Nauen is situated within the Havelland Luch glacial lowland, the heart of the Havelland region north of the Nauen Plateau, about 38 km (24 mi) west of the Berlin's city center (18 km (11 mi) from the Berlin city limits) and 27 km (17 mi) northwest of Potsdam. It is one of Germany's largest municipalities by area, comprising Nauen proper and fourteen surrounding villages, including Ribbeck whose landowners were perpetuated in Theodor Fontane's poem Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland.
History
The settlement of Nowen was first mentioned in an 1186 deed issued by the Bishop of Brandenburg. The citizens received town privileges by the Brandenburg margraves in 1292; a first town hall was built in 1302. The Ascanian margrave Waldemar vested Nauen with market rights in 1317. A Jewish community already existed in medieval times.
Nauen is well known for the location of a transmission site. It was used from 1906 to 1945 for VLF and shortwave. After 1945 the installations were dismantled, but after 1955 the GDR started building up a shortwave transmission center at Nauen. Since 1997 four turnable shortwave transmission aerials have been sited there.
Demography
Population trends since 1875 within the current boundaries (blue line: population; dotted line: comparison to population trends in the state of Brandenburg; grey background: time of Nazi rule; red background: time of Communist rule)
Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the Census in Germany in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line); for 2020-2030 (green line)
Nauen: Population development within the current boundaries (2020)[3]