Salzwedel is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the capital of the district (Kreis) of Altmarkkreis Salzwedel. Population: 21,500. Its car designation is SAW (ehs-ah-veh).

Salzwedel is situated at the Jeetze river in the northwestern part of the Altmark. It is located between Hamburg and Magdeburg. Distances from Uelzen are 44 km W, 12 km N of Lüchow , 41 km S of Gardelegen and 24 km E of Arendsee.

It is accessed by route 71 (north to south) an d248 (west to east). Access to the nearest autobahn is A39 which is 59 km away in Wolfsburg, the A250 is 80.9 km away in Lüneburg, the A24 in Dreieck and the A241 is 81.4 km away.

It is linked by a railway which Amerikalinie (America Line) which restored in the 1990s linking Berlin and Bremen. The line belongs to Stendal/Uelzen. Other stations in Wittenberge near Arendsee and in Oebisfelde.

The town was founded in 1112. In medieval ages the town belonged to the Hanseatic league from 1358 to 1518. The city from 1247 began developing as a reestablishment from the old part of the town. In 1713, the two cities became one.

The medieval part of the town remained large until today. In 1943, the Neuengamme concentration camp built a female subcamp in Salzwedel, capable of holding more than 1,000 female prisoners. Eventually more than 3,000 women were held there, both Jews and non-Jews. The guard staff at the camp included sixty SS men and women. One Aufseherin is known today by name, Lieselotte Darnstaedt, who was born in 1908. Lieselotte also served at Ravensbruck before coming to Salzwedel. On April 29, 1945, the US Army liberated the Salzwedel women's subcamp, and also a men's camp nearby for male non-German political prisoners. They were shocked to find more than ninety corpses of women who had died of typhus, dysentary and mylaria. Any SS offcers caught in the area were forced to bury the dead and the two camps burned down.

Its delicacy of the town is Baumkuchen.

Its sites of interest are the historic part of town with gates.

External link

Homepage of Salzwedel (in German)