History of the County

The present-day territory of the Landkreis Börde essentially coincides with the Nordthüringgau (North Thuringian Gau), which existed in the early Middle Ages, as well as peripheral areas of the Schwagen und Harzgau (Swabian and Harz Gau) of the Eastphalia Province of the Duchy of Saxony. The Gaue were divided into various counties as administrative and judicial districts.

Ecclesiastically, the area belonged to the bishopric of Halberstadt of the archbishopric of Mainz. In 968, at the instigation of Emperor Otto I, the eastern half of the North Thuringian Gau was divided off with the castles of Haldensleben, Wanzleben and Unseburg for the foundation of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg.

By the 13th century, the Magdeburg archbishops also acquired secular sovereignty over the land and extended their territory to what is now the western border of Saxony-Anhalt. In the south, the sovereignty of the Bishopric of Halberstadt began around Oschersleben, and in the north lay the territory of the margraves of Brandenburg with the Altmark.

As a result of the Reformation and the 30 Years' War, in 1650 the bishopric of Halberstadt as a western principality and in 1680 the archbishopric of Magdeburg as a secular duchy fell to the Electorate of Brandenburg or to the later Kingdom of Prussia. The area of today's Landkreis Börde now belonged to the Magdeburg Holzkreis and the Halberstädt County of Oschersleben. In the north, the Altmärkische Kreis Gardelegen and the Braunschweigische Amt Calvörde had a share.

After the defeat of Prussia in 1806, Napoleon incorporated the Westphalian territories into the Kingdom of Westphalia with a completely new administrative structure. Today's district area belonged for the most part to the Elbe department. Only peripheral areas in the southwest were in the Oker and Saal departments. Of the towns, only Neuhaldensleben became the capital of a district with administrative authorities in the sense of a present-day district town.

After the War of Liberation, Prussia regained its territories and the enclave of Calvörde also became a Brunswick province again. The Prussian province of Saxony, formed in 1816, received a new district division, whereby the districts of Neuhaldensleben, Wolmirstedt, Oschersleben and Wanzleben, as well as a corner of the district of Gardelegen, essentially coincided with today's Landkreis Börde.

In the following period, there were only minor territorial changes. In 1824, for example, the Oschersleben district ceded the towns west of the Huy to the Halberstadt district. In 1908/10, villages from the districts of Wolmirstedt and Wanzleben were incorporated into Magdeburg. The district of Oschersleben was enlarged by the district of Wernigerode. In 1932 and 1944 Calvörde was annexed to the district of Gardelegen.

After the end of World War II, the territory of today's Landkreis Börde belonged to the Soviet occupation zone. With the foundation of the GDR in 1949, the districts of Magdeburg and Halle were established instead of the province or state of Saxony-Anhalt, and the district boundaries were redefined in 1950/52. As a result of territorial exchanges, the districts of Haldensleben, Wolmirstedt, Oschersleben and Wanzleben were created approximately in the form that existed until 1994. In addition, the new districts of Klötze and Tangerhütte in the north had a share in the present district area.

German reunification in 1990 led to the re-establishment of the state of Saxony-Anhalt and to a first territorial reform in 1994, when the Ohrekreis district was formed from the districts of Haldensleben and Wolmirstedt plus some municipalities from the districts of Stendal and Klötze. The rural district of Bördekreis was formed from the districts of Oschersleben and Wanzleben plus one locality from the district of Staßfurt. District towns were now only Haldensleben and Oschersleben.

In the course of the second territorial reform in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the former administrative districts of Ohrekreis and Bördekreis were merged on 01.07.2007 to form the new administrative district of Börde. The county seat of the Landkreis Börde is Haldensleben.