March of Lusatia
The March or Margraviate of Lusatia was as an eastern border march of the Holy Roman Empire in the lands settled by Polabian Slavs. It arose in 965 in the course of the partition of the vast Marca Geronis. Ruled by several Saxon margravial dynasties, among them the House of Wettin, the lordship was contested by the Polish kings as well as by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg; the remaining territory was incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1367. The territory of the margraviate corresponded with the present-day region of Lower Lusatia, it stretched from the border of the Saxon stem duchy along the Saale River in the west to the border with Poland on the Bober River in the east. From about 1138, the adjacent territory beyond the river was part of the Duchy of Silesia. In the north, the March of Lusatia bordered on the Northern March, following the Great Slav Rising of 983 established as the Margraviate of Brandenburg under the Ascanian margrave Albert the Bear in 1157, as well as on Land Lebus, nucleus of the Brandenburg Neumark territory from 1248 onwards.
In the south, the Margraviate of Meissen arose from the former Marca Geronis, its western part merged with the Electorate of Saxony, while the eastern Milceni lands emerged as Upper Lusatia. Over the centuries, the margravial territory diminished in favour of the Ascanian County of Anhalt and the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg. Further territories in the west were split off by means of distribution, like the Osterland ruled by the Margraves of Landsberg or the County of Brehna; the area east of the former limes Sorabicus of East Francia, settled by the Slavic Veleti and Milcenian tribes, was conquered until 963 by the Saxon count Gero of Merseburg. He added the territory between the Saale and Bober rivers to his Marca Geronis, which the Saxon duke and German King Otto I had established in 937. After Gero's death in 965 and the loss of the Northern March in the course of the 983 Slavic uprising, Lusatia became the heartland of the remaining Saxon Eastern March under Margrave Odo I. While the term Ostmark stayed in use for centuries, the Lusatian March appeared as a separate administrative unit from at least as early as 965 with the concurrent establishments of the Marches of Meissen and Zeitz.
The division between Lower Lusatia and the adjacent Milceni lands around Bautzen and Görlitz part of Meissen, was apparent that early. In 1002, the Marches of Lusatia and Meissen were conquered by Duke Bolesław I Chrobry of Poland during King Henry II's campaign against revolting Henry of Schweinfurt, which sparked a German–Polish War ended by the 1018 Peace of Bautzen. Henry's successor Conrad II waged two campaigns, in 1031 and 1032, which reconquered both Lower and Upper Lusatia from Mieszko II of Poland. By the reign of King Henry IV from 1056, Lusatia had been reincorporated into the Holy Roman Empire and it formed one of the four divisions of Upper Saxony along with Meissen, the Ostmark, Zeitz; these regions were not always ruled by separate margraves, but were administrative divisions. Lusatia and the Ostmark were ruled together and the Ostmark was reduced to little more than Lower Lusatia. Under Henry IV, Upper Lusatia was detached from the Lusatian march and granted as a fief to Bolesław II of Poland.
The first "Margrave of Lusatia" is only known from 1046. Under Emperor Lothair III, Upper and Lower Lusatia were once again reunited in 1136; the terms "Ostmark" and "Lusatia" were interchangeable into the 12th century, though in 1128 Count Henry of Groitzsch is recorded as Margrave of the Ostmark, but as not receiving the Lusatian march until 1131. While in 1156 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa invested Duke Vladislaus II of Bohemia with Upper Lusatia, the territory of the Margraviate of Lusatia was further reduced by the establishment of the Margraviate of Landsberg, the Principality of Anhalt and the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg. From 1210 on the remaining March of Lower Lusatia was held by the Meissen margraves from the Saxon House of Wettin. Upon the death of Margrave Henry III of Meissen in 1288, his lands were divided: while the Meissen territory passed to his eldest son Albert II, the Lusatian lands fell to his grandson Frederick Tuta, son of the late Margrave Theodoric of Landsberg. A fierce inheritance quarrel arose, whereupon Albert's son Theodoric IV campaigned Lusatia and took it in possession after Frederick Tuta's death in 1291.
In 1303 Theodoric IV sold the Lusatian march to the Ascanian margrave Otto IV of Brandenburg. The Brandenburg Ascanians had acquired neighbouring the adjacent "Upper Lusatian" estates around Bautzen and Görlitz, as well as the Margraviate of Landsberg in 1291; the Lower Lusatian lands were seized by the Wittelsbach king Louis the Bavarian and with Brandenburg ceded to his son Louis V. His brother Otto sold Lower Lusatia to the Luxembourg emperor Charles IV in 1367 whereafter it was incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Centuries both crown lands of Lower and Upper Lusatia passed to the Wettin Electors of Saxony by the 1635 Peace of Prague. Dedi I, 1046–1075 Dedi II, fl. 1069 Henry I, 1075–1103 Henry II, 1103–1123 Wiprecht, 1123–1124 Albert the Bear, 1123–1128 Henry III of Groitzsch, 1124–1135 Conrad of Wettin, 1136–1156 Margrave of Meissen since 1123 Dietrich I, 1156–1185, son of Conrad, titular Margrave of Landsberg Dedi III, 1185–1190, brother Conrad II, 1190–1210, son Dietrich II the Oppressed, 1210–1221 Margrave of Meissen since 1198 Henry IV the Illustrious, 1221–1288, last Wettin margrave of Lusa
German Empire
The German Empire known as Imperial Germany, was the German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918. It was founded in 1871 when the south German states, except for Austria, joined the North German Confederation. On 1 January 1871, the new constitution came into force that changed the name of the federal state and introduced the title of emperor for Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from the House of Hohenzollern. Berlin remained its capital, Otto von Bismarck remained Chancellor, the head of government; as these events occurred, the Prussian-led North German Confederation and its southern German allies were still engaged in the Franco-Prussian War. The German Empire consisted of 26 states, most of them ruled by royal families, they included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, one imperial territory. Although Prussia was one of several kingdoms in the realm, it contained about two thirds of Germany's population and territory.
Prussian dominance was established constitutionally. After 1850, the states of Germany had become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron and railways. In 1871, Germany had a population of 41 million people. A rural collection of states in 1815, the now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire was an industrial and scientific giant, gaining more Nobel Prizes in science than any other country. By 1900, Germany was the largest economy in Europe, surpassing the United Kingdom, as well as the second-largest in the world, behind only the United States. From 1867 to 1878/9, Otto von Bismarck's tenure as the first and to this day longest reigning Chancellor was marked by relative liberalism, but it became more conservative afterwards. Broad reforms and the Kulturkampf marked his period in the office. Late in Bismarck's chancellorship and in spite of his personal opposition, Germany became involved in colonialism. Claiming much of the leftover territory, yet unclaimed in the Scramble for Africa, it managed to build the third-largest colonial empire after the British and the French ones.
As a colonial state, it sometimes clashed with other European powers the British Empire. Germany became a great power, boasting a developing rail network, the world's strongest army, a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britain's Royal Navy. After the removal of Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II in 1890, the Empire embarked on Weltpolitik – a bellicose new course that contributed to the outbreak of World War I. In addition, Bismarck's successors were incapable of maintaining their predecessor's complex and overlapping alliances which had kept Germany from being diplomatically isolated; this period was marked by various factors influencing the Emperor's decisions, which were perceived as contradictory or unpredictable by the public. In 1879, the German Empire consolidated the Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary, followed by the Triple Alliance with Italy in 1882, it retained strong diplomatic ties to the Ottoman Empire. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, Italy left the alliance and the Ottoman Empire formally allied with Germany.
In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris in the autumn of 1914 failed. The war on the Western Front became a stalemate; the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. However, Imperial Germany had success on the Eastern Front; the German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, contributed to bringing the United States into the war. The high command under Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff controlled the country, but in October after the failed offensive in spring 1918, the German armies were in retreat, allies Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered; the Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution with the abdications of its monarchs. This left a postwar federal republic and a devastated and unsatisfied populace, which led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism; the German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, after being alluded to in Article 6 of the 1814 Treaty of Paris.
German nationalism shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck's pragmatic Realpolitik. Bismarck sought to extend Hohenzollern hegemony throughout the German states, he envisioned a Prussian-dominated Germany. Three wars led to military successes and helped to persuade German people to do this: the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864, the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the Franco-Prussian War against France in 1870–71; the German Confederation ended as a result of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 between the constituent Confederation entities of the Austrian Empire and its allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia and its allies on the other. The war resulted in the partial replacement of the Confederation in 1867 by a North German Confederation, comprising the 22 states north of the Main; the patriotic fervour generated by the Franco-Prussian War overwhelmed the remaining opposition to a unified Germany in the four stat
Town privileges
Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditions of the self-administration of Roman cities Judicially, a borough was distinguished from the countryside by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws. Common privileges involved the establishment of guilds; some of these privileges were permanent and could imply that the town obtained the right to be called a borough, hence the term borough rights. Some degree of self-government, representation by diet, tax-relief could be granted. Multiple tiers existed.
Henry III, Margrave of Meissen
Henry III, called Henry the Illustrious from the House of Wettin was Margrave of Meissen and last Margrave of Lusatia from 1221 until his death. Born at the Albrechtsburg residence in Meissen, Henry was the youngest son of Margrave Theodoric I, Margrave of Meissen and his wife Jutta, daughter of Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia. In 1221 he succeeded his father as Margrave of Meissen and Lusatia, at first under guardianship of his maternal uncle, Landgrave Louis IV of Thuringia, after his death in 1227, under that of Duke Albert I of Saxony. In 1230 he was proclaimed an adult. Henry had his first combat experience in sometime around 1234, while on crusade in Prussia, fighting against the Pomesanians, his pilgrimage and company is well-documented by Peter of Dusburg, it resulted in the construction of Balga castle, an important administrative centre for the Teutonic Knights. In 1245 after many years of conflict with the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, he was forced to cede the fortresses of Köpenick and Mittenwalde north of Lower Lusatia.
In 1249 however, the Silesian duke Bolesław II the Bald granted him the eastern area around Schiedlo Castle at the Oder river, where Henry founded the town of Fürstenberg. In the struggle between the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX, Henry took the side of the Emperor. In consideration, Frederick II in 1242 promised him the heritage of Henry Raspe as Landgrave of Thuringia and Count palatine of Saxony. In 1243 the Emperor betrothed his daughter Margaret of Sicily to Henry's son Albert II. Henry remained a loyal supporter of the Hohenstaufens and not before the departure of Frederick's son Conrad IV from Germany did he recognise the antiking William of Holland. After the death of Henry Raspe in 1247, he enforced his rights in Thuringia by military means in the War of the Thuringian Succession against the claims raised by Sophie of Thuringia, daughter of late Landgrave Louis IV, her husband Duke Henry II of Brabant, as well as by Prince Siegfried I of Anhalt-Zerbst. After a long drawn-out war he detached the Landgraviate of Hesse in the west and gave it to Sophie's younger son Henry, but kept Thuringia, which he granted to his son Albert II together with the Palatinate of Saxony.
The Thuringian acquisition increased the Wettin territorial possessions, which now reached from the Silesian border at the Bóbr river in the east up to the Werra in the west, from the border with Bohemia along the Erzgebirge in the south to the Harz range in the north. From 1273 Henry was an important support to the newly elected Rex Romanorum Rudolph of Habsburg in his struggle against rivaling King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Against Bohemia he won, among other places and Purschenstein Castle near Neuhausen, He was known throughout the whole empire as a glittering prince, famous as a patron of the arts and a model knight, as a significant minnesinger and composer. Henry was patron of many tournaments and singing competitions, in which he took part himself, commissioned the famous Christherre-Chronik, he set to music hymns to be sung by express permission of the pope. In 1234 Henry married Constance of the daughter of Duke Leopold VI of Austria. Together they had two sons: Albert II, Margrave of Meissen Theodoric of Landsberg As early as 1265 he attached the Imperial Pleissnerland around Altenburg, the dowry of his daughter-in-law Margaret, to the Landgraviate of Thuringia and gave both to his elder son Albert II, otherwise Albert the Degenerate.
For his younger son Theodoric, Henry had created – though without imperial consent – the smaller Margraviate of Landsberg in the western part of the Lusatian lands around Leipzig. Henry kept for himself only the Margraviate of Meissen, the remaining Lower Lusatian lands, a formal power of oversight. Only domestic disorders, caused by the unworthiness of his son Albert, clouded the years of his reign and indeed, long after his death in 1288, led to the loss of Lusatia and Thuringia. After the death of Constance in 1243 Henry took as his second wife Agnes, a daughter of King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, in his third marriage the daughter of a ministerialis, or serving knight, Elisabeth von Maltitz, who bore him Friedrich Clem and Hermann the Long
House of Ascania
The House of Ascania is a dynasty of German rulers. It is known as the House of Anhalt, which refers to its longest-held possession, Anhalt; the Ascanians are named after Ascania Castle, known as Schloss Askanien in German, located near and named after Aschersleben. The castle was the seat of the County of Ascania, a title, subsumed into the titles of the princes of Anhalt; the earliest known member of the house, Count of Ballenstedt, first appears in a document of 1036. He is assumed to have been a grandson of Margrave of the Saxon Ostmark. From Odo, the Ascanians inherited large properties in the Saxon Eastern March. Esiko's grandson was Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, who died in 1123. By Otto's marriage to Eilika, daughter of Magnus, Duke of Saxony, the Ascanians became heirs to half of the property of the House of Billung, former dukes of Saxony. Otto's son, Albert the Bear, with the help of his mother's inheritance, the first Ascanian duke of Saxony in 1139. However, he soon lost control of Saxony to the rival House of Guelph.
Albert inherited the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1157 from its last Wendish ruler, he became the first Ascanian margrave. Albert, his descendants of the House of Ascania made considerable progress in Christianizing and Germanizing the lands; as a borderland between German and Slavic cultures, the country was known as a march. In 1237 and 1244, two towns, Cölln and Berlin, were founded during the rule of Otto and Johann, grandsons of Margrave Albert the Bear, they were united into one city, Berlin. The emblem of the House of Ascania, a red eagle and bear, became the heraldic emblems of Berlin. In 1320, the Brandenburg Ascanian line came to an end. After the Emperor had deposed the Guelph rulers of Saxony in 1180, Ascanians returned to rule the Duchy of Saxony, reduced to its eastern half by the Emperor; however in eastern Saxony, the Ascanians could establish control only in limited areas near the River Elbe. In the 13th century, the Principality of Anhalt was split off from the Duchy of Saxony.
The remaining state was split into Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg. The Ascanian dynasties in the two Saxon states became extinct in 1689 and in 1422 but Ascanians continued to rule in the smaller state of Anhalt and its various subdivisions until the monarchy was abolished in 1918. Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia from 1762–1796, was a member of the House of Ascania, herself the daughter of Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst. County and Duchy of Anhalt: c. 1100–1918 Duchy and Electorate of Saxony: 1112, 1139–1142, 1180–1422 County of Weimar-Orlamünde: 1112–1486 Margravate of Brandenburg: 1157–1320 Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg: 1269–1689 Principality of Lüneburg: 1369–1388 Principality and Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg: 1252–1468 and 1603–1863 Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst: 1252–1396 and 1544–1796 Principality of Anhalt-Aschersleben: 1252–1315 Principality and Duchy of Anhalt-Köthen: 1396–1561 and 1603–1847 Principality and Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau 1396–1561 and 1603–1863 Principality of Anhalt-Plötzkau 1544–1553 and 1603–1665 Principality of Anhalt-Harzgerode 1635–1709 Principality of Anhalt-Mühlingen: 1667–1714 Principality of Anhalt-Dornburg: 1667–1742 Principality of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym: 1718–1812 Russian Empire: 1762–1796 Askanien, Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1888 Trillmich, Kaiser Konrad II.
Und seine Zeit, Bonn, 1991 Ducal Family of Anhalt ] - official website European Heraldry page Marek, Miroslav. "GENEALOGY. EU: House of Ascania". Genealogy. EU. Stirnet: Brandenburg1 Stirnet: Ascania1
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia, sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic. It was an Imperial State in the Holy Roman Empire, the Bohemian king was a prince-elector of the empire; the kings of Bohemia, besides Bohemia ruled the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, which at various times included Moravia, Silesia and parts of Saxony and Bavaria. The kingdom was established by the Přemyslid dynasty in the 12th century from Duchy of Bohemia ruled by the House of Luxembourg, the Jagiellonian dynasty, since 1526 by the House of Habsburg and its successor house Habsburg-Lorraine. Numerous kings of Bohemia were elected Holy Roman Emperors and the capital Prague was the imperial seat in the late 14th century, at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the territory became part of the Habsburg Austrian Empire, subsequently the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867.
Bohemia retained its name and formal status as a separate Kingdom of Bohemia until 1918, known as a crown land within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, its capital Prague was one of the empire's leading cities. The Czech language was the main language of the Diet and the nobility until 1627. German was formally made equal with Czech and prevailed as the language of the Diet until the Czech National Revival in the 19th century. German was widely used as the language of administration in many towns after Germans immigrated and populated some areas of the country in the 13th century; the royal court used the Czech and German languages, depending on the ruler and period. Following the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, both the Kingdom and Empire were dissolved. Bohemia became the core part of the newly formed Czechoslovak Republic. Although some former rulers of Bohemia had enjoyed a non-hereditary royal title during the 11th and 12th centuries, the kingdom was formally established in 1198 by Přemysl Ottokar I, who had his status acknowledged by Philip of Swabia, elected King of the Romans, in return for his support against the rival Emperor Otto IV.
In 1204 Ottokar's royal status was accepted by Otto IV as well as by Pope Innocent III. It was recognized in 1212 by the Golden Bull of Sicily issued by Emperor Frederick II, elevating the Duchy of Bohemia to Kingdom status. Under these terms, the Czech king was to be exempt from all future obligations to the Holy Roman Empire except for participation in the imperial councils; the imperial prerogative to ratify each Bohemian ruler and to appoint the bishop of Prague was revoked. The king's successor was his son, from his second marriage. Wenceslaus I's sister Agnes canonized, was an extraordinarily courageous and energetic woman for her time. Corresponding with the Pope, she established the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star in 1233, the first military order in the Kingdom of Bohemia. Four other military orders were present in Bohemia: the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from c. 1160. 1200–1421. The 13th century was the most dynamic period of the Přemyslid reign over Bohemia. German Emperor Frederick II's preoccupation with Mediterranean affairs and the dynastic struggles known as the Great Interregnum weakened imperial authority in Central Europe, thus providing opportunities for Přemyslid assertiveness.
At the same time, the Mongol invasions absorbed the attention of Bohemia's eastern neighbors and Poland. Přemysl Ottokar II married a German princess, Margaret of Babenberg, became duke of Austria, he thereby acquired Upper Austria, Lower Austria, part of Styria. He conquered the rest of Styria, most of Carinthia, parts of Carniola, he was called "the king of iron and gold". He campaigned as far as Prussia, where he defeated the pagan natives and in 1256, founded a city he named Královec in Czech, which became Königsberg. In 1260, Ottokar defeated Hungary in the Battle of Kressenbrunn, where more than 200,000 men clashed, he ruled an area from Austria to the Adriatic Sea. From 1273, Habsburg king Rudolf began to reassert imperial authority, checking Ottokar's power, he had problems with rebellious nobility in Bohemia. All of Ottokar's German possessions were lost in 1276, in 1278 he was abandoned by part of the Czech nobility and died in the Battle on the Marchfeld against Rudolf. Ottokar was succeeded by his son King Wenceslaus II, crowned King of Poland in 1300.
Wenceslaus II's son Wenceslaus III was crowned King of Hungary a year later. At this time, the Kings of Bohemia ruled from Hungary to the Baltic Sea; the 13th century was a period of large-scale German immigration, during the Ostsiedlung encouraged by the Přemyslid kings. The Germans populated towns and mining districts on the Bohemian periphery and in some cases formed German colonies in the interior of the Czech lands. Stříbro, Kutná Hora, Německý Brod, Jihlava were important German settlements; the Germans brought their own code of law – the ius teutonicum – which formed the basis of the commercial law of Bohemia and Moravia. Marriages between Czech nobles
Margraviate of Brandenburg
The Margraviate of Brandenburg was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. Brandenburg developed out of the Northern March founded in the territory of the Slavic Wends, it derived one of its names from the March of Brandenburg. Its ruling margraves were established as prestigious prince-electors in the Golden Bull of 1356, allowing them to vote in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor; the state thus became additionally known as the Electorate of Brandenburg. The House of Hohenzollern came to the throne of Brandenburg in 1415. In 1417, Frederick I moved its capital from Brandenburg an der Havel to Berlin. Under Hohenzollern leadership, Brandenburg grew in power during the 17th century and inherited the Duchy of Prussia; the resulting Brandenburg-Prussia was the predecessor of the Kingdom of Prussia, which became a leading German state during the 18th century. Although the electors' highest title was "King in/of Prussia", their power base remained in Brandenburg and its capital Berlin.
The Margraviate of Brandenburg ended with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. It was replaced after the Napoleonic Wars with the Prussian Province of Brandenburg in 1815; the Hohenzollern Kingdom of Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the creation of the German Empire in 1871. As Prussia was the legal predecessor of the united German Reich of 1871–1945, as such a direct ancestor of the present-day Federal Republic of Germany, Brandenburg is one of the earliest linear ancestors of present-day Germany; the Mark Brandenburg is still used informally today to refer to the present German state of Brandenburg. The territory of the former margraviate known as the Mark Brandenburg, lies in present-day eastern Germany and western Poland. Geographically it encompassed the majority of the present-day German states Brandenburg and Berlin, the Altmark, the Neumark. Parts of the present-day federal state Brandenburg, such as Lower Lusatia and territory, Saxon until 1815, were not parts of the Mark.
Colloquially but not the federal state Brandenburg is sometimes identified as the Mark or Mark Brandenburg. The region was formed during the ice age and characterized by moraines, glacial valleys, numerous lakes; the territory march because it was a border county of the Holy Roman Empire. The Mark is defined by two depressions; the depressions are taken up by rivers and chains of lakes with marsh and boggy soil along the shores. The Northern or Baltic Uplands of the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau have only minor extensions into Brandenburg; the 230 km-long range of hills in the Mark's south begins in the Lusatian Highlands and continues past Trzebiel and Spremberg to the northwest through Calau, ends in the bare and dry Fläming. The southern depression is to the north of this ridge and appears strikingly in the Spreewald; the northern depression, lying directly south of the Baltic uplands, is defined by the lowlands of the Noteć and Warta Rivers, the Oderbruch, the valley of the Finow, the Havelland moor, the Oder River.
Between these two depressions is a low plateau that extends from the Poznań area westward to Brandenburg through Torzym, the Spree plateau, the Mittelmark. From southeast to northwest, this plateau is intersected by the lowland of the Leniwa Obra and the Oder River below the confluence of the Lusatian Neisse, the lower Spree Valley, the Havel Valley. Between these valleys rise a series of hills and plateaus, such as the Barnim, the Teltow, the Semmelberg near Bad Freienwalde, the Müggelberge in Köpenick, the Havelberge, the Rauen Hills near Fürstenwalde; the region is predominantly marked by dry, sandy soil, wide stretches of which have pine trees and erica plants, or heath. However, the soil is loamy in the uplands and plateaus and, when farmed appropriately, can be agriculturally productive. Mark Brandenburg has a cool, continental climate, with temperatures averaging near 0 °C in January and February and near 18 °C in July and August. Precipitation averages between 500 mm and 600 mm annually, with a modest summer maximum.
By the 8th century, Slavic Wends, such as the Sprewane and Hevelli, started to move into the Brandenburg area. They intermarried with Bohemians; the Bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelberg were established at the beginning of the 10th century. They were suffragan to the Archbishopric of Mainz. King Henry the Fowler started governing in the region in 928–9, allowing Emperor Otto I to establish the Northern March under Margrave Gero in 936 during the German Ostsiedlung. However, the march and the bishoprics were overthrown by a Slavic rebellion in 983. 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 Germ
March of Lusatia ca. 1209–1245
Margraviate of Brandenburg 1245–1367
Kingdom of Bohemia 1367–1415
Kingdom of Prussia 1701–1871
German Empire 1871–1918
Weimar Republic 1918–1933
Nazi Germany 1933–1945
Allied-occupied Germany 1945–1949
German Democratic Republic 1949–1990
Federal Republic of Germany 1990–present
Media related to Köpenick at Wikimedia Commons
Köpenick travel guide from Wikivoyage
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Lichtenberg
Marzahn-Hellersdorf
Mitte
Neukölln
Pankow
Reinickendorf
Spandau
Steglitz-Zehlendorf
Tempelhof-Schöneberg
Treptow-Köpenick
