Meitze is a village in the municipality

Wedemark Wedemark ( Eastphalian: ''Wiemark'') is a municipality in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Wedemark is a historical landscape description for the area and is situated approximately 20 km north of Hanover. It ranks third on a ...

, 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 ...

. Meitze covers about 11 square kilometres, including areas used for agriculture and forestry.

General information

The village is mainly noted for the cobbled

high street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

and a lot of old

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

houses in the centre. In the North, there is a

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

with twelve

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

History

Meitze arose at the crossing point of two important trade routes, the "Hessenweg" and the "Bremerweg". On this intersection, Meitze developed as a well-known marketplace. * The village was founded in 1330 as "Metce", according to documents. * 1438 - Meitze was mentioned as "Metzenne" in a register. * around 1791 the name of the town became "Meitze". * 1921 - the local

Schützenverein A Schützenverein (German for "marksmen's club") is a local voluntary association found in German-speaking countries revolving around shooting as a sport, often target shooting to Olympic rules or with historic weapons. Although originating as a ...

was founded * 1930 - the volunteer fire brigade was established. * 1959 - the new chapel was consecrated * since 1974 Meitze has been a district of the Wedemark On 29 April 1944, ten American airmen were killed when their

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

aircraft crashed near Meitze. The crew had been ordered to carry out a bombing mission over the German capital of Berlin, according to the U.S. military. Their remains were identified in 2011 and buried at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

Infrastructure

About one kilometer (0.6 miles) away from Meitze passes the A7. Meitze is directly connected with Mellendorf and

Elze Elze () is a town in the district of Hildesheim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Leine, approximately west of Hildesheim. The municipality of Elze also comprises the villages of ''Esbeck, Mehle, Sehlde, Sorsum, Wittenburg'' ...

/ Bennemühlen by the bus route 697. Until 1967 Meitze also had an own elementary school, but it was closed because of a lack of students.

References

External links

Pictures of Meitze (German)

Gemeinde Wedemark (German)
{{authority control Villages in Lower Saxony