Hennigsdorf

Sister cities

• Alsdorf
• Kralupy nad Vltavou
• Choisy-le-Roi

History

The town was first mentioned in 1375, when it was part of the Bohemian Crown. Afterwards it was part of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, then of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1701, and of the German Empire from 1871. During World War II, in 1944, a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was established, in which some 650 women, mostly Polish, were imprisoned and subjected to forced labour. In April 1945, the subcamp was dissolved and the surviving prisoners were sent on a death march to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. After the war, it formed part of East Germany. The municipality shared its borders with the former West Berlin, and so during the period 1961–1990 it was separated from it by the Berlin Wall. In 1951/2, the Havel Canal was constructed to link Hennigsdorf with Paretz, thus avoiding a passage through the reach of the River Havel, between Spandau and Potsdam, that was under the political control of West Berlin. The canal is still in use, providing a shorter route for shipping from west of Berlin to the Oder–Havel Canal and Poland.

Geography

Hennigsdorf consists of 3 districts: * Hennigsdorf * Nieder Neuendorf (since 1923) * Stolpe-Süd (since May 1, 1998) * Velten * Hohen Neuendorf * Berlin * Schönwalde-Glien * Oberkrämer