Heidekreis (original) (raw)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

District in Lower Saxony, Germany

District in Lower Saxony, Germany

Heidekreis
District
Flag of HeidekreisFlagCoat of arms of HeidekreisCoat of arms
Map
Country Germany
State Lower Saxony
Capital Bad Fallingbostel
Government
• District admin. Jens Grote (Ind.)
Area
• Total 1,873.5 km2 (723.4 sq mi)
Population (31 December 2022)[1]
• Total 145,394
• Density 78/km2 (200/sq mi)
Time zone UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST) UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Vehicle registration HK (until 31.7.2011: SFA)
Website www.heidekreis.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.

Wilseder Berg in the Lüneburg Heath

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:

Towns and municipalities

[edit]

Clickable map of towns and municipalities in the district

Towns Samtgemeinden
Bad Fallingbostel Munster Schneverdingen Soltau Walsrode Free municipalities Bispingen Neuenkirchen Wietzendorf Unincorporated area Osterheide 1. Ahlden Ahlden Eickeloh Grethem Hademstorf Hodenhagen1 2. Rethem/Aller Böhme Frankenfeld Häuslingen Rethem1, 2 3. Schwarmstedt Buchholz Essel Gilten Lindwedel Schwarmstedt1
1seat of the Samtgemeinde; 2town

Culture and places of interest

[edit]

Cultural matters are looked after by those charged with communal cultural support within the towns and municipalities, the parishes, the banks, the Lüneburg Regional Association and private cultural initiatives.

Museums and collections

[edit]

Lüneburg Regional Association

[edit]

The district is a member of the Lüneburg Regional Association (Lüneburgischer Landschaftsverband), which looks after regional, cultural-political tasks.

There are 29 nature reserves in the Heidekreis.[2] The largest one (Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve) has an area of 13,222 ha in the territory of the Heidekreis, the smallest (Söhlbruch) has an area of 8 ha.[3]

There are four Jewish cemeteries in Soltau-Fallingbostel : in Ahlden, Rethem, Soltau und Walsrode.[4] 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.

  1. ^ "LSN-Online Regionaldatenbank, Tabelle A100001G: Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes, Stand 31. Dezember 2022" (in German). Landesamt für Statistik Niedersachsen.
  2. ^ "Landkreis Heidekreis, Liste der Naturschutzgebiete". NLWKN. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
  3. ^ "Steckbrief Naturschutzgebiet "Söhlbruch"". NLWKN. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
  4. ^ LANDKREIS SOLTAU-FALLINGBOSTEL. In: Jüdische Friedhöfe nach der heutigen Verwaltungsgliederung – Niedersachsen. In: Übersicht über alle Projekte zur Dokumentation jüdischer Grabinschriften auf dem Gebiet der Bundesrepublik Deutschland[_permanent dead link_‍]

Media related to Landkreis Heidekreis at Wikimedia Commons

52°55′N 9°45′E / 52.92°N 9.75°E / 52.92; 9.75