found a new lordship. Because he already held the title of margrave, Albert styled himself as
Margrave of Brandenburg () on 3 October 1157, thereby beginning the Margraviate of Brandenburg.
Territorial expansion The territorial limits of the original margraviate differed from the area of the current Bundesland
Brandenburg, consisting merely of the Havelland and Zauche regions. In the following 150 years, the Ascanians succeeded in winning the
Uckermark,
Teltow, and
Barnim regions east of the Havel and Nuthe, thereby extending the Mark to the
Oder River. The ("New March") east of the Oder was acquired gradually through purchases, marriages, and aid to the
Piast dynasty of
Poland.
Settlement and administration Because of the sandy soil prevalent in Brandenburg, the agriculturally meager principality was denigrated as "the
sandbox of the
Holy Roman Empire". which it previously lost to Brandenburg in the 13th century, in the same year the Luxembourgs pawned the region to the
Teutonic Knights, who neglected the border region. Under the Wittelsbach and Luxembourg margraves, Brandenburg fell increasingly under the control of the local nobility as central authority declined.
Hohenzollerns In return for supporting
Sigismund as Holy Roman Emperor at
Frankfurt in 1410,
Frederick VI of Nuremberg, a
burgrave of the
House of Hohenzollern, was granted hereditary control over Brandenburg in 1411. Rebellious
landed nobility such as the
Quitzow family opposed his appointment, but Frederick overpowered these knights with
artillery. Some nobles had their property confiscated, and the Brandenburg estates gave allegiance at
Tangermünde on 20 March 1414. Frederick was officially recognized as Margrave and Prince-elector Frederick I of Brandenburg at the
Council of Constance in 1415. Frederick's formal investiture with the , or electoral march, and his appointment as Archchamberlain of the Holy Roman Empire occurred on 18 April 1417, also during the Council of Constance. Frederick made Berlin his residence, although he retired to his
Franconian possessions in 1425. He granted governance of Brandenburg to his eldest son
John the Alchemist, while retaining the electoral dignity for himself. The next elector,
Frederick II, forced the submission of Berlin and
Cölln, setting an example for the other towns of Brandenburg. He reacquired the Neumark from the
Teutonic Knights by the
Treaties of Cölln and Mewe and began its rebuilding.
Years of warfare with the Duchy of Pomerania were ended by the
treaties of Prenzlau (1448, 1472, and 1479). Brandenburg accepted the
Protestant Reformation in 1539. The population has remained largely
Lutheran since, although some later electors converted to
Calvinism. The Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg sought to expand their power base from their relatively meager possessions, although this brought them into conflict with neighboring states.
John William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg died childless in 1609. His eldest niece,
Anna, Duchess of Prussia, was the wife of
John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, who promptly claimed the inheritance and sent troops to take hold of some of John William's holdings in the
Rhineland. Unfortunately for John Sigismund, this effort became tied up with the
Thirty Years' War and the disputed succession of Jülich. At the end of the war in 1648, Brandenburg was recognized as the possessor of approximately half the inheritance, comprising the
Duchy of Cleves in the
Rhineland and the Counties of
Mark and
Ravensberg in
Westphalia. These territories, which were more than 100 kilometers from the borders of Brandenburg, formed the nucleus of the later
Prussian Rhineland.
Brandenburg-Prussia , 1600–1795 When
Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia died without a son in 1618, his son-in-law John Sigismund, inherited the
Duchy of Prussia. He then ruled both territories in a
personal union which came to be known as
Brandenburg-Prussia. In this way, the fortuitous marriage of John Sigismund to Anna of Prussia, and the deaths of her maternal uncle in 1609 and her father in 1618 without immediate male heirs, proved to be the key events by which Brandenburg acquired territory both in the Rhineland and on the Baltic coast. Prussia lay outside the Holy Roman Empire and the electors of Brandenburg held it as a fief of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, to which the electors paid homage. The electors of Brandenburg spent the next two centuries attempting to gain lands to unite their separate territories (the Mark Brandenburg, the territories in the Rhineland and Westphalia, and Ducal Prussia) to form one geographically contiguous domain. In the
Peace of Westphalia ending the
Thirty Years' War in 1648, Brandenburg-Prussia acquired
Farther Pomerania and made it the
Province of Pomerania by the
Treaty of Stettin (1653). In the second half of the 17th century,
Frederick William, the "Great Elector", developed Brandenburg-Prussia into a major power. The state constructed Brandenburg's
first navy (), leading to short-lived colonies at
Arguin, the
Brandenburger Gold Coast, and
Saint Thomas. The electors succeeded in acquiring full sovereignty over Prussia in the
treaties of Wehlau and Bromberg in 1657. The territories of the Hohenzollerns were opened to immigration by
Huguenot refugees by the
Edict of Potsdam in 1685.
Kingdom of Prussia In return for aiding Emperor
Leopold I during the
War of the Spanish Succession, Frederick William's son,
Frederick III, was allowed to elevate Prussia to the status of a kingdom. On 18 January 1701, Frederick crowned himself Frederick I,
King in Prussia. Prussia, unlike Brandenburg, lay outside the Holy Roman Empire, within which only the emperor and the ruler of Bohemia could call themselves king. As king was a more prestigious title than
prince-elector, the territories of the Hohenzollerns became known as the
Kingdom of Prussia, although their power base remained in Brandenburg. Legally, Brandenburg was still part of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the Hohenzollerns in personal union with the Prussian kingdom over which they were fully sovereign. For this reason, the Hohenzollerns continued to use the additional title of Elector of Brandenburg for the remainder of the empire's run. However, by this time, the emperor's authority over the empire had become merely nominal. The various territories of the empire acted more or less as
de facto sovereign states, and only acknowledged the emperor's overlordship over them in a formal way. Thus, Brandenburg came to be treated as
de facto part of the Prussian kingdom rather than a separate entity. From 1701 to 1946, Brandenburg's history was largely that of the state of Prussia, which established itself as a major power in Europe during the 18th century. King
Frederick William I of Prussia, the "Soldier-King", modernized the
Prussian Army, while his son
Frederick the Great achieved glory and infamy with the
Silesian Wars and
Partitions of Poland. The feudal designation of the Margraviate of Brandenburg ended with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, which made the Hohenzollerns
de jure as well as
de facto sovereigns over it. It was replaced with the
Province of Brandenburg in 1815 following the
Napoleonic Wars. The Prussian kings, however, continued to use the title "Margrave of Brandenburg" in their formal style. Brandenburg, along with the rest of Prussia, became part of the
German Empire in 1871 during the Prussian-led
unification of Germany.
Later years During the of provinces by
Nazi Germany during the 1930s, the
Province of Brandenburg and the
Free State of Prussia lost all practical relevance. The region was administered as the
Gau March of Brandenburg. The state of Prussia was
de jure abolished in 1947 after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II; the Gau March of Brandenburg was replaced with the Brandenburg. Brandenburg west of the Oder–Neisse line lay in the
Soviet occupation zone; it became part of the
German Democratic Republic. In 1952 the region was divided among the districts of
Cottbus,
Frankfurt (Oder),
Potsdam,
Schwerin, and
Neubrandenburg. Berlin was divided between
East Berlin and
West Berlin. This division of Brandenburg continued until the
German reunification in 1990. The GDR districts were dissolved and replaced with the state of
Brandenburg with its capital in Potsdam. The 850th anniversary of the foundation of the March of Brandenburg was celebrated officially on 11 June 2007, with preliminary celebrations at the Knights' Academy of
Brandenburg an der Havel on 23 June 2006. == See also ==