Neuruppin

Neuruppin

Street with Holy Trinity Church

Coat of arms
Neuruppin

Coordinates: 52°55′59″N 12°48′00″E / 52.93306°N 12.80000°E / 52.93306; 12.80000Coordinates: 52°55′59″N 12°48′00″E / 52.93306°N 12.80000°E / 52.93306; 12.80000
Country Germany
State Brandenburg
District Ostprignitz-Ruppin
Government
  Mayor Jens-Peter Golde (Pro Ruppin)
Area
  Total 303.32 km2 (117.11 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)[1]
  Total 30,715
  Density 100/km2 (260/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 16816, 16818, 16827
Dialling codes 03391, 033925, 033929, 033932, 033933
Vehicle registration OPR, KY, NP, WK
Website www.neuruppin.de

Neuruppin (German pronunciation: [nɔʏʁʊˈpiːn]) is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, the administrative seat of Ostprignitz-Ruppin district. It is the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) and therefore also referred to as Fontanestadt. A garrison town since 1688 and largely rebuilt in a Neoclassical style after a devastating fire in 1787, Neuruppin has the reputation of being "the most Prussian of all Prussian towns".

Geography

The town is located on the shore of the Ruppiner See, a lake traversed by the Rhin river, about 60 km (37 mi) northwest of Berlin. In the north, the hilly landscape of Ruppin Switzerland stretches up to the Rheinsberg Lake Region and the border with Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is part of the Stechlin-Ruppiner Land Nature Park.

After several incorporations in 1993, Neuruppin today is one of Germany's largest municipalities by area.

History

The shores of Ruppiner See were settled since the Stone Age; in the 9th century AD, Poggenwerder Island was the site of a Slavic gord (burgwall), probably built by Polabian Zamizi tribes. The castle was possibly slighted during the Wendish Crusade of 1147 and about 1200 a lowland castle was erected on an opposite peninsula, which from 1214 served as the residence of the Lords of Ruppin. Their lordship remained an immediate Imperial estate until its final incorporation into the neighbouring Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1524.

View of Neuruppin, about 1694

The name Neuruppin means "New Ruppin", as the original settlement of Ruppin (later Alt Ruppin, "Old Ruppin") was located around the castle on the north-eastern shore of the Ruppiner See. In the early 13th century, when the settlement became too small for the growing population, Neuruppin on the western shore of the lake was established by the Lords of Lindow-Ruppin. First mentioned in a 1238 deed, it became the first establishment of the Dominican Order between the Elbe and Oder rivers, when the local noble Wichmann von Arnstein founded Neuruppin Abbey in 1246. Today only the monastery church is still standing. Since the Protestant Reformation it is called St Trinitatis. Neuruppin received town privileges on 9 March 1256; town walls were erected and completed until the 15th century.

In 1524 Ruppin Land was finally seized as a reverted fief by the Hohenzollern Elector Joachim I Nestor of Brandenburg. The monastery was secularised in the course of the Reformation and its premises ceded to the Neuruppin citizens. The town was ravaged by the Thirty Years' War, from about 1685 French Huguenot refugees settled here. In 1688 Neuruppin became a Brandenburg-Prussian garrison town.

After a disastrous fire in 1787 the Neo-Classicism of the rebuilt town's buildings characterise its townscape to the present day. It remained a garrison town until the late 20th century, since Soviet (resp. Russian) troops were stationed here until 1993; during this time there were as many Soviet soldiers as inhabitants in Neuruppin.

Demography

Neuruppin:
Population development within the current boundaries (2013)
[2]
Year Population
1875 20 080
1890 21 912
1910 26 164
1925 26 640
1933 29 044
1939 33 090
1946 37 904
1950 36 677
1964 31 422
1971 31 283
Year Population
1981 33 042
1985 33 989
1989 34 176
1990 34 014
1991 33 324
1992 33 349
1993 33 249
1994 33 049
1995 32 795
1996 32 817
Year Population
1997 32 744
1998 32 732
1999 32 640
2000 32 598
2001 32 375
2002 32 317
2003 32 114
2004 32 061
2005 32 145
2006 31 939
Year Population
2007 31 821
2008 31 662
2009 31 574
2010 31 599
2011 30 184
2012 30 162
2013 30 345

Notable people

The novelist Theodor Fontane, the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the lieutenant colonel Otto Friedrich Ferdinand von Görschen, the general Hermann Hoth, the serial killer Carl Großmann and the actor Klaus Schwarzkopf were born in Neuruppin. The architect Joachim Ludwig Schultheiss von Unfriedt was possibly from Altruppin.

More sons and daughters of Neuruppin

Ferdinand von Bredow 1930
Carl von Clausewitz painted by Karl Wilhelm Walch

References

Media related to Neuruppin at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.