Elbe-Elster

This article is about the county or district. For the tourist region, see Elbe-Elster Land.

Elbe-Elster is a Kreis (district) in the southern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Teltow-Fläming, Dahme-Spreewald, Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Meißen, Nordsachsen and Wittenberg. The district has a partnership with the Märkischer Kreis.

Elbe-Elster
District
Flag Coat of arms
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
Capital	Herzberg
Government
• District admin.	Christian Jaschinski (CDU)
Area
• Total	1,889.4 km2 (729.5 sq mi)
Population  (31 December 2023)[1]
• Total	98,750
• Density	52/km2 (140/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Vehicle registration	EE, FI, LIB
Website	landkreis-elbe-elster.de

Finsterwalde May2015 img2 Rathaus

History

The district was established in 1993 by merging the former districts (Kreise) of Finsterwalde, Bad Liebenwerda and Herzberg.

Geography

The district is named after two rivers - the Elbe river forms the western border with Saxony, the Black Elster (Schwarze Elster) is a tributary of the Elbe and runs through the district. The district is part of the Lusatia region. The fens along the Black Elster are a habitat of several rare animals, like common kingfishers, beavers and Eurasian otters.

Demography

• 
  Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population Development of Brandenburg state)
• 
  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 2014-2030 (red line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line)

Landkreis Elbe-Elster: Population development
within the current boundaries (2017)^[2]

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1875 89,046 —     1890 95,414 +0.46% 1910 116,632 +1.01% 1925 124,457 +0.43% 1933 129,274 +0.48% 1939 135,724 +0.81% 1946 175,945 +3.78% 1950 174,612 −0.19% 1964 156,012 −0.80% 1971 156,734 +0.07% 1981 149,216 −0.49% 1985 147,731 −0.25% 1989 144,932 −0.48% 1990 142,679 −1.55% 1991 139,850 −1.98%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1992 139,065 −0.56% 1993 139,058 −0.01% 1994 137,947 −0.80% 1995 136,889 −0.77% 1996 136,286 −0.44% 1997 135,624 −0.49% 1998 134,684 −0.69% 1999 132,873 −1.34% 2000 131,161 −1.29% 2001 129,066 −1.60% 2002 127,159 −1.48% 2003 125,526 −1.28% 2004 124,041 −1.18% 2005 122,031 −1.62% 2006 119,773 −1.85%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 2007 117,522 −1.88% 2008 115,560 −1.67% 2009 113,586 −1.71% 2010 111,975 −1.42% 2011 109,087 −2.58% 2012 107,649 −1.32% 2013 106,157 −1.39% 2014 104,997 −1.09% 2015 104,673 −0.31% 2016 104,397 −0.26% 2017 103,455 −0.90% 2018 102,638 −0.79% 2019 101,827 −0.79%

Coat of arms

District banner of Elbe-Elster

The coat of arms was granted in 1995. The lion in the bottom left derives from the county of Meissen (see Saxony), to which the southern area of the district belonged historically. The black bars derive from the Saxony-Wittenberg county as the area around Bad Liebenwerda belonged there in the past. The red bars derive from the oldest coat of arms of Brandenburg, and the bull is the symbol for the Lower Lusatia area were the district is located.

Towns and municipalities

Clickable map of towns and municipalities in the district

Amt-free towns	Ämter		Verbandsgemeinde
Doberlug-Kirchhain Elsterwerda Finsterwalde Herzberg (Elster) Schönewalde Sonnewalde Amt-free municipality Röderland	1. Elsterland Heideland Rückersdorf Schilda Schönborn1 Tröbitz 2. Kleine Elster (Niederlausitz) Crinitz Lichterfeld-Schacksdorf Massen-Niederlausitz1 Sallgast 3. Plessa Gorden-Staupitz Hohenleipisch Plessa1 Schraden	4. Schlieben Fichtwald Hohenbucko Kremitzaue Lebusa Schlieben1, 2 5. Schradenland Gröden1 Großthiemig Hirschfeld Merzdorf	1. Liebenwerda Bad Liebenwerda1, 2 Falkenberg/Elster2 Mühlberg2 Uebigau-Wahrenbrück2
1seat of the Amt; 2town