Oker is a borough (''

Stadtteil A quarter is a section of an urban settlement. A quarter can be administratively defined and its borders officially designated, and it may have its own administrative structure (subordinate to that of the city, town or other urban area). Such a ...

'') of

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 ...

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 ...

. Since 1952 a

mining town A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry. Historic mining communities Australia * Ballarat, Victoria * Bendigo, ...

in its own right within

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...

district, it was incorporated into the Goslar municipality on 1 July 1972.

Geography

The settlement is situated on the northern edge 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. The river

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 ...

gives its name to the location, where the stream together with its

Abzucht The Abzucht, also known in its upper reaches as the Wintertalbach, is a long, orographically left-hand, tributary of the Oker in Lower Saxony, Germany. The stream flows through the town of Goslar. Geography The Abzucht rises in the upper W ...

tributary leads out of the Oker valley between the Hahnenberg and Adenberg mountains in the south and the

Sudmerberg Sudmerberg is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') of Goslar in Lower Saxony, Germany, named after a prominent -metre-high hill to the east. Geography The settlement is located between Goslar town centre and the Oker in the southeast. The Abzucht stream r ...

hill in the north. Oker is divided into two unofficial districts: ''Oberoker'' (Upper Oker) south of the

Vienenburg–Goslar railway The Vienenburg–Goslar railway is a main line between Vienenburg and Goslar on the northern edge of the Harz mountains in Germany. It was opened in 1866. Route The 12.8 kilometre long route is single-tracked between Vienenburg and Oker. ...

line (and nearer to the Harz range), and ''Unteroker'' (Lower Oker) north of it.

History

Founded in 1527 by the

duke Henry V of Brunswick-Lüneburg as a smelting site for the processing of

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...

from the

Rammelsberg The Rammelsberg is a mountain, high, on the northern edge of the Harz range, south of the historic town of Goslar in the North German state of Lower Saxony. The mountain is the location of an important silver, copper, and lead mine, the only min ...

mines, Oker for centuries was a centre of smelting technology in the Harz region. The Oker

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

works (''Bleihütte Oker'') operated from 1527 to 1970; lead was melted from secondary raw materials by a successor company until 2001. Together with the neighbouring

zinc oxide Zinc oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a white powder that is insoluble in water. ZnO is used as an additive in numerous materials and products including cosmetics, food supplements, rubbers, plastics, ceramics, glass, cemen ...

works (''Zinkoxydhütte Oker'') and the zinc works in

Harlingerode Harlingerode () is a village in Germany and district of Bad Harzburg in the district of Goslar in Lower Saxony. As of 2020, Harlingerode had a population of 2,916. Geography Harlingerode lies between 190 and , increasing in height in southern ...

, it was gradually taken over by the

Preussag TUI Group is a German leisure, travel and tourism company. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known as Preussag AG until 1997 when the company changed its activities from mining to ...

conglomerate (present-day TUI) from 1923. On 1 April 1819 an agency of the Brunswick Postal Service was opened on the old mail route from

Harzburg The Harzburg, also called Große Harzburg ("Great Harz Castle"), is a former imperial castle, situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range overlooking the spa resort of Bad Harzburg in Goslar District in the state of Lower Saxony ...

(Neustadt). It was moved to the railway station on the opening of the Vienenburg–Goslar railway on 23 March 1866.W. Steven: ''“Inhaltsübersicht der postalisch relevanten Braunschweigischen Ciculare, Gesetze und Verordnungen von 1807 bis 1867''" Rundbrief Nr. 58, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Braunschweig und Hannover im Briefmarken-Club Hannover, April 2004

Economy

Today Oker is home to chemical-metallurgical, recycling and specialised industrial concerns, like Harz-Metall and Norzinco. The largest employer in Oker and the district of Goslar is a factory belonging to H.C. Starck company, a former daughter of

Bayer Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of busi ...

sold to

Advent International Advent International is a global private equity firm focused on buyouts of companies in Western and Central Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. The firm focuses on international buyouts, growth and strategic restructuring in five core ...

and

The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...

in 2007.

Religion

The two

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

parishes of St. Paul (Unteroker) and Martin Luther (Oberoker) merged in October 2005 into the Oker parish; there is also the Roman-Catholic church of St. Konrad (part of the parish of St. Jacobus d.Ä. in Goslar) and a Turkish Muslim

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

(Oberoker).

Culture and places of interest

Sport

The hiking trail network around Oker is well developed, with paths leading to popular destinations such as

Romkerhall Romkerhall (also frequently called ''Romkerhalle'') is a popular tourist destination on the River Oker in the Harz Mountains of Germany. There is a public car park here as well as a hotel and restaurant opposite the Romkerhall Waterfall. Romkerha ...

on the Oker river, and the tors of ''

Treppenstein The ''Treppenstein'' is a rock formation in the Oker valley in the Harz mountains of central Germany. It lies on the trail from the Romkerhall Waterfall to the '' Kästeklippen''. The rocks consist of granite and have clearly undergone so-called " ...

'', ''Mausefall'' and ''

Kästeklippen The ''Kästeklippen'', often shortened to ''Käste'', is a rocky tor above the Oker valley in the Upper Harz mountains of central Germany. It lies at a height of . Near the ''Käste'' are other similar granite rock formations such as the ''Hexenk� ...

'' above the Oker valley. In the village itself there are 2 sports halls, sports pitches and tennis courts and an open-air swimming pool. The largest sports club is VfL Oker, which is especially renowned for its pan-regional table tennis team. The 1st Men's team plays in the Oberliga West and the 1st Women's team in the Regionalliga Nord.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Oker station lies on the railway lines running from

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

via

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 ...

Bad Harzburg Bad Harzburg (; Eastphalian: ''Bad Harzborch'') is a spa town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort. Geogra ...

(

Oker–Bad Harzburg railway The Oker–Bad Harzburg railway is a branch line between Oker and Bad Harzburg on the northern edge of the Harz mountains in Germany. It was opened on May 1, 1912. Route The 6.9 kilometre long route is single-tracked between Oker and Bad ...

, KBS 320) and from Brunswick via

/Bad Harzburg to

Kreiensen Kreiensen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Northeim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2013, it is part of the town Einbeck. Geography Kreiensen is situated on the river Leine, approx. north of Northeim, and s ...

(

, KBS 353/354), with hourly and two-hourly services. Bus routes link Oker with Goslar and Bad Harzburg. The Bundesstraße 498 (Goslar–

Osterode am Harz Osterode am Harz, often simply called Osterode (; Eastphalian: ''Ostroe''), is a town in south-eastern Niedersachsen on the south-western edge of the Harz mountains. It was the seat of government of the district of Osterode. Osterode is locat ...

) runs through Oker and the

Bundesstraße 6 The Bundesstraße 6 (abbr. B6) is a German federal highway running from Bremerhaven on the North Sea coast in a southeasterly direction through the states of Lower Saxony, Bremen, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony to Görlitz on the Polish border. H ...

(

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...

–

Görlitz Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...

) runs past Oker to the north. For the development of postal services in Oker see: Wolfenbüttel-Harzburg post route.

Public institutions

There are three kindergartens, two

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s, a secondary modern and a middle school in Oker.

External links

Oker at Goslar.de

References

{{Authority control Villages in Lower Saxony Goslar (district) Duchy of Brunswick