Aerzen is a municipality in the

Hamelin-Pyrmont Hameln-Pyrmont is a district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Schaumburg, Hanover, Hildesheim and Holzminden, and by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (district of Lippe ...

district, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is situated southwest of

Hamelin Hameln ( ; ) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hameln-Pyrmont and has a population of roughly 57,000. Hamelin is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. History Hameln ...

, and north of

Bad Pyrmont Bad Pyrmont (, also: ; West Low German: ) is a town in the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont, in Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population close to 19,000. It is located on the river Emmer (Weser), Emmer, about west of the Weser. Bad Pyrmont is a popul ...

Economy

One of the biggest employers in the region is Aerzener Maschinenfabrik GmbH., a manufacturer of blowers and compressors. As of April 2008, they had an estimated 1000 employees.

Architecture

Burg Aerzen, a castle built in the 16th century, was transformed into a cultural centre. Schloß Schwöbber is a castle built 1574-1578. The southern aisle was added in 1588, and the northern aisle was built in 1604. A part of the castle burnt down in 1908 and was rebuilt in 1922. St. Mary's Church, an

aisleless church An aisleless church () is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways on either side of the nave and separated from the nave by col ...

originally built in 1143, burnt down during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

in 1642 and was rebuilt in 1643. In Reher, a village which was incorporated into Aerzen in 1973, St. John's Chapel is worth a visit. It was founded around 1100, built in a romanic style with a

ridge turret A ridge turret is a turret or small tower constructed over the ridge or apex between two or more sloping roofs of a building. It is usually built either as an architectural ornament for purely decorative purposes or else for the practical housing ...

covered with slabs of slate and two

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es and enlarged in 1580. Its gothic

winged altarpiece A winged altarpiece (also ''folding altar'') or winged retable is a special form of altarpiece (reredos, occasionally retable), common in Northern and Central Europe, in which the central image, either a painting or relief sculpture (or some com ...

dating from 1465 was restored in 1880 and from 1967-1973.G. Ulrich Großmann: ''Hannover und Südniedersachsen'', p. 288. Cologne 1999 In the middle of Reher various well-preserved half-timbered houses can be visited, e.g. in "Förde" Street. Grießem is another village which was incorporated into Aerzen in 1973. In Pyrmonter Straße, its main street, several half-timbered houses can be seen, e.g. house no. 22 dating from 1686 which was renovated in 2008.

Notable people

* Börries von Münchhausen (civil servant) (1587-1646), secret Kammerrat, mortgage holder of the Office Aerzen * Gustav Karl Wilhelm Siemens (1806-1874), member of the National Assembly in Frankfurt *

August Heissmeyer August Friedrich Heissmeyer or Heißmeyer (11 January 1897 – 16 January 1979), was a German member of the Nazi Party who rose to become an SS-''Obergruppenführer'' in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). He held several major commands, including as the ...

(1897-1979),

Obergruppenführer (, ) was a paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and adopted by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissioned SS rank after ...

and General of the

Waffen SS The (; ) was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. ...

References

Hameln-Pyrmont {{HamelinPyrmont-geo-stub