Pröbsten was a village in the former district (''Altkreis'') of

Fallingbostel Bad Fallingbostel (Northern Low Saxon: ''Bad Fambossel'') is the district town (''Kreisstadt'') of the Heidekreis district in the German state of Lower Saxony. Since 1976 the town has had a state-recognised Kneipp spa and has held the title of ...

, located in the Heidmark in the German state of

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 ...

. Its inhabitants were resettled in 1935/36, because the German

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

wanted to establish a major military training area, the ''Truppenübungsplatz Bergen'' on the heathland and forest of the Heidmark.

History

Pröbsten was first mentioned in the records in 1337. It has been documented that there was a noble family named ''von Pröbsten''. Pröbsten was home to heath farmers. It is likely that the keeping of moorland sheep, known locally as ''

Heidschnucke The Heidschnucke is a group of three types of moorland sheep from northern Germany. Like a number of other types from Scandinavia and Great Britain, they are Northern European short-tailed sheep. The three breeds of Heidschnucke (in order of popu ...

n'', that were common in the area until the 19th century. Pröbsten was eventually grouped together with the villages of Fahrenholz and

Deil Deil is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of West Betuwe, and lies about 12 km west of Tiel. Deil was a separate municipality until 1978, when it became a part of Geldermalsen. On januari 2019 De ...

into the parish of

Böstlingen Böstlingen was a village in the old district (''Altkreis'') of Fallingbostel, located in the Heidmark in the north German state of Lower Saxony. In 1935/36 it was abandoned because the German Wehrmacht wanted to establish a major military training ...

. At the time of the resettlement in 1935/36 208 inhabitants lived in Pröbsten. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Heimatvertriebene were accommodated in the buildings that were left.

Sources

* Hinrich Baumann: ''Die Heidmark - Wandel einer Landschaft, Geschichte des Truppenübungsplatzes Bergen'', 2006 * Hans Stuhlmacher: ''Die Heidmark'', Schneeheide 1939 Heidmark Abandoned villages in Lower Saxony {{Heidekreis-geo-stub