Kranenburg is a municipality in the district Stade, Lower Saxony, Germany, lying on the river Oste.

Kranenburg, first mentioned in 1375 as Kronesborg (literally cranes castle), belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, established in 1180.

In a charter from 1141 it is said, that the Rudolf of Freckleben, as Rudolf II Count of Stade (from 1135 to his death in 1144), gave Brobergen as a fief to one of the three brothers Dudo, Adiko and Ricbert, after they founded the Benedictine Our Lady's Friary [de] in Stade.

In 1380 the family von Mandelsloh and other Bremian and Verdian creditors tried to gain by violence the estates, which the bankrupt Prince-Archbishop Albert II pledged in return for credits.

In 1837, after many changes of owner, the castle and the pertaining domain were purchased by the farmers of Brobergen, who pooled together to become free of the ownership of their land by other persons.