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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 concentration of timber-framed buildings in Germany. It is an
episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...
see of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick. It is also home to the Jägermeister distillery, houses a campus of the
Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences Ostfalia Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften (German for "Eastphalia University of Applied Sciences", known as Fachhochschule Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel until 2009), is a Fachhochschule in eastern Lower Saxony, Germany. The predecessor of ...
, and the Landesmusikakademie of Lower Saxony.


Geography

The town center is located at an elevation of on the Oker river near the confluence with its
Altenau Altenau () is a town and a former municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the town Clausthal-Zellerfeld. It is situated in the middle of the Harz mountains, between Clausthal-Zellerf ...
tributary, about south of Brunswick and southeast of the state capital Hannover. Wolfenbüttel is situated about half-way between the Harz mountain range in the south and the
Lüneburg Heath Lüneburg Heath (german: Lüneburger Heide) is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen a ...
in the north. The Elm-Lappwald Nature Park and the
Asse Asse () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. It comprises the towns of Asse proper, Bekkerzeel, Kobbegem, Mollem, Relegem and Zellik. Asse is also situated in the Pajottenland. As of 2020, Asse had a total popula ...
hill range stretch east and southeast of the town. With a population of about 52,000 people, Wolfenbüttel is part of the
Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region The Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region (German: ''Metropolregion Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg'') is an economic and cultural region in Northern Germany. The metropolitan area comprises approximately ...
. It is the southernmost of the 172 towns in
Northern Germany Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...
whose names end in ''büttel'', meaning "residence" or "settlement."


Mayor

From 2006 to 2014, the mayor of Wolfenbüttel was Thomas Pink. He was reelected in 2014 with 67.7% of the vote. In August 2018 he left the German Christian Democratic Union party. In September 2021, Ivica Lukanic (Independent) managed to become Wolfenbüttel's first politically independent mayor, beating Dennis Berger (SPD) in a run-off with 55.7% of the vote.


History

A first settlement, probably restricted to a tiny islet in the Oker river, was founded in the tenth century. It was mentioned in 1118 as ''Wulferisbuttle'', when the
Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
count Widekind of Wolfenbüttel had a
water castle A water castle is a castle whose site is largely defended by water. It can be entirely surrounded by water-filled moats (moated castle) or natural waterbodies such as island castles in a river or offshore. The term comes from European castle st ...
erected on the important trade route from Brunswick to Halberstadt and Leipzig. Destroyed by Henry the Lion in 1191, and again by his great-grandson Duke Albert I of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1255, the fortress and town, as well as nearby Asseburg Castle, were seized in 1258 by Albert I from the
House of Asseburg The House of Asseburg, original German name ''von der Asseburg'', is an old Lower Saxon aristocratic family which had its origin in Wolfenbüttel and Asseburg. During the 12th and 13th centuries the lords of Wolfenbüttel were able to establish ...
, the descendants of Widekind. The castle was rebuilt by the
Welf Welf is a Germanic first name that may refer to: *Welf (father of Judith), 9th century Frankish count, father-in-law of Louis the Pious *Welf I, d. bef. 876, count of Alpgau and Linzgau *Welf II, Count of Swabia, died 1030, supposed descendant of W ...
duke
Henry I of Brunswick Henry may refer to: People * Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal ...
from 1283 onwards. By 1432, the town became the permanent residence of the Brunswick
Princes of Wolfenbüttel A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
. Devastated in the 1542 Schmalkaldic War, it was largely rebuilt in a Renaissance style under Duke
Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
, including several ''
gracht ''Gracht'' (; plural: ''grachten'') is a Dutch word for a canal within a city. ''Grachten'' often have a round shape, and form a circle around the city cores in the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern Germany. Outside the Netherlands, the word '' ...
'' waterways laid out by Hans Vredeman de Vries. The duke vested the citizens with market rights in 1570 and founded the
Ducal Library Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked ...
(''Herzogliche Bibliothek'', the later ''Bibliotheca Augusta'') two years later. During the Thirty Years' War, Danish troops under King Christian IV occupied the fortified town in 1626. Upon the nearby Battle of Lutter, they were besieged by the
Imperial forces Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, ...
of General Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim. Re-conquered in 1627, the Wolfenbüttel fortress remained under the command of
Gottfried Huyn von Geleen Gottfried, Count Huyn, Baron of Geleen or Godefridus Comes ab Huyn Baro de Geleen (died 27 August 1657), rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the service of the Holy Roman Emperor during the 30 Years War. Biography Gottfried was born in Fland ...
. In June 1641 the
Battle of Wolfenbüttel The Battle of Wolfenbüttel (29 June 1641) took place near the town of Wolfenbüttel, in what is now Lower Saxony, during the Thirty Years' War. Swedish forces led by Carl Gustaf Wrangel and Hans Christoff von Königsmarck and Bernardines led ...
was fought here, when the
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
forces under Wrangel and the Count of Königsmark defeated the Austrians under Archduke Leopold of Habsburg, however, they failed to occupy the town. Over two centuries, especially under Duke Julius' successors Henry Julius and Augustus the Younger, Wolfenbüttel grew to be a center of the arts and science: Already in 1604, the composer Michael Praetorius (1571–1621) served as ''
Kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...
'' of the Brunswick dukes. From 1682, the composer
Johann Rosenmüller Johann Rosenmüller (1619 – 10 September 1684) was a German Baroque composer, who played a part in transmitting Italian musical styles to the north. Career Rosenmüller was born in Oelsnitz, near Plauen in Saxony. He studied at the University ...
(1619–1684), who had to flee Germany due to allegations of homosexuality, spent his last years in Wolfenbüttel. Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) and
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the developmen ...
(1729–1781) directed the Ducal Library, and established one of the first
lending libraries A lending library is a library from which books and other media are lent out. The major classifications are endowed libraries, institutional libraries (the most diverse), public libraries, and subscription libraries. It may also refer to a library ...
in Enlightenment Europe. However, the ducal court eventually returned to Brunswick in 1753 and Wolfenbüttel subsequently lost in importance. During World War II, the city prison became a major execution site of prisoners of the Gestapo. Most of those executed were members of various Resistance groups. One such victim was a
Dom Dom or DOM may refer to: People and fictional characters * Dom (given name), including fictional characters * Dom (surname) * Dom La Nena (born 1989), stage name of Brazilian-born cellist, singer and songwriter Dominique Pinto * Dom people, an et ...
Lambert, a monk of Ligugé Abbey in France, who was beheaded there on 3 December 1943.


Main sights

* The
baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
castle '' Schloss Wolfenbüttel''. In 1866, the castle became the Anna-Vorwerk-School for girls. Today part of the building is used as a high school; it also houses a great example of Baroque state apartments, which are open to the public as a museum. * '' Herzog-August-Bibliothek'' (HAB), the ducal library, hosts one of the largest and best-known collections of ancient books in the world. It is especially rich in bibles,
incunabula In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...
, and books of the Reformation period, with some 10,000 manuscripts. It was founded in 1572 and rehoused in an interpretation of the
Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone St ...
in 1723, built facing the castle; the present library building was constructed in 1886. Leibniz and Lessing worked in this library as librarians. The ''
Codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
Carolinus'' in the library is one of the few remaining texts in
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
. The library also houses the bible of Henry the Lion, a book preserved in near mint condition from the year 1170. * ''Klein-Venedig''. A pittoresque waterside building ensemble (
Gracht ''Gracht'' (; plural: ''grachten'') is a Dutch word for a canal within a city. ''Grachten'' often have a round shape, and form a circle around the city cores in the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern Germany. Outside the Netherlands, the word '' ...
) along the River Oker built in the eighteenth century. * The churches Marienkirche (Hauptkiche Beatae Mariae Virginis), built during the seventeenth century, and ''St.-Trinitatiskirche'' (Trinity Church), built during the early eighteenth century. The town is also the location of the former Northampton Barracks, which housed units of the British Army of the Rhine until 1993 (postcode: BFPO 101). Today, Wolfenbüttel is smaller than the neighbouring cities of Braunschweig (Brunswick), Salzgitter, and Wolfsburg, but, because it was largely undamaged by the war, its downtown is rich in half-timber buildings, many dating several centuries back, and it still retains its historical character. Wolfenbüttel is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. The portal above the entrance to the HAB., thumb Trinity Church., thumb


Culture

Wolfenbüttel is home of several departments of the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences and the , an organisation for the study of Lessing's works. It is also home to the ''Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv'', the state archives of Lower Saxony, as well as the renowned ''Biblioteca Augusta''. The herb
liqueur A liqueur (; ; ) is an alcoholic drink composed of spirits (often rectified spirit) and additional flavorings such as sugar, fruits, herbs, and spices. Often served with or after dessert, they are typically heavily sweetened and un-aged beyond ...
Jägermeister's headquarters of Mast-Jägermeister are still located in Wolfenbüttel, as are some of its distillation sites. Wolfenbüttel hosted the three-day International German
Bus Pulling A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for char ...
Championships in May 2009, where five-person teams pull a 16-ton bus 30 meters. Every year starting in late November, Wolfenbüttel stages a Christmas market with food and drinks. Locals often come and enjoy the pre-Christmas atmosphere.


Twin towns – sister cities

Wolfenbüttel is twinned with: * Sèvres, France (1958) * Kenosha, United States (1969) *
Satu Mare Satu Mare (; hu, Szatmárnémeti ; german: Sathmar; yi, סאטמאר or ) is a city with a population of 102,400 (2011). It is the capital of Satu Mare County, Romania, as well as the centre of the Satu Mare metropolitan area. It lies in the ...
, Romania (1976) * Kamienna Góra, Poland (2001) *
Blankenburg Blankenburg may refer to: Places * Blankenburg am Harz, a German town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt * Blankenburg Castle (Harz), the castle in Blankenburg am Harz (see above) * Bad Blankenburg, a German town in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt dis ...
, Germany (2015) A bridge in Wolfenbüttel is named after each of these cities. In Kenosha, there is a park located on the coast of Lake Michigan named after Wolfenbüttel.


People

* Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1489–1568), Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel *
Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg (also known as Julius of Braunschweig; 29 June 1528 – 3 May 1589), a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1568 until his death. From 1584, he ...
(1528–1589), Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel *
Philipp Sömmering Philipp Sömmering (''c''. 1535 - 17 February 1575) was a German (Wolfenbüttel) alchemist and fraudster. He called himself ''Therocyclus''. Patron Together with Anna Maria Zieglerin and Schombach, Sömmering worked for Julius, Duke of Brunswic ...
(c. 1535–1575), alchemist and fraudster * Augustus William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1662–1731), Prince of Wolfenbüttel *
August Querfurt August Querfurt (1696, Wolfenbüttel – 1761, Vienna) was an Austrian painter. He painted primarily soldiers and battle scenes. He was first instructed by his father, Tobias Querfurt, a landscape and animal painter, and afterwards studied unde ...
(1696–1761), Austrian painter * Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern (1715–1797), Queen of Prussia * Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1721-1792), Prussian field marshal * Johann Julius Walbaum (1724–1799), physician, natural scientist * Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (1735-1806), Prussian field marshal *
Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (24 October 173910 April 1807), was a German princess and composer. She became the duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, by marriage, and was also regent of the states of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach from 1758 to ...
(1739–1807), Duchess and composer * Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1746–1840), Crown Princess of Prussia *
Friederike von Reden Friederike von Reden (1774-1854), was a German noblewoman, philanthropist and salon-holder. She is known as the ''Mutter des Hirschberger Tales''. Early life She was born as the daughter of Baron Friedrich Adolf Richard Riedesel zu Eisenbach ( ...
(1774–1854), philanthropist and salon-holder *
August Ludwig von Rochau August Ludwig von Rochau (20 August 1810 in Wolfenbüttel – 15 October 1873 in Heidelberg) was a German journalist and politician. He engaged in the ''Frankfurter Wachensturm'' of 1833 and subsequently spent ten years of exile in France. He publi ...
(1810–1873), publicist and politician *
Theodor Engelbrecht Theodor Elias August Benjamin Engelbrecht (18 January 1813 – 4 August 1892) was a German physician and pomologist. Biography He was born in Halchter near Braunschweig. He studied medicine at the University of Göttingen The University of G ...
(1813–1892), physician, professor and pomologist *
Theodore Eisfeld Theodore Eisfeld (April 11, 1816, Wolfenbüttel, Duchy of Brunswick – 16 September 1882, Wiesbaden) was a conductor, most notably of the New York Philharmonic Society, which became the New York Philharmonic. Biography Eisfeld's chief instructor ...
(1816–1882), composer, chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic * Victor Ehrenberg (1851–1929), legal scientist *
Richard Ehrenberg Richard Ehrenberg (5 February 1857 – 17 December 1921) was a German economist. He taught at Rostock University from 1899 to 1921. Literary works * ''Hamburg und Antwerpen seit 300 Jahren'', 1889 * ''Hamburg und England im Zeitalter der Kön ...
(1857–1921), economist *
Georg Scholz Georg Scholz (October 10, 1890 – November 27, 1945) was a German painter, member of the New Objectivity movement. Scholz was born in Wolfenbüttel and had his artistic training at the Karlsruhe Academy, where his teachers included Hans ...
(1890–1945), realist painter *
Barbara Simons Barbara Bluestein Simons (born January 26, 1941) is an American computer scientist and the former president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). She is a Ph.D. graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and spent her early ca ...
(born 1929), politician * Hans-Jörg Meyer (born 1964), sports shooter *
Arnd Peiffer Arnd Peiffer (born 18 March 1987) is a German former biathlete. His greatest achievements were sprint victories in the 2018 Winter Olympics and the Biathlon World Championships 2011. During his career, he also won three World Championship relay go ...
(born 1987), biathlete


Sources

* Bepler, Jochen: ''Kleine Wolfenbütteler Stadtgeschichte''. Pustet, Regensburg 2011. . * Fimpel, Martin: ''Erst Großbaustelle und dann eine andere Stadt. Der lange Abschied von der Festung Wolfenbüttel'', in: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte Bd. 94, 2013, S. 161–192. * Grote, Hans Henning: ''Schloss Wolfenbüttel, Residenz der Herzöge zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg.'' Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2005 * Schwarz, Ulrich (Hrsg.): ''Auf dem Weg zur herzoglichen Residenz. Wolfenbüttel im Mittelalter.'' Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2003 * Stadt Wolfenbüttel (Hrsg.): ''Wolfenbüttel unter dem Hakenkreuz.'' Fünf Vorträge von Reinhard Försterling,[Dietrich Kuessner, Hans-Ulrich Ludewig, Wilfried Knauer, Dieter Lent; Heckner-Print-Service-GmbH, Wolfenbüttel 200
GBV
* ''Residenzstadt Wolfenbüttel – Ein Streifzug durch die Geschichte''; Nr. 9 (2004) * ''Junges Leben in alten Häusern – 25 Jahre Stadtsanierung in Wolfenbüttel''; Nr. 9 (2005)


See also

*Metropolitan region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg


References

* Heinz Grunow, Grunow, Heinz and Wolfgang Wessel, Wessel, Wolfgang. ''Wolfenbüttel: ein Bildband''. Grenzland-Verlag Rock & Co., Wolfenbüttel. 1977


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfenbuettel Historic Jewish communities Duchy of Brunswick