The History of Basdorf
Basdorf began as a small group of farms around the village church, and remained so for centuries until the coming of the railway swelled it in size. The establishment of an aircraft engine plant further increased the population of the village, including foreign labourers from occupied countries forced to work there during the Second World War.
Basdorf became part of East Germany after the war, and the number of inhabitants increased to accomodate barracks for the VPB (GDR Riot Police).
Since the reunification of Germany, Basdorf has grown yet again, with the addition of an industrial estate and a new centre to the village around a new Marketplatz.
| 1302 | Basdorf mentioned for the first time in a document, when the Markgraf Hermann gifts Lehnin monastery with a grain crop in Bartholdistorp. The name probably originally came from 'Bartholomäusdorf', i.e. Bartholomew's village - named after the Apostle. |
| 1375 | Basdorf named Barstorp in the Mark Brandenburg Landbuch of Kaiser Karl I. Recorded as a single parish of '4 Hufen' where a hufe is approx. 30 acres of arable land and is about the size of land for a small farm, often laid out in strips alongside the main village street. |
| 1475 | The Cistercian monastic order gained all rights in the village, through sale from the manor of Biesenthal. |
| 1542 | Basdorf becomes Protestant in the wave of the Reformation. Through secularisation it becomes the property of the Brandenburg Electors in 1552. |
| 1618-1648 | The 30-years War leaves most of the area deserted. |
| 1801 | Basdorf has a census of 181 inhabitants. |
| 1822 | Construction begins of a mail-coach inn on the old Dorfstrasse on the northern exit of the village. |
| 1827 | Reconstruction of the church tower in accordance with plans drawn up by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. |
| 1872 | Basdorf has 338 inhabitants. |
| 1865 | Construction of the first brick-built schoolhouse. |
| 1901 | Opening of the Reinickendorfer-Rosenthaler-Groß Schönebecker-Liebenwalder Eisenbahn (railway). Basdorf obtains a train station. |
| 1910 | Basdorf was connected to the gas pipeline from Berlin and gained its first street lighting. |
| 1904 | Founding of the Basdorfer Schützengilde (Guild of Marksmen). |
| 1912 | Founding of the volunteer fire brigade. First post office opened with 20 telephone points. |
| 1922 | Basdorf now recorded as having 550 inhabitants. |
| 1936 | Building begins of a Brandenburgische Motorenwerke (Bramo) plant between Basdorf and Zühlsdorf, which produces engines for the German Airforce (Luftwaffe). |
| 1939 | Housing estates built for workers completed, including the 'Milch-Sidelung' (East of the railway station) named after Airforce General Field Marshall Erhard Milch, and the Bramo (now Karl-Marx) estate. |
| 1939-1945 | Wartime production and testing in the Bramo plant of high altitude airplane and helicopter engines. Machines from Dornier, Focke-Wulf, Messerschmitt and Heinkel flew with drives that came from Basdorf. Testing of rocket engines also took place here. |
| 1941 | Building of baracks for foreign forced labour workers at the Bramo plant. |
| 1943 | Famous French poet and later singer Georges Brassens made to work at Bramo for a year. |
| 1945 | Basdorf is liberated by Soviet and Polish troops. The Bramo plant is dismantelled and shipped back to the Soviet Union, particularly because of its rocket development technology. Basdorf begins a period of rebuilding and land reform amidst much hunger and deprivation. |
| 1949 | Creation of the German Democratic Republic (DDR). Basdorf finds itself in East Germany. |
| 1952 | Founding of Basdorf Football Club ( Fußballverein FSV Basdorf ). |
| 1956 | The 17th, 18th and 19th GDR Riot Police (Die Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften or VPB) move into the former Bramo forced labour camp. |
| 1960's | Riot Police barracks expanded. Subsequent growth in population requires new housing estates and a school to be built. |
| 1960 | Establishment of a 'Neues Leben' - 'New Life' - Soviet-style agricultural production co-operative (Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft or LGP). |
| 1963 | New, Plattenbau housing development on the Heinrich Heine Ring emerges. |
| 1973 | New, modern, Polytechnic secondary school built. |
| 1989 | Die Wende - The Turning Point. |
| 1990 | 6. May First free elections in Basdorf. 3 October re-establishment of Brandenburg. Basdorf remains a seperate municipality in the District of Bernau. The indistrial estate 'Am Sandweg' comes into being. |
| 1997 | Creation of a new village centre with a market place and 'Barnimer Hof' hotel. |
| 2002 | Celebration of 700 years of history. |
| 2003 | GDR Riot Police barracks survived until now as a college for the Police of Brandenburg State. This facility moved to Oranienburg. Also, Basdorf loses its local government independence and becomes a part of the district of Wandlitz. |
| 2004 | First annual Brassens Festival held. |
Source: Various websites, but mainly a translation from 'Basdorf - Ein Spaziergang durch die Geschichte eines Barnimer Dorfes' by Astrid Schaefer.
