Alfeld (Leine) () is a town in the state of

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 ...

. Located on the

Leine The Leine (; Old Saxon ''Lagina'') is a river in Thuringia and Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Aller and the Weser and is long. The river's source is located close to the town of Leinefelde in Thuringia. About downriver ...

river and situated approximately 20 km southwest of

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; or ; ) is a city in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim (district), Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of t ...

, it is the second biggest city in the district of

in southern Lower Saxony and part of the

Metropolitan region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

. Alfeld is a member of the

Leinebergland region The Leine Uplands (, ) is a region in Germany's Central Uplands which forms a part of the Lower Saxon Hills and lies along the River Leine between Göttingen and Hanover. It borders on the Weser Uplands in the west, the Innerste Uplands in the n ...

and on the

German Timber-Frame Road The German Timber-Frame Road () is a German tourist route leading from the river Elbe in the north to the Black Forest and Lake Constance in the south. Numerous cities and towns each with examples of the vernacular Timber framing, timber-framed ho ...

. With the

Fagus Factory The Fagus Factory ( German: ''Fagus Fabrik'' or ''Fagus Werk''), a shoe last factory in Alfeld on the Leine, Lower Saxony, Germany, is an important example of early modern architecture. Commissioned by owner Carl Benscheidt who wanted a radical ...

, Alfeld became a

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

in 2011.

History

The town was founded before 1214, with the name ''Alvelde'' recorded in 1214, 1221, and 1233. The toponymic element "-feld" means "open area", "an undeveloped, open field", or "an untilled field". "Al-" likely derives from the Indoeuropean root "el-/ol-" meaning "water", "damp", or "flowing". In 1426, Alfeld joined the Saxon League of Towns, thus becoming an indirect member of the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

. The town was one of the smallest cities in the

, but had become prosperous in the fourteenth and fifteenth century through its trade in beer, hops, linen, and yarn. Alfeld originally belonged to the

Diocese of Hildesheim The Diocese of Hildesheim () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. Founded in 815 as a missionary diocese by King Louis the Pious, his son Louis the German appointed the famous former archbishop of Rheims, Ebbo, as bishop. ...

, but was transferred to the

Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel () was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose history was characterised by numerous divisions and reunifications. It had an area of 3,828 square kilometres in the mid 17th century. Va ...

after the

Hildesheim Diocesan Feud The Hildesheim Diocesan Feud () or Great Diocesan Feud, sometimes referred to as a "chapter feud", was a conflict that broke out in 1519 between the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim ('' Hochstift Hildesheim'') and the principalities of Brunswick- ...

(1519-1523). In retrospect, this Brunswick period constituted Alfeld's Golden Age, its economy and culture flourishing before 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 ...

Main Sights

Sights in Alfeld include the town hall (1586) with its octagonal tower, the church Saint Nicolai and the Fillerturm, a medieval watchtower, and the

of 1911, a fine example of early modernist architecture by

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...

. More famous are the Seven Hills (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Sieben Berge'') in the north and the ''Lippoldshöhle'' ("Lippold's cave"), where a legendary robber-knight is said to have lived.

Culture

The assertion that the popular fairy tale of ''

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...

'' was born in Alfeld is false. Even though the miners who mined ore In the Seven Mountains believed in the existence of dwarfs, it is more likely that the cradle of the fairy tale is to be searched in France. The version the

brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...

heard and wrote down, as they travelled through the Seven Mountains, on the so-called ''Märchenstrasse'' (Street Of Fairytales) is just one of many. The most popular beer in Alfeld is

Einbecker The Einbecker Brewery (German: ''Einbecker Brauhaus'') is a brewery located in Einbeck, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded before 1378, it is one of the oldest still operating breweries in the world. The city of Einbeck is noted for its bock beer, an ...

Brauherrn, from

Einbeck Einbeck (; Eastphalian: ''Aimbeck'') is a town in the district Northeim, in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, on the German Timber-Frame Road. History Prehistory The area of the current city of Einbeck is inhabited since prehistoric times. Vario ...

, about 12 kilometers or so, away, south of Alfeld.

Veltins Brauerei C & A Veltins () is a brewery in the west German city of Meschede-Grevenstein. In 2015, Veltins ranked fourth among Germany's best selling beers. History The small guesthouse brewery of Franz Kramer opened its simple woo ...

Pilsner, Flensberger Pils and Gottinger Pils are also popular beers in Alfeld.

Economy

The biggest employer of the city is the SAPPI (South African Pulp and Paper Industry) factory with its big chimney, which has become one of Alfeld's landmarks. Even more famous than SAPPI is the Fagus Werk, rebuilt in 1910-1915 after the blueprints of architect Walter-Gropius, what is said to be trend-setting for modern architecture.

Popular culture

Alfeld is a strategically important town fought over repeatedly by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

and the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

forces in

Tom Clancy's ''Tom Clancy's'' is a branding used by video game company Ubisoft for a series of video games, most of which are based on the works of American author Tom Clancy. Various sub-series are often unrelated to each other with a few exceptions, althou ...

novel ''

Red Storm Rising ''Red Storm Rising'' is a war novel, written by Tom Clancy and Larry Bond, and released on August 7, 1986. Set in the mid-1980s, it features a Third World War between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Warsaw Pact forces, and is notab ...

'', due to the bridges over the

River.

International relations

Alfeld is twinned with: *

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

, United Kingdom

Notable people

* Augustine of Alfeld (1480–1535), Franciscan and controversial theologian *

Walter Kappe The Free Society of Teutonia was one of the earliest Nazi organizations in the United States. It was officially a German American organization, but also publicly expressed a strong support for the Nazi movement in Germany and Nazi ideology in gene ...

(1905–1944), German Nazi, who, as an emigrant in the US in the 1930s, created propaganda and committed espionage in service of Nazism * Uwe Schmidt (born 1954), German politician (SPD) and since July 2009, head of the district Kassel *

Albrecht von Goertz Count Albrecht von Goertz, also known as Albrecht Goertz (German: ''Albrecht Graf von Schlitz genannt von Goertz und von Wrisberg''; 12 January 1914 – 27 October 2006), was a German industrial designer who designed cars for BMW, including th ...

(1914–2006), German industrial designer *

Zbigniew Żedzicki Zbigniew Żedzicki (born 28 June 1945 in Alfeld) is a Polish former wrestler who competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics, in the 1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officia ...

(born 1945), Polish wrestler

References

External links

* {{Authority control Towns in Lower Saxony Hildesheim (district) Members of the Hanseatic League