Helmstedt

Helmstedt (; Eastphalian: ''Helmstidde'') is a town on the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. The historic university and Hanseatic city conserves an important monumental heritage of Romanesque and Renaissance buildings, as well as numerous timber framed houses. During the German partition the nearby Bundesautobahn 2 was the site of the Helmstedt–Marienborn border crossing, the most important on the former inner German border as starting point of the shortest land route between West Germany and West Berlin.

Geography

Helmstedt is situated in a basin between the Elm and Lappwald hill ranges, at the transition area between the northern foothills of the Harz mountains and the North German Plain. It is surrounded by the Elm-Lappwald Nature Park. The town centre is located about east of Braunschweig, west of Magdeburg, and east of the state capital Hanover.

The municipal area includes the localities of Barmke and Emmerstedt, both incorporated by a 1974 administrative reform, and Büddenstedt, incorporated in 2017, as well as the resort town of Bad Helmstedt, about east of the town centre. Helmstedt currently has about 25,000 inhabitants (2015).

History

The settlement in the Duchy of Saxony was first mentioned as ''Helmonstede'' in a 952 deed issued by the German king Otto I. In former times also called ''Helmstädt'', the town developed in the vicinity of the Benedictine St. Ludger's Abbey that was founded around 800 by Saint Liudger as a mission station. Helmstedt's town privileges were documented in 1247. It belonged to the Abbacy of Werden until 1490, when it was bought by the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. From 1576 to 1810, the University of Helmstedt was located here.

From the late 1940s to 1990, the town was the site of a major border crossing between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. The main rail and autobahn route between West Germany and Berlin, across the GDR, began at the Helmstedt–Marienborn border crossing, also known as Checkpoint Alpha. Official military traffic from NATO countries to West Berlin was only allowed to use this route.

Transport

The town lies on the Brunswick-Magdeburg railway.

Image:Rathaus Helmstedt.jpg, Mayor's office (built 1904 - 1906)
Image:Helmstedt Eulenturm.JPG, The "Owl Tower" of the medieval town wall
Image:Hausmannsturm Helmstedt.jpg, The Hausmannsturm of Helmstedt
Image:Helmstedt-Grenzdenkmal.jpg, Memorial to the former border between West and East Germany

Notable people

*Franz Heinrich Ludolf Ahrens (1809–1881), philologist
*Bibiana Beglau (born 1971), actress
*Victor von Bruns (1812–1883), physician and plastic surgeon
* Georg Fein (1803–1869), journalist and democratic politician of Vormärz, founder and organizer of Workers' Educational Association
*Peter Feldmann (born 1958), politician, mayor (SPD) of Frankfurt since 2012
* Johann Andreas Graeffer (1746–1802), botanist and nurseryman remembered by garden historians as having introduced a number of exotic plants to British gardens
*Asta Hampe (1907– 2003), engineer, physicist, economist and statistician
* Johann Christian Friedrich Heyer (1793–1873), the first missionary who was sent abroad by Lutherans in the US
* Hans Krebs (1898–1945), military officer and chief of staff of the Wehrmacht
* Rudolf Leuckart (1822–1898), biologist and founder of parasitology
* Anton August Heinrich Lichtenstein (1753–1816), zoologist and librarian
* Johann Heinrich Meibom (1590–1655), physician and professor of medicine at the University of Helmstedt
* Karl Reinhard (1769–1840), writer and editor of the ''Göttingen Musenalmanach''
*Stefan Rinke (born 1965), historian and specialist in Latin American history
* Theodor von Schubert (1758–1825), astronomer
*Paul Gottlieb Werlhof (1699–1767), Royal Hanoverian court physician and poet
*Andree Wiedener (born 1970), footballer

In addition, see the list of famous students and professors of the University of Helmstedt.

Twin towns – sister cities

Helmstedt is twinned with:

* Albuquerque, United States
* Chard, England, United Kingdom
* Fiuggi, Italy
* Haldensleben, Germany
* Orăştie, Romania
* Svietlahorsk, Belarus
* Vitré, France

References

*

External links

*
District Emmerstedt (in German)Helmstedt-CITYTOUR (photo-gallery)Map of Helmstedt
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20050410064839/http://home.att.net/~rails_to_berlin/border.htm Riding with the locomotive engineer (engine driver) across the former intra-German frontier in 2005

{{Authority control

Helmstedt (district)
Members of the Hanseatic League
Duchy of Brunswick