Bernshausen is a village in the ''Gemeinde''

Seeburg, Lower Saxony Seeburg is a municipality in the district of Göttingen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It contains two villages, Seeburg and Bernshausen. It lies at the Seeburger See Seeburger See is a lake in the karst region of the Lower Eichsfeld, Landkreis Gö ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, with a population of about 590. It lies across the lake, named

Seeburger See Seeburger See is a lake in the karst region of the Lower Eichsfeld, Landkreis Göttingen, in southeastern Lower Saxony, Germany. Also known as ''Auge des Eichsfelds'' (Eye of the Eichsfeld), the shallow 86.5-hectare (0.865 km2) lake is fed ...

, from the larger village of Seeburg proper, to the west. The Aue creek flows out of the lake and through the village. Bernshausen has an area of .

History

The area around the village has a number of prehistoric remains, dating back to the Late Paleolithic and especially to the Neolithic ( LBK) but also the Bronze and Iron Ages. However, there is no evidence for continuous settlement on the east side of the lake before a refuge fort established in the 7th century, less than half a kilometer south of the village, on the bank of the lake. In the High to Late Middle Ages, a

half-timbered Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

motte-and-bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

were present on the south-west edge of what is now the village proper. The village has been thrice largely destroyed: in 1438 and 1626 due to the ravages of war, and more recently, in 1897, by accidental fire.

References

* Wolpers, G.: ''1100 Jahre Bernshausen'', Neuauflage Duderstadt 1986 * Siebert, B.: ''Bernshausen, zur neuesten Geschichte des ältesten Dorfes des Untereichsfeldes'', Duderstadt 1986 * Grote, Klaus: ''Bernshausen'', Bonn 2003

External links

Seeburg-Online - official web site for Seeburg and Bernshausen, which includes nominal material on Bernshausen

{{Authority control Villages in Lower Saxony