Hornburg is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and a former municipality in the Wolfenbüttel district, in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

state of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. Since 1 November 2013, it is part of the municipality

Schladen-Werla Schladen-Werla is a municipality in the district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was formed on 1 November 2013, when the municipalities of the former ''Samtgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Schladen: Gielde, the town of Hornbu ...

. It is situated at the ''Ilse'' river, a tributary of the

Oker The Oker is a river in Lower Saxony, Germany, that has historically formed an important political boundary. It is a left tributary of the River Aller, in length and runs in a generally northerly direction. Origin and meaning of the name The ...

. Hornburg is part of the ''

Samtgemeinde A ''Samtgemeinde'' (; plural: ''Samtgemeinden'') is a type of administrative division in Lower Saxony, Germany. ''Samtgemeinden'' are local government associations of municipality, municipalities, equivalent to the ''Amt (administrative division ...

'' ("collective municipality")

Schladen Schladen is a village and a former municipality in the Wolfenbüttel (district), district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2013, it is part of the municipality Schladen-Werla. It is situated on the river Oker, approx. 15 ...

and home to numerous historically valuable half-timber buildings ('' Fachwerkhäuser''). It is located on the

German Timber-Frame Road The German Timber-Frame Road (German: ''Deutsche Fachwerkstraße'') is a German tourist route leading from the river Elbe in the north to the Black Forest and Lake Constance in the south. Numerous cities and towns each with examples of the vernacu ...

. Hornburg Castle was first mentioned in a 994 deed as a property of the

Bishopric of Halberstadt The Diocese of Halberstadt was a Roman Catholic diocese (german: Bistum Halberstadt) from 804 until 1648.

. In 1005 it was the birthplace of

Pope Clement II Pope Clement II ( la, Clemens II; born Suidger von Morsleben; died 9 October 1047), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1046 until his death in 1047. He was the first in a series of reform-minded popes f ...

. The fortress located on a limestone plateau served to control the northern border of the bishopric and the trade routes from

Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bombi ...

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

and

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Lei ...

. It was devastated by

Henry the Lion Henry the Lion (german: Heinrich der Löwe; 1129/1131 – 6 August 1195) was a member of the Welf dynasty who ruled as the duke of Saxony and Bavaria from 1142 and 1156, respectively, until 1180. Henry was one of the most powerful German p ...

in 1179 during his conflict with the bishop, an ally of

Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

, who had the castle rebuilt. In 1528 the attached settlement was denoted as a town by the Halberstadt bishops, it received

market rights A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in 1552. At the same time Hornburg, thriving from the cultivation of

humulus ''Humulus'', hop, is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The hop is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Hops are the female flowers (seed cones, strobiles) of the hop species '' H. lupulus''; as a main ...

(hop) for beer brewing, was surrounded by a town wall including five gates. The ensemble of about 400

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

timber-framed houses arose after a blaze in 1512 had devastated nearly all of Hornburg's buildings. The reconstruction of the town with elaborately carved ''Fachwerk'' houses was modeled after the townscape of Halberstadt. With the bishopric Hornburg turned

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

in 1540. The parish church ''Beatae Mariae Virginis'' is considered one of the first

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

es in the region. During the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

Hornburg was occupied by the Imperial field marshal

Johann Tserclaes von Tilly Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly ( nl, Johan t'Serclaes Graaf van Tilly; german: Johann t'Serclaes Graf von Tilly; french: Jean t'Serclaes de Tilly ; February 1559 – 30 April 1632) was a field marshal who commanded the Catholic League's ...

in 1626, but conquered by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

troops in 1630. In 1645 the Swedish military

Hans Christoff von Königsmarck Count Hans Christoff von Königsmarck, of Tjust (4 March 1600 – 8 March 1663), son of Conrad von Königsmarck and Beatrix von Blumenthal, was a German soldier who commanded Sweden's legendary flying column, a force which played a key role i ...

finally had the castle destroyed. The current building is a reconstruction on a private initiative or Georg Lüdecke in 1927, based on an engraving by Merian from around 1650 with plans by

Bodo Ebhardt Bodo Heinrich Justus Ebhardt (5 January 1865, Bremen – 13 February 1945 at Marksburg near Braubach) was a German architect, architectural historian, castle explorer, and founder and longtime president of the German Castles Association (''Deut ...

. With the

secularization 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 ...

of the Halberstadt bishopric in 1648, Hornburg fell to the electors of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

and after the 1815

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

it became part of the

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (german: link=no, Provinz Sachsen), also known as Prussian Saxony () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merge ...

. Hornburg stayed a Prussian town until 1941, when it was attached to the

Free State of Brunswick The Free State of Brunswick () was a state of the German Reich in the time of the Weimar Republic. It was formed after the abolition of the Duchy of Brunswick in the course of the German Revolution of 1918–19. Its capital was Braunschweig (Bru ...

in the course of the establishment of the City of

Salzgitter Salzgitter (; Eastphalian: ''Soltgitter'') is an independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitter is one of the seven ''Oberzentren'' of Lower ...

. Therefore, at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Hornburg found itself in

British occupation zone The British occupation zone in Germany (German: ''Britische Besatzungszone Deutschlands'') was one of the Allied-occupied areas in Germany after World War II. The United Kingdom along with her Commonwealth were one of the three major Allied pow ...

and later became a

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

town.

Twin town

Osterwieck Osterwieck () is a historic town in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Geography The municipal area stretches along the river Ilse, north of Wernigerode and the Harz mountain range. The town Osterwieck consists of the foll ...

, Germany

References

External links

Official Webpage
{{Authority control Wolfenbüttel (district) Former municipalities in Lower Saxony