Gartow is a municipality in the district Lüchow-Dannenberg

Lüchow-Dannenberg

Lüchow-Dannenberg is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany which is usually referred to as Hannoversches Wendland or Wendland. It is bounded by the districts of Uelzen and Lüneburg and the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt Lüchow-Dannenberg is a district in...

, in Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated in the easternmost tip of Lower Saxony, on the river Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...

, approx. 30 km northeast of Salzwedel

Salzwedel

Salzwedel of Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, and has a population of approximately 21,500. Salzwedel is located on the German Framework Road.-Geography:...

, and 20 km west of Wittenberge

Wittenberge

Wittenberge is a town of twenty thousand people on the lower Elbe in the district of Prignitz , Brandenburg, Germany.-History:...

. Gartow is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde ("collective municipality") Gartow

Gartow (Samtgemeinde)

Gartow is a Samtgemeinde in the district of Lüchow-Dannenberg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Its seat is in the village Gartow.The Samtgemeinde Gartow consists of the following municipalities:#Gartow#Gorleben#Höhbeck...

.

At Gartow, there is a facility for FM- and TV-transmission, with two over 300 metre tall guyed masts, the Gartow-Höhbeck transmitter

Gartow-Höhbeck transmitter

Gartow-Höhbeck transmitter is a large facility for FM- and TV-transmission in Lower-Saxony, situated behalf of the community of Gartow and Höhbeck....

. Until the German reunification

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

 this transmitter was also used for the directional radio link to former West-Berlin (counter station: Richtfunkstelle Berlin-Frohnau

Richtfunkstelle Berlin-Frohnau

The Richtfunkstelle Berlin-Frohnau was a facility for directional radio services in Frohnau . Before the German reunification, the facility served as a directional radio link between West Berlin and West Germany.It first used only an overhorizon directional link...

).

Nearby Gorleben

Gorleben

Gorleben is a small municipality in the Gartow region of the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in the far north-east of Lower Saxony, Germany, a region also known as the Wendland....

is a proposed deposit for nuclear waste. This led to much controversy and protests in the area.