Lüneburg
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| Lüneburg | |
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| Coat of arms | Location |
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| Administration | |
| Country | Germany |
|---|---|
| State | Lower Saxony |
| District | Lüneburg |
| Town subdivisions | 14 districts |
| Lord Mayor | Ulrich Mädge (SPD) |
| Basic statistics | |
| Area | 70.34 km² (27.2 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 17 m (56 ft) |
| Population | 72,057 (31/12/2006) |
| - Density | 1,024 /km² (2,653 /sq mi) |
| Other information | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) |
| Licence plate | LG |
| Postal codes | 21335–21337–21339 |
| Area code | 04131 |
| Website | www.lueneburg.de |
Lüneburg, also known as Lueneburg and Lunenburg in English, is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. The city is located about 45 km (30 miles) — a thirty-minute train ride — 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. The metropolitan region, 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 city) in its name since 2007, in recognition of its membership in the former Hanseatic League. The official name of the city is thus Hansestadt Lüneburg (Hanseatic City of Lüneburg); the city is also a Universitätsstadt (university city). As of December 2007, the city was the 120th largest in the Federal Republic of Germany.
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[edit] Geography
The Ilmenau River, a tributary of the Elbe, flows through Lüneburg and features in the city's song; it was formerly traversed by cogs taking salt from the city to the other, larger ports of the Hanseatic League nearby.
To the south of the city stretches the 7.400 km² Lüneburger Heide. According to tradition, this heath developed as a result of centuries of logging undertaken to meet the constant need of the Lüneburg salt works for wood. This constant mining of the salt deposits over which the city exists has also resulted in the sometimes gradual, sometimes dramatically pronounced sinking of various areas of the city. On the western edge of the city is the Kalkberg, a small hill and former gypsum quarry.
There are several towns, cities, and urban areas around Lüneburg in all directions:
| Winsen (Luhe), Hamburg-Harburg 18km, 36km |
Hamburg-Bergedorf, Schwarzenbek, Lübeck 32km, 43km, 87km |
Adendorf, Lauenburg 5km, 22km |
| Jesteburg 48km |
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Amt Neuhaus, Lübtheen 42km, 57km |
| Soltau 51km |
Ebstorf, Uelzen 26km, 37km |
Lüchow (Wendland) 68km |
[edit] History
The ancient town is probably to be identified with Leufana or Leuphana (Greek: Λευφάνα), a town listed in Ptolemy (2.10) in the north of Germany on the west of the Elbe, but this identification is not universally accepted.
The first evidence of human habitation in the area is from the era of the Neandertals: 56 axes, estimated at 15 000 years old, were uncovered in the area during the construction in the 1990s of the Autobahn between Ochtmissen and Bardowick. The area was almost certainly not continuously inhabited, however, due to the Ice Ages. The first indication of real settlement in the area is an axe found between Lüne and Bardowick that dates to the 6th century BCE; other items have been discovered dating to as early as 1900 BCE.
Lüneburg was first mentioned as such in a contract signed on 13 august, 956 CE, between Otto I, Holy Roman Emporer, and monks living at the location; this makes the city older than Austria. This contract granted "the right to tax [the salt production] to Lüneburg and to the cloister erected there for 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"). Lüne, one of the component parts of the city, is mentioned even earlier, in a Frankish document from 795 that speaks of individuals seeking shelter ad fluvium Albim pervenit ad locum, qui dicitur Hliuni (on the river Elbe, at the location, which is called Hliuni). The site had, however, already been inhabited for some time — and salt-works had been for some time in operation — by the time it was mentioned in these documents; archaeological discoveries make this clear. 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. After 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 city Rathaus is a bone preserved in a glass case; according to tradition, this is the preserved leg-bone of the boar.
In spite of the discovery of this all-important spice and food preservative, Lüneburg was not the most important city in the area. Bardowick, a major Slavic trading site, was older, wealthier, and — with seven churches — more significant in terms of religious; this made it the political centre of the area. Bardowick, however, fought against Henry the Lion, and when it lost, Henry raised it to the ground in 1189 whilst simultaneously granting Lüneburg city status and a monopoly on the extraction of salt for northern Germany. This monopoly made Lüneburg wealthy and important, and the city acceded at a very early date to the Hanseatic League. Lüneburg's salt was used to preserve the herings caught in the Baltic and in the waters around Norway; this quickly made the city — along with the herring-processing centres of Visby, Lübeck, and Bergen — one of the wealthiest and most important in the league. The salt from the city was at first conveyed overland, along the Old Salt Route via Lauenburg to Lübeck; with the opening of the Stecknitz Canal in 1398 the salt could be transported by cog.
Around the year 1235, the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg was created, with Lüneburg the capital of its dukes. Sometime between 1267 and 1269 the principality of Lüneburg developed, but this did not last long; in 1371, the citizens waged a successful insurrection, throwing out the prince and destroying the castle that had sat atop the Kalkberg as well as the nearby cloister. Through this and actions undertaken in 1392, the city won the rights of an Imperial Free City (a status which it held until 1637); its newfound wealth enabled the construction of several churches. Also in 1392, the city was awarded Stapelrecht, the right to require sellers of goods travelling through the area to pause and set up shop in the city for a while; to ensure that the salesmen could not simply bypass the city, earthwork obstructions were erected west of the city in 1397. Similar earthworks were completed to the east of the city in 1479.
Between 1446 and 1462, the city faced the crisis of the so-called Prelates' War. This was not a war in the proper sense, but rather a bitter dispute between the city council and those members of the clergy who were also part-owners of the city's salt works. This conflict could only be resolved with the intervention of Christian I, king of Denmark, and the bishops of Schwerin and Lübeck.
After a long period of prosperity, its importance began to decline around 1600. The city became part of the Electorate of Hanover in 1708, the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814, and the Prussian Province of Hanover in 1866. After World War II, it became part of the new state of Lower Saxony. 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 city hall, and bags are given as a gift from the city to all couples married in the city.
After the closing of the salt mines, the city gained new relevance from its university, which was founded in 1989. The city is also a popular tourist destination within Germany because of the Lüneburg Heath.
In Plattdeutsch, the city is known as Lümborg; in Latin texts the city appears not only as Lunaburgum but also sometimes as Selenopolis. The Polabian name of the city is Glain (spelled Chlein or Glein in older German reference materials), which is probably derived from glaino (< Slavic *glina), meaning ‘mud’ or ‘clay’.
[edit] Infrastructure
- Hospitals: Stätisches Krankenhaus Lüneburg, Landeskrankenhaus Lüneburg
- Theaters: Theater Lüneburg
- Movie theaters: Cinestar, Scala Kino
- Hotels: 8
- Museums: 8
- Transport: Lüneburg is part of the transportation company Hamburger Verkehrsverbund. There are 11 bus lines in the urban area of Lüneburg. The city has a main railroad station and a smaller one located in Bardowick. The next bigger cities within easy reach by train are Hamburg, Hannover, Lübeck, Lauenburg, Uelzen and Winsen.
[edit] Education
The city has one university, the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg (previously known only as the Universität Lüneburg). There are 14 high schools in the city: 5 Gymnasien, 4 Realschulen, and 5 Hauptschulen; there are no Gesamtschulen. There are 6 vocational schools, 3 special schools, 3 private schools, and 12 elementary schools.
[edit] Sports
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 Lüneburg(former Lüneburger SK), Oberliga
- Basketball: MTV Treubund Lüneburg, 2.Regionalliga (Women) Stadtliga (Men)
- Ice-hockey: Adendorfer EC, Regionalliga
- Handball: HSG Lüneburg, Regionalliga
- Volleyball: SVG Lüneburg, Regionalliga
- Baseball: Lüneburg Woodlarks, Regionalliga
- American Football: Lüneburg Jayhawks, Oberliga
[edit] Interesting[citation needed] facts
- Lüneburg has the second most bars per mile and per resident in Europe after Madrid, 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 city.
- The most populous district (10000) is Kaltenmoor, which is known for much violence, crime and unemployment.
- The city has a very famous and active (legal) Graffiti scene and is home to many Graffiti Halls of Fame.
- On May 23, 1945, the Nazi war criminal Heinrich Himmler is believed to have commited suicide in Lüneburg after he had been captured by the British Army. He swallowed a potassium cyanide capsule before his interrogation could begin; his body was found in his cell. His body is buried in a nearby forest in an unmarked location. As the dead man lacked a fencing scar that was prominent on Himmler's face, there have been a few attempts to question the identification of the man as Himmler, but the identification is generally accepted.
[edit] Sister Cities
Scunthorpe, England.
Clamart, France.
Naruto, Tokushima, Japan.
Ivrea, Italy
Viborg, Denmark
Tartu, Estonia
[edit] Gallery
 Am Sande |
 Old crane and old store at the medieval Lüneburg harbour |
[edit] Notable people
- Fritz Heinemann
- Esther Marie Mengelkamp
- Bernhard Riemann - studied for his Abitur at the Johanneum Lüneburg
- Mike Mareen - successful Disco artist who grew up in Lüneburg.
- J S Bach. Bach attended the Lüneburg school and sang in its choir[1][2]
- Katarina Waters, also known as Katie Lea Burchill in WWE - a professional wrestler
- Heinrich Heine - visited his parents in the city several times and is believed to have composed his poem Die Lore-Ley here
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1856).
- ^ The New Bach Reader, p37
- ^ http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/luneburg.html - "Johann Sebastian and a friend Georg Erdmann turned their steps toward the north, both boys carrying all their worldly belongings in a two-hundred mile trek to Lüneburg. At the Michaelisschule their duties were to sing in the church choir on Sundays...".
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lüneburg, Germany |
- Official website (German)
- Official website (English)
- Leuphana University (German)
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