Nauen


Nauen is a small town in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is chiefly known for Nauen Transmitter Station, the world's oldest preserved radio transmitting installation.

Geography

Nauen is situated within the Havelland Luch glacial lowland, the heart of the Havelland region north of the Nauen Plateau, about west of the Berlin city centre and northwest of Potsdam. It is one of Germany's largest municipalities by area, comprising Nauen proper and fourteen surrounding villages, including Ribbeck whose landowners were perpetuated in Theodor Fontane's poem Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland.

History

The settlement of Nowen was first mentioned in an 1186 deed issued by the Bishop of Brandenburg. The citizens received town privileges by the Brandenburg margraves in 1292; a first town hall was built in 1302. The Ascanian margrave Waldemar vested Nauen with market rights in 1317. A Jewish community already existed in medieval times.
During the Thirty Years' War, in 1631, Nauen was devastated by Imperial troops led by Field Marshal Count Johann Tserclaes of Tilly. On 27 June 1675, Swedish and Brandenburg troops met at the Battle of Nauen during the Scanian War. Under Prussian rule, Nauen became a garrison town. In 1846 it received access to the Berlin–Hamburg Railway.
Nauen is well known for the location of a transmission site. It was used from 1906 to 1945 for VLF and shortwave. After 1945 the installations were dismantled, but after 1955 the GDR started building up a shortwave transmission center at Nauen. Since 1997 four turnable shortwave transmission aerials have been sited there.

Demography

Sons and daughters of the town