Dorstadt is a municipality in the district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is part of the '' Samtgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Oderwald.

Geography

Dorstadt is located in the northern foothills of the Harz mountain range. The municipal area stretches from the eastern slopes of the Oderwald hills down to the Oker river, about halfway between Wolfenbüttel and Schladen. Neighbouring municipalities are

Ohrum Ohrum is a municipality in the district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, 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, ...

in the north and

Heiningen Heiningen is a municipality in the Göppingen district in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany at the base of the Swabian Alps. History The town first emerges in an archive of the Abbey of St. Gall on parchment dated 29 March 1228, in which a ...

in the south, as well as

Börßum Börßum is a municipality in the district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Börßum lies only a few kilometers north of the Harz Mountains, north of Schladen, on the east bank of the Oker, 11 km south of Wolfenbüttel. ...

east of the Oker.

History

The settlement was first mentioned in an 1110 deed, when Bishop Udo of

Bishopric of Hildesheim The Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim (german: Hochstift Hildesheim, Fürstbistum Hildesheim, Bistum Hildesheim) was an Hochstift, ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire from the Middle Ages until its dissolution in 1803. The Prince-Bis ...

granted the episcopal fortress at Schladen to the

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

noble Eiko of Dorstadt. Kloster Dorstadt Kirchenruine

In 1189 the Lords of Dorstadt, encouraged by their relative Bishop

Adelog of Hildesheim Adelog von Dorstadt (died 20 September 1190) was Bishop of Hildesheim from 1171 until his death. Biography Born into a Saxon noble family, he was a relative of the Lords of Dorstadt. From about 1160 he appeared as a canon at Hildesheim Cathedral a ...

, founded an Augustinian nunnery at the site. For several decades the monastery prospered, nevertheless first land sales were documented in the early 14th century, and in 1438 large parts of the premises were devastated by fire. Upon the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud, Dorstadt passed to the

Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (german: Herzogtum Braunschweig und Lüneburg), or more properly the Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was a historical duchy that existed from the late Middle Ages to the Late Modern era within the Holy Roman ...

. In the course of the Protestant Reformation, the nuns turned Lutheran under the rule of Duke Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1568. Dorstadt was restored to Hildesheim in 1643, however, the premises decayed and had to be resettled with Catholic nuns after the Thirty Years' War. The Wittelsbach prince-bishop

Maximilian Henry of Bavaria Maximilian Henry of Bavaria (german: Maximilian Heinrich von Bayern: 8 October 1621 – 3 June 1688) was the third son and fourth child of Albert VI, landgrave of Leuchtenberg and his wife, Mechthilde von Leuchtenberg. In 1650, he was named Ar ...

initiated the reconstruction of the monastery in a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style from 1680 onwards. After the Hildesheim prince-bishopric was mediatised to Prussia in 1803, Dorstadt was

secularised In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

and the convent dissolved. The manor is a private property up to today.

Politics

Seats in the municipal council (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2011 local elections: *

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

(SPD): 5 *

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (german: link=no, Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands ; CDU ) is a Christian democratic and liberal conservative political party in Germany. It is the major catch-all party of the centre-right ...

(CDU): 4

References

{{Authority control Wolfenbüttel (district)