Liebenburg is a municipality in the district of Goslar, in

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 ...

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 ...

Geography

The municipal area is situated north of the

Harz The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

mountain range, within the eastern

Salzgitter Hills The Salzgitter Hills (german: Salzgitter-Höhenzug, also ''Salzgitterscher Höhenzug'') is an area of upland up to in height, in the Lower Saxon Hills between Salzgitter and Goslar in the districts of Wolfenbüttel and Goslar and in the territory ...

of the

Innerste Uplands The Innerste Uplands (german: Innerstebergland) is a landscape region up to 359 m high and covering an area of over 900 km² in the northern part of the German Central Uplands. It lies within the eastern part of the Weser-Leine Uplands ...

. It borders on the district capital

Goslar Goslar (; Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines ...

, approx. in the south; the adjacent municipalities in the north are

Salzgitter-Bad With a population of about 20,000, Salzgitter-Bad is the second biggest quarter of the German city Salzgitter in Lower Saxony. Salzgitter's name derives from it; the quarter is regarded as the historical and cultural centre of Salzgitter. History ...

and

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 ...

in Wolfenbüttel District.

Subdivisions

The municipality comprises Liebenburg proper (with 2,140 inhabitants) and the following nine villages, which were incorporated on 1 July 1972 with the following population as of 30 June 2018: * Dörnten (1,189 inhabitants) with Kunigunde * Groß Döhren (872) * Heißum (301) * Klein Döhren (420) * Klein Mahner (333) * Neuenkirchen (206) * Ostharingen (246) * Othfresen (1,902) with Heimerode and Posthof * Upen (317)

History

Archaeological excavations of a

gallery grave A gallery grave is a form of megalithic tomb built primarily during the Neolithic Age in Europe in which the main gallery of the tomb is entered without first passing through an antechamber or hallway. There are at least four major types of galler ...

indicate a settlement of the area in the Late

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

. The former

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 ...

estates in 1235 belonged to the territory of the newly established Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim. From 1292 to 1302, Prince-bishop Siegfried II of Querfurt had the ''Levenborch'' spur castle erected in the

, near where his episcopal lands bordered on the

Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (german: Fürstentum Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel) was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose history was characterised by numerous divisions and reunifications. It had an area of 3,828 ...

. From 1366 it was pawned by his successors to the citizens of

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 ...

, important to secure the trade route to the Imperial City of Goslar. The castle was seized by the warlike duke

Henry V of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

after the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud in 1523 and temporarily served as hidden residence of his mistress

Eva von Trott Eva von Trott (1505 – 12 January 1567), was the royal mistress of Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, from 1522 until 1567. The affair was a contemporary scandal and was used as propaganda against the duke of Brunnswick in '' Wider Han ...

. The Catholic duke in turn lost it to the Protestant Schmalkaldic League, whose troops campaigned the Brunswick lands from 1542 until their final defeat in the 1547 Battle of Mühlberg. 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 ...

, the stronghold was used as headquarters by the

Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

Generalissimo Albrecht von Wallenstein in 1625, it was occupied 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 1633, and reconquered by the Imperial Army in 1641. By a 1643 peace treaty with the Braunschweig dukes, the heavily damaged castle was restored to Hildesheim, while day laborers and craftsmen lived within its walls. The Hildesheim prince-bishops promoted the settlement of

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

families. The castle itself was partly rebuilt 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 by the order of the

Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate o ...

prince-bishop Clemens August until construction work was abandoned due to the outbreak of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

in 1756. After the bishopric was finally

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 ...

in 1802, Liebenburg fell to the

Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Han ...

in 1814.

Demographics

(from 1968 on numbers of inhabitants as of 31 December)

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2011 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 ...

: 11 seats * CDU: 8 *

Greens Greens may refer to: *Leaf vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, spring greens, winter greens, spinach, etc. Politics Supranational * Green politics * Green party, political parties adhering to Green politics * Global Greens * Europ ...

: 1 *

Die Linke The Left (german: Die Linke; stylised as and in its logo as ), commonly referred to as the Left Party (german: Die Linkspartei, links=no ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of th ...

: 1 * Free Voters: 1 Elections in September 2016: * SPD: 10 seats * CDU: 7 seats * AfD: 2 seats * Alliance 90/The Greens: 1 seat * FDP: 1 seat *The LEFT: 1 seat

Mayors

*Since October 2013: Alf Hesse (SPD) *1996-2013: Hubert Spaniol (SPD)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Goslar (district)