Editing Altmark (section)

== History ==
Before the [[Migration Period]] of 300 to 700&nbsp;AD, the [[Lombards]] had settled the future Altmark. Subsequently, Old Germanic [[Saxons|Saxon]] tribes lived in the northwest and [[Polabian Slavs]] in the eastern territories along the Elbe. After the [[Saxon Wars]], waged by [[Charlemagne]] from 772 to 804, the lands became part of the [[Carolingian Empire]]. They formed part of the [[Eastphalia]]n territory of the [[Duchy of Saxony]], which, from 843 onwards, constituted the eastern borderlands of [[East Francia]] under [[Louis the German]]. The [[Bishop of Verden|bishops of Verden]] and [[Bishopric of Halberstadt|of Halberstadt]] promoted the [[Christianisation]] of the Saxon population.

In 936 the German king [[Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto I]] allotted the territory of the later Altmark to the Saxon Count [[Gero]], in order to subdue the West Slavic [[Wends]] settling on the Elbe. Gero thereafter campaigned in the Slavic lands far beyond the river Elbe and thereafter established the Saxon {{lang|la|[[Marca Geronis]]}} stretching up to the [[Oder]] in the east. Upon Gero's death in 965, his {{lang|la|marca}} was split and the [[Northern March]] was granted to [[Dietrich of Haldensleben]], who nevertheless turned out to be an incapable ruler and lost all the territories east of the Elbe in the Slavic [[Lutici]] uprising of 983. He retained only his margravial title and the initial land basis of his predecessor Gero's conquests west of the river.

For more than one and a half centuries, the lands east of the Elbe defied German control, until in 1134 Emperor [[Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor|Lothair of Supplinburg]] bestowed the Northern March on the [[House of Ascania|Ascanian]] count [[Albert the Bear]]. Albert signed an inheritance contract with the Slavic [[Hevelli]] prince [[Pribislav (Hevelli prince)|Pribislav]] and in 1150 succeeded him in his eastern territory around the fortress of [[Brandenburg an der Havel]], which became the nucleus of his newly established [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]] in 1157. 
[[File:Karte Mark Brandenburg 1320.png|thumb|Brandenburg under the Ascanians, 1320]]
As the Brandenburg margraves expanded their territory during the course of the {{lang|de|[[Ostsiedlung]]}}, the original western territory of the Northern March became known as the Altmark (literally "Old [[March (territorial entity)|March]]") in contrast to the {{lang|de|[[Mittelmark]]}} (Middle March) and {{lang|de|[[Neumark]]}} (New March) beyond the Oder river; the written record first mentions it in 1304 as {{lang|la|Antiqua Marchia}}.

As part of Brandenburg, from 1415 held by the [[House of Hohenzollern]], the Altmark became part of [[Brandenburg-Prussia]] and (from 1701) of the [[Kingdom of Prussia]]. After Prussia's defeat at the hands of [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]] in 1806, the terms of the [[Treaty of Tilsit]] (1807) assigned the territory of the Altmark to the new [[Kingdom of Westphalia]]. Prussia regained the area upon Napoleon's defeat (per Article XXIII of the Final Act of the [[Congress of Vienna]], 1815); however, it was incorporated into the new Prussian [[Province of Saxony]] rather than being attached to the [[Province of Brandenburg]].<ref name=Hansard-82/> Within Prussian Saxony, the Altmark was subdivided into the districts of [[Salzwedel]], [[Gardelegen]], [[Osterburg (Altmark)|Osterburg]], and [[Stendal]], all administered within the {{lang|de|[[Regierungsbezirk]]}} of [[Magdeburg (region)|Magdeburg]].

After [[World War II]] the Altmark, lying to the east of the [[inner German border]], became part of the new state of [[Saxony-Anhalt]] in the [[Soviet occupation zone]]. The regional administration of [[East Germany]] saw it administered within {{lang|de|[[Magdeburg (Bezirk)|Bezirk Magdeburg]]}} from 1952 to 1990. With [[German reunification]] in 1990, the Altmark became part of a reconstituted Saxony-Anhalt.