Arneburg

Arneburg is a town in the district of Stendal, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Elbe, approx. northeast of Stendal. It is part of the Verbandsgemeinde of Arneburg-Goldbeck. In July 2009 it absorbed the former municipality Beelitz.

History

The stronghold was founded by Henry the Fowler on the Elbe as a bulwark against the Wends. In the Middle Ages, Arneburg was a strategic possession of Brandenburg, whose Elector Frederick [II, Elector of Brandenburg|Frederick II] mortgaged it for "100 good Rhenish gilders" to Hans von Blumenthal, who was appointed Vogt of Arneburg, a post which he still held long after 1450, when the Hohenzollerns had repaid the mortgage. Arneburg was an important Hohenzollern possession and, indeed, the Elector John [Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg|John Cicero] died there in 1499. The ruins are now part of a park surrounded by the town.