Willershausen is a village in the

Northeim District Northeim is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the northwest and clockwise) the districts of Holzminden, Hildesheim, Goslar and Göttingen, and the state of Hesse (district of Kassel). History In medieval times the area ...

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 ...

, and part of the

Kalefeld Kalefeld is a municipality in the district of Northeim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 10 km north of Northeim. It comprises the villages of Dögerode, Eboldshausen, Echte, Kalefeld, Oldenrode, Oldershausen, Sebexen ...

municipality.

History

The village was first mentioned in a deed from 1294. Throughout the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

the

Fulda monastery The Abbey of Fulda (German ''Kloster Fulda'', Latin ''Abbatia Fuldensis''), from 1221 the Princely Abbey of Fulda (''Fürstabtei Fulda'') and from 1752 the Prince-Bishopric of Fulda (''Fürstbistum Fulda''), was a Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastic ...

held

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...

rights in Willershausen village, so that in modern times a cross symbolising Fulda was integrated in the coat of arms of Willershausen village. Village inhabitants worked as farmers and in a brickyard, too. That brickyard was founded in the 16th century and shut down in 1977. The raw material of the brickyard was

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

which stemmed from a nearby

Open-pit mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mini ...

site. By about 1920,

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s were discovered there. Research was conducted by geologists and paleontologists of the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. The clay site was geologically formed in the

pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Mammutidae Mammutidae is an extinct family of proboscideans that appeared during the Oligocene epoch and survived until the start of the Holocene. The family was first described in 1922, classifying fossil specimens of the type genus ''Mammut'' ( masto ...

Giant salamander The Cryptobranchidae are a family of fully aquatic salamanders commonly known as the giant salamanders. They include the largest living amphibians. The family is native to China, Japan, and the eastern United States. They constitute one of two ...

, fishes and

ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typi ...

s, too. Calosoma sycophanta was among the insect fossils of the site.Hans-Ulrich Thiele: Carabid Beetles in Their Environments: A Study on Habitat Selection by Adaptations in Physiology and Behaviour, 1977, p. 298 A single '' Comptonia'' fossil was found, too, which was unique in Europe. A Comptonia leaf was thus integrated in the coat of arms of Willershausen village.

Main sights

The former clay mine is a landmark of the Harz – Brunswick Land – Eastphalia National Geopark since 2012. It is a

natural monument A natural monument is a natural or natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. Under World Commission on Protected Areas guidelines, na ...

, too. In a local showroom examples of fossas from that clay site are exhibited. The local Lutheran church was built in 1750 and is devoted to

Pope Alexander I Pope Alexander I (c. 75-80 AD - c. 115) was the bishop of Rome from c. 107 to his death c. 115. The Holy See's ''Annuario Pontificio'' (2012) identifies him as a Roman who reigned from 108 or 109 to 116 or 119. Some believe he suffered martyrdom ...

. The parish is part of Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover. Its rectory was built in 1865 with plans of

Conrad Wilhelm Hase Conrad Wilhelm Hase (2 October 1818, Einbeck28 March 1902, Hanover) was a German architect and Professor. He was a prominent representative of the Neo-Gothic style and is known for his preservation work. Biography He was one of ten children bo ...

. A New Apostolic Church building was built in 1992.

Reading

* Willershausen am Harz – Umrisse einer Dorfgeschichte (1998) (German)

References

{{Authority control Northeim (district)