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is an urbanized census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland in the United States. It is the sixth most populous CDP in Maryland with an estimated population of 85,000 as of 2005. If it were to incorporate along CDP boundaries, it would become the second largest incorporated city in Maryland. .
Germantown has the assigned ZIP Codes of 20874 and 20876 for delivery and 20875 for post office boxes. It is the only "Germantown, Maryland" recognized by the United States Postal Service, even though there are technically three others, one in Anne Arundel County, one in Baltimore County, and one in Worcester County.
Germantown is the current home of The Washington Freedom professional women's soccer team.
In the 1830s and 1840s, the central business area was focused around the intersection of Liberty Mill Road and Clopper Road. Many of the business owners seemed to be German. Despite the fact that most of the local landowners and farmers were English, travelers remembering the accents of the shop-owners called the area
On April 20, 1865, George Atzerodt, a co-conspirator in the Abraham Lincoln assassination was captured in Germantown. He was assigned by John Wilkes Booth to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson, but lost his nerve and fled Washington, D.C., on the night of the Lincoln assassination. He was captured at his cousin Hartman Richter's farm in Germantown. Atzerodt was hanged on July 7, 1865 along with Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, and David Herold in Washington, D.C.
In January 1958, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission was relocated from its location in downtown Washington D.C. to Germantown, which was considered far enough from Washington to withstand a nuclear attack on the nation's capital. The facility now operates as an administration complex for the U.S. Department of Energy and headquarters for its Office of Biological and Environmental Research.
Since about 1980, Germantown has experienced great growth, both in townhouses and single-family dwellings, and an urbanized town center has been built.