Gardelegen is a town on the right bank of the Milde river in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, about twenty miles west of Stendal on the Hanover to Berlin rail line, with roughly 21,822 residents as of December 2024. Founded in the tenth century, it joined the Hanseatic League in 1358 and, following municipal expansions between 2009 and 2011, became the third largest town by area in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg despite its modest population. On April 13, 1945, more than 1,000 concentration camp inmates were killed by Nazi forces and local civilians at the Isenschnibbe Barn in the Gardelegen massacre, now commemorated by a military cemetery.
Facts
Area (sq km) Founding Year Population Estimate Year Elevation (m) Latitude52.526389 degrees north 1 Elevation Band Climate Zone FAQs
What happened at the Isenschnibbe Barn near Gardelegen in April 1945?
More than a thousand prisoners were killed in a barn on the Isenschnibbe estate on April 13 1945.
On April 13, 1945, more than a thousand prisoners, many of them sick and too weak to march any further, were taken from the town to a large barn on the Isenschnibbe estate and killed there. When soldiers reached the site, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum records, they found the corpses of 1,016 prisoners in the still-smoldering barn and nearby trenches. The killings are known as the Gardelegen massacre, and the site is now a memorial.
Sources
1. Gardelegen (Wikidata)
P1082 (population)
population 21,661 (2025)
P625 (coordinate location)
latitude 52.526389, longitude 11.3925
P2044 (elevation above sea level)
elevation 43 m
P2046 (area)
area 632.43 sq km
P1082 (population), P585 (point in time)
population 21661 (2025)
View the Source2. Gardelegen (Wikipedia)
Article body
Gardelegen was founded in the 10th century (first named 1196).
History section
Gardelegen was founded in the 10th century (first named 1196).
- In Group: Cities of Western Europe (World), Wikipedia; part-of country and UN M49 subregion
View the Source3. GeoNames: Gardelegen - GeoNames
GeoNamescities500 record 2922580
52.5252 11.39523 P PPL DE 14 00 15081 15081135 11868 49 Europe/Berlin
Place record, elevation
Elevation ca. 49 m
View the Source 4. Koeppen-Geiger map (Kottek et al., University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna): World Map of the Koeppen-Geiger Climate Classification, present climate data
Koeppen-Geiger map (Kottek et al., University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna)Koeppen-Geiger-ASCII.txt grid cell 52.75, 11.25Quote, Koeppen-Geiger-ASCII.txt grid cell 52.75, 11.25
52.75 11.25 Cfb
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