| Bad Fallingbostel | |
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Bad Fallingbostel
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Location of the town of Bad Fallingbostel within Heidekreis district
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| Coordinates | |
| Administration | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Lower Saxony |
| District | Heidekreis |
| Mayor | Rainer Schmuck (member of the CDU, but ran as an independent) |
| Basic statistics | |
| Area | 63.15 km2 (24.38 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 67 m (220 ft) |
| Population | 11,404 (31 December 2010)[1] |
| - Density | 181 /km2 (468 /sq mi) |
| Other information | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) |
| Licence plate | hk |
| Postal code | 29683 |
| Area codes | 05162, 05163 |
| Website | www.badfallingbostel.de |
Bad Fallingbostel is the district town (Kreisstadt) of the Heidekreis district in the German state of Lower Saxony. Since 1976 the town has had a state-recognised Kneipp spa and has held the title of Bad since 5 August 2002. It has close ties to Walsrode, a few miles to the west. There is a British Army base in Bad Fallingbostel.
During World War II it was the site of two POW (prisoner-of-war) camps, Stalag XIB and Stalag 357, see the Fallingbostel Military Museum
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Bad Fallingbostel lies on the Böhme river in the southern part of the Lüneburg Heath between Soltau and Walsrode in the Heidmark. In the vicinity is the large military training area of Bergen-Hohne, which is utilised by the Bundeswehr and by NATO forces, as well as Fallingbostel Station, a large barracks for the British Forces in Germany.
The administrative borough of Bad Fallingbostel is also responsible for the villages of Dorfmark, Riepe, Vierde, Jettebruch and Mengebostel as well as the town itself.
| Visselhövede 17km |
Neuenkirchen 20km |
Soltau 18km |
| Walsrode 7km |
Osterheide 8km |
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| Nienburg (Weser) 48km |
Hanover 64km |
Celle 47km |
The majority of the church-going Christian residents of the town belong to the Evangelical Lutheran church. Within the borough there are two church parishes:
They are served by three pastors. Both parishes belong to the church district of Walsrode in the diocese of Lüneburg, which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover.
The Catholic Christians in Bad Fallingbostel belong to the Roman Catholic parish of St. Mary of the Holy Rosary (Sankt Maria vom heiligen Rosenkranz), which was first founded in August 2004. This brought together the hitherto independent Catholic parish of St. Mary in Bad Fallingbostel with the neighbouring parishes of St. Mary's Church in Walsrode and the Church of the Holy Spirit in Bomlitz-Benefeld as well as the Church of the Sacred Heart in Visselhövede. The parish lies in the church district of Verden in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim.
In 1963 Bad Fallingbostel adopted the town of Rummelsburg (Polish: Miastko) in Pomerania, Poland. Every two years they meet in Bad Fallingbostel.
Bad Fallingbostel is twinned today with the Polish town of Miastko (formerly Rummelsburg - see above) in the Pomeranian Voivodeship and with the French town of Périers in Basse-Normandie.
A merger of Bad Fallingbostel with the town of Walsrode and the municipality of Bomlitz was planned for 2011 to create the town of Böhmetal. Following a referendum on 2 November 2008 this plan was rejected by the citizens in Bad Fallingbostel with a clear majority. Just under 62% of the voters turned out, of whom 80% were against the merger.[2] In Walsrode and Bomlitz a small majority were in favour of a merger (56.4 % in Bomlitz and 53.8% in Walsrode). On 10 November 2008 the town council of Bad Fallingbostel voted against the merger.
Bad Fallingbostel is host to the museum of the Archaeological Working Group (Archäologischen Arbeitsgemeinschaft). In the Osterberg Megalith Park large stones are displayed, which were transported from Scandinavia during the ice ages to the region around Bad Fallingbostel.
Other archaeological sights include the Sieben Steinhäuser, a prehistoric burial site with five dolmens, which is around 5,000 years old. There are located on the Bergen-Hohne Training Area (near Ostenholz). There is also a Bronze Age burial site near the village of Vierde.
Also worth seeing are:
Bad Fallingbostel has two railway stations - Bad Fallingbostel and Dorfmark - on the Heath Railway from Hanover to Soltau.
Bad Fallingbostel lies on the A 7 motorway between the Walsrode three-way intersection and the Maschener Kreuz four-way intersection.
Between 1997 and 2002 demoparties for the computing world took place in Bad Fallingbostel under the name of Mekka & Symposium.
In the film 23 – Nichts ist so wie es scheint (23 - Nothing Is As It Seems) the two lead characters are thrown out of the train at "Fallingbostel" station by the guard because they are taking drugs. However, Fallingbostel has neither overhead catenary, as depicted in the film, nor have Intercity trains stopped here. From a kilometre sign that appears briefly in the scene, it was discovered that the station used in the film was the one at Neustadt am Rübenberge, whose station nameboards were swapped for the film shoot.
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