Lüneburg
Encyclopedia
Lüneburg is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony
. It is located about 45 km (28 mi) southeast of fellow Hanseatic
city Hamburg
. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region
, and one of Hamburg's inner suburbs
. The capital of the district of Lüneburg
, it has a population of around 72 000. Lüneburg's urban area, which includes the surrounding communities like Adendorf
, Bardowick
, and Reppenstedt
, has a population of around 103 000. Lüneburg has been allowed to use the title "Hansestadt" (Hanseatic Town) in its name since 2007, in recognition of its membership in the former Hanseatic League
; it is also a university town. As of December 2007, the town was the 120th largest in the Federal Republic of Germany
.
, about 30 kilometres (18.6 mi) from its confluence with the Elbe
. The river flows through the town and features in the its song
; it was formerly traversed by cogs
taking salt from the town to the other, larger, ports of the Hanseatic League nearby.
To the south of the town stretches the 7,400 km² Lüneburg Heath
which emerged as a result of widespread tree-felling, forest fires and grazing. The tradition that the heath arose from centuries of logging undertaken to meet the constant need of the Lüneburg salt works for wood is not historically confirmed. More likely, the heath was originally formed by clearances during the Bronze Age
. The old town (Altstadt) of Lüneburg lies above a salt dome
which is the town's original source of prosperity. However, the constant mining of the salt deposits over which the town stands has also resulted in the sometimes gradual, sometimes dramatically pronounced, sinking of various areas of the town. On the western edge of the town is the Kalkberg, a small hill and former gypsum
quarry.
on the — at that time considerably higher — Kalkberg, together with its adjoining settlement (the Marktviertel or "Market Quarter"), the village of Modestorpe between the bridge over the river Ilmenau and the large square, Am Sande (the Sandviertel or "Sand Quarter"), and the saline
with its walled settlement for the work force (the Sülzviertel or "Salt Quarter"). Not until the 13th century was the river port settlement (the Wasserviertel or "Waterside Quarter") built between the market place and the Ilmenau. The resulting shape of the town thus formed did not change until its expansion in the late 19th century and it is still clearly visible today.
Lüneburg's six historic town gates were the Altenbrücker Tor, the Bardowicker Tor, the Rote Tor, the Sülztor, the Lüner Tor and the Neue Tor.
, Kaltenmoor (the largest district, with around 8,000 inhabitants), Kreideberg, Lüne,Moorfeld, Mittelfeld, Neu Hagen, Ochtmissen, Oedeme, Rettmer, Rotes Feld, Schützenplatz, Weststadt and Wilschenbruch.
Jüttkenmoor, Klosterkamp, Bülows Kamp, In den Kämpen, Krähornsberg, Schäferfeld, Volgershall and Zeltberg are the names of individual blocks within a single district.
(today the German Salt Museum
) and the Kalkberg were built above a salt dome
that was excavated by the saltworks and which extended to just below the surface of the ground. As a result of the increasing quantities of salt mined with improved technical equipment after 1830, the ground began to sink by several metres. This resulted in the so-called Senkungsgebiet or "subsidence area". The houses there and the local church (St. Lambert's) lost their stability and had to be demolished. Because of this subsidence, and because salt mining was increasingly unprofitable, the saltworks were finally closed in 1980. Today, only small amounts of brine are extracted for the health spa
in the Lüneburg Thermal Salt Baths (the Salztherme Lüneburg or SaLü). One side of the saltworks now houses a supermarket, while the other is the German Salt Museum.
The subsidence has been monitored at about 240 stations since 1946 every two years. The land has not quite stopped subsiding yet, but it is stable enough that new construction has taken place on it, and several historic buildings which had previously been damaged or demolished have meanwhile been restored. The subsidence can still be clearly seen even today. Those who walk from Am Sande to the end of the Grapengießerstraße can clearly sense the degree of subsidence for themselves: the hollow in front of them was formerly at the same level as the Grapengießerstraße. This depression extends as far as the Lambertiplatz square.
In the Frommestraße, another sign of earth movements caused by salt mining may be seen: the Tor zur Unterwelt ("Door to the Underworld"), where two cast iron doors have been pushed on top of one another.
Near St. Michael's Church (Michaeliskirche) other consequences of the subsidence can be seen in its sloping columns and the west wing of the nave. Current subsidence movements can be seen in the road known as Ochtmisser Kirchsteig.
The area was almost certainly not continuously inhabited at that time, however, due to the various glaciations that lasted for millennia. The first indication of a permanent, settled farming culture in the area was found not far from the site of the Neanderthal discovery in the river Ilmenau between Lüne and Bardowick. This was an axe that is described as a Schuhleistenkeil or "shoe last wedge" due to its shape. It dates to the 6th century BC
and is now in the collection of the Lüneburg Museum.
Since the Bronze Age
, the Lüneburg hill known as the Zeltberg has concealed a whole range of prehistoric and early historic graves, which were laid out by people living in the area of the present-day town of Lüneburg. One of the oldest finds from this site is a so-called Unetice flanged axe (Aunjetitzer Randleistenbeil) which dates to 1900 BC.
The land within the town itself has also yielded a number of ice age
urns that were already being reported in the 18th century. These discoveries are, however, like those from the Lüneburger Kalkberg — they went into the private collections of several 18th century scholars and, with a few exceptions, were lost when the scholars died.
Also worth mentioning in this regard are the Lombard
Urnfield graves on the Lüneburg Zeltberg and Oedeme from the first few centuries AD. In the Middle Ages
, there several discoveries were made on the site of the town, form example on the site of the old village of Modestorpe not far from St. John's Church (Johanniskirche), at the Lambertiplatz near the saltworks and in the old Waterside Quarter.
The ancient town may be that identified as Leufana or Leuphana , a town listed in Ptolemy
(2.10) in the north of Germany on the west of the Elbe
.
granted "the tax from Lüneburg to the monastery built there in honour of Saint Michael" (German den Zoll zu Lüneburg an das zu Ehren des heiligen Michaels errichtete Kloster, Latin: teloneum ad Luniburc ad monasterium sancti Michahelis sub honore constructum). An older reference to the place in the Frankish imperial annals dated 795 states:...ad fluvium Albim pervenit ad locum, qui dicitur Hliuni i.e. on the river Elbe, at the location, which is called "Hliuni") and refers to one of the three core settlements of Lüneburg; probably the castle on the Kalkburg which was the seat of the Billunger nobles from 951. The Elbe-Germanic name Hliuni corresponds to the Lombard
word for "refuge site".
From archaeological finds, it is clear that the area around Lüneburg had already been settled (in the museum of the Principality of Lüneburg, for example, there is a whole range of artefacts that were found here) and the saltworks had already started production.
According to tradition, the salt was first discovered by a hunter who observed a wild boar bathing in a pool of water, shot and killed it, and hung the coat up to dry. When it was dry, he discovered white crystals in the bristles — salt. Later he returned to the site of the kill and located the salt pool, the first production of salt on the site took place. In the town hall is a bone preserved in a glass case; legend has it that this is the preserved leg-bone of the boar. It was here that the Lüneburg Saltworks
was subsequently established for many centuries.
In spite of its lucrative saltworks, Lüneburg was originally subordinated to the town of Bardowick
only a few miles to the north. Bardowick was older and was an important trading post for the Slavs
. Bardowick's prosperity – it had seven churches – was based purely on the fact that no other trading centres were tolerated. Only when Bardowick refused to pay allegiance to Henry the Lion
was it destroyed by him in 1189, whereupon Lüneburg was given town privileges
(Stadtrechte) and developed into the central trading post in the region in place of Bardowick.
The Polabian
name for Lüneburg is Glain (written as Chlein or Glein in older German sources), probably derived from glaino (Slavonic
: glina) which means "clay". In the Latin texts Lüneburg surfaces not only as the Latinised Lunaburgum, but also as Selenopolis.
As a consequence of the monopoly that Lüneburg had for many years as a supplier of salt within the North German region, a monopoly not challenged until much later by French imports, it very quickly became a member of the Hanseatic League
. The League was formed in 1158 in Lübeck
, initially as a union of individual merchants, but in 1356 it met as a federation of trading towns at the first general meeting of the Hansetag. Lüneburg's salt was needed in order to pickle the herring
caught in the Baltic Sea
and the waters around Norway so that it could be preserved for food inland during periods of fasting
when fish (not meat) was permitted.
The Scania Market
at Scania
in Sweden was a major fish market for herring and became one of the most important trade events in Northern Europe in the Middle Ages
. Lüneburg's salt was in great demand and the town quickly became one of the wealthiest and most important towns in the Hanseatic League, together with Bergen
and Visby
(the fish suppliers) and Lübeck (the central trading post between the Baltic and the interior). In the Middle Ages
salt was initially conveyed overland up the Old Salt Road to Lübeck. With the opening of the Stecknitz Canal in 1398 salt could be transported by cog
from the Lübeck salt warehouses, the Salzspeicher
.
Around the year 1235, the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg emerged, ruled by a family whose aristocratic lines repeatedly divided and re-united. The smaller states that kept re-appearing as a result, and which ranked as principalities, were usually named after the location of the ducal seat. Thus between 1267 and 1269 a Principality of Lüneburg
was created for the first time, with Lüneburg as the seat of the royal Residenz
. In 1371, in the wake of the Lüneburg War of Succession
, rebel citizens threw the princes out of the town and destroyed their royal castle on the Kalkberg along with the nearby monastery. The state peace treaty in 1392 granted their demand to become a free imperial town
, a status they were able to defend until 1637. The money now stayed in the town, enabling fine houses and churches were built.
In 1392 Lüneburg was accorded the staple right
. This forced merchants who travelled through the area with their carts to stop in Lüneburg, unload their wares, and offer them for sale for a certain period. So that merchants could not go around Lüneburg, an impassable defensive barrier was built west of the town in 1397; a similar barrier was built east of the town in 1479.
The Lüneburg Prelates' War
caused a crisis from 1446 to 1462. This was not a war in the proper sense, but rather a bitter dispute between the town council and those members of the clergy who were also part-owners of the town's saltworks. It was not resolved until the intervention of the Danish King Christian I
, the Bishop of Schwerin and the Lübeck Bishop, Arnold Westphal.
In 1454 the citizens demanded even more influence over public life.
Since 2007, Lüneburg has once again held the title of a Hanseatic city.
– and the absence of herrings around 1560 around Falsterbo
in Scania
– the biggest customers of Lüneburg's salt broke away and the town rapidly became impoverished. Hardly any new houses were built in central Lüneburg after this time, which is why the historical appearance of the town centre has remained almost unchanged until the present day.
The town became part of the Electorate of Hanover
in 1708, the Kingdom of Westphalia
in 1807, the First French Empire
in 1810, the Kingdom of Hanover
in 1814, and the Prussia
n Province of Hanover
in 1866.
In the centuries after the collapse of the League, it was as if Lüneburg had fallen into a Sleeping Beauty
slumber. Heinrich Heine
, whose parents lived in Lüneburg from 1822 to 1826, called it his "residence of boredom" (Residenz der Langeweile). Near the end of the 19th century Lüneburg evolved into a garrison town, and it remained so until the 1990s.
In 1945 Lüneburg surfaced once again in the history books when, south of the town on the hill known as the Timeloberg (near the village of Wendisch Evern
) the German Instrument of Surrender was signed that brought the Second World War in Europe to an end. The location is presently inaccessible to the general public as it lies within a military out-of-bounds area. Only a small monument on a nearby track alludes to the event. On 23 May 1945 Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler
took his own life in Lüneburg whilst in British Army
custody by biting into a potassium cyanide
capsule embedded in his teeth before he could be properly interrogated. He was subsequently buried in an unmarked location in a nearby forest.
took place, the first war crimes trial, the so-called Belsen Trial
(Bergen-Belsen-Prozess), began in Lüneburg on 17 September 1945 conducted against 45 former SS men, women and kapo
s (prisoner functionaries) from the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camp
s.
After World War II, Lüneburg became part of the new state of Lower Saxony
. But the dilapidated state of its buildings led to various plans to try and improve living conditions. One proposition that was seriously discussed was to tear down the entire Altstadt and replace it with modern buildings. The ensuing public protest resulted in Lüneburg becoming the focal point for a new concept: cultural heritage conservation
. Since the early 1970s the town has been systematically restored. A leading figure in this initiative since the late 1960s has been Curt Pomp: against much opposition from politicians and councillors he founded and championed the Lüneburg Altstadt Working Group (Arbeitskreis Lüneburger Altstadt) for the preservation of historic buildings. His engagement was rewarded with the German Prize for Cultural Heritage Conservation and the German Order of Merit. Today Lüneburg is a tourist attraction as a result of the restoration and important sectors of the town's economy also depend on tourism.
The salt mine was closed in 1980, ending the thousand-year tradition of salt mining, although small amounts are still mined for ceremonial purposes. Small bags of salt may be purchased in the town hall, and bags are given as a gift from the town to all couples married in the town. After the closing of the salt mines, the town gained new relevance from its university, which was founded in 1989.
As part of the restructuring of Defence in 1990 two of the three Bundeswehr
barracks
in the town were closed and the remaining one reduced in size. The Bundesgrenzschutz
barracks was also closed. Lüneburg University
moved to the site of the old Scharnhorst barracks. The university grew out of the new economics and cultural studies departments set up in the 1980s and their amalgamation with the College of Education (Pädagogischen Hochschule or PH) that took place in 1989. Since its move to the former barracks site the university has enrolled increasing numbers of students. The expansion of the university is an important contribution to the restructuring of the town into a service centre.
Today an industrial estate, the Lünepark, has been built on the terrain of the old Bundesgrenzschutz barracks with its new industrial premises for entrepreneurs. The promotion of trade and industry has resulted in many firms from the ICT area locating themselves there. In May 2006 the nearby Johannes Westphal Bridge was opened to traffic. This links the newly created Lünepark with the suburb of Goseburg on the far side of the Ilmenau. Since 5 October 2007 Lüneburg has been able to call itself a Hanseatic Town; together with Stade
it is one of only two towns in Lower Saxony to bear the title.
Lüneburg is also a popular tourist destination within Germany because of the Lüneburg Heath
.
and beginning of the Modern Period and was one of the largest 'cities' of its time, but its population shrank with the economic downturn to just 9,400 in 1757; then rose again to 10,400 in 1813. With the onset of industrialisation
in the 19th century, population growth accelerated. If 13,000 were living in the town in 1855, by 1939 there were as many as 35,000. Shortly after the Second World War, refugees and displaced persons from Germany's eastern territories brought an increase in population within just a few months of around 18,000 people so that the total number in December 1945 was 53,000. In 2003 the 70,000 level was exceeded for the first time.
The town of Lüneburg, its eponymous district and the neighbouring district of Harburg belong to the few regions in Germany that have experienced such a massive growth. The reasons for this include the growth of areas around the Hamburg Metropolitan Region
and the consequent shift of people to those areas. The Lower Saxon State Office for Statistics has forecast that the town of Lüneburg will have a population of 89,484 by the year 2021. More realistic estimates, however, put the future size Lüneburg at between 75,000 to 79,000 in that time frame.
On 31 December 2008, according to the Statistics Office, the official census
for Lüneburg recorded 72,492 people (those who had their main residence in the town and after adjustments with other states offices) – the highest number in its history. In addition Lüneburg has particularly close relations with its adjacent municipalities which are also growing and with which it is forming an agglomeration. The town, together with the nearby villages of Adendorf
, Bardowick
, Deutsch Evern
, Reppenstedt
, Vögelsen
and Wendisch Evern
has a total population of about 103,000 and would be on the way to being a city in the modern sense (i.e. in Germany cities or Großstädte are defined as settlements with a population of over 100,000). Currently Lüneburg is the eleventh largest centre of population in Lower Saxony.
The following overview shows the population figures based on the situation at the time. Up to 1813 they were mostly estimates; thereafter based on census
es (*) or official projections by the State Office of Statistics. From 1871 the figures were based on those 'present in the town', from 1925 on those 'living in the town' and since 1987 on the 'population who have their main residence in the town'. Before 1871 the numbers were based on inconsistent survey methods.
* Census results
by the British occupation forces power was separated: the voluntary lord mayor and chairman of the town body was the political representative of the town who, like all the members of the town council was elected by the people, whilst the administration was headed up by a full-time chief municipal director, who was elected by the town council. Since 1996, as a result of the reform of the local constitution, both functions (again) have been combined in the post of a full-time lord mayor, who is now directly elected by the townsfolk. In addition to the lord mayor there are two other mayors (elected by the council) who support and represent the lord mayor in his civic duties.
The current mayors are: Eduard Kolle (SPD) and Dr. Gerhard Scharf (CDU).
international network, Friends of Peoples Close to Nature
(FdN - Freunde der Naturvölker).
In addition there are various partnerships with other German towns such as Kulmbach
and Köthen.
In addition Lüneburg has a large number of amateur theatres, that also produce regular performances. Such a variety in amateur drama is otherwise only found in large cities like Hamburg or Hanover.
Examples include (arranged in order of year founded):
In addition there are amateur theatres in the many surrounding districts such as the Puschentheater in Melbeck
, the Plattsnack Widsbold in Marxen am Berge and the Kleine Salzhäuser Theater (KleiST) in Salzhausen
.
, St. Nicholas'). The most important museums are the German Salt Museum
in the premises of the old Lüneburg Saltworks
, in which the significance of salt in the Middle Ages
and the extraction of salt is vividly portrayed, and the Museum of the Principality of Lüneburg, in which the town's history and the history of the surrounding area is captured. Also worthy of mention are the East Prussian State Museum, the nearby North German Brewery Museum with a gallery of valuable drinking vessels (over 1200 years), the 1485 Kronen Brewery of Lüneburg and the Lüneburg Nature Museum on the edge of the subsidence zone.
s, medieval pottery workshops and many historic soakaways (Sickergruben) from which a considerably better picture of life in the Middle Ages
resulted.
In the Lüneburg district of Kaltenmoor is St. Stephen's (St. Stephanus), the oldest ecumenical building in the town, with Protestant and Catholic churches under one roof. Other buildings worthy of particular mention are the three remaining town churches: St. John (St. Johannis am Sande, completed 1370), St. Michael (Michaeliskirche), where Johann Sebastian Bach
was a choirboy
from 1700 to 1702, and the relatively 'modern' St. Nicholas (Nikolaikirche), which was built in 1407. The Church of St. Lambertus (Lambertikirche) had to be demolished in 1850 due to its dilapidated state; it stood in the subsidence area.
Equally interesting are the Glockenhaus ("Bell House", an old armoury) on the Glockenhof, the Rathsapotheke (town chemist's), dating to 1598, in Große Bäckerstraße and the historic town hall or Rathaus with its famous town council meeting room, the Gerichtslaube. The Luna Fountain (Lunabrunnen) in front of the town hall is graced by a bronze statue of the moon goddess with bow and arrow; the original dating to 1532 was stolen in 1970 and melted down; the present statue is a replica dating to 1972. In the area of the old port can still be seen the baroque
facade of the "Old Store" (Altes Kaufhaus), most of the rest of which was burned down and had to be replaced by one that was more suitable for a fire station. The port is also home to the "Old Crane" (Alter Kran), a wooden, medieval riverside crane that is still in working order today and which has two large wheels inside that enable the crane cable to be raised and lowered. The fire station moved in autumn 2007 to a new building on the edge of the town centre; the Altes Kaufhaus has since (2009) been converted into a hotel.
On the southern edge of the town centre is the Lüneburg Water Tower which now acts as an observation tower.
In front of the gates of the old town is Lüne Abbey
, a former, Benedictine nunnery. It was built in 1172 and has been well restored.
About 2 kilometres west of Lüneburg, in the villages of Reppenstedt
and Vögelsen
, is a well-preserved section of the historic Lüneburg Landwehr, a boundary embankment and ditch, that can be walked.
Lüneburg is also known for other cuisine, such as the Heidschnucke
nbraten (roast mutton from moorland sheep) and smelt
, a small fish that comes into season in spring. Another culinary rarity is a regional variation of the Danish Labskaus
(Skipperlabskovs, colloquially referred to as Gammel danske kaus). On Christmas Eve it is traditional to have kale
(Grünkohl) with bregenwurst
, a type of sausage.
Those worth mentioning include: the fashion company Roy Robson (the knitware firm Lucia, once the biggest employer in the town went bankrupt in 2008), DeVauGe Gesundkostwerk one of the largest German manufacturers of vegetarian food and the dairy
, which today is part of Hochwald Nahrungsmittel-Werke and makes products (e. g. yoghurt) under the Lünebest label. In the industrial field there are large local firms like the car interior manufacturers, Johnson Controls
, H. B. Fuller, Impreglon and the electronics company of Sieb & Meyer. Also based in Lüneburg is the von Stern'schen Druckerei, founded in 1614, the oldest printing firm still in family ownership in the world.
, but does have special medicinal resources like, for example, Lüneburg brine (containing about 26 % salt), which is used especially to relieve those suffering from psoriasis
. In addition, since 1978, the headquarters of the conference hotel group Seminaris has been based here. Amongst firms in the technology and service sectors is Gründungszentrum e-novum, which supports new venture firms. Werum Software & Systems ist the largest IT firm in Lüneburg.
n, and 5 Hauptschule
n; there are no Gesamtschulen. There are 6 vocational schools, 3 special schools, 3 private schools, and 12 elementary schools.
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...
. It is located about 45 km (28 mi) southeast of fellow Hanseatic
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
city Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region
Hamburg Metropolitan Region
The Metropolregion Hamburg is the compilation of 8 rural districts in the German federal state of Lower Saxony, 6 districts in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein and the city-state of Hamburg in northern Germany...
, and one of Hamburg's inner suburbs
Inner suburbs
Inner suburb is a term used for a variety of suburban communities that are generally located very close to a large city. Their urban density is lower than the inner city or Central Business District ....
. The capital of the district of Lüneburg
Lüneburg (district)
Lüneburg is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Lüchow-Dannenberg, Uelzen, Heidekreis and Harburg, and the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .-History:The Amt of Lüneburg appeared in 1862...
, it has a population of around 72 000. Lüneburg's urban area, which includes the surrounding communities like Adendorf
Adendorf
Adendorf is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany....
, Bardowick
Bardowick
Bardowick is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is three miles north of Lüneburg on the navigable river Ilmenau. Bardowick is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Bardowick.-History:The town was first mentioned in AD 795 and was raised to city status in AD 972 by...
, and Reppenstedt
Reppenstedt
Reppenstedt is a municipality and the administrative centre of the Samtgemeinde Gellersen within the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany....
, has a population of around 103 000. Lüneburg has been allowed to use the title "Hansestadt" (Hanseatic Town) in its name since 2007, in recognition of its membership in the former Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
; it is also a university town. As of December 2007, the town was the 120th largest in the Federal Republic of 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...
.
Location
Lüneburg lies on the river IlmenauIlmenau
Ilmenau is a town located in the district of Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany.Ilmenau is situated in the valley of the Ilm river, at an altitude of 431 metres above sea level, and is the biggest town in Ilm-Kreis district, with 6,200 students studying at the Technische Universität Ilmenau. The...
, about 30 kilometres (18.6 mi) from its confluence with the 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...
. The river flows through the town and features in the its song
Anthem
The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...
; it was formerly traversed by cogs
Cog (ship)
A cog is a type of ship that first appeared in the 10th century, and was widely used from around the 12th century on. Cogs were generally built of oak, which was an abundant timber in the Baltic region of Prussia. This vessel was fitted with a single mast and a square-rigged single sail...
taking salt from the town to the other, larger, ports of the Hanseatic League nearby.
To the south of the town stretches the 7,400 km² Lüneburg Heath
Lüneburg Heath
The Lüneburg Heath is a large area of heath, geest and woodland in northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover, and Bremen and is named after the town of Lüneburg. Most of the area is a nature reserve...
which emerged as a result of widespread tree-felling, forest fires and grazing. The tradition that the heath arose from centuries of logging undertaken to meet the constant need of the Lüneburg salt works for wood is not historically confirmed. More likely, the heath was originally formed by clearances during the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
. The old town (Altstadt) of Lüneburg lies above a salt dome
Salt dome
A salt dome is a type of structural dome formed when a thick bed of evaporite minerals found at depth intrudes vertically into surrounding rock strata, forming a diapir....
which is the town's original source of prosperity. However, the constant mining of the salt deposits over which the town stands has also resulted in the sometimes gradual, sometimes dramatically pronounced, sinking of various areas of the town. On the western edge of the town is the Kalkberg, a small hill and former gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
quarry.
Neighbouring towns and cities
There are several towns, cities, and urban areas around Lüneburg in all directions:| Winsen Winsen Winsen can refer to:*Winsen , capital of the district Harburg, Lower Saxony, Germany.*Winsen , a municipality in the district of Celle, Lower Saxony, Germany.... (Luhe), Hamburg-Harburg Hamburg-Harburg Harburg is a borough of the city of Hamburg, Germany and a quarter in this borough. The borough Harburg lies on the southern shores of the river Elbe and covers parts of the port of Hamburg, residential and rural areas and some research institutes... 18 km, 36 km |
Hamburg-Bergedorf, Schwarzenbek Schwarzenbek Schwarzenbek is a town in the district of Lauenburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approximately 10 km northeast of Geesthacht, and 35 km east of Hamburg... , Lübeck Lübeck The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World... 32 km, 43 km, 87 km |
Adendorf Adendorf Adendorf is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany.... , Lauenburg 5 km, 22 km |
| Jesteburg Jesteburg Jesteburg is a municipality in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 25 km south of Hamburg, and 6 km east of Buchholz in der Nordheide.... 48 km |
 |
Amt Neuhaus Amt Neuhaus Amt Neuhaus is a municipality in the District of Lunenburg , in Lower Saxony, Germany.- History :In the course of the eastern colonisation the area of today's Amt Neuhaus became a part of the Duchy of Saxony... , Lübtheen Lübtheen Lübtheen is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated 28 km west of Ludwigslust, and 37 km southwest of Schwerin.... 42 km, 57 km |
| Soltau Soltau - Middle Ages :The region of the Lüneburg Heath had already been settled by the start of the New Stone Age about 4,000 years ago. The Soltau area was initially occupied by a few individual farms. The parish of Soltau was probably founded around 830 and the first wooden church Sante Johannis... 51 km |
Ebstorf Ebstorf Ebstorf is a municipality in the district of Uelzen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 12 km northwest of Uelzen, and 25 km south of Lüneburg.... , Uelzen Uelzen Uelzen is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a Hanseatic town and an independent municipality.... 26 km, 37 km |
Lüchow Lüchow Lüchow is a city in northeastern Lower Saxony, in Germany. It is the seat of the Samtgemeinde Lüchow , and is the capital of the district Lüchow-Dannenberg. Situated approximately 13 km north of Salzwedel, Lüchow is located on the German Framework Road... (Wendland) 68 km |
Historical districts
The motto Mons, Pons, Fons ("Hill, bridge, spring") characterised the development of the town from the 8th century as it coalesced from initially three, and later four, areas of settlement. These areas were the refuge castleRefuge castle
A refuge castle is a castle-like defensive location, usually surrounded by ramparts, that is not permanently occupied but acts as a temporary retreat for the local population when threatened by war or attack...
on the — at that time considerably higher — Kalkberg, together with its adjoining settlement (the Marktviertel or "Market Quarter"), the village of Modestorpe between the bridge over the river Ilmenau and the large square, Am Sande (the Sandviertel or "Sand Quarter"), and the saline
Lüneburg Saltworks
The Lüneburg Saltworks was a saline in the German town of Lüneburg that extracted salt.According to legend, a hunter killed a wild boar whose coat was snow-white from crystallised salt...
with its walled settlement for the work force (the Sülzviertel or "Salt Quarter"). Not until the 13th century was the river port settlement (the Wasserviertel or "Waterside Quarter") built between the market place and the Ilmenau. The resulting shape of the town thus formed did not change until its expansion in the late 19th century and it is still clearly visible today.
Lüneburg's six historic town gates were the Altenbrücker Tor, the Bardowicker Tor, the Rote Tor, the Sülztor, the Lüner Tor and the Neue Tor.
Town districts
Districts: Altstadt, Bockelsberg, Ebensberg, Goseburg-Zeltberg, HäcklingenHäcklingen
Häcklingen is a village in the municipality of Lüneburg, about 6 km from the town centre. It has an area of and is bordered to the west by Rettmer. To the north it is separated from the district of Bockelsberg by a small wood, to the east it is bordered by Uelzener Straße . The next nearest...
, Kaltenmoor (the largest district, with around 8,000 inhabitants), Kreideberg, Lüne,Moorfeld, Mittelfeld, Neu Hagen, Ochtmissen, Oedeme, Rettmer, Rotes Feld, Schützenplatz, Weststadt and Wilschenbruch.
Jüttkenmoor, Klosterkamp, Bülows Kamp, In den Kämpen, Krähornsberg, Schäferfeld, Volgershall and Zeltberg are the names of individual blocks within a single district.
Subsidence
The houses in the historic quarter between the Lüneburg SaltworksLüneburg Saltworks
The Lüneburg Saltworks was a saline in the German town of Lüneburg that extracted salt.According to legend, a hunter killed a wild boar whose coat was snow-white from crystallised salt...
(today the German Salt Museum
German Salt Museum
The German Salt Museum in the German town of Lüneburg was established on the site of the old production facilities of the Lüneburg Saltworks when it was closed in 1980....
) and the Kalkberg were built above a salt dome
Salt dome
A salt dome is a type of structural dome formed when a thick bed of evaporite minerals found at depth intrudes vertically into surrounding rock strata, forming a diapir....
that was excavated by the saltworks and which extended to just below the surface of the ground. As a result of the increasing quantities of salt mined with improved technical equipment after 1830, the ground began to sink by several metres. This resulted in the so-called Senkungsgebiet or "subsidence area". The houses there and the local church (St. Lambert's) lost their stability and had to be demolished. Because of this subsidence, and because salt mining was increasingly unprofitable, the saltworks were finally closed in 1980. Today, only small amounts of brine are extracted for the health spa
Spa
The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy. Spa towns or spa resorts typically offer various health treatments. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been popular worldwide, but are...
in the Lüneburg Thermal Salt Baths (the Salztherme Lüneburg or SaLü). One side of the saltworks now houses a supermarket, while the other is the German Salt Museum.
The subsidence has been monitored at about 240 stations since 1946 every two years. The land has not quite stopped subsiding yet, but it is stable enough that new construction has taken place on it, and several historic buildings which had previously been damaged or demolished have meanwhile been restored. The subsidence can still be clearly seen even today. Those who walk from Am Sande to the end of the Grapengießerstraße can clearly sense the degree of subsidence for themselves: the hollow in front of them was formerly at the same level as the Grapengießerstraße. This depression extends as far as the Lambertiplatz square.
In the Frommestraße, another sign of earth movements caused by salt mining may be seen: the Tor zur Unterwelt ("Door to the Underworld"), where two cast iron doors have been pushed on top of one another.
Near St. Michael's Church (Michaeliskirche) other consequences of the subsidence can be seen in its sloping columns and the west wing of the nave. Current subsidence movements can be seen in the road known as Ochtmisser Kirchsteig.
History
Prehistory
The first signs of human presence in the area of Lüneburg date back to the time of Neanderthal Man: 56 axes, estimated at 150,000 years old, were uncovered during the construction in the 1990s of the autobahn between Ochtmissen and Bardowick. The site of the discovery at Ochtmissen was probably a Neanderthal hunting location where huntsmen skinned and cut up the animals they had caught.The area was almost certainly not continuously inhabited at that time, however, due to the various glaciations that lasted for millennia. The first indication of a permanent, settled farming culture in the area was found not far from the site of the Neanderthal discovery in the river Ilmenau between Lüne and Bardowick. This was an axe that is described as a Schuhleistenkeil or "shoe last wedge" due to its shape. It dates to the 6th century BC
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
and is now in the collection of the Lüneburg Museum.
Since the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, the Lüneburg hill known as the Zeltberg has concealed a whole range of prehistoric and early historic graves, which were laid out by people living in the area of the present-day town of Lüneburg. One of the oldest finds from this site is a so-called Unetice flanged axe (Aunjetitzer Randleistenbeil) which dates to 1900 BC.
The land within the town itself has also yielded a number of ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
urns that were already being reported in the 18th century. These discoveries are, however, like those from the Lüneburger Kalkberg — they went into the private collections of several 18th century scholars and, with a few exceptions, were lost when the scholars died.
Also worth mentioning in this regard are the Lombard
Lombards
The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...
Urnfield graves on the Lüneburg Zeltberg and Oedeme from the first few centuries AD. In the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, there several discoveries were made on the site of the town, form example on the site of the old village of Modestorpe not far from St. John's Church (Johanniskirche), at the Lambertiplatz near the saltworks and in the old Waterside Quarter.
The ancient town may be that identified as Leufana or Leuphana , a town listed in Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
(2.10) in the north of Germany on the west of the 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...
.
From village to commercial town
Lüneburg was first mentioned in medieval records in a deed signed on 13 August, 956 AD, in which Otto I, Holy Roman EmperorOtto I, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto I the Great , son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duke of Saxony, King of Germany, King of Italy, and "the first of the Germans to be called the emperor of Italy" according to Arnulf of Milan...
granted "the tax from Lüneburg to the monastery built there in honour of Saint Michael" (German den Zoll zu Lüneburg an das zu Ehren des heiligen Michaels errichtete Kloster, Latin: teloneum ad Luniburc ad monasterium sancti Michahelis sub honore constructum). An older reference to the place in the Frankish imperial annals dated 795 states:...ad fluvium Albim pervenit ad locum, qui dicitur Hliuni i.e. on the river Elbe, at the location, which is called "Hliuni") and refers to one of the three core settlements of Lüneburg; probably the castle on the Kalkburg which was the seat of the Billunger nobles from 951. The Elbe-Germanic name Hliuni corresponds to the Lombard
Lombardic language
Lombardic or Langobardic is the extinct language of the Lombards , the Germanic speaking people who settled in Italy in the 6th century. The language declined rapidly already in the 7th century as the invaders quickly adopted the Latin vernacular spoken by the local Roman population. E.g...
word for "refuge site".
From archaeological finds, it is clear that the area around Lüneburg had already been settled (in the museum of the Principality of Lüneburg, for example, there is a whole range of artefacts that were found here) and the saltworks had already started production.
According to tradition, the salt was first discovered by a hunter who observed a wild boar bathing in a pool of water, shot and killed it, and hung the coat up to dry. When it was dry, he discovered white crystals in the bristles — salt. Later he returned to the site of the kill and located the salt pool, the first production of salt on the site took place. In the town hall is a bone preserved in a glass case; legend has it that this is the preserved leg-bone of the boar. It was here that the Lüneburg Saltworks
Lüneburg Saltworks
The Lüneburg Saltworks was a saline in the German town of Lüneburg that extracted salt.According to legend, a hunter killed a wild boar whose coat was snow-white from crystallised salt...
was subsequently established for many centuries.
In spite of its lucrative saltworks, Lüneburg was originally subordinated to the town of Bardowick
Bardowick
Bardowick is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is three miles north of Lüneburg on the navigable river Ilmenau. Bardowick is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Bardowick.-History:The town was first mentioned in AD 795 and was raised to city status in AD 972 by...
only a few miles to the north. Bardowick was older and was an important trading post for the Slavs
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
. Bardowick's prosperity – it had seven churches – was based purely on the fact that no other trading centres were tolerated. Only when Bardowick refused to pay allegiance to Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180....
was it destroyed by him in 1189, whereupon Lüneburg was given town privileges
Town privileges
Town privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws. Common privileges were related to trading...
(Stadtrechte) and developed into the central trading post in the region in place of Bardowick.
The Polabian
Polabian language
The Polabian language is an extinct West Slavic language that was spoken by the Polabian Slavs in present-day North-Eastern Germany around the Elbe river, from which derives its name...
name for Lüneburg is Glain (written as Chlein or Glein in older German sources), probably derived from glaino (Slavonic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
: glina) which means "clay". In the Latin texts Lüneburg surfaces not only as the Latinised Lunaburgum, but also as Selenopolis.
Hanseatic period
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
. The League was formed in 1158 in Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
, initially as a union of individual merchants, but in 1356 it met as a federation of trading towns at the first general meeting of the Hansetag. Lüneburg's salt was needed in order to pickle the herring
Atlantic herring
Atlantic herring is a fish in the family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species on earth. Herring can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large schools. They can grow up to in length and weigh more than...
caught in the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
and the waters around Norway so that it could be preserved for food inland during periods of fasting
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...
when fish (not meat) was permitted.
The Scania Market
Scania Market
Scania Market was a major fish market for herring which took place annually in Scania during the Middle Ages. From around 1200, it became one of the most important events for trade around the Baltic Sea and made Scania into a major distribution center for West-European goods bound for eastern...
at Scania
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
in Sweden was a major fish market for herring and became one of the most important trade events in Northern Europe in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. Lüneburg's salt was in great demand and the town quickly became one of the wealthiest and most important towns in the Hanseatic League, together with Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
and Visby
Visby
-See also:* Battle of Visby* Gotland University College* List of governors of Gotland County-External links:* - Visby*...
(the fish suppliers) and Lübeck (the central trading post between the Baltic and the interior). In the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
salt was initially conveyed overland up the Old Salt Road to Lübeck. With the opening of the Stecknitz Canal in 1398 salt could be transported by cog
Cog (ship)
A cog is a type of ship that first appeared in the 10th century, and was widely used from around the 12th century on. Cogs were generally built of oak, which was an abundant timber in the Baltic region of Prussia. This vessel was fitted with a single mast and a square-rigged single sail...
from the Lübeck salt warehouses, the Salzspeicher
Salzspeicher
The Salzspeicher of Lübeck, Germany, are six historic brick buildings on the Upper Trave River next to the Holstentor ....
.
Around the year 1235, the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg emerged, ruled by a family whose aristocratic lines repeatedly divided and re-united. The smaller states that kept re-appearing as a result, and which ranked as principalities, were usually named after the location of the ducal seat. Thus between 1267 and 1269 a Principality of Lüneburg
Principality of Lüneburg
The Principality of Lüneburg was a territorial division of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg within the Holy Roman Empire, immediately subordinate to the emperor. It existed from 1269 until 1705 and its territory lay within the modern-day state of Lower Saxony in Germany...
was created for the first time, with Lüneburg as the seat of the royal Residenz
Residenz
Residenz is a very formal, otherwise obsolete, German word for "place of living". It is in particular used to denote the building or town where a sovereign ruler resided, therefore also carrying a similar meaning as the modern expressions seat of government or capital...
. In 1371, in the wake of the Lüneburg War of Succession
Lüneburg War of Succession
The Lüneburg War of Succession was a conflict that broke out in 1370 in north Germany and lasted, with interruptions, for 18 years. The war was over the line of succession to the Principality of Lüneburg...
, rebel citizens threw the princes out of the town and destroyed their royal castle on the Kalkberg along with the nearby monastery. The state peace treaty in 1392 granted their demand to become a free imperial town
Free Imperial City
In the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which were governed by one of the many princes of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops...
, a status they were able to defend until 1637. The money now stayed in the town, enabling fine houses and churches were built.
In 1392 Lüneburg was accorded the staple right
Staple right
The staple right was a medieval right accorded to certain ports, the staple ports, that required merchant barges or ships to unload their goods at the port, and display them for sale for a certain period, often three days...
. This forced merchants who travelled through the area with their carts to stop in Lüneburg, unload their wares, and offer them for sale for a certain period. So that merchants could not go around Lüneburg, an impassable defensive barrier was built west of the town in 1397; a similar barrier was built east of the town in 1479.
The Lüneburg Prelates' War
Lüneburg Prelates' War
The Lüneburg Prelates' War was not a war in the true sense, but a relatively bloodless, albeit vitriolic, dispute between the council of the North German town of Lüneburg and the clergy, the owners of the salt industry.- Causes and background :...
caused a crisis from 1446 to 1462. This was not a war in the proper sense, but rather a bitter dispute between the town council and those members of the clergy who were also part-owners of the town's saltworks. It was not resolved until the intervention of the Danish King Christian I
Christian I of Denmark
Christian I was a Danish monarch, king of Denmark , Norway and Sweden , under the Kalmar Union. In Sweden his short tenure as monarch was preceded by regents, Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna and Erik Axelsson Tott and succeeded by regent Kettil Karlsson Vasa...
, the Bishop of Schwerin and the Lübeck Bishop, Arnold Westphal.
In 1454 the citizens demanded even more influence over public life.
Since 2007, Lüneburg has once again held the title of a Hanseatic city.
- See also: List of the rulers of Lüneburg.
Modern period to the end of the Second World War
With the demise of the Hanseatic LeagueHanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
– and the absence of herrings around 1560 around Falsterbo
Falsterbo
Falsterbo is a town located at the south-western tip of Sweden in Vellinge Municipality in Skåne County. Falsterbo is situated in the southern part of the Falsterbo peninsula. It is part of Skanör med Falsterbo, one of Sweden's historical cities.-History:...
in Scania
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
– the biggest customers of Lüneburg's salt broke away and the town rapidly became impoverished. Hardly any new houses were built in central Lüneburg after this time, which is why the historical appearance of the town centre has remained almost unchanged until the present day.
The town became part of the Electorate of Hanover
Electorate of Hanover
The Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the ninth Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation...
in 1708, the Kingdom of Westphalia
Kingdom of Westphalia
The Kingdom of Westphalia was a new country of 2.6 million Germans that existed from 1807-1813. It included of territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire, ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte...
in 1807, the First French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
in 1810, the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
in 1814, and the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Province of Hanover
Province of Hanover
The Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation...
in 1866.
In the centuries after the collapse of the League, it was as if Lüneburg had fallen into a Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
slumber. Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
, whose parents lived in Lüneburg from 1822 to 1826, called it his "residence of boredom" (Residenz der Langeweile). Near the end of the 19th century Lüneburg evolved into a garrison town, and it remained so until the 1990s.
In 1945 Lüneburg surfaced once again in the history books when, south of the town on the hill known as the Timeloberg (near the village of Wendisch Evern
Wendisch Evern
Wendisch Evern is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany.- Recent history :On 4 May 1945 on the Timeloberg hill at the edge of Wendisch Evern a German delegation under the command of Hans-Georg von Friedeburg signed a document in the presence of British Field Marshal...
) the German Instrument of Surrender was signed that brought the Second World War in Europe to an end. The location is presently inaccessible to the general public as it lies within a military out-of-bounds area. Only a small monument on a nearby track alludes to the event. On 23 May 1945 Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
took his own life in Lüneburg whilst in British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
custody by biting into a potassium cyanide
Potassium cyanide
Potassium cyanide is an inorganic compound with the formula KCN. This colorless crystalline compound, similar in appearance to sugar, is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications include jewelry for chemical gilding and...
capsule embedded in his teeth before he could be properly interrogated. He was subsequently buried in an unmarked location in a nearby forest.
Post-war period
Even before the Nuremberg TrialsNuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
took place, the first war crimes trial, the so-called Belsen Trial
Belsen Trial
The Belsen Trial was one of several trials that the Allied occupation forces conducted against former officials and functionaries of Nazi Germany after the end of World War II...
(Bergen-Belsen-Prozess), began in Lüneburg on 17 September 1945 conducted against 45 former SS men, women and kapo
Kapo (concentration camp)
A kapo was a prisoner who worked inside German Nazi concentration camps during World War II in any of certain lower administrative positions. The official Nazi word was Funktionshäftling, or "prisoner functionary", but the Nazis commonly referred to them as kapos.- Etymology :The origin of "kapo"...
s (prisoner functionaries) from the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
s.
After World War II, Lüneburg became part of the new state of 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...
. But the dilapidated state of its buildings led to various plans to try and improve living conditions. One proposition that was seriously discussed was to tear down the entire Altstadt and replace it with modern buildings. The ensuing public protest resulted in Lüneburg becoming the focal point for a new concept: cultural heritage conservation
Cultural Heritage Management
Cultural heritage management is the vocation and practice of managing cultural heritage. It is a branch of cultural resources management , although it also draws on the practices of conservation, restoration, museology, archaeology, history and architecture...
. Since the early 1970s the town has been systematically restored. A leading figure in this initiative since the late 1960s has been Curt Pomp: against much opposition from politicians and councillors he founded and championed the Lüneburg Altstadt Working Group (Arbeitskreis Lüneburger Altstadt) for the preservation of historic buildings. His engagement was rewarded with the German Prize for Cultural Heritage Conservation and the German Order of Merit. Today Lüneburg is a tourist attraction as a result of the restoration and important sectors of the town's economy also depend on tourism.
The salt mine was closed in 1980, ending the thousand-year tradition of salt mining, although small amounts are still mined for ceremonial purposes. Small bags of salt may be purchased in the town hall, and bags are given as a gift from the town to all couples married in the town. After the closing of the salt mines, the town gained new relevance from its university, which was founded in 1989.
As part of the restructuring of Defence in 1990 two of the three Bundeswehr
Bundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
in the town were closed and the remaining one reduced in size. The Bundesgrenzschutz
Bundesgrenzschutz
Bundesgrenzschutz was the first federal police organization in Western Germany after World War II permitted by the Allied occupation authorities. In July 2005, the BGS was renamed Bundespolizei to reflect its transition to a multi-faceted police agency.It was established in 1951...
barracks was also closed. Lüneburg University
Lüneburg University
The Leuphana University Lüneburg in Lüneburg, Germany, was founded in the year 1946 as a college of education and, since 2007, has offered a unique, Germany-wide, study and university model...
moved to the site of the old Scharnhorst barracks. The university grew out of the new economics and cultural studies departments set up in the 1980s and their amalgamation with the College of Education (Pädagogischen Hochschule or PH) that took place in 1989. Since its move to the former barracks site the university has enrolled increasing numbers of students. The expansion of the university is an important contribution to the restructuring of the town into a service centre.
Today an industrial estate, the Lünepark, has been built on the terrain of the old Bundesgrenzschutz barracks with its new industrial premises for entrepreneurs. The promotion of trade and industry has resulted in many firms from the ICT area locating themselves there. In May 2006 the nearby Johannes Westphal Bridge was opened to traffic. This links the newly created Lünepark with the suburb of Goseburg on the far side of the Ilmenau. Since 5 October 2007 Lüneburg has been able to call itself a Hanseatic Town; together with Stade
Stade
Stade is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region . It is the seat of the district named after it...
it is one of only two towns in Lower Saxony to bear the title.
Lüneburg is also a popular tourist destination within Germany because of the Lüneburg Heath
Lüneburg Heath
The Lüneburg Heath is a large area of heath, geest and woodland in northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover, and Bremen and is named after the town of Lüneburg. Most of the area is a nature reserve...
.
Incorporated villages and districts
- 1943: Hagen and Lüne
- 1974: HäcklingenHäcklingenHäcklingen is a village in the municipality of Lüneburg, about 6 km from the town centre. It has an area of and is bordered to the west by Rettmer. To the north it is separated from the district of Bockelsberg by a small wood, to the east it is bordered by Uelzener Straße . The next nearest...
, Ochtmissen, Oedeme and Rettmer as well as the districts of Alt-Hagen, Ebensberg and Pflegerdorf/Gut Wienebüttel
Population growth
Lüneburg already had about 14,000 inhabitants in the Late Middle AgesLate Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
and beginning of the Modern Period and was one of the largest 'cities' of its time, but its population shrank with the economic downturn to just 9,400 in 1757; then rose again to 10,400 in 1813. With the onset of industrialisation
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
in the 19th century, population growth accelerated. If 13,000 were living in the town in 1855, by 1939 there were as many as 35,000. Shortly after the Second World War, refugees and displaced persons from Germany's eastern territories brought an increase in population within just a few months of around 18,000 people so that the total number in December 1945 was 53,000. In 2003 the 70,000 level was exceeded for the first time.
The town of Lüneburg, its eponymous district and the neighbouring district of Harburg belong to the few regions in Germany that have experienced such a massive growth. The reasons for this include the growth of areas around the Hamburg Metropolitan Region
Hamburg Metropolitan Region
The Metropolregion Hamburg is the compilation of 8 rural districts in the German federal state of Lower Saxony, 6 districts in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein and the city-state of Hamburg in northern Germany...
and the consequent shift of people to those areas. The Lower Saxon State Office for Statistics has forecast that the town of Lüneburg will have a population of 89,484 by the year 2021. More realistic estimates, however, put the future size Lüneburg at between 75,000 to 79,000 in that time frame.
On 31 December 2008, according to the Statistics Office, the official census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
for Lüneburg recorded 72,492 people (those who had their main residence in the town and after adjustments with other states offices) – the highest number in its history. In addition Lüneburg has particularly close relations with its adjacent municipalities which are also growing and with which it is forming an agglomeration. The town, together with the nearby villages of Adendorf
Adendorf
Adendorf is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany....
, Bardowick
Bardowick
Bardowick is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is three miles north of Lüneburg on the navigable river Ilmenau. Bardowick is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Bardowick.-History:The town was first mentioned in AD 795 and was raised to city status in AD 972 by...
, Deutsch Evern
Deutsch Evern
Deutsch Evern is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Deutsch Evern has an area of 11.16 km² and a population of 3,683 ....
, Reppenstedt
Reppenstedt
Reppenstedt is a municipality and the administrative centre of the Samtgemeinde Gellersen within the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany....
, Vögelsen
Vögelsen
Vögelsen is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany....
and Wendisch Evern
Wendisch Evern
Wendisch Evern is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany.- Recent history :On 4 May 1945 on the Timeloberg hill at the edge of Wendisch Evern a German delegation under the command of Hans-Georg von Friedeburg signed a document in the presence of British Field Marshal...
has a total population of about 103,000 and would be on the way to being a city in the modern sense (i.e. in Germany cities or Großstädte are defined as settlements with a population of over 100,000). Currently Lüneburg is the eleventh largest centre of population in Lower Saxony.
The following overview shows the population figures based on the situation at the time. Up to 1813 they were mostly estimates; thereafter based on census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
es (*) or official projections by the State Office of Statistics. From 1871 the figures were based on those 'present in the town', from 1925 on those 'living in the town' and since 1987 on the 'population who have their main residence in the town'. Before 1871 the numbers were based on inconsistent survey methods.
|
|
|
Politics
The town of Lüneburg is part of 'State Constituency 49 Lüneburg' and 'Federal Constituency No. 38 Lüchow-Dannenberg – Lüneburg'.Council
Local election results in 2006 for the town council of Lüneburg:- SPD 40,7 % (17 seats)
- CDU 28,4 % (12 seats)
- Bündnis 90/Die Grünen 18,1 % (8 seats)
- FDP 7,0 % (3 seats)
- Die Linke 4,4 % (2 seats).
Mayor
Before the Second World War the lord mayor (Oberbürgermeister) was the full-time head of the town's administration. On the introduction of the North German council constitutionGemeindeordnung
-Germany:Historically, the Gemeindeordnung was state law. During the Weimar Republic, it became federal law named Deutsche Gemeindeordnung. The Nazi regime made several revisions to comply with their political and legal philosophy....
by the British occupation forces power was separated: the voluntary lord mayor and chairman of the town body was the political representative of the town who, like all the members of the town council was elected by the people, whilst the administration was headed up by a full-time chief municipal director, who was elected by the town council. Since 1996, as a result of the reform of the local constitution, both functions (again) have been combined in the post of a full-time lord mayor, who is now directly elected by the townsfolk. In addition to the lord mayor there are two other mayors (elected by the council) who support and represent the lord mayor in his civic duties.
- 1945–1946: Werner Bockelmann, SPD
- 1946–1949: Ernst Braune, SPD
- 1949–1951: Paul Müller, DP
- 1951–1952: Erich Dieckmann, DP
- 1952–1954: Peter Gravenhorst, DP
- 1954–1955: Reinhold Kreitmeyer, FDP
- 1955–1958: Peter Gravenhorst, DP
- 1958–1961: Wilhelm Hilmer, SPD
- 1961–1964: Erich Drenckhahn, CDU
- 1964–1978: Alfred Trebchen, SPD
- 1978–1981: Heinz Schlawatzky, SPD
- 1981–1987: Horst Nickel, CDU
- 1987–1991: Jens Schreiber, CDU
- since 1991: Ulrich Mädge, SPD
The current mayors are: Eduard Kolle (SPD) and Dr. Gerhard Scharf (CDU).
Non-governmental organizations
Lüneburg is the headquarters for the German section and founder of the indigenous rightsIndigenous rights
Indigenous rights are those rights that exist in recognition of the specific condition of the indigenous peoples. This includes not only the most basic human rights of physical survival and integrity, but also the preservation of their land, language, religion and other elements of cultural...
international network, Friends of Peoples Close to Nature
Friends of Peoples Close to Nature
Friends of Peoples Close to Nature is a non-governmental human rights organization that works in the field of indigenous rights. The organization is dedicated to the survival of tribal peoples, in particular hunter-gatherers...
(FdN - Freunde der Naturvölker).
Twinned towns
Despite its moderate size Lüneburg has many partnerships with other towns. In June 2000 delegates of all its twinned towns met in Lüneburg and the surrounding area and celebrated the biggest partnership gathering in the region since the Second World War.- Scunthorpe
ScunthorpeScunthorpe is a town within North Lincolnshire, England. It is the administrative centre of the North Lincolnshire unitary authority, and had an estimated total resident population of 72,514 in 2010. A predominantly industrial town, Scunthorpe, the United Kingdom's largest steel processing centre,...
in the United Kingdom, since 1960 - Naruto
Narutois an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. The plot tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become the Hokage, the ninja in his village who is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of...
in Japan, since 1974 - Clamart
ClamartClamart is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.The town is divided into two parts, separated by a forest: bas Clamart, the historical centre, and petit Clamart with urbanization developed in the 1960s replacing pea fields. The canton of...
in France, since 1975 - Ivrea
IvreaIvrea is a town and comune of the province of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley , it straddles the Dora Baltea and is regarded as the centre of the Canavese area. Ivrea lies in a basin that, in prehistoric times, formed a great lake...
in Italy, since 1988 - Viborg, Denmark
Viborg, DenmarkViborg , a town in central Jutland, Denmark, is the seat of both Viborg municipality and Region Midtjylland. Viborg is also the seat of the Western High Court, the High Court for the Jutland peninsula...
, since 1992 - Tartu
TartuTartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the...
in Estonia, since 1993
In addition there are various partnerships with other German towns such as Kulmbach
Kulmbach
Kulmbach is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town is famous for Plassenburg Castle, which houses the largest tin soldier museum in the world, and for its famous sausages, or Bratwürste.-Location:...
and Köthen.
Culture and places of interest
Theatre
The Lüneburg Theatre (Theater Lüneburg) is one of the smallest, three-stage theatres in Germany. Not only are plays of all styles put on, but also operas, operettas, musicals and ballets. Although the financial means of the Lüneburg Theatre are comparatively limited, it is no 'provincial stage' and can hold its ground successfully against the many theatres in nearby Hamburg.In addition Lüneburg has a large number of amateur theatres, that also produce regular performances. Such a variety in amateur drama is otherwise only found in large cities like Hamburg or Hanover.
Examples include (arranged in order of year founded):
- Niederdeutsche Bühne Sülfmeister
- Kleines Keller Theater e. V.
- Amateurtheater Rampenlicht e. V.
- Theater Spotlight
- theater im e.novum where ten amateur dramatic groups perform (children, youths and adults)
In addition there are amateur theatres in the many surrounding districts such as the Puschentheater in Melbeck
Melbeck
Melbeck is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany....
, the Plattsnack Widsbold in Marxen am Berge and the Kleine Salzhäuser Theater (KleiST) in Salzhausen
Salzhausen
Salzhausen is a municipality in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 40 km southeast of Hamburg, and 15 km west of Lüneburg....
.
Museums
The historic town is itself a kind of open air museum (a "Rothenburg of the North"), but this is further enlivened by numerous museums and old churches (St. Michael's, St. John'sSt. John's Church, Lüneburg
The Church of John the Baptist is the oldest Lutheran church in Lüneburg and located in the city center.-History:...
, St. Nicholas'). The most important museums are the German Salt Museum
German Salt Museum
The German Salt Museum in the German town of Lüneburg was established on the site of the old production facilities of the Lüneburg Saltworks when it was closed in 1980....
in the premises of the old Lüneburg Saltworks
Lüneburg Saltworks
The Lüneburg Saltworks was a saline in the German town of Lüneburg that extracted salt.According to legend, a hunter killed a wild boar whose coat was snow-white from crystallised salt...
, in which the significance of salt in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and the extraction of salt is vividly portrayed, and the Museum of the Principality of Lüneburg, in which the town's history and the history of the surrounding area is captured. Also worthy of mention are the East Prussian State Museum, the nearby North German Brewery Museum with a gallery of valuable drinking vessels (over 1200 years), the 1485 Kronen Brewery of Lüneburg and the Lüneburg Nature Museum on the edge of the subsidence zone.
Architecture
Lüneburg is one of the few towns in North Germany whose historic centre was not destroyed during the Second World War. Nevertheless the general neglect of its buildings until the 1960s and the damage in the area of subsidence has led to gaps in the historic architecture of the town. In addition the demolition of ramshackle buildings in the 1950s and 1960s and the construction of shops with a contemporary design broke up the historic appearance of many rows of houses. Since the beginning of the 1970s, however, Lüneburg has been carefully and lovingly restored. The restoration process revealed hitherto hidden ceiling frescoFresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
s, medieval pottery workshops and many historic soakaways (Sickergruben) from which a considerably better picture of life in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
resulted.
In the Lüneburg district of Kaltenmoor is St. Stephen's (St. Stephanus), the oldest ecumenical building in the town, with Protestant and Catholic churches under one roof. Other buildings worthy of particular mention are the three remaining town churches: St. John (St. Johannis am Sande, completed 1370), St. Michael (Michaeliskirche), where Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
was a choirboy
Choirboy
A choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble.As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that "Boy Scout" refers to someone who is considered honorable or conscientious.- History :The use of choirboys in Christian...
from 1700 to 1702, and the relatively 'modern' St. Nicholas (Nikolaikirche), which was built in 1407. The Church of St. Lambertus (Lambertikirche) had to be demolished in 1850 due to its dilapidated state; it stood in the subsidence area.
Equally interesting are the Glockenhaus ("Bell House", an old armoury) on the Glockenhof, the Rathsapotheke (town chemist's), dating to 1598, in Große Bäckerstraße and the historic town hall or Rathaus with its famous town council meeting room, the Gerichtslaube. The Luna Fountain (Lunabrunnen) in front of the town hall is graced by a bronze statue of the moon goddess with bow and arrow; the original dating to 1532 was stolen in 1970 and melted down; the present statue is a replica dating to 1972. In the area of the old port can still be seen the baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
facade of the "Old Store" (Altes Kaufhaus), most of the rest of which was burned down and had to be replaced by one that was more suitable for a fire station. The port is also home to the "Old Crane" (Alter Kran), a wooden, medieval riverside crane that is still in working order today and which has two large wheels inside that enable the crane cable to be raised and lowered. The fire station moved in autumn 2007 to a new building on the edge of the town centre; the Altes Kaufhaus has since (2009) been converted into a hotel.
On the southern edge of the town centre is the Lüneburg Water Tower which now acts as an observation tower.
In front of the gates of the old town is Lüne Abbey
Lüne Abbey
Lüne Abbey is an abbey in Lüneburg, in the German state of Lower Saxony, which was originally built for Benedictine nuns and today is home to a chapter of Lutheran nuns. It is one of several monasteries administered by the Hanoverian monastic chamber .- History :Lüne Abbey was founded in 1172 by...
, a former, Benedictine nunnery. It was built in 1172 and has been well restored.
About 2 kilometres west of Lüneburg, in the villages of Reppenstedt
Reppenstedt
Reppenstedt is a municipality and the administrative centre of the Samtgemeinde Gellersen within the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany....
and Vögelsen
Vögelsen
Vögelsen is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany....
, is a well-preserved section of the historic Lüneburg Landwehr, a boundary embankment and ditch, that can be walked.
Regular events
- April: "Lüneburg Blossoms" (Lüneburg blüht auf) and spring market on the Sülzwiesen ("salt meadows")
- June: Town festival
- June: "Lunatic Festival": charity music festival on the university campus
- July: Frommestraße Festival
- August: Heath Flower Festival (Heideblütenfest) (in AmelinghausenAmelinghausenAmelinghausen is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is also the seat of the collective municipality of Amelinghausen.- Geography :The municipality lies in the middle of the Lüneburg Heath Nature Park...
) - September: OktoberfestOktoberfestOktoberfest, or Wiesn, is a 16–18 day beer festival held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, running from late September to the first weekend in October. It is one of the most famous events in Germany and is the world's largest fair, with more than 5 million people attending every year. The...
on the Sülzwiesen. - Early October: Master Salter Days (Sülfmeistertage)
- Advent: Historic Christmas Market around St. Michael's church and Christmas Market with Fairy Tale Mile (Märchenmeile) and gable lights on the market place in front of the town hall, Grapengießerstraße and the square of Am Sande.
Sport
Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Lüneburg, as in Germany in general; ice-hockey and basketball are also popular. The most teams compete in the Regionalliga, which is highly ranked within Germany.- Football: FC Hansa LüneburgFC Hansa LüneburgFC Hansa Lüneburg is a football club from the Lower Saxon Hanseatic town of Lüneburg in North Germany. The club was founded in spring 2008 as part of the planned merger of the football divisions of the two sports clubs Lüneburger SK and Lüneburger SV....
(formed by merging Lüneburger SKLüneburger SKLüneburger Sport-Klub von 1901 e. V. was one of the oldest and most successful football clubs from the Lüneburg area.-History:The club was established on 1 April 1901 as Lüneburger Fußball-Club. Its name was changed to Lüneburger Sport-Klub in 1912...
with the football section of Lüneburger SV), OberligaOberliga (football)The Oberliga is currently the name of the fifth tier of the German football leagues. Before the introduction of the 3rd Liga in 2008, it was the fourth tier... - Basketball: MTV Treubund Lüneburg, 2.Regionalliga (Women) Stadtliga (Men)
- Ice-hockey: Adendorfer EC, RegionalligaRegionalligaRegionalliga is a designation in Germany for sports leagues, which are led by one or more regional federations. Regionalligen often fall below the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga of a given sport...
- Handball: HSG Lüneburg, RegionalligaRegionalligaRegionalliga is a designation in Germany for sports leagues, which are led by one or more regional federations. Regionalligen often fall below the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga of a given sport...
- Volleyball: SVG Lüneburg, 2. Bundesliga
- Baseball: Lüneburg Woodlarks, RegionalligaRegionalligaRegionalliga is a designation in Germany for sports leagues, which are led by one or more regional federations. Regionalligen often fall below the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga of a given sport...
- American Football: Lüneburg Jayhawks, OberligaOberliga (football)The Oberliga is currently the name of the fifth tier of the German football leagues. Before the introduction of the 3rd Liga in 2008, it was the fourth tier...
Cuisine
At one time Lüneburg had over 80 breweries. The Lüneburger Kronen Brewery of 1485 in Heiligengeiststraße brewed beers such as Lüneburger Kronen-Pilsener and Moravia Pilsener that were very well known in North Germany. These beers are brewed today by the Holsten Brewery in Hamburg, although the original yeast stock (Hefestämme) was destroyed when the Kronen Brewery was taken over. Only the original Lüneburger Pilsener is still produced as before, although it is now made by the Holsten Brewery and only sold on tap. Today there are just two small inn breweries left in Lüneburg. In the Nolte Inn Brewery (Gasthausbrauerei Nolte) some distance from the centre on the Dahlenburger Landstraße and in the Brau- und Tafelhaus Mälzer in Heiligengeiststraße the tradition of Lüneburger breweries lives on.Lüneburg is also known for other cuisine, such as the Heidschnucke
Heidschnucke
The Heidschnucke is a group of three types of moorland sheep from northern Germany. Like a number of other types from Scandinavia and Great Britain, they are Northern European short-tailed sheep...
nbraten (roast mutton from moorland sheep) and smelt
European smelt
The Smelt or European smelt is a species of fish in the Osmeridae family.- Shape and appearance :The body of the European smelt is typically 15 to 18 cm long, slender and slightly flattened on either side. Larger fish may reach 30 cm in length. Smelts have a slightly translucent body...
, a small fish that comes into season in spring. Another culinary rarity is a regional variation of the Danish Labskaus
Labskaus
Labskaus is a culinary specialty from Northern Germany and in particular from the cities of Bremen, Lübeck, and Hamburg. The main ingredients are salted meat or corned beef, potatoes, and onion...
(Skipperlabskovs, colloquially referred to as Gammel danske kaus). On Christmas Eve it is traditional to have kale
Kale
Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium. Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane , a chemical with potent anti-cancer properties. Boiling decreases the level of sulforaphane; however, steaming,...
(Grünkohl) with bregenwurst
Bregenwurst
Bregenwurst is a specialty sausage of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt traditionally made of pork, pork belly, and pig or cattle brain...
, a type of sausage.
Economy and infrastructure
In previous years Lüneburg has increasingly developed into a venue for tourists from all over the world. Nevertheless medium-sized and small businesses still play a major role in Lüneburg's economy. The University of Lüneburg has also generated changes which, together with its student population, have stimulated the economy of the region.Industry and trade
Many small and medium-sized businesses are based in Lüneburg.Those worth mentioning include: the fashion company Roy Robson (the knitware firm Lucia, once the biggest employer in the town went bankrupt in 2008), DeVauGe Gesundkostwerk one of the largest German manufacturers of vegetarian food and the dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...
, which today is part of Hochwald Nahrungsmittel-Werke and makes products (e. g. yoghurt) under the Lünebest label. In the industrial field there are large local firms like the car interior manufacturers, Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls, Inc. is a company, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It was founded in 1885 by professor Warren S. Johnson, inventor of the first electric room thermostat....
, H. B. Fuller, Impreglon and the electronics company of Sieb & Meyer. Also based in Lüneburg is the von Stern'schen Druckerei, founded in 1614, the oldest printing firm still in family ownership in the world.
Tourism, new technologies and the service sector
The town nursery has created a spa park for tourists and visitors with a 'graduation works', ponds, numerous herbaceous borders and herb gardens which is immediately next to the health spa centre (Kurzentrum). The spa centre has wave pools, salt baths, wellness and sauna facilities, etc. (Salztherme Lüneburg); in addition there is a brine therapy centre which is used for those with skin and respiratory problems. Lüneburg is not an official health spa like e. g. the neighbouring town of Bad BevensenBad Bevensen
Bad Bevensen is a town in the north of the district Uelzen in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated to the east of the Lüneburg Heath . The Ilmenau river, a tributary of the Elbe, flows through Bad Bevensen...
, but does have special medicinal resources like, for example, Lüneburg brine (containing about 26 % salt), which is used especially to relieve those suffering from psoriasis
Psoriasis
Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease that appears on the skin. It occurs when the immune system mistakes the skin cells as a pathogen, and sends out faulty signals that speed up the growth cycle of skin cells. Psoriasis is not contagious. However, psoriasis has been linked to an increased risk of...
. In addition, since 1978, the headquarters of the conference hotel group Seminaris has been based here. Amongst firms in the technology and service sectors is Gründungszentrum e-novum, which supports new venture firms. Werum Software & Systems ist the largest IT firm in Lüneburg.
- Hospitals: Städtisches Krankenhaus Lüneburg, The "Landeskrankenhaus Lüneburg" is now known as the Psychiatrische Klinik Lüneburg ( Psychiatric Hospital Lüneburg)
- Theatres: Theater Lüneburg
- Cinemas: Cinestar, Scala Kino
- Hotels: 8
- Museums: 8
- Transport: Lüneburg is part of the transportation company Hamburger VerkehrsverbundHamburger VerkehrsverbundThe Hamburger Verkehrsverbund is a company coordinating the public transport in and around Hamburg, Germany. Its main objectives are to provide the user with a unified fare system, requiring only a single ticket for journeys with transfers between different operating companies, and to further...
. There are 11 bus lines in the urban area of Lüneburg. The town has a main railway station and a smaller one located in BardowickBardowickBardowick is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is three miles north of Lüneburg on the navigable river Ilmenau. Bardowick is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Bardowick.-History:The town was first mentioned in AD 795 and was raised to city status in AD 972 by...
. The nearest cities within easy reach by rail are HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, HanoverHanoverHanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
, LübeckLübeckThe Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
, Lauenburg, UelzenUelzenUelzen is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a Hanseatic town and an independent municipality....
and WinsenWinsenWinsen can refer to:*Winsen , capital of the district Harburg, Lower Saxony, Germany.*Winsen , a municipality in the district of Celle, Lower Saxony, Germany....
.
Education
The town has one university, the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg (previously known only as the Universität Lüneburg). There are 14 high schools in the town: 5 Gymnasien, 4 RealschuleRealschule
The Realschule is a type of secondary school in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia , Denmark , Sweden , Hungary and in the Russian Empire .-History:The Realschule was an outgrowth of the rationalism and empiricism of the seventeenth and...
n, and 5 Hauptschule
Hauptschule
A Hauptschule is a secondary school in Germany and Austria, starting after 4 years of elementary schooling, which offers Lower Secondary Education according to the International Standard Classification of Education...
n; there are no Gesamtschulen. There are 6 vocational schools, 3 special schools, 3 private schools, and 12 elementary schools.
Honorary citizens of the town
The town archives list the admission of honorary citizens of the town from 1800.- 1832: Georg Theodor Meyer (1797–1870) lawyer, liberal member of parliament and minister, senator
- 1832: Rudolf Christiani (1761–1841), dean and founder of the first elementary school (Volksschule) in Lüneburg (1816)
- 1832: Ernst Langrehr (1802–63) jurist and poet (Isidor Bürger)
- 1900: King's Council Karl Gravenhorst (1837–1913; for 25 years worked in a voluntary capacity at the Bürgervorsteherkollegium)
- 1906: Senator Johannes Reichenbach (1836–1921; for voluntary service at the Bürgervorsteherkollegium and as senator)
- 1918/1921: Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934; for his services in the First World War)
- 1937: Gauleiter Otto TelschowOtto TelschowOtto Telschow , German Nazi Party official, was born in Wittenberge and became a police official in Hamburg. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925, and was the founder of the regional Nazi newspaper, the Niedersachsen-Stürmer...
(honorary citizenship withdrawn by the Lüneburg town council on 19 April 2007) - 1956: Mr. William A. Watt, ThomasvilleThomasvilleThomasville is the name of some cities in the United States of America:*Thomasville, Alabama*Thomasville, Georgia*Thomasville, Missouri*Thomasville, North Carolina*Thomasville, Pennsylvania-Other uses:...
/USA (for support to Lüneburg after the Second World War) - 1984: Johannes Eisenbeiss/Hamburg (for promoting the economy of Lüneburg and patronage)
- 1984: Lord Mayor Mitsuji Tani, Naruto/Japan (for understanding among nations)
- 1986: Mayor Jean Fonteneau, ClamartClamartClamart is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.The town is divided into two parts, separated by a forest: bas Clamart, the historical centre, and petit Clamart with urbanization developed in the 1960s replacing pea fields. The canton of...
/France (for understanding among nations) - 1998: Business couple Lucia (1919–2008) and Johannes (1918–2004) Pfohe, Lüneburg (for patronage)
- 1998: Helga Schuchardt (* 1939) engineer, ex-minister (for her efforts in the founding of the university)
Sons and daughters of the town
- Johann Bacmeister the Younger (1624–1686) professor of medicine and mathematics, and private physician
- Lucas Bacmeister the Elder (1530–1608), theologian and composer of hymns
- Ina Barfuss (* 1949), artist
- Nikolaus Bardewik (1506–1560), Mayor of Lübeck
- Rudolf von BennigsenRudolf von BennigsenRudolf von Bennigsen was a German politician descended from an old Hanoverian family. His father, Karl von Bennigsen, was an officer in the Hanoverian army who rose to the rank of general and also held diplomatic appointments...
(1824–1902), Knight of St John, politician, co-founder of the Deutscher Nationalverein, leader of the National Liberal party in the ReichstagReichstag (German Empire)The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich .... - Marco Börries (* 1968), Founder of Star Division and inventor of Star Office
- Jan Böttcher (* 1973), writer and musician
- Heinrich Brömse (1440–1502), Mayor of Lübeck
- Franz Joachim Burmeister (1633–1672), theologian and poet
- Henning J. Claassen (* 1944), founder and CEO of Impreglon AG
- Andreas Crappius (1542–1623), hymn composer
- Lutke von Dassel (1474–1537), Mayor of Lüneburg
- Johann Georg Ebeling (1637–1676),, hymn composer (Die güldne Sonne voll Freud and Wonne, text by Paul GerhardtPaul GerhardtPaul Gerhardt was a German hymn writer.-Biography:Gerhardt was born into a middle-class family at Gräfenhainichen, a small town between Halle and Wittenberg. At the age of fifteen, he entered the Fürstenschule in Grimma. The school was known for its pious atmosphere and stern discipline...
) - Ulrich Fischer (* 1949), theologian and state bishop in the Evangelical State Church in Baden
- Detlev Ganten (* 1941), physician, member of the Nationaler Ethikrat, CEO of the Charité Berlin since 2004
- Hans Görges (1859–1946), electrical engineer, college lecturer in Dresden
- Karl Gravenhorst (1837–1913), King's Council and lawyer, born in Carrenzien/Krs. Bleckede – Amt Neuhaus, Knight of St. John, honorary citizen of Lüneburg in 1900; served the Bürgervorsteherkollegium for 46 years, 38 as its spokesman (Wortführer)
- Dirk Hansen (* 1942), former BundestagBundestagThe Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
MP with the FDPFree Democratic Party (Germany)The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
and vice-president of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung - Manfred Harder (* 1947), DFB Bundesliga football referee, 54 Bundesliga and 44 second division games
- Ingeborg Harms (* 1956), journalist, literary scholar and writer
- Fritz HeinemannFritz Heinemann----Fritz Heinemann was a German philosopher.Born in Lüneburg, he taught at Frankfurt University from 1930 to 1933.- Literary works :* Neue Wege der Philosophie, 1929...
(1889–1970) Knight of St John, philosopher (Frankfurt), after emigration in 1937 to Oxford - Christian Hoburg (1607–1675), theologian and mystic
- Gustav von Hoppenstedt (1847–1918), German General (field artillery)
- Hermann Jacobsohn (1879–1933), Knight of St John, linguist (University of Marburg)
- Matthias Leja (* 1962), actor
- Niklas LuhmannNiklas LuhmannNiklas Luhmann was a German sociologist, and a prominent thinker in sociological systems theory.-Biography:...
(1927–1998), Knight of St John, sociologist (University of Bielefeld), inventor of sociological system theory (Theorie der Gesellschaft etc.) - G. Theodor Meyer (1797–1870), Knight of St John, jurist, MP in St. Paul's Church in 1848, in 1850/51 cultural minister in the Kingdom of Hanover
- Jan-Philipp Müller (* 1975), journalist and television presenter
- Oliver Neumann (* 1974), journalist, theologian and historian
- Patricia Pantel (* 1971), radio : FRITZ, YOU FMYOU FMYou FM is one of the radio networks owned and operated by Hessischer Rundfunk, the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. Originally operating under the name hr XXL, the network featured the popular show XXL Clubnights which highlighted the night club scene in Hesse...
formerly with hr-XXL (HR); television: Loveparade, Kanzlerbungalow (WDR), Channel 4 (GB) etc. - Bahne RabeBahne RabeBahne Rabe was a competition rower and Olympic champion for West Germany....
(1963–2001), rower and gold medal winner at the 1988 Olympic Games - Mirko Reisser (DAIM) (* 1971), graffiti artist
- Georg Dietrich August Ritter (1826–1908), mathematician and astrophysicist
- Tex Rubinowitz (* 1961), cartoonist, travel journalist, publisher
- Johann Abraham Peter SchulzJohann Abraham Peter SchulzJohann Abraham Peter Schulz was a German musician and composer. Today he is best known as the composer of the melody for Matthias Claudius's poem "Der Mond ist aufgegangen" and the Christmas carol "Ihr Kinderlein kommet".-Life:Schulz attended the Michaelis School from 1757 to 1759 and then the...
(1747–1800), Knight of St John, composer and conductor (Der Mond ist aufgegangen, Alle Jahre wiederAlle Jahre wiederAlle Jahre wieder is a well known Christmas carol, written in 1837 by Johann Wilhelm Hey and set to music by Friedrich Silcher. The last two verses are omitted from many editions...
etc.) - Tanja Schumann (* 1962), actress
- Annegret Soltau (* 1946), artist
- Johanna StegenJohanna StegenJohanna Stegen, was a German heroine of the Napoleonic Wars.On 2 April 1813 German troops clashed with Napoleonic troops near Lüneburg...
(1793–1842), German patriot: "The Heroine of Lüneburg" (Heldenmädchen von Lüneburg) - Johann Caspar von Völcker (1655–1730), engineer, architect, chief engineer for the Brunswick fortifications and major general
- Otto VolgerOtto VolgerGeorg Heinrich Otto Volger was a German geologist born in Lüneburg. He studied natural history at the University of Göttingen, and later taught classes in natural history at the Muri monastery in Aargau....
(1822–1897), geologist, mineralogist - Wilhelm Volger (1794–1879), rector of the Johanneum, archivist, librarian and historian
- Heinrich Schlange-Schöningen (* 1960), German ancient historian, professor in Saarbrücken (Saarland)
- Ziggy X German techno DJ
Other notable personalities
- Georg BöhmGeorg BöhmGeorg Böhm was a German Baroque organist and composer. He is notable for his development of the chorale partita and for his influence on the young J. S. Bach.-Life:Böhm was born in 1661 in Hohenkirchen, near Ohrdruf...
(1661–1733), chanter at St John's - Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
(1700–1702), schoolboy at St. Michael's. Bach attended the Lüneburg school and sang in its choir - Willer Crowell († 1401), head of the Lüneburg chancery
- Heinrich HeineHeinrich HeineChristian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
- visited his parents in the town several times and is believed to have composed his poem Die Lore-Ley here - Johann Christopher Jauch (1669–1725), dean of Lüneburg, author
- Mike MareenMike MareenMike Mareen was born in post-war West Berlin, West Germany, and grew up in Lüneburg. His first musical success was with the band Cemetery Institution who played at Hamburg's Star-Club. Mareen later became a merchant sailor, a job which eventually took him to New York City where he played with...
- successful Disco artist who grew up in Lüneburg. - Bernhard RiemannBernhard RiemannGeorg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann was an influential German mathematician who made lasting contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them enabling the later development of general relativity....
(1826–1866), mathematician (Riemann integralRiemann integralIn the branch of mathematics known as real analysis, the Riemann integral, created by Bernhard Riemann, was the first rigorous definition of the integral of a function on an interval. The Riemann integral is unsuitable for many theoretical purposes...
) - studied for his AbiturAbiturAbitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
at the Johanneum Lüneburg - Ralf SieversRalf SieversRalf Sievers is a former German football player, most notably with Eintracht Frankfurt.Like his brother Jörg he began his career at Lower Saxon club SV Eddelstorf. From 1982 until 1991 Sievers played 232 matches in the Fußball-Bundesliga for Eintracht Frankfurt and FC St.Pauli, scoring 10 goals...
(* 1961), footballer, 232 Bundesliga games - Joachim Vogelsänger, church music director
- Katarina WatersKatarina WatersKatarina Leigh Waters is a German-born English professional wrestler and valet, currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Winter. She is best known for her time in World Wrestling Entertainment, performing on its Raw brand under the ring name Katie Lea...
, also known as Katie Lea Burchill in WWEWorld Wrestling EntertainmentWorld Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
- a professional wrestler
Miscellaneous facts
- Lüneburg has the second most bars per mile and per resident in Europe after MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain; it has the most bars per resident in Germany. - The buildings in downtown Lüneburg survived from the 16th century on, escaping destruction even during the Second World War. As a result, the downtown district looks very old, and its rare state of preservation, along with the beauty of the surrounding Heath, attracts many tourists to the town.
- The most populous district (8000 inhabitants) is Kaltenmoor, which is known for a high percentage of immigrants and much violenceViolenceViolence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
, crimeCrimeCrime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and unemploymentUnemploymentUnemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
. - The town has a very famous and active (legal) GraffitiGraffitiGraffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
scene and is home to many GraffitiGraffitiGraffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
Halls of FameHall of FameA hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...
.