Lüneburg, Germany

 

Lüneburg is a beautiful Hanseatic city in Lower Saxony, southeast of Hamburg. The historic city center with numerous monuments and museums invites you to visit. The Lüneburg Heath begins about 30 km west of the city.

Lüneburg as a Hanseatic city
The Hanseatic city of Lüneburg is located on the Ilmenau, a small river that flows into the Elbe at Stöckte a few kilometers northwest. The wealth of the city and its citizens was based in the time of the Hanseatic League on the occurrence of salt, which u. a. was sold to the nearby Hanseatic city of Hamburg and was transported over the Ilmenau by boat type Salzewer. Even today, many buildings in the unique old town of Lüneburg testify to this wealth - the more than 1300 listed brick houses in the old town are the main attraction for tourists today.

Lüneburg Heath
The Lüneburg Heath, about 30 km west of the city, was created as a deforestation area, among other things through overgrazing and because of Lüneburg's large demand for wood for the saltworks. It was once the largest military training area in the German Empire and is now a popular holiday and recreational area. During the heather bloom in August, Lüneburg also has a very large influx of visitors.

Filming location for the series 'Rote Rosen'
Lüneburg is the location of the television series "Rote Rosen". The outdoor scenes of the series are filmed here and in surrounding locations such as Deutsch Evern. The studio is located in the Neu-Hagen district of Lüneburg. Lüneburg's popularity with tourists has increased significantly since the series began. The Rote Rosen Studios, Lilienthalstr. 1, 21337 Lüneburg, can also be visited from time to time.

University City
Leuphana. Since 2005 Lüneburg has had the university that emerged from the teacher training college. There is a new architectural attraction with the central building and auditorium of the university: It was designed by star architect Daniel Libeskind and has become the university's new landmark. In addition to the architecture, it is above all the exploding financial volume that is controversial, not an easy topic for Lüneburg, the university and the Lower Saxony State Audit Office.

 

Getting here

By plane
The nearest major airports are Hamburg Airport (IATA: HAM), Hanover Airport (IATA: HAJ) and Bremen Airport (IATA: BRE)
Lüneburg Airport (ICAO: EDHG), Zeppelinstraße 27, 21337 Lüneburg (in the port industrial area). Phone: +49 (0)4131 854 92 14, email: info@edhg.de . Engine, glider, motor glider and microlight operations take place at the site.

By train
Lüneburg Central Station, Bahnhofstrasse 10, 21337 Lüneburg (east of downtown) . Lüneburg has a central train station. The train station is divided into the (eastern) long-distance train station and the west train station in Lüneburg, where the RE to Dannenberg and the regional Metronom to Hamburg stop.
ICE and continuous IC stop here. Other connections make the city accessible via Hanover and Hamburg.
As a regional railway company, the Metronom runs to Hamburg every half hour. The journey time is around 30 minutes (metronome) and around 50 minutes (regional metronome). The metronome goes south to the Hundertwasser station in Uelzen, from there connecting trains run to Hanover and Göttingen, some trains also go through to Hanover. The RE of DB-Regio travels east to Dannenberg (Elbe).

In the street
From the northwest: Lüneburg can be reached from Hamburg via the A39, which continues as a four-lane B4 from Lüneburg and is known as the eastern bypass.
From the north: The B404 coming from Geesthacht connects to the north with the A39. The B209 coming from Lauenburg and Hohnstorf an der Elbe leads directly into the city.
From the east: Via the B216 from Dannenberg via Dahlenburg
From the south: Via the A39 or B4 from Uelzen, Gifhorn and Braunschweig.
From the southwest/west: Via the A7 symbol: AS Soltau-Ost, then the B207 via Amelinghausen

By boat
Lüneburg has no connection to a port for passenger traffic. The Ilmenau is z. B. for yachts not navigable to Lüneburg.

Industrial port of Lüneburg. The industrial port can be approached via the Elbe Lateral Canal.

By bicycle
Numerous regional or long-distance cycle paths start, end or cross Lüneburg:
The Weser-Harz-Heide Cycle Path starts and ends here from the Weser in Hann. Münden over the Harz Mountains, through Wolfenbüttel and the Lüneburg Heath.
the 120 km long Ilmenau cycle path from Bad Bodenteich via Uelzen to Lüneburg, from where it runs to Hoopte at the confluence of the Ilmenau and the Elbe (route information Ilmenau cycle path)
the Alte Salzstraße leads in about 116km from Lüneburg via Lauenburg to Lübeck (route information Alte Salzstraße)

On foot
The 145 km long Hermann Billung hiking trail leads from Lauenburg via Lüneburg to Amelinghausen, then via Soltau and Visselhövede to Verden.
the Via Scandinavica, a Scandinavian Way of St. James, leads on its German section from Fehmarn via Lübeck and Lüneburg to its end point in Göttingen.

 

Transport

Public transport
The city and regional bus company is the KVG. Lüneburg is a member of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV). There are two important bus transfers in Lüneburg:

Central bus station (ZOB). Changeover mainly for regional lines.
At the train station is the ZOB (Zentrale Omnibusbahnhof), which serves both city and regional buses and creates the transition to rail transport.
Changeover on the sand. Changeover mainly for inner-city lines.
For many, mostly inner-city lines, the Am Sande square in the middle of the city center offers transfer options.
There are several taxi ranks at the ZOB and Am Sande.

Park
Access to the city center of Lüneburg is only possible to a very limited extent. If you don't want to do without your car, you have the following options for parking:
Multi-storey car park Am Klinikum - at the Städtisches Klinikum
Multi-storey car park Am Graalwall/Rathaus - Am Graalwall (including disabled and women's parking spaces)
Parking garage Stadtmitte/Am Wasserturm - At Ratsmühle 17
Parking garage at the train station - Am Altenbrücker Ziegelhof
Authorities center Reichenbachstrasse
City car park - new brawn
Karstadt multi-storey car park - on the desert site
Lünepark - Bockelmannstrasse
Parking lot - Kalandstrasse
Sülzwiesen car park / Am Bargenturm - Sülzwiesen

By bicycle
The city is easy to explore by bike, some of the streets have coarse cobblestones. There are no major differences in altitude to overcome in the urban area, there are longer climbs out of town, especially towards the east.

Rental bikes are available from the following providers:

StadtRAD Lüneburg. Phone: +49 (0)40 82218810-0, fax: +49 (0)40 82218810-9, email: info@stadtradlueneburg.de. has seven rental points, is identical to Deutsche Bahn's Call-a-bike, contacts via their hotline.
RadspeicheR, Bahnhofstr. 4, 21337 Lüneburg (directly at the train station). Tel.: +49 (0)4131 266350, fax: +49 (0)4131 266351, e-mail: info@radspeicher.de. offers around 30 rental bikes, including pedelecs.
Heiderad. Has no station in Lüneburg, but you can order bikes by phone.

bikes and repairs
RadspeicheR (at the train station). Bicycle sales, repairs without prior notice, rental, bicycle parking garage.
Radhaus Lüneburg, Neue Sülze 23 21335 Lüneburg (in the city center).
BOC, in front of the Bardowicker Tore 27 21339 Lüneburg (close to downtown).
bike park Käthe-Krüger-Straße 8, Kaltenmoor, about 3 km from the city centre.
KonRad, Scharnhorststrasse, Building 28, 21335 Lüneburg. very well-equipped self-help workshop, opening times depend on the semester breaks.

 

Sights

Churches

1 Michaelis Church . Former monastery church of the Benedictines in Lüneburg. It is one of the three main churches in Lüneburg. The hall church was built between 1376 and 1436 and, like the other main churches, was made of brick due to the lack of sandstone in the area. The church is usually open, so you can also visit it from the inside. The monastery had a school whose most famous student was Johann Sebastian Bach, who was 15 when he entered the monastery in 1700-1702.
2 Lüne Monastery
3 St. Stephen's Ecumenical Community Center . Interesting, modern church building with a combination of exposed concrete and wood from the 1970s, in the middle of the 1st district of Kaltenmoor wikipedia, which is characterized by immigrants and socially disadvantaged people.
4 St. John's Church . Main Church of Lueneburg. It represents the center of the city. It was built in the brick Gothic style and is considered one of the most important buildings in this style. The Evangelical Lutheran Church was built between 1289 and 1440.
5 St. Nicolai Church . A brick Gothic style evangelical church. It was built between 1407 and 1440 but was not completed until much later. The church is usually open and can be visited. The church is the smallest of Lüneburg's three main churches and was built as a three-nave basilica

 

Buildings

Old Town Hall. Tel: (0)800 - 220 5005 . at the Ochsenmarkt − created around 1230. The court arbor, prince's hall, old archive, chancellery and mayor's chamber all date from the Gothic period. Masterful woodwork adorns the large council chamber, which is one of the largest Renaissance halls in Germany. The homage hall and the market facade date from the Baroque period. In the tower there is a clock mechanism with a carillon made of Meissen porcelain. Price €5/€4 reduced Open: Guided tours Tue. - Sun.
Council water art and water tower wikipediacommons. They were mainly used to supply the salt works with fresh water.

Monuments
Memorial in the Tiergarten. Around 1.5 km from the city center there is a memorial in the Tiergarten for concentration camp prisoners who were killed by bombs and their guards during an air raid.
A walk there from the city center leads e.g. B. along the Ilmenau over the 5 Teufelsbrücke in a varied area with forest and a wetland.

Museums
Lueneburg Museum. Modern museum of culture and nature of the city and region. With a chic cafe!
German Salt Museum, Sülfmeisterstrasse 1. Tel.: (0)4131-720 65 13 . in the former Saline Lüneburg. Shows the importance of salt for the city, work and the place of production of the salt, namely the saltworks.
Brewery Museum, Heiligengeiststrasse 39. in the old Kronenbrauerei.
East Prussian State Museum. Actually a "homeland museum" for the expellees from East Prussia, it focuses on the former German culture there, but is in exchange with the regions in the Baltic States, rebuilt and reopened in 2019.
Museum for the Principality of Lüneburg. (was combined with the Lüneburg Museum, see there).
Lüne Monastery, Am Domain Court, 21337 Lüneburg. Textile museum and nice short trip from downtown.

Streets and squares
Note: Some of the names of streets and squares in the TV series Rote Rosen are fictitious.
Stint market at the Ilmenau
Lamberti Square, where the Lamberti Church once stood
Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Platz, near the Michaeliskirche.
Old crane at the Ilmenau
Ilmenaustraße / corner of Abtspferdtränke - square in front of Hotel Bergström (frequent filming location of "Red Roses")
Brausebrücke (frequent location of "Red Roses")

Parks
Spa park. with graduation tower and concert shell.
Love reason. Somewhat neglected park on the edge of the historic city wall.
Kreidebergsee . Beautiful lake in the city area, but without bathing facilities, surrounded by a park and with "chalk cliffs"
Kalkberg. Inner-city nature reserve, with a beautiful view of the city.
Clamart Park . Park in downtown, nice for rest.

 

What to do

Train journey in historical trains of the Heide-Express
Pedal boat ride on the Ilmenau from Schröder's garden beer garden
Canoe tour on the Ilmenau, from Melbeck
Bathe
Salt thermal baths in Lüneburg
Hagen outdoor pool
Ilmenau

 

Shopping

weekly markets
Weekly market on the market square, every Wednesday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m
Thorner Straße, on Thursday in the Kreideberg district from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m
Stephanus-Platz, on Friday in the Kaltenmoor district from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m

Pedestrian zone
Lüneburg has a beautiful pedestrian zone in the center of the old town with a wide range of modern central areas. The pedestrian zone exudes a nice serenity, but is also heavily frequented by tourists on weekends. It's just fun to be inspired by the flair of the city in the narrow streets and alleys.

 

Cuisine

Local dishes in Lüneburg include:
The smelt is a small fish, about the size of a sardine, which is only available regionally in spring and which is then prepared in various ways in many of the city's restaurants, often fried as a full smelt.
Due to the proximity to the Lüneburg Heath, Heidschnucke is of course also on the menu.
Labskaus is not prepared here like in Hamburg, but more in a Danish style.
Lüneburg used to be known for its numerous breweries. Today the number of breweries is limited to a few small pub breweries.

Mälzer's, Heiligengeiststrasse 43, 21335 Lüneburg. Phone: +49 (0)4131 47777, email: info@maelzer-brauhaus.de. Brewery and table house with a rustic restaurant and vaulted cellar. The Lüneburger Pilsener (Lüpi), once the city's flagship, is produced in Hamburg at the Holsten brewery. last change: Aug. 2018 (information may be out of date)

Cheap
Piccanti, Am Sande 9, Italian restaurant, also with domestic and Chinese specialties, including homemade noodles

Middle
Bierstein restaurant
India Haus, Heiligengeiststraße 9. Excellent restaurant with Indian cuisine. Table reservation advisable. Open: Mon closed. Price: Lunch €6.50-6.90.

Upscale
Sabacca, Am Markt 4. Restaurant in a vaulted cellar with very good Spanish tapas cuisine. Also steaks, burgers and seafood. Price: e.g. B. Tapas for 2, 34.50€.
Soraya, Lünertorstraße 18. Tel.: +49(0)4131 99 80 373. The fine cuisine of Persia. lunch table. Open: Mon - Fri. Price: Main courses €10.50-18.90.
Zum alten Brauhaus, Grapengiesserstrasse 11. Traditional restaurant with a rustic ambience that offers hearty German cuisine in interesting modern versions. Rated the best restaurant in town (TrivAdvisor). Price: main courses €15.90-27.90.

 

Nightlife

There are two pub miles:
At the Stintmarkt
Pesel, Am Stintmarkt 12, 21335 Lüneburg. Phone: +49 (0)4131 33297, email: info@pesel-lueneburg.de. Legendary, located on the Stintmarkt, with alternative music and a great basement atmosphere. It doesn't really get crowded until 4 a.m. when the other nightclubs close
Schroederstrasse

 

Hotels

There are various hotels and inns spread all over Lüneburg. Many of them are also very close to the center. There are also many holiday apartments in Lüneburg and the surrounding area. Many guests from big cities enjoy the tranquility of a holiday apartment in one of Lüneburg's many suburbs.

Cheap
DJH youth hostel, Soltauer Str. 133, 21335 Lüneburg. Tel.: +49 (0)4131 41864, fax: +49 (0)4131 45747, e-mail: lueneburg@jugendherberge.de. Top youth hostel with 148 beds, on the southern outskirts, right next to the university and the city forest. Features: free wifi, wheelchair accessible. Open: all year (except Christmas): 07:00-22:00. Check-in: 15:00-21:45. Price: from €29.80/BB (HB and FB possible).

Middle
Edit Hotel Heidpark

Upscale
Selection of some hotels:
Bergstrom. Inspiration and more frequent location of the series "Red Roses"
park hotel. Phone: (0)4131-41125.
uniqueinfoedit
4 seminars

Camping
Camping Rote Schleuse, Rote Schleuse 4. 21335 Lüneburg. Phone: +49 4131 791500, email: kontakt@camp-rote-schleuse.de. In a wooded area about 5km to the city center, the course is open all year round. Gastronomy, swimming pond. Neat sanitary facilities. Pitches for tents under trees. Rather noisy due to the nearby bypass road.
Melbeck canoe station. almost 10km to the city center, good starting point for a canoe tour.

 

Learn

The Leuphana University of Lüneburg is spread over several locations. They result from the campuses of the former University of Applied Sciences Northeast Lower Saxony and the university in the former Scharnhorst barracks.

 

Work

Since the end of the zone border funding and the downsizing of the Bundeswehr and federal police base in Lüneburg (up until the end of the last century there were four barracks spread across the entire city area), there has been a structural change towards a medium-sized economy with companies in the service and manufacturing sectors . There are many commuters to the nearby Hanseatic city of Hamburg.

 

Security

Due to the high level of tourism, pickpockets are increasing in the city center. In the area of the Am Stint bar row, violent clashes often occur late in the evening due to drunk people.

Lüneburg/Lüchow-Dannenberg/Uelzen police station (operational and patrol service in Lüneburg), Auf der Hude 1, 21339 Lüneburg. Tel.: +49 (0)4131 83062203, +49 (0)4131 83062215, Fax: +49 (0)4131 83062250. Open: 24/7.

 

Health

In the spa town of Lüneburg there are no problems finding a suitable doctor.
There are also several hospitals and day clinics
In the Kurpark there is the 12 Lüneburg graduation tower, where you can breathe salt-enriched air.

 

Practical advice

Tourist Information, Rathaus / Am Markt, 21335 Lüneburg (in the historic Lüneburg Town Hall). Phone: +49 (0)4131 2076620, phone free of charge: 0800 2205005, e-mail: touristik@lueneburg.info. From booking accommodation and organizing the city tour to tips and suggestions on site.

 

History

Prehistory
The first evidence of human presence in the Lüneburg area is dated to the time of the Neanderthals. There are 58 hand axes found at the beginning of the 1990s when the motorway between Ochtmissen and Bardowick was being built. They are around 150,000 years old. The Ochtmiss site is probably a Neanderthal hunting camp, where the early humans cut up their prey. At that time there could be no talk of a continuous settlement of the later urban area; Thousands of years of cold ages prevented this.

The first archaeological evidence of a settled peasant culture was discovered not far from the aforementioned site in the Ilmenau between Lüne and Bardowick. It is an ax that is known as a “shoe last wedge” due to its shape. It is dated to the 6th millennium BC and was part of the Lüneburg museum collection as early as the 19th century.

Since the Bronze Age, the Lüneburg tent mountain has had a number of prehistoric and early historical burial sites that were established by people living in the area of ​​the city of Lüneburg. One of the oldest finds is an "Aunjetitz Edge Ridge Ax". It dates from around 1900 BC. A number of Iron Age urn finds, which are mentioned as early as the 18th century, also come from the city itself. Like those from Lüneburg's Kalkberg, these have found their way into the private collections of some scholars of the 18th century and, with a few exceptions, have perished with them.

Worth mentioning in this context are the Lombard urn grave fields of Lüneburg Zeltberg and von Oedeme from the first centuries AD.There are also a number of sites from the early Middle Ages in the area of ​​the later city, for example in the area of ​​the old town of Modestorpe not far from Johanniskirche, the Lambertiplatz near the saltworks and in the former water district.

The place Leuphana, mentioned by the Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemäus around 150 AD, could be identical with Lüneburg.

Development from a village to a trading town
The first documentary mention of Lüneburg in the Middle Ages can be found in a document dated August 13, 956, in which King Otto I donated the customs revenue from the Lüneburg salt works to the “monastery built in honor of St. Michael” (teloneum ad Luniburc ad monasterium sancti Michahelis sub honore constructum). An older mention of the place in the Frankish imperial annals (to the year 795 ad fluvium Albim pervenit ad locum, qui dicitur Hliuni) is related to one of the three cores of Lüneburg; probably on the later, from 951 occupied as seat of the Billunger castle Lüneburg on the Kalkberg. The Elbe-Germanic name Hliuni corresponds to the Lombard word for "refuge".

Due to archaeological finds, some of which are exhibited in the Museum for the Principality of Lüneburg, it is certain that the area around Lüneburg was already settled at that time and that the saltworks had started operating at that time.

According to legend, the salt was discovered more than a thousand years ago by a hunter who shot a white wild boar. Salt crystals in the fur of the dead animal are said to have drawn his attention to the salt works.

Despite the saltworks, Lüneburg was originally subordinate to Bardowick, just a few kilometers to the north. Bardowick was older and an important trading post with the Slavs. Bardowick's wealth - it had seven churches - also stemmed from the fact that no further trading centers were tolerated. It was only when Bardowick did not want to submit to Heinrich the Lion that it was destroyed by him in 1189. Thereupon Lüneburg got the city charter and developed in place of Bardowick to the central trading place of the area.

The Polish name for Lüneburg is Glain (written as Chlein or Glein in older German sources), probably derived from glaino (Slavic: glina) "clay". In Latin texts, Lüneburg appears not only as a Latinized Lunaburgum, but also as a Graecized Selenopolis (moon city), an allusion to an etymology that has been popular since the late Middle Ages, which connects Lüneburg with the moon goddess Luna. Coins from this time and the Luna fountain on the market square take up this motif.

Hanseatic period
Due to its long monopoly as a salt supplier in northern Germany, which was only weakened late by salt imports from France, Lüneburg was an early member of the Hanseatic League: Started as a union of individual merchants in Lübeck in 1158, it came to in 1356 (on the first general Hanseatic League) Federation of commercial cities. The Lüneburg salt was necessary to pickle the herring caught in the Baltic Sea and off Norway and to offer it preserved as a fasting food inland.

 

The herring market at the Skåne Fair played a major role. Lüneburg, together with Bergen and Visby (the fish suppliers) and Lübeck (the central trading point between the Baltic Sea and inland), quickly became one of the most important and richest cities of the Hanseatic League. In the Middle Ages, the salt was initially transported overland to Lübeck via the Old Salt Road. With the opening of the Stecknitz Canal in 1398, transport by water to the Lübeck salt storage facility prevailed.

Around 1235, the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg was established, which was repeatedly divided into different lines and brought together again. The sub-states that emerged again and again, which were in the rank of principalities under constitutional law, were usually named after their respective residence. Thus between 1267 and 1269 a principality of Lüneburg was created for the first time, with Lüneburg as the residential city. In the course of the War of the Lüneburg Succession in 1371, rebellious citizens threw the princes out of the city and destroyed the lordly castle on the Kalkberg and the nearby monastery. The rights won through this and with the peace in 1392 hardly differed from those of a free imperial city, especially in the 15th century; but there has never been any legal recognition of imperial immediacy. These extensive rights could be defended until 1637. The money stayed in the city, the rich houses and churches were built.

In 1392, Lüneburg was granted stacking rights. It forced traveling merchants to go to Lüneburg with their wagons and to “stack” their goods there, that is, to offer them for sale. So that the merchants could not bypass Lüneburg, an impassable landwehr was built around 1397 to the west of the city, and a landwehr to the east was built around 1479.

The Lüneburg Prelate War from 1446 to 1462 meant a crisis, which could only be resolved due to the intervention of the Danish King Christian I, the Bishop of Schwerin and the Lübeck Bishop Arnold Westphal. In 1454, in the catalog of demands of the sixties, more influence of the citizens in public life was called for. Since the end of 2007, Lüneburg has again been given the title of Hanseatic City.

Modern times
Reformation time
During the Reformation, the city turned to the Protestant creed in 1529/1530, which was intensively promoted by Duke Ernst 'the Confessor' of Braunschweig-Lüneburg.

The oldest trace of the Reformation movement comes from the petition of March 25, 1525 to Elisabeth von Geldern (a daughter of Heinrich the Middle) of Johann Funke, a citizen exiled from Lüneburg, who had to leave the city because he sang German psalms with others and how others too, had read spiritual and secular Lutheran scriptures. At that time the city still adhered to the old Catholic faith. Troubled years followed, in which the supporters of Rome and the followers of Martin Luther competed against each other.

However, that changed in the years 1529 and 1530, when Urbanus Rhegius was called to Lüneburg as a reformer, where he arrived in the spring of 1531 and at the request of the citizens worked out new school and church regulations. Rhegius soon returned to Celle, but traveled to Lüneburg again and again until 1534 to establish the Reformation, which was confirmed by the signing of the Lutheran formula of concord by the mayor and council in 1580.

This was followed by a period of highest economic and cultural prosperity for Lüneburg, which has never been reached before and for at least two and a half centuries afterwards.

In 1562 a peace agreement was reached between Lüneburg and the sovereign, to which the dukes Heinrich and Wilhelm, the latter with his wife Dorothea of ​​Denmark, appeared in the city in the height of the summer of that year. Lush feasts were celebrated with the city leaders in the dance hall of the town hall, a parade was held and gifts were presented to the dukes.

At that time the city became an ornate building with ramparts and ditches, gates and towers up to the Kalkbergveste, guarded by huge guards and grim dogs, with neat streets and squares, the sand with its beautiful tower fountains, the memorable churches (among them the most noble Church of St. Michaelis with its golden plaque) and cemeteries, the hospitals, the six-tower town hall with the wine cellar, the princely house, the inexhaustible brine well, the harbor, the department store with the crane, the water mills and the water art and general prosperity.

 

With the decline of the Hanseatic League - and the lack of herrings around 1560 off Falsterbo in Skåne - the big customers for the city's salt broke away; the city rapidly became impoverished. In the following period of economic stagnation hardly any new houses were built.

Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years War did not affect Lüneburg until 1623, when the city was confronted with troops moving through the country. The council stepped up the guarding of the gates and walls, stored additional food and repaired the parapets of the city wall. War commissioners and men were paid. In 1625/1626 the number of troops passed through, although the city was spared in contrast to the rural areas.

The first plague epidemic flared up relatively mildly in 1624, another broke out at the end of 1625 and raged until 1626. During the most violent phase of expansion in 1626, the maximum number of those buried daily was 50 dead, the mourning bells began in the early morning and only ended in the dark evening. Overall, the number of deaths in the three years is given as 6000, i.e. almost half of the population of Lüneburg, whereby it should be noted that at this time a large number of people from the surrounding area had fled to the city.

Despite marching through troops like General Tilly's in 1627, Lüneburg was spared, but had to pay 33,600 Reichstaler war contribution from 1628 to 1629 alone. At the same time the income from the brawn and, for example, from the beer excise sank, so that the city treasury noted that it had never had such low income before.

The city council rejected the request of Duke Georg von Braunschweig and Lüneburg-Calenberg to set up a princely garrison in 1631, or of the Swedish General Tott to accept an occupation. In 1635, General Banér bought himself free from the Swedish occupation by General Banér for 10,000 Reichstaler, who, however, again included the city with troops in the following year and coveted the city for himself. After initial resistance, the city gave in and was forced to meet further tough conditions. For example, a looting of Lüneburg by soldiers had to be replaced with 34,000 Reichstalers. In order to raise this high sum, more than 200 pieces of the council silver treasure had to be turned into money. Since the sale had to take place at the worst possible times and in a hurry, the 5,000 Reichstaler achieved for this would hardly have corresponded to the pure material value.

In addition, since the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, an internal dispute had arisen within Lüneburg's walls and council, in which the supremacy of the traditional patrician upper class had on the one hand become weaker and the craft guilds and simple citizens demanded access to the council. There were old tensions between the Council and the Citizens' Committee for various reasons. The council consisted of the rich upper class, who mostly provided the soup and bar masters, and was not freely elected. This class, which represented the municipal regiment, had inherited its position like the nobility, while the civil council was composed of craftsmen and guilds. Charitable status, especially in foundations and the like, for which the previous patriciate and the Sülfmeister were responsible, was thwarted in favor of personal enrichment, the income and prosperity of the city continued to decline.

When the main Swedish troops finally left Lüneburg, they left only a few soldiers behind to protect the city. At the same time, imperial, Electoral Saxon and Kurbrandenburg troops craved the city. When the situation for the drained city became threatening in August 1637, the desperate citizens of Lüneburg decided to open the gates to Duke Georg von Braunschweig-Lüneburg in order to avoid enemy capture and pillage.

Lüneburg was never a free imperial city in the sense of constitutional law, although the emperors themselves and their chancellery were in the dark, but in fact still had this status and in its freedom and in its wealth it was the dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg since the loss of their castle Kalkberg 1371 a thorn in the side. On September 3, 1637, the Duke and three companies entered Lüneburg, which was handed over to him without a fight by the Swedish Colonel Stammer (who was executed in Wismar on the orders of General Banér).

 

In December 1637, the duke deposed the patrician council of Lüneburg, "because he acted to capture the Swedes without the participation of the citizens and to the displeasure of the princely house." The new council, however, did not prove to be capable of action, so that the citizens again demanded the establishment of the old patrician council. Tough negotiations followed between the mayors and the council of Lüneburg on the one hand and the Princely House on the other, until Duke Georg von Braunschweig-Lüneburg fully enforced his new position in May 1639:

Mayors and councilors, old and new, the three ordines and all guilds, guilds and guilds with the entire citizenry had to swear submissiveness and obedience to the princes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg as their immediate high authorities superposed by God. The shift in the balance of power in favor of the Princely House of Braunschweig-Lüneburg became clearest, on the one hand, in the stationing of a city governor and 75 men assigned to him, who were committed to both the regional prince and the civil parish, and, on the other hand, in the cession of the Kalkberg, which he received in 1371 princely festivals had been conquered by the citizens of the city and "to which the proudest memories of every citizen adhered, whom the city once conquered with cunning and violence, but then honestly bought with large sums". All of the city and wall towers that blocked the unobstructed view of Lüneburg from the Kalkberg had to be torn down. The craftsmen were admitted to the city council, but the long-established patrician families were still entitled to half of the council seats and the first two mayors were also appointed from their ranks.

Lüneburg suffered the loss of its freedom and the supremacy of the previously ruling patriciate was broken forever, which is still reflected in the buildings of the city, which displayed the wealth of the patrician families of Lüneburg until around 1620, after which they were hardly ever of this size and splendor have been erected. In addition, the city was extremely heavily in debt, so that in 1682 taxes had to be increased "to pay off war debts and other debts". The city of Lüneburg still minted coins into the 18th century. 2/3 thalers were still minted in 1702, their own copper small change, the Scherf, until 1777.

19th and 20th centuries
In 1810, Lüneburg was annexed to France; the French era began. When a general popular uprising broke out in northern Germany after the French defeat in Russia in March 1813, the Lüneburgers chased the French officials out of their city. The result was the battle near Lüneburg on April 2, 1813.
Heinrich Heine, whose parents lived in today's Heinrich-Heine-Haus in Lüneburg from 1822 to 1826, called it his "residence of boredom". Towards the end of the 19th century, Lüneburg became a garrison town, which it remained (Theodor-Körner barracks).

The synagogue on the corner of Schifferwall and Reichenbachstrasse was inaugurated in 1894 by the Jewish community in Lüneburg for 200 Jewish citizens of Lüneburg. Jewish residents of Lüneburg were actively involved in the economic and cultural development of Lüneburg.

Lüneburg had an active labor movement. After the dissolution of the Lüneburg Workers 'and Soldiers' Council in 1919, they took on leading positions in the unions. In 1922, the unions founded their own center - Volkshaus - for the labor movement at Schröderstrasse 16, which served as an inn, restaurant, social and meeting rooms, and traffic bar for the free unions, the SPD and associations. One of the founders was Ernst Braune, after 1945 Lord Mayor of Lüneburg.

After Hitler came to power, the participation of all Jews in public life was boycotted. Jews were expelled, deported to concentration camps and murdered. In Lüneburg, 26 stumbling blocks remind of the fate of victims of the Nazi regime. City tours of the Lüneburg history workshop lead to some of the former places of residence, study and work of Lüneburgers who were victims of National Socialism, as well as to places in Lüneburg that played an important role during the National Socialist era.

In the children's department in Lüneburg, part of the Lüneburg State Sanatorium and Nursing Home, over 300 children were probably killed as part of "child euthanasia" during the Second World War.

 

Air raids on Lüneburg only caused relatively little damage. In the night of August 12th to 13th, 1941, bombs fell on Lüneburg for the first time, with various houses in the Im Grimm district being destroyed and others damaged and two people injured. On April 2, 1944, scattered bombs hit Lüneburg at night, killing several people and destroying two residential buildings on Bleckeder Landstrasse and one on Lüner Weg. A memorial in the zoo near the train station reminds of a mass grave of 256 concentration camp prisoners, whose transport from a satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp in Wilhelmshaven was bombed here on April 7, 1945. Victims of April 11, 1945 are also buried here. Up to 80 of the injured and weakened but living prisoners who were not to be transported were shot dead by marines in a mass murder. At noon on April 18, 1944, the air base was attacked by around 30 aircraft and severely damaged. A total of 43 houses were completely destroyed in Lüneburg during World War II. 270 apartments became uninhabitable, which corresponds to a degree of destruction of 2.6%. A total of 11,200 m³ of rubble was removed.

On the evening of May 4, 1945, an authorized delegation of the last Reich government in Flensburg-Mürwik at the headquarters south of Lüneburg on the Timeloberg (near the village of Wendisch Evern) signed the partial surrender of the German troops in Northern Germany, Denmark, Norway and the northern Netherlands, i.e. by far the largest part of the territory still held by German troops at that time, which in fact ended the fighting there. The site is inaccessible to the public in a restricted military area; a small memorial stone on a nearby dirt road commemorates the surrender. Shortly afterwards the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht followed. On May 23, 1945, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler committed suicide while in British captivity in Lüneburg by chewing a cyanide capsule.

post war period
Even before the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals, the first war criminals trial began in Lüneburg on September 17, 1945, the so-called Bergen-Belsen trial, in which 45 people were charged.

The deterioration of the building structure after the end of the Second World War led to various considerations as to how the quality of living could be improved. A seriously discussed proposal was to tear down the entire old town and replace it with modern buildings. As a result of the public protest that followed, Lüneburg became one of the focal points for a new idea: monument protection. The city has been systematically restored since the early 1970s. In the late 1960s, Curt Pomp made a special contribution: Against numerous opposition from politics and administration, he campaigned for the preservation of historical buildings in the Lüneburg Old Town working group that he founded. His commitment was rewarded with the German Prize for Monument Protection and the Federal Cross of Merit. As a result of these restorations - 1300 brick houses are listed - the Lüneburg old town is a tourist attraction; important parts of the economy are geared towards tourism.

As part of the Bundeswehr reform, two of the city's three Bundeswehr barracks have been closed since 1990 and the remaining one has been reduced in size. In addition, the Federal Border Guard barracks, which are partly used by the state riot police of Lower Saxony (4th deployment hun- dred), were closed. The Lünepark is being built on the site of the former Federal Border Guard barracks with new commercial space for start-ups. Business development and many companies from the IT sector have already settled here. Nearby, the Johannes Westphal Bridge was opened to traffic in May 2006. This connects the newly created Lünepark with the Goseburg district on the other side of the Ilmenau.

The University of Lüneburg was moved to the site of the former Scharnhorst barracks. The University of Lüneburg developed from the University of Education (PH), which in 1978 was converted into an independent academic university with the right to qualify as a professor and renamed "University of Lüneburg" in May 1989. Since moving to the former barracks, the university has attracted more and more students. The expansion of the university is an important contribution to the restructuring of the city into a service center.

 

As a result of the regional reform of 1972, Lüneburg lost its status as an independent city and was incorporated into the Lüneburg district. On October 5, 2007, the name was changed from the city of Lüneburg to the Hanseatic city of Lüneburg and thus the only Hanseatic city in Lower Saxony alongside Stade.

On September 23, 2008, the city received the title “Place of Diversity” awarded by the federal government.

Incorporations
1943: Hagen and Lüne
1974 (March 1): Häcklingen, Ochtmissen, Oedeme and Rettmer as well as parts of Alt-Hagen and Pflegerdorf / Gut Wienebüttel
1974 (April 1): Ebensberg and Olm parts of the municipality of Adendorf

Population development
Lüneburg already had around 14,000 inhabitants in the late Middle Ages and at the beginning of the modern era, making it one of the major cities of that time. With the economic decline, the population fell to 9,400 by 1757, and rose to 10,400 by 1813. With the onset of industrialization in the 19th century, population growth accelerated. In 1855 only 13,000 people lived in the city, by 1939 there were already 35,000. Shortly after the Second World War, refugees and displaced persons from the German eastern areas brought the city an increase of 18,000 people to 53,000 inhabitants in December 1945. In 2003, the population of the city exceeded the limit of 70,000. The city of Lüneburg as well as its district and the neighboring district of Harburg are among the few areas in Germany that are characterized by strong population growth. Reasons for this include the growth in and population shifts to the outskirts of the Hamburg city region. The Lower Saxony State Office for Statistics has predicted a population of 89,484 for the city of Lüneburg by 2021.

On December 31, 2015, the official population for Lüneburg was 74,072 according to an update by the Lower Saxony State Office for Statistics (only main residences and after comparison with the other state offices) - a historic high. Furthermore, Lüneburg has particularly close relationships with the immediately neighboring communities that are growing together with the core city, with which it forms an agglomeration. With the towns of Adendorf, Bardowick, Deutsch Evern and Reppenstedt as well as Vögelsen and Wendisch Evern, the city has a population of around 108,000 and, together with these localities, would have the population required for a large city. Lüneburg is currently the eleventh largest city in Lower Saxony.

The following overview shows the population figures according to the respective territorial status. Up to 1813 it is mostly an estimate, then census results (1) or official updates from the State Statistical Office. From 1871 the information relates to the “local population”, from 1925 to the resident population and since 1987 to the “population at the place of the main residence”. Before 1871, the number of inhabitants was determined according to inconsistent survey procedures.

 

 

Geographical location

Lüneburg lies on the lower reaches of the Ilmenau, about 30 km before its confluence with the Elbe. The Lüneburg Heath stretches to the south and west, an area of ​​around 7,400 km², which has been deforested since the Neolithic Age through slash-and-burn and overgrazing of the formerly widespread forests on barren sandy soils and large amounts of wood being felled. The often quoted statement that the heather was created by logging for the operation of the Lüneburg salt works is historically not confirmed. Lüneburg's old town is also located above a salt dome, which established the city's wealth and whose plaster cap, the Kalkberg, also represented an excellent building site for the refuge that gave Lüneburg its name.

City structure
The formula Mons, Pons, Fons ('mountain, bridge, source') characterizes the development of the city since the 8th century through the merging of initially three and later four settlement areas. These were the refuge on the Kalkberg - at that time still much higher - with the adjacent branch (Marktviertel), the village of Modestorpe between the bridge over the Ilmenau and the large square Am Sande (Sandviertel) as well as the saltworks with the closed settlement of the workers employed there (Sülzviertel). It was not until the 13th century that the harbor settlement (water district) was formed between Marktplatz and Ilmenau. The shape of the city that emerged from this persisted until the urban area was expanded in the late 19th century and is still clearly recognizable. Lüneburg's six historical city gates were the Altenbrücker Tor, the Bardowicker Tor, the Rote Tor, the Sülztor, the Lüner Tor and the Neue Tor.

Districts
Lüneburg is divided into the districts of Altstadt, Bockelsberg, Goseburg-Zeltberg, Kaltenmoor, Kreideberg, Lüne-Moorfeld, Mittelfeld, Neu Hagen, Rotes Feld, Schützenplatz, Weststadt and Wilschenbruch as well as the villages of Ebensberg, Häcklingen, Ochtmissen, Oedeme and Rettmer.

Jüttkenmoor, Klosterkamp, ​​Bülows Kamp, In den Kämpen, Krähornsberg, Schäferfeld, Volgershall, Hanseviertel, Ilmenaugarten and Zeltberg are names for individual building areas within a district or a town.

The subsidence area
The historic quarter between the Lüneburg Saltworks (German Salt Museum) and the Kalkberg is a special feature. The houses in this area are located above the salt dome, which is drawn off by the groundwater. This gradually lowered the surface of the earth above the salt dome. After intensification through increased pumping of brine from the middle of the 19th century, the reduction reached 3–5 cm / year (today up to 3 mm) in changing places. The "subsidence area" was created. Houses and churches on the edge of this area lost their stability and had to be torn down (the Marienkirche in 1818 and the Lambertikirche in 1861). The lowering and, above all, the unprofitable salt production were the reasons for the closure of the salt works in 1980. Only small amounts of brine are now being promoted for the spa operation in the Salztherme Lüneburg (SaLü). The saltworks building houses the German Salt Museum and a supermarket.

The subsidence has been monitored at around 240 measuring points every two years since 1946. The subsidence has not stopped, the site has been rebuilt and some historic buildings that have been saved have now been restored. The subsidence can still be seen clearly. Visitors who walk from Am Sande to the end of Grapengießerstraße can guess the extent of the subsidence. The depression in front of them used to be level with Grapengießerstrasse.

Further evidence of the earth's movements can be seen in Frommestrasse: the “Gate to the Underworld”, two iron gate wings that have pushed one over the other. Because of the subsidence, two houses in this area were again demolished in 2012. The gate to the underworld was damaged during the demolition work on the row of houses and was rebuilt in 2014. In the center of the subsidence, the area sagged by 78.5 centimeters from 2010 to 2014. The rate of subsidence has been slowing since 2014. Nevertheless, a house in Egersdorffstrasse had to be demolished in 2016, which became unstable overnight due to sudden earth movements.

The consequences of the subsidence can also be seen at Michaeliskirche, on crooked columns and in the tower hall. Further earth movements can currently be observed on the Ochtmisser Kirchsteig.