Geesthacht
Geesthacht (German pronunciation: [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.
History
Around 800: A church is documented.
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.
