Neuruppin

Neuruppin
Street with Holy Trinity Church
Coat of arms
Neuruppin
Location of Neuruppin within Ostprignitz-Ruppin district
Coordinates:
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Ostprignitz-Ruppin
Government
• Mayor	Jens-Peter Golde (Pro Ruppin)
Area
• Total	303.32 km2 (117.11 sq mi)
Population (2013-12-31)
• Total	30,345
• 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

• 

  Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population Development of Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of Nazi rule; Red Background: Time of Communist rule)

• 

  Recent Population Development (Blue Line) and Forecasts

Neuruppin:
Population development within the current boundaries (2013)

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.

Frederick the Great lived in Neuruppin in his years as crown prince of Prussia. Prussian general and military strategist Carl Phillip Gottlieb von Clausewitz also resided in Neuruppin for a few years.

Photo gallery

• 

  Schinkel statue

• 

  Statue by Matthias Zágon Hohl-Stein

• 

  Manor house of the family Gentz in Gentzrode

• 

  Ruppiner See (Ruppin lake) with monastery church towers]]

• 

  ″Sabine" in Binenwalde

• 

  Neumühle

• 

  Trinitatiskirche

• 

  Former fire extinguisher factory

References

Stolperstein

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons