It is situated on the Ohre river, near the confluence with its Beber tributary, and the parallel Mittelland Canal, running from the fertile Magdeburg Börde basin to the Elbe river in the east. The town centre is located approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) northwest from Magdeburg. It is connected by railway to the neighbouring towns of Magdeburg, Oebisfelde and Eilsleben.
The municipal area includes the village of Süplingen, incorporated in 2014.
The Saxon fortress of hahaldeslevo in Eastphalia was first mentioned in a 966 deed of donation issued by Emperor Otto I. The Counts of Haldensleben rose to considerable power, most notably Dietrich and William, who ruled as margraves of the Northern March. Soon after a trading place (Neuhaldensleben) arose nearby, which was vested with market rights about 1150. Besieged and devastetd by the forces of Archbishop Wichmann in 1181, the Haldensleben estates belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Magdeburg from 1215.
Nearby Hundisburg Castle was owned by the House of Alvensleben from 1452 until 1811, enlarged in baroque style, with formal gardens, by Hermann Korb from 1693 on the order of Johann Friedrich II. von Alvensleben (1657-1728), a Hanoverian minister of George I of Great Britain. It was partly destroyed by fire in 1945 and reconstructed since 1994.
Althaldensleben Simultaneum
Hundisburg Castle
Today Haldensleben has a Protestant and a Catholic church. An old equestrian statue of Roland symbolized the rights of a medieval settlement to be accepted as a town. It is the only statue of Roland sitting on a horse in the world. Before 1938, when it merged with Althaldensleben, the town was called Neuhaldensleben.
