Geesthacht ( [ɡeːstˈhaxt]) is the largest city in the District of the Duchy of Lauenburg (Herzogtum Lauenburg) in Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany, 34 km southeast of Hamburg on the right bank of the river Elbe.
1216: First documentary mention of the settlement as Hachede, then a part of Saxony.
A change in the course of the Elbe cuts the settlement into two: Geesthacht and Marschacht (in today's Lower Saxony).
1296: Geesthacht becomes part of the Durchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, partitioned from Saxony
1370: Duke Eric III pawns Geesthacht - as part of the Herrschaft of Bergedorf - to Lübeck
1401: Duke Eric IV retakes the pawned area with force
1420: Geesthacht is ceded as part of a condominium to the Hanseatic cities Hamburg and Lübeck by the Peace of Perleberg.
1811: Geesthacht is annexed to France as part of the Bouches de l'Elbe département
1813: The condominium is restored
1865/66: The Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel establishes a glycerin factory in Geesthacht (on Krümmel hill) and invents dynamite. Krümmel becomes the first dynamite factory in the world.
1868: Lübeck sells its share in the condominium to Hamburg, Geesthacht becomes a part Hamburg's state territory
1906: Opening of the Bergedorf-Geesthachter Railway(BGE).
1918–1933: Geesthacht is a hotbed of radical leftist parties (USPD, KPD and SAPD) and acquires the nickname Little Moscow.
1924: Granted town privileges by the Hamburg state order of 2 January.
1928: Destruction of the historical town centre by a fire.
Geesthacht is a major energy and scientific research center. It has the Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant (closed 2011 after Fukushima - "Atomausstieg"), a boiling water nuclear reactor on the River Elbe, and a 120 MW pumped storage hydroelectrical plant situated within a few hundreds metres of the nuclear power plant. It consists of an artificial lake 80m above the river, where the water is pumped up from, and 600 MWh storage for later use in generating electricity when demand is high. Small wind and solar plants also produce electricity or pump water.
Freeway 25 from Hamburg
Federal road B5 from Hamburg in the west to Lauenburg in the east
Rudolf Basedau (1897–1975), politician (SPD), member of the Schleswig-Holstein parliament
Trivia
The conservative politician Uwe Barschel, who was later involved in the "Waterkantgate" scandal, took his Abitur at the Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium in Geesthacht and as a student representative invited former Nazi admiral Dönitz to give a presentation on the topic of 'The Modernisation of History Classes' ("Aktualisierung des Geschichtsunterrichts"). Following the scandal, his principal committed suicide under the ensuing pressure.
Literature
Literature
Heinz Bohlmann: Fäuste, Führer, Flüchtlingstrecks. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Städte Geesthacht und Lauenburg/Elbe 1930–1950. Schwarzenbeck 1990. ISBN 3-921595-15-0
Bernhard Michael Menapace: "Klein-Moskau" wird braun: Geesthacht in der Endphase der Weimarer Republik (1928–1933). Kiel 1991. ISBN 3-89029-923-7
August Ziehl: Geesthacht - 60 Jahre Arbeiterbewegung 1890–1950. Geesthacht 1958.
