Lüneburg
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| Lüneburg | |
| Coat of arms | Location |
 |
  |
| Administration | |
| Country |  Germany |
|---|---|
| State | Lower Saxony |
| District | Lüneburg |
| Town subdivisions | 24 districts |
| Lord Mayor | Ulrich Mädge (SPD) |
| Basic statistics | |
| Area | 70.34 km² (27.2 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 17 m (56 ft) |
| Population | 72,057 (31/12/2006) |
| - Density | 1,024 /km² (2,653 /sq mi) |
| Other information | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) |
| Licence plate | LG |
| Postal codes | 21335–21337–21339 |
| Area code | 04131 |
| Website | www.lueneburg.de |
Lüneburg, also known as Lueneburg and Lunenburg in English, is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, about 45 km southeast of Hamburg. It is the capital of the district of Lüneburg. The city's metropolitan population, including that of surrounding communes like Adendorf, Bardowick and Reppenstedt, is 102,660.
Contents |
[edit] Geography
The Ilmenau River, a tributary of the Elbe, flows through Lüneburg.
[edit] History
The ancient town is probably to be identified with Leufana or Leuphana (Greek: Λευφάνα), a town listed in Ptolemy (2.10) in the north of Germany on the west of the Elbe, but this identification is not universally accepted. Lüneburg was first mentioned in 956.
In mediæval times, the town was remarkably rich due to the salt trade. There were several salterns surrounding the town. The salt was exported to the neighbouring fiefs. Along the Old Salt Route it was transported via Lauenburg to Lübeck and from there shipped to all the Baltic coasts. Lüneburg was for a long time one of the capitals of the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg; the town and its salt were major factors of power and wealth of the Hanseatic League.
After a long period of prosperity, its importance declined after 1600. The town became part of the Electorate of Hanover in 1708, the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814, and the Prussian Province of Hanover in 1866. After World War II, it became part of the new state of Lower Saxony.
The salt mine was closed in 1980, ending the thousand-year tradition of salt mining. The town gained new relevance from its university, which was founded in 1989. The deforestation of the surrounding area for the salt production created the unique landscape of the Lüneburg Heath.
The Polabian name of Lüneburg is Glain (spelled Chlein or Glein in older German reference material), propably derived from glaino (< Slavic *glina) ‘mud’, ‘clay’.
On May 23, 1945, the Nazi war criminal Heinrich Himmler committed suicide in Lüneburg after he had been captured by the British Army. He swallowed a potassium cyanide capsule before his interrogation could begin. His body is buried in a nearby forest in an unmarked location.
[edit] Twin towns
Lüneburg is twinned with:
[edit] Gallery
 Am Sande |
 Old crane and old store at the medieval Lüneburg harbour |
 Lüneburger Rathaus |
[edit] Notable people
- Fritz Heinemann
- Esther Marie Mengelkamp
- Bernhard Riemann — studied for his Abitur at the Johanneum Lüneburg
- Mike Mareen - Successful Disco artist who grew up in Lüneburg.
- J S Bach - Bach attended the Lüneburg school and sang in its choir[1][2]
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1856).
- ^ The New Bach Reader, p37
- ^ http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/luneburg.html - "Johann Sebastian and a friend Georg Erdmann turned their steps toward the north, both boys carrying all their worldly belongings in a two-hundred mile trek to Lüneburg. At the Michaelisschule their duties were to sing in the church choir on Sundays...".
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official website (German)
- Official website (English)
- Leuphana University (German)
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