Höfer is a village and a former municipality in the district of Celle, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Since 1 January 2014, it has been part of the municipality Eschede, of which it is an ''

Ortschaft Ortschaft is a term in German speaking countries for a human settlement. In several states of Germany, it is also used for administrative subdivisions of municipalities. These have been defined in the '' Gemeindeordnung'' or ''Kommunalverfassung'' ...

''.Hauptsatzung der Gemeinde Eschede
March 2014. The ''Ortschaft'' Höfer contains the villages Höfer, Aschenberg and Ohe. Höfer has an abandoned mine named Mariaglück, about 910 m deep, from which the sum of 13.2 million tons of common salt and potash salt was mined between 1916 and 1977. As the maximum, in 1943 about 241,000 tons of salt were produced. The excavation left a hole of 5 million cubic metres. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

some military equipment was manufactured underground, safe from bombing raids.

Radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...

from the

deep geological repository A deep geological repository is a way of storing hazardous or radioactive waste within a stable geologic environment, typically 200–1,000 m below the surface of the earth. It entails a combination of waste form, waste package, engineered seals ...

Schacht Asse II The Asse II mine (Schacht Asse II) is a former salt mine used as a deep geological repository for radioactive waste in the Asse Mountains of Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, Germany. History The Asse II mine was developed between 1906 and 1908 to ...

in the

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel (district), Wolfenbüttel Distri ...

district and ashes from waste incineration facilities, containing toxic metals, were frequently transported to the mine Mariaglück. In 2009, the district court of Lüneburg prohibited any further waste transport by issuing a

preliminary injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable reme ...

. Höfer has its own volunteer fire brigade, an open-air bath, and a kindergarten.

References

Former municipalities in Lower Saxony {{Celle-geo-stub