Communications

Berlin's rail links to the northwest and southwest pass through Brandenburg, and these have been completely modernized. Energy utilities from Brandenburg, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt have founded a regional telecommunications company, Regiotel.

History

Founded as Branibar by the Slavic tribe the Havelli, the area became a bishopric in 948 and was inherited by Albert the Bear in 1150 from its last Wendish prince. The Spree Forest, in Lower Lusatia, is inhabited by Slavic-speaking Wends, remnants of the population that inhabited Brandenburg at the time of its acquisition by Albert the Bear. The Hohenzollern rulers who took control of Brandenburg in 1415 later acquired the powerful duchy of Prussia. When Germany was united in 1871, Brandenburg became one of its provinces. At the end of World War II, Brandenburg lost over 12,950 sq km/5,000 sq mi of territory when Poland advanced its frontier to the line of the Oder and Neisse rivers. The remainder, which became a region of East Germany, was abolished as an administrative unit in 1952 (divided into the districts of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, Potsdam, and Cottbus). When Germany was reunited in 1990, Brandenburg was reinstated as a Land of the Federal Republic. In 1997 the citizens of Brandenburg voted against an amalgamation with Berlin to create a new Land.