Stendal, city, Saxony-Anhalt Land (state), central Germany. It lies along the Uchte River, north of Magdeburg. Stendal was once the capital of the Altmark (“Old March”) division of Brandenburg, and its early settlers were Lower Saxons, Wends, Netherlanders, and Rhinelanders. It was given market rights by Margrave Albert I the Bear in 1160 and was chartered in the same year. A residence, until 1309, of the elder line of the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, the city prospered from the 13th to the 15th century as a cloth-weaving centre.
Stendal is a rail junction with high-speed rail passenger service. The city is a regional administrative and retail centre, and its industries include food processing and the manufacture of metal goods, precision instruments, machinery, motor-vehicle parts, and construction materials. Medieval and Renaissance buildings include the cathedral (1188), St. Mary’s Church (1447), and the town hall. The medieval town gates also survive. The 18th-century archaeologist and art critic Johann Winckelmann was born in Stendal in 1717, and the French novelist Marie-Henri Beyle may have taken his chief pseudonym, Stendhal, from the name of the city. Pop. (2003 est.) 38,064.