Bleckede (German pronunciation: [ˈbleːkədə] ⓘ, Polabian Bleketsa) is a town in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, in northern Germany.

However, Henry's son William of Winchester disputed that claim and made Bleckede the Welf outpost upon Elbe in 1209, in order to have a step towards the trans-Elbian areas which were in the process of colonisation by settlers from the west.

William also levied a toll from ships passing Bleckede and renamed the city in honour of his father Lowenstat (Lion's town; Löwenstadt).

But the Ascanians did not give up and Duke Albert II of Saxony fought for Bleckede with William's son Otto the Child, who gained the support of Prince-Archbishop Gilbert of Bremen.

Saxe-Lauenburg ceded Bleckede - with toll and castle - to Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg-Stendal, who quickly sold his new acquisition in 1308 to the Welf duke Otto the Strict, ruling the branch Principality of Lunenburg (Lüneburg).

In 1379 Duke Albert of Lunenburg-Celle pawned Bleckede castle to his creditors Hamburg, Lübeck, Hanover and Lunenburg (Lüneburg).

After the French victory over the electorate Bleckede was occupied, before it was annexed to the ephemeric Kingdom of Westphalia in March 1810, forming part of its Lower Elbe département.

After the downfall of the communist regime in East Germany in 1989 (Die Wende) the inhabitants of Bleckede's north Elbian quarters (part of the new state of Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania) demanded the reunification with western Bleckede, which belonged since 1946 to the West German state of Lower Saxony.