Nörten-Hardenberg ( Eastphalian: ''Nörten-Harenbarg'') is a municipality in the district of Northeim, 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 ...

Geography

It is situated on the river Leine, approx. 10 km southwest of Northeim, and 10 km north of

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. The main town is located on the foothills of the Nörtener Wald but great parts of the municipality are in the Leinegraben, a lowland between the Solling and the

Harz The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' der ...

. Neighbor communities are Bovenden (south), Hardegsen (west), Moringen (northwest), Katlenburg-Lindau (east) and Northeim (north) Besides the main town itself, the following villages are component localities of Nörten-Hardenberg:

History

Hardenberg Castle, first mentioned in 1101, was built by the Electors of Mainz. Their Ministeriales (or Burgmann) were the lords of Rosdorf, who were expelled in 1287, followed by the lords of Thüdinghausen (near Moringen) who took on the name ''knights of Hardenberg''. (They are not to be confounded with a westphalian noble family of Hardenberg Castle near

Velbert Velbert (, Low Rhenish: ''Vèlbed'') is a town in the district of Mettmann (district), Mettmann, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The town is renowned worldwide for the production of locks and fittings. Geography Velbert is located ...

, extinct in 1450). A branch went to Denmark around 1340, which later became extinct, Anne Hardenberg belonging to it. The family acquired further properties near Nörten-Hardenberg, as well as in other regions of Northern Germany. Since 1409 Hardenberg Castle was split between two family branches. Partly destroyed by a thunderstorm in 1698, the castle was abandoned in 1720 and became a ruin. In 1778 created counts, the Hardenberg family, whose most prominent members were Karl August von Hardenberg, prime minister of Prussia, and the poet

Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (; ), was a German nobility, German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and Mysticism, mystic. He is regarded as an inf ...

, still owns the estate. Since 1710 the family occupies the nearby manor house. In 1700, they founded the Hardenberg-Wilthen distillery, today Germany's second largest liquor producer. File:Burg Hardenberg Merian 1648.jpg, Hardenberg Castle in 1648 Burg Hardenberg und Gut.jpg, Ruin of Hardenberg Castle Hardenberg Vorderhaus.jpg, Hardenberg manor house Noerten Kirche Martin.JPG, The Catholic Church

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norten-Hardenberg Hardenberg family Northeim (district)