City districts and quarters shape the image of the city
The city of Brandenburg an der Havel, which currently covers an area of 228.77 square kilometres, is divided into the following districts and quarters:
- Cathedral district, including quarters of Klein Kreutz (with Saaringen), Gollwitz and Wust
- Old Town district
- New Town district, including Göttin and Schmerzke quarters
- Gorden district
- Hohenstücken district
- North district
- Kirchmöser district, including the Mahlenzien quarter
- Plaue district
Urban evolution of the city at a glance
- In the Middle Ages Brandenburg consisted of three parts. Besides the old and new cities of Brandenburg, there was also the cathedral district on the Cathedral Island. On 27 May 1715 the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg joined the two cities. The cathedral island remained independent until 1929.
- After 1750 colonies of spinners were settled in the former outer city defences at Bohnenland, Görden, Görisgräben, Wendgräben and the Neudorf colony (1824 Wilhelmsdorf).
- In the mid 19th Century building outside the medieval city fortifications began. In the last third of the 19th Century separate residential and industrial areas resulted from development into an industrial city, from which evolved the Bahnhofsvorstadt suburb, the Potsdam suburb and Cracow suburb and by the beginning of the 20th Century the Wilhelmsdorf suburb. The Kasernenstadt "barracks town” and the Neuendorfer suburb evolved in front of the old town.
- The Cathedral district joined the city on 1 April 1929 - just in time for the Brandenburg millennium celebration in the same year. Neuendorf was joined in 1929 and Wilhelmsdorf in 1937. In the Nazi era settlements and housing complexes for workers in the armaments factories were created: the Walzwerksiedlung (rolling mill settlement), and the Hufen and Schlagen (hooves and hammering) settlements on the Görden and New Schmerzke.
- In 1952 there was an extensive administrative reform in the GDR. The town of Plaue and the Kirchmöser industrial community came to Brandenburg, but the municipalities that had been amalgamated in 1950 were lost again: Klein Kreutz, Mötzow, Schmerzke and Göttin.
- From 1959 and 1972 two major typical new GDR housing estates - North and Hohenstücken were built in Brandenburg.
- In 1993 the communities Schmerzke, Göttin, Klein Kreutz, Saaringen and Mahlenzien came to the city.
- Since October 2003 Gollwitz and Wust have belonged to Brandenburg an der Havel.