Rittmarshausen is a nucleated village in the municipality (''Gemeinde'')

Gleichen Gleichen is the name of two groups of castles in Germany, thus named from their resemblance to each other (german: gleich like, or resembling). Castles in Thuringia between Gotha and Erfurt The first is a group of three (hence called “die dre ...

in the district

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

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 ...

. The village of 776 residents (as of December 31, 2005)Das bietet Rittmarshausen
/ref> is primarily agricultural and home of people working in Göttingen. "Ökozentrum Rittmarshausen" is an association dedicated to the development and marketing of regionally produced natural foods, which are marketed under the Leinehöfe label. The community also sports an athletic association, a volunteer fire department, a chorus, a gun club, and an equestrian association. The village mayor is Volker Heinemann. The village's coat of arms is a red shield with a bird sitting on the upper of two yellow horizontal bars, each with three short vertical bars (crenellations).

History

The village was settled by people from the now-abandoned village of Bernsrode due, according to tradition, to flooding at Bernsrode. In 1318 the village was the split property of Dietrich von Kerstlingerode and Ehrenfriede von Berlepsch.
/ref> The Rittmarshausen "Palace" (''Das Rittmarshäuser Schloss'') replaced a castle first built in AD 1541 in the early 18th century, being completed in 1716. Extensive underground passages were also built beneath the edifice, though when is not certain.
/ref> The village church is said to have been built from the stones of the one in abandoned village. The first services weren't held in the church until the early 17th century. Although the village has been predominantly Protestant (Lutheran) since the

thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...

, a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

community exists in the community and has, since 1997, had its own church, serving all twelve Gartetal villages. The ''Garte Gericht'' (regional court) had its seat in the village until 1839. A brewery was established in the Rittmarshausen Palace in 1852, but production of alcohol was discontinued in the first part of the 20th century. Toward the end of the 19th century, a narrow-gauge railway linking the Gartetal to Goettingen was built. This, the Gartetalbahn, served the city's population—especially the students—as a convenient excursion vehicle to rural ''Gaststaetten'' as well as a means for the residents of Rittmarshausen and the villages along the way to get to market in the city. In 1957, passenger service was discontinued, and a year later the beet service ended and the tracks were torn up.Rittmarshausen
/ref> The train station still stands, currently in private ownership.

References

External links

.de/rittmarshausen/home
* Photos: http://www.rittmarshausen.de/bild.htm {{authority control Villages in Lower Saxony