Editing Altmark

{{Short description|Historic region in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany}}
:''See [[German tanker Altmark]] for the ship named after Altmark and [[Stary Targ]] for the Polish village named Altmark in [[German language|German]].''
[[File:Schernikau Altmark.jpg|thumb|300px|Altmark at [[Schernikau]]]]
The '''Altmark''' ({{IPA|de|ˈaltˌmaʁk|-|De-Altmark.ogg}}; English: Old [[March (territorial entity)|March]]<ref name=Hansard-82>Hansard, ''The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time ...'', Volume 32. 1 February to 6 March 1816, T.C. Hansard, 1816. [https://books.google.com/books?id=I8ETAAAAYAAJ&pg=P74#PPA78,M1 pp. 82]. Article XXIII of the [[Final Act of the Congress of Vienna]]</ref>) is a historic region in [[Germany]], comprising the northern third of [[Saxony-Anhalt]]. As the initial territory of the [[Margraviate of Brandenburg|March of Brandenburg]], it is sometimes referred to as the "Cradle of Prussia", as by [[Otto von Bismarck]], a native of [[Schönhausen]] near [[Stendal]].

== Geography ==
[[File:Altmark.png|thumb|Topography of the Altmark]]
The Altmark is located west of the [[Elbe]] river between the cities of [[Hamburg]] and [[Magdeburg]], mostly included in the {{as of | 2009 | alt = present-day}} districts of [[Altmarkkreis Salzwedel]] and [[Stendal (district)|Stendal]]. In the west, the [[Drawehn]] hill range and the [[Drömling]] depression separate it from the [[Lüneburg Heath]] in [[Lower Saxony]]; the Altmark also borders the [[Lüchow-Dannenberg|Wendland]] region in the north and the [[Magdeburg Börde]] in the south. Adjacent east of the Elbe is the historical [[Prignitz]] region.

The population is small. The [[cultural landscape]] within the [[North European Plain]] is rural and widely covered with forests and [[heath (habitat)|heathlands]]. The largest towns are [[Stendal]], with a population of 39,000, and [[Salzwedel]] (21,500).

== 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.

== Rivers and lakes ==
[[File:AlandFloodplain.jpg|thumb|Aland floodplain near [[Wanzer]]]]
The region is drained by the [[Elbe]], joined by the [[Havel]] at [[Havelberg]], and its left tributaries of the Milde-Biese-[[Aland (river)|Aland]] system and the [[Jeetzel]] river.

The largest natural lake of the Altmark is the [[Arendsee (lake)|Arendsee]].

== Transport ==

=== Road ===
The Altmark is located off the main traffic routes. The [[Bundesautobahn 14]] leads to the [[Bundesautobahn 2]] from [[Hanover]] to [[Berlin]], it however ends north of Magdeburg. A continuation through the Altmark towards [[Schwerin]] is planned. Beside which the [[Bundesstraße|Federal roads]] [[Bundesstraße 71|B71]], B107, [[Bundesstraße 188|B188]], B189, B190, [[Bundesstraße 248|B248]] run through the region.

=== Rail ===
Stendal station is a stop on the [[Hanover–Berlin high-speed railway]]. Other lines include:
* [[Stendal–Uelzen railway|Stendal–Salzwedel–Uelzen]]
* [[Wittenberge]]–[[Salzwedel]]–[[Oebisfelde]]
* [[Magdeburg-Wittenberge railway|Magdeburg–Stendal–Wittenberge]]
* [[Bismark, Germany|Bismark]]–[[Kalbe (Milde)]]
* [[Stendal]]–[[Tangermünde]]

== Towns ==
[[File:Stendal-roland.jpg|thumb|[[Roland (statue)|Roland statue]] at Stendal]]
* [[Salzwedel]]
* [[Oebisfelde]]
* [[Arendsee]]
* [[Seehausen, Altmark|Seehausen]]
* [[Diesdorf]]
* [[Beetzendorf]]
* [[Klötze]]
* [[Mieste]]
* [[Gardelegen]]
* [[Kalbe (Milde)]]
* [[Bismark, Germany|Bismark]]
* [[Osterburg (Altmark)|Osterburg]]
* [[Stendal]]
* [[Havelberg]]
* [[Tangermünde]]
* [[Tangerhütte]]
* [[Uchtspringe]]

== Culture ==
In 2025, the Altmark received international attention with the feature film “Sound of Falling" (German: In die Sonne schauen, lit. 'Looking at the sun') by Mascha Schilinski. The German drama follows four generations of girls connected by a farm in the Altmark. The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 78th Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2025, where it won the Jury Prize. <ref>https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sound-of-falling/</ref> <ref>{wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_of_Falling}</ref>

== Notes and references ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Altmark}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130501094231/http://altmarkwiki.de/ Altmarkwiki], the regional wiki for the Altmark

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{{Regions of Saxony-Anhalt}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Margraviate of Brandenburg]]
[[Category:Regions of Saxony-Anhalt]]
[[Category:Former states and territories of Saxony-Anhalt]]
[[Category:Historical regions in Germany]]