Overview
Neuruppin has the reputation of being the most Prussian of all Prussian towns, due to its former status as a Prussian garrison town. The novelist Theodor Fontane, the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the lieutenant colonel Otto Friedrich Ferdinand von Görschen, the general Hermann Hoth, the serial killer Karl Großmann and the actor Klaus Schwarzkopf were born in Neuruppin. Frederick the Great lived in Neuruppin in his years as crown prince of Prussia. Prussian general and military strategist Carl Phillip Gottlieb von Clausewitz also resided in Neuruppin for a few years.
The name Neuruppin means "New Ruppin"; the original settlement of Ruppin (later Alt Ruppin, "Old Ruppin") was located on north-eastern shore of the Ruppiner See. It was founded about 1150. Some hundred years later, when the settlement became too small for the growing population, Neuruppin on the western shore of the lake was established by the Dukes of Lindow-Ruppin. Wichmann von Arnstein founded the Monastery of Neuruppin (1246). Today only the monastery-church is still standing. At the Reformation the church is called Sankt Trinitatis.
In 1688 Neuruppin became a Prussian garrison town. After a disastrous fire in 1787 the Classicism of the rebuilt town's buildings characterise its townscape to the present day. It remained a garrison town until the late 20th century, since Soviet (resp. Russian) troops were stationed here until 1993; during this time there were as many Soviet soldiers as inhabitants in Neuruppin.
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