Clausthal-Zellerfeld 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 ...

in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The City is the location of the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort is located in the Upper Harz at an altitude between 390 and 821 m

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

Geography

Clausthal-Zellerfeld is located on the Upper Harz Plateau. The environment is less mountainous compared to most of the Harz, but only hilly. As a result, the immediate surrounding area is less wooded and there are more meadow areas. Scattered in and around Clausthal-Zellerfeld are numerous dams and streams of the Upper Harz Water Regale. The depression between Clausthal and Zellerfeld marks a natural "borderline". Southwest extends the "Small Clausthal valley".

City districts

Altenau Altenau () is a town and a former municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the town Clausthal-Zellerfeld. It is situated in the middle of the Harz mountains, between Clausthal-Zellerf ...

- Schulenberg im Oberharz (since 2015) * Buntenbock (since 1972) * Clausthal-Zellerfeld * Wildemann (since 2015)

History

Clausthal-Zellerfeld originally consisted of two towns which were merged in 1924 to form an administrative unit. Clausthal is well known for the old Clausthal University of Technology and its magnificent buildings, while Zellerfeld is a typical tourist

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort ...

for hikers and winter sportsmen. Clausthal-Zellerfeld is the largest town in the area that is situated in the mountains rather than on the edge. Mining in the area began in the 16th century. Modern wire rope was invented to service the iron

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

s in the 1830s by the German mining engineer Wilhelm Albert in the years between 1831 and 1834 for use in

mining in the Harz Mountains Mining in the Upper Harz region of central Germany was a major industry for several centuries, especially for the production of silver, lead, copper, and, latterly, zinc as well. Great wealth was accumulated from the mining of silver from the 16t ...

in Clausthal. It was quickly accepted because it proved superior to ropes made of hemp or to metal chains, such as had been used before and soon found its way into diverse applications, including most notably,

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

s. The Innerste Valley Railway was inaugurated in 1877 and extended to Altenau in 1914. The large station building and 70 other buildings in the town were destroyed in an air raid on 7 October 1944.Evert Heusinkveld. ''Die Innerstetalbahn Langelsheim - Altenau'', p. 11. Nordhorn 2007 92 people lost their lives. Mining activity halted in 1930 because the ore deposits were exhausted. Today, there are large remains of mines in the surrounding Harz region, some of which are now museums. The railway line was closed in 1976. The former railway station, which was rebuilt from 1961–1963 after being destroyed in 1944, houses the tourist information and the municipal library today. The Clausthal University of Technology was established in 1775 for the education of mining engineers. Today, it is a technical university for teaching engineering,

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

(especially chemistry, materials science and physics) and

business studies Business studies, often simply called business, is a field of study that deals with the principles of business, management, and economics. It combines elements of accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource management, a ...

Politics

Town council

2006 local elections: *

SPD 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 ...

: 19 seats * CDU: 9 seats * FDP: 3 seats * UWG: 2 seats (independent electors community)

Culture and sights

* Oberharzer Wasserwirschaft (Upper Harz Water Management)

Museums

Upper Harz Mining Museum The Upper Harz Mining Museum (german: Oberharzer Bergwerksmuseum, ) is a museum of technological and cultural history in Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Harz mountains of central Germany. It is one of the oldest technological museums in Germany and ...

* GeoMuseum of Clausthal University of Technology

Buildings

* Plants of Upper Harz Water Regale * Market Church in Clausthal, the largest wooden church in Germany with 2,200 seats, built 1639-42. Tower dating from 1637. * Old pharmacy ''Bergapotheke'' in Zellerfeld, built in 1674, with wood carvings * Protestant Salvator Church in Zellerfeld, built 1674-83 * Clausthal mint (1617–1849) * Oberbergamt building in Clausthal, built 1726-30 * Dietzel House in Zellerfeld, dating from 1674 * Former railway station, destroyed 1944 and rebuilt 1961-63 * House where Robert Koch was born

Infrastructure

The retail trade is mainly located in the main center around Adolph-Roemer-Straße in the Clausthal district. Small-scale retail can be found in the side center in the Zellerfeld district. At the beginning of 2000, an area at the former Ostbahnhof was designated as a special location for large-scale retail. Further supermarkets can be found at the northern exit of Zellerfeld. Overall, the retail trade in the former mountain town is not very well developed and is now suffering from the general decline in shops. The development of the Clausthal University of Technology is of great importance for the mining town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld, as it increases the attractiveness and attraction of the location for innovative investments. The development of the TU Clausthal and the cooperation between local companies and science is a decisive advantage for the business location. In addition to the usual craft businesses, there is a relatively large window factory as well as several companies spun off from the Clausthal University of Technology or CUTEC, which specialize primarily in particle measurement technology in testing technology. Tourism is another important branch of the economy in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, but above all in its districts Altenau, Buntenbock, Schulenberg and Wildemann.

Traffic

From 1877 to 1976, Innerstetalbahn trains ran from the station to Altenau and Langelsheim . Today the public transport is served by several bus lines, u. a. to Goslar, Osterode am Harz, Altenau and Sankt Andreasberg.

Public facilities

* State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology with the Lower Saxony Mountain Archive * CUTEC, Clausthal Environmental Technology Research Center * State Construction Management South Lower Saxony * Local fire brigades in the districts Altenau, Clausthal- Zellerfeld, Buntenbock, Schulenberg and Wildemann *

Education

In addition to the primary and secondary school facilities, Clausthal-Zellerfeld also houses the School of Economics and Technology and the Clausthal University of Technology . The facilities of the TU are concentrated on the ''Feldgraben area'' campus as well as distributed in the Clausthal city area and on the ''Tannenhöhe''. Primary school: * Clausthal primary school * Wildemann primary school * Elementary school Zellerfeld Further Training * Gymnasium Robert Koch School (open all-day school) * Clausthal-Zellerfeld secondary and secondary school

Persons

People from Clausthal-Zellerfeld

* Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf (1695-1777), printer and publisher *

Heinrich Halfeld Heinrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Halfeld, also known in Portuguese as Henrique Guilherme Fernando Halfeld, (23 February 1797 – 22 November 1873) was a German engineer. He was born in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Kingdom of Hanover, and studied at the ...

(1797-1873), engineer *

Carl Adolf Riebeck Carl Adolf Riebeck, originally Carl Adolph Riebeck (27 September 1821 in Clausthal – 28 January 1883 in Halle (Saale), Halle) was an industrialist and mining Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur. The controversy around his sole possession after his dea ...

(1821-1883), industrialist and mining entrepreneur *

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the Vibrio ...

(1843–1910), microbiologist *

Otto Erich Hartleben Otto Erich Hartleben (3 June 1864 – in Clausthal; 11 February 1905 in Salò) was a German poet and dramatist from Clausthal, known for his translation of ''Pierrot Lunaire''. Childhood, Education and Marriage Orphaned as a child, Hartlebe ...

(1864–1905), poet and dramatist * Robert Förster (1913-1984), diplomat *

Helmut Sander Helmut is a German name. Variants include Hellmut, Helmuth, and Hellmuth. From Old High German, old German, the first element deriving from either ''heil'' ("healthy") or ''hiltja'' ("battle"), and the second from ''muot'' ("spirit, mind, mood"). ...

(1920-1988), mayor of Goslar *

Reinhard Roder Reinhard Roder (born 6 July 1941 in Clausthal-Zellerfeld) is a German former football player and manager. Roder made a total of 11 appearances in the Bundesliga for 1. FC Köln during his playing career and later managed 1. SC Göttingen 05, ...

(born 1941), football player, coach and -functionary *

Dietrich Grönemeyer Dietrich H. W. Grönemeyer (born 12 November 1952) is a German professor of medicine and one of the inventors of Microtherapy.SMST-2004: proceedings of the International Conference on Shape - 2006 - Jörn Richter and Dietrich Grönemeyer, Institut ...

(born 1952), physician *

Daniel Böhm Daniel Böhm (also spelled Boehm, born 16 June 1986 in Clausthal-Zellerfeld) is a former German biathlete. In 2009, he completed his first single World Cup Race. Career highlights ;World Cup :2009, Vancouver-Whistler, 3rd at team relay (with ...

(born 1986), biathlete

Notable people associated with Clausthal-Zellerfeld

* Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767), composer Sommerfeld1897

* Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann (1782–1859), mineralogist * Wilhelm Albert (1787–1846), mining administrator and inventor *

Friedrich Adolph Roemer Friedrich Adolph Roemer (15 April 1809 – 25 November 1869), German geologist, was born at Hildesheim, in the Kingdom of Westphalia. His father was a lawyer and councillor of the high court of justice. In 1845 he became professor of mineralogy ...

(1809–1869), geologist *

Arnold Sommerfeld Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld, (; 5 December 1868 – 26 April 1951) was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and mentored many students for the new era of theoretica ...

(1868–1951), theoretical physicist *

Helmut Kleinicke Helmut Kleinicke (; 19 November 1907 – 1979) was a German engineer who supervised construction projects near Auschwitz concentration camp and saved Jews during the Holocaust. Kleinicke was named Righteous Among the Nations in 2018; he is one o ...

(1907-1979), engineer at Auschwitz concentration camp who saved Jews during the Holocaust

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Clausthal-Zellerfeld is twinned with: * L'Aigle, France

Gallery

File:Foerdergeruest Headframe Ottiliae Schacht von 1876.jpg, Steel headframe of Ottiliae shaft; Clausthal-Zellerfeld. This is the oldest still-existing headframe in Germany, built in 1876 File:Aula academica clausthal.jpg, Aula Academica File:Clausthal-Zellerfeld St. Salvatoris 01.jpg, Salvatoris church File:Clausthal-zellerfeld oberbergamt bergbauarchiv.jpg, Mining Office file:Clausthal-Zellerfeld Marktkirche 01.jpg, View on Marktkirche

References

External links

clausthal-zellerfeld.de
* * {{Authority control Towns in Lower Saxony Goslar (district) Towns in the Harz Mining communities in Germany