Heidekreis | |
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— District — | |
Country | Germany |
State | Lower Saxony |
Capital | Bad Fallingbostel |
Government | |
• District admin. | Manfred Ostermann |
Area | |
• Total | 1,873.5 km2 (723.4 sq mi) |
Population (31 December 2010)[1] | |
• Total | 139,630 |
• Density | 74.5/km2 (193/sq mi) |
Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
• Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
Vehicle registration | HK (until 31.7.2011: SFA) |
Website | soltau-fallingbostel.de |
Heidekreis ("Heath district") is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Harburg, Lüneburg, Uelzen, Celle, Hanover, Nienburg, Verden and Rotenburg.
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Historically the region belonged to the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg and its successor states. The district was established in 1977 by merging the former districts of Soltau and Fallingbostel as Soltau-Fallingbostel (German pronunciation: [ˈzɔltaʊ falɪŋˈbɔstəl]). On 1 August 2011 it was renamed to Heidekreis.
The district includes the western half of the Lüneburg Heath (Lüneburger Heide). Since this landscape is so characteristic for the district, it calls itself "the Heath District". The capital is Bad Fallingbostel, although it has only 11,800 inhabitants and is only the fifth largest town in the district.
The coat of arms displays:
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Towns | Samtgemeinden | |
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Free municipalities |
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1seat of the Samtgemeinde; 2town |
Cultural matters are looked after by the those charged with communal cultural support within the towns and municipalities, the parishes, the banks, the Lüneburg Regional Association and private cultural initiatives.
The county is a member of the Lüneburg Regional Association (Lüneburgischer Landschaftsverband), which looks after regional, cultural-political tasks.
There are es 26 nature reserves in the county of Soltau-Fallingbostel.[2][3] The largest one (Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve) has an area of 13,222 ha in the territory of the county of Soltau-Fallingbostel, the smallest (Söhlbruch) has an area of 8 ha.[4]
There are four Jewish cemeteries in Soltau-Fallingbostel : in Ahlden, Rethem, Soltau und Walsrode.[5] There are protected cultural monuments – stone witnesses to former Jewish communities and a thriving Jewish parish live into the 1930s. The cemeteries are mainly on the edge of parishes.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Landkreis_Soltau-Fallingbostel Landkreis Soltau-Fallingbostel] at Wikimedia Commons
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