Jerichow

the 2008 film

Jerichow is a town on the east side of the river Elbe, in the District of Jerichower Land, of the state of Saxony Anhalt in Germany. With about , the municipality of Jerichow is one of the largest municipalities in area size in Germany.

The city of Jerichow lies on an old branch of the river Elbe between Stendal and Genthin, 31 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Magdeburg. The territory of the municipality extends from the center of the city to the east along the northern boundary of the District of Jerichower Land to the state boundary of Brandenburg and from there a strip of land to the south.

With the annual precipitation of 530 mm, Jerichow has one of the lowest amounts recorded in Germany. At seven percent the weather stations of the Deutscher Wetterdienst (German Weather Service) were registering low numbers. The driest month is February, with most of the rainfall coming in June. In June, the amount of rain is twice the total for February.

Jerichow is not named after a Jericho in the Holy Bible of the Christians. Jerichow was actually an Old Slavic word meaning, "riverside settlement of the dominant one". There used to be a castle backed by a man made tributary of the Elbe River, but today only a lump of earth remains with the name of Burgberg (lit. Castle Hill). Jerichow was mentioned for the first time at the end of 1144 by the documents. The occasion was the foundation of the Jerichow Monastery of the Premonstratensian canons with the donation of Hartwig von Stade, the canon of the Cathedral of Magdeburg (with the confirmation from the Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad III of Germany). In the following year, the Premonstratensian canons came from the Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen (Monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in Magdeburg to settle in the town center but, in 1148, they moved to the present location because of the disturbing bustle of the town's marketplace. They built between 1149 and 1172 the collegiate church as a basilica with three naves as well as the east wing of the cloister. These buildings are considered as important works of the Romanesque brick style, the oldest of its kind east of the Elbe River. They would serve for centuries as the landmark for the surrounding areas. In the 13th century Jerichow received the city charter (Stadtrecht). In 1336 the town was completely destroyed by the flooding from the Elbe River but it was rebuilt and founded in its present location by a local nobleman, Johann III von Buch. However, its former location is still marked by a deep trench lined with ancient walls of brick. Around 1530, with the Reformation, the Lutheran doctrine took hold of the town and, in 1552, the Monastery was secularized by Hans von Krusemark; a part of the convent's building was reserved for the Elector of Brandenburg's domains. During the Thirty Years War, the Imperial and Swedish armies devastated the village and monastery of Jerichow in 1631. Since 1680, along with the Duchy of Magdeburg, Jerichow belonged to the Electorate of Brandenburg and later the Kingdom of Prussia and to the former Jerichower District. In 1684 and 1685, the Monastery's church was repaired by the order of the Great Elector, Frederick William, to be used as a new Reformed church for the Huguenot refugees. In 1806, Napoleon and his Grande Armée captured the city of Magdeburg and added to the Kingdom of Westphalia, with his brother Jérôme Bonaparte as the King, but the eastern boundary of the new Kingdom stopped at the Elbe River. Jerichow was on the other side of the Elbe so it remained Prussian for the rest of the French occupation (1806–1814). From 1853 to 1856, at the request of King Frederick William IV of Prussia, Ferdinand von Quast restored the Monastery Church. Around 1870 the convent building was used as a brewery and a distillery. In the present time, there was an extensive renovation of the Monastery Church with the considerable restoration of the Romanesque appearance. With a series of administrative reorganizations, Jerichow remained in the Kingdom of Prussia until 1918, when it became German. At the end of the Napoleonic wars, it was assigned to Landkreis Jerichow II but its district's name was changed in 1952 to Landkreis Genthin and in 1994 to Landkreis Jerichower Land. Jerichow has been a part of the state of Saxony Anhalt since the 1990 reunification of Germany.