Bad Fallingbostel

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Bad Fallingbostel

Coat of arms
Bad Fallingbostel
Coordinates: 52°52′03″N 09°41′48″E / 52.86750°N 9.69667°E / 52.86750; 9.69667Coordinates: 52°52′03″N 09°41′48″E / 52.86750°N 9.69667°E / 52.86750; 9.69667
Country Germany
State Lower Saxony
District Heidekreis
Government
 • Mayor Rainer Schmuck (member of the CDU, but ran as an independent)
Area
 • Total 63.15 km2 (24.38 sq mi)
Elevation 67 m (220 ft)
Population (2012-12-31)[1]
 • Total 10,826
 • Density 170/km2 (440/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 29683
Dialling codes 05162, 05163
Vehicle registration hk
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.

Geography

Location

Bad Fallingbostel lies on the Böhme river in the southern part of the Lüneburg Heath between Soltau and Walsrode in the Heidmark.

Military installations

The town is not far from the large military training area of Bergen-Hohne, which is currently used by the Bundeswehr and by NATO forces. This is located in the gemeindefreies Gebiet (i.e. it is not part of any civilian administrative district) called "Osterheide". In addition, there is Fallingbostel Station, a large barracks for the British Forces in Germany. This is currently used by units from the 7th Armoured Brigade. Fallingbostel Station is likely to be closed by the end of 2015 as the British Army is reducing its presence in Germany ahead of a complete withdrawal by 2020—a result of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Sub-divisions

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.

Nearby towns and cities

Visselhövede
17km		 Neuenkirchen
20km		 Soltau
18km
Walsrode
7km		 Osterheide
8km
Nienburg (Weser)
48km		 Hanover
64km		 Celle
47km

History

During World War II Fallingbostel was the site of two POW (prisoner-of-war) camps, Stalag XI-B and Stalag XI-D / 357.[2]

Religion

Protestant church

The majority of the church-going Christian residents of the town belong to the Lutheran church. Within the borough there are two church parishes:

  • Fallingbostel parish: the Church of St. Dionysius with 5,598 parishioners and the Peace Church (Friedenskirche) in Bommelsen (municipality of Bomlitz) with 625 members
  • Dorfmark parish: St. Martin's Church with 2,848 members

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 Church of Hanover.

Roman Catholic church

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 founded in August 2004. This merged 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.

Politics

"Adopted town"

In 1963 Bad Fallingbostel adopted the town of Miastko (German: Rummelsburg) in Pomerania, Poland. Every two years they meet in Bad Fallingbostel.

Twin-towns

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.

Proposed merger into the town of Böhmetal

The Böhme valley in the Lieth

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.[3] 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.

Culture and places of interest

Memorial to Heinrich von Quintus Icilius (1864)
The Hof der Heidmark in an old Low German farmhouse
  • 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 nearby include the Sieben Steinhäuser, a prehistoric burial site with five dolmens, which is around 5,000 years old. They are located within the restricted military area of Bergen-Hohne Training Area (near Ostenholz). There is also a Bronze Age burial site near the village of Vierde.
  • the spa park (Kurpark)
  • the Hof der Heidmark with its Rummelsburg homestead, a Low German house in the Liethwald wood
  • the Protestant Church of St. Dionysius in the town centre
  • the Quintus Memorial at St. Dionysius' Church
  • the Protestant St. Martin's Church in Dorfmark
  • the village well in Dorfmark
  • the Hermann Löns grave in the Tietling juniper grove (Wacholderhain), which may or may not contain the actual remains of the writer
  • the grave of Erich von Manstein, one of the most prominent military commanders of Nazi-Germany, in Dorfmark

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

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.

Personalities

People from the town

  • Friedrich Freudenthal (1849–1929), regional poet
  • August Freudenthal (1851–1898), regional poet
  • Helmut Schlüter (1925–1967), trade unionist and politician (SPD), MdB

People associated with the town

  • Heinrich von Quintus-Icilius (1798–1861), civil lawyer; a statue of him has been erected in Fallingbostel
  • Erich von Manstein (1878–1973), field marshal of the Wehrmacht, laid to rest in Dorfmark near Fallingbostel

Events

Between 1997 and 2002 demoparties for the computing world took place in Bad Fallingbostel under the name of Mekka & Symposium.

Depiction on film

In the film 23 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.

References

  1. ↑ Landesbetrieb für Statistik und Kommunikationstechnologie Niedersachsen, Fortgeschriebene Einwohnerzahlen zum 31. Dezember 2012
  2. ↑ "Stalag XI B / 357". Fallingbostel Military Museum. Retrieved 12 May 2013. 
  3. ↑ Results of the referendum in Bad Fallingbostel (German)/

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Bad Fallingbostel.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bad Fallingbostel.
Towns and municipalities in Heidekreis
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