Herzberg am Harz


Herzberg am Harz is a town in the Göttingen district of Lower Saxony, Germany.

Geography

Herzberg is situated on the southwestern rim of the Harz mountain range and the Harz National Park. Natural monuments in the surrounding area include the Unicorn Cave, the Karst Trail, and the Rhume Spring.
The town centre is located on the Sieber river, about northeast of Göttingen and southeast of the state capital Hanover. The municipal area comprises the villages of Lonau, Pöhlde, Scharzfeld, and Sieber.

History

in the Duchy of Saxony was first mentioned in an 1143 deed. A hunting lodge at the site was already erected from 1024 to 1029 by King Lothair II. It was seized by the Saxon Welf dynasty in 1144 and in 1158 became a property of Duke Henry the Lion with consent of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
The castle was part of the Grubenhagen estates of the Welf duke Henry I of Brunswick he received in 1291, when he and his brothers divided their heritage. A settlement below the castle was first documented in 1337. The Brunswick rulers of the Grubenhagen principality resided here from 1486 until the line became extinct in 1596. In 1617 Duke George of Brunswick-Lüneburg had his inheritance rights confirmed by Emperor Matthias and again lived at the castle with his wife Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt until in 1636 he moved his residence to the Leineschloss in Hanover.
Herzberg first developed as a centre of cloth and linen manufacturing. In the 18th and 19th century important industries included brewing, the founding and turning of metal, agricultural machinery and boot making as well as arms production for the Hanover forces. Herzberg received town privileges in 1929, when it was part of the Prussian Province of Hanover.
Herzberg is the location of a club that promotes the international auxiliary language Esperanto, the Interkultura Centro Herzberg. In 2006, the city council decided to advertise Herzberg as Esperanto-Stadt.

Politics

City council

Seats in the city council as of local elections on 11 September 2011:
Elections in 2016:
Herzberg is twinned with:

Resident companies

Primary schools:
Secondary Schools:
Ernst Moritz Arndt-Gymnasium

Sons and daughters of the town