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The history of Spandau begins in the 7th or 8th century, when the Slav Heveller first settled in the area and later built a fortress there. It was conquered in 928 by the German King Henry I, but returned to Slavic rule after the rebellion of 983.
In 1156, the Ascanian Earl Albrecht von Ballenstedt ("Albrecht the Bear") took possession of the region. 1197 marked the first mention as Spandowe in a deed of Otto II, Margrave of Brandenburg - thus forty years earlier than the Cölln part of the medieval Berlin. Spandau was given city rights in 1232.
During the Ascanian Rule the construction of the Spandau Citadel began, which was completed between 1559 and 1594 by Joachim II of Brandenburg. In 1558 the village of Gatow became part of Spandau. During the Thirty Years' War Spandau was surrendered to the Swedes in 1634.
In 1806, after the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt, French troops under Napoleon took possession of the city and stayed there until 1807. In 1812, Napoleon returned and the Spandau Citadel was besieged in 1813 by Prussian and Russian troops.
From 1849 on the poet and revolutionary Gottfried Kinkel had been an inmate of the Spandau town prison, until he was freed by his friend Carl Schurz in the night of November 6, 1850
Before World War I, Spandau was a seat of large government cannon foundries, factories for making gunpowder and other munitions of war making it a centre of the arms industry in the German Empire. It was also a garrison town with numerous barracks, home of the 5th Guard Infantry Brigade and the 5th Guard Foot Regiment of the German Army. In 1920, Spandau (whose name had been changed from Spandow in 1878) was incorporated into Greater Berlin as a borough.
After World War II, it was part of the British Occupation Zone in West Berlin and the Spandau Prison, built in 1876, was used to house Nazi war criminals who were sentenced to imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials. After the death of Rudolf Hess, the prison's last inmate, Spandau Prison was completely demolished by the allied powers and later replaced by a shopping mall.
The popular British New Romantic band, Spandau Ballet takes its name from Spandau.
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandau
Text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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