Bad Fallingbostel (

Northern Low Saxon Northern Low Saxon (in Standard German, Standard High German: ', also ', lit. ''North(ern) Low Saxon/German''; in Dutch language, Standard Dutch: ') is a subgroup of Low Saxon dialects of Low German. As such, it covers a great part of the West ...

: ''Bad Fambossel'') is the district town (''Kreisstadt'') of the Heidekreis district in the German 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 ...

. Since 1976 the town has had a state-recognised Kneipp spa and has held the title of '' Bad'' since 2002. It has close ties to Walsrode, a few miles to the west. Until 2015, there was a British Army base in Bad Fallingbostel, It also hosted Defender 2020, the largest US Army/NATO exercise since the Cold War. The town has around 11,000 inhabitants.

Geography

Location

Bad Fallingbostel lies on the Böhme river in the southern part of the

Lüneburg Heath Lüneburg Heath (, ) is a large area of heath (habitat), heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen and is ...

between Soltau and Walsrode in the Heidmark.

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. The core city is divided into the following districts: * In the west: Idingen, Am Wiethop, Am Rooksberg * In the north: Adolphsheide, Große Heide, Lehmhorst, Klint * In the east: Ober and Unter-Grünhagen * In the south: Am Weinberg, industrial areas at the highway, Pröhlsfeld, Oerbker Berg and Ost

History

Bad Fallingbostel was first mentioned as “''Vastulingeburstalle''“ in 993 and has therefore a recorded history of over 1,000 years. Originally it was a purely agricultural settlement, due to agriculture being the basis for life of the inhabitants of the old-Saxon Loingau. The name “''Vastulingeburstalle''“ means either “House of the Vastulo“ or “House of the Vastulingians“. Otto III drew the borders between the dioceses Hildesheim and Minden during that time. The ''Vogtei Fallingbostel'' (bailiwick) was established around 1300. It was later also called ''Amt Fallingbostel'' and it existed until the 19th century. In 1838 Heinrich von Quintus-Icilius, the assessor of the Vogtei, founded the “''Sparcasse für die Amtsvogtei Fallingbostel''”, one of the first rural savings banks in the

Kingdom of Hannover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and joined 38 other so ...

. In 1866 the newly Prussian province of Hannover was divided into administrative districts, one of them was the district Fallingbostel. Fallingbostel was awarded its status as a town in 1949. During World War II Fallingbostel was the site of two POW camps:

Stalag XI-B Stalag XI-B and Stalag XI-D / 357 were two German World War II prisoner-of-war camps ('' Stammlager'') located just to the east of the town of Fallingbostel in Lower Saxony, in north-western Germany. The camps housed Polish, French, Belgian, So ...

and Stalag XI-D / 357.

Demographics

Religion

The majority of the church-going Christian residents of the town belong to the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

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 In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

Lüneburg Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...

, which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover. The

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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 Visselhövede () is a town in the district of Rotenburg (district), Rotenburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. Nearby towns include the district capital Rotenburg an der Wümme, Rotenburg, Walsrode and Verden, Germany, Verden. Larger cities within a 100&n ...

. The parish lies in the church district of Verden in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim.

Government

"Adopted town"

In 1963 Bad Fallingbostel adopted the town of Miastko () in

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Every two years they meet in Bad Fallingbostel.

Town-twinning

Bad Fallingbostel is twinned today with the Polish town of Miastko (see above) and with the French town of Périers in Lower Normandy.

Proposed merger into the town of Böhmetal

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.Results of the referendum in Bad Fallingbostel (German)
/ 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.

Arts and culture

Events

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

Places of interest

* 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 Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

during the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

s to the region around Bad Fallingbostel. * other archaeological sights nearby include the '' Sieben Steinhäuser'', a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

burial site with five

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

s. They are located within the restricted military area of

Bergen-Hohne Training Area The Bergen-Hohne Training Area (German: ''NATO-Truppenübungsplatz Bergen'' or ''Schießplatz Bergen-Hohne'') is a NATO military training area in the southern part of the Lüneburg Heath, in the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It c ...

(near Ostenholz). There is also a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

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 grave of Hermann Löns 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

Infrastructure

Military installations

The town is not far from the large military training area of Bergen-Hohne, which is currently used by the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

and 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 ...

forces. This is located in the '' gemeindefreie Gebiete'' (i.e. areas not part of any civilian administrative district) known as

Osterheide Osterheide () is an unincorporated area in the district of Heidekreis, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The area has 2,463 inhabitants (as at 31 December 2020). Its administrative seat is the village of Oerbke; other villages are Ostenholz and Wense. T ...

and Lohheide. In addition, there was Fallingbostel Station, a large barracks within Bergen-Hohne Garrison, itself part of British Forces Germany. This was used by units from the 7th Armoured Brigade. Fallingbostel Station was closed in 2015 as the British Army reduces its presence in Germany ahead of a complete withdrawal by 2020—a result of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

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.

Notable people

People from the town

* (1849–1929), regional poet * (1851–1898), regional poet * (1925–1967), trade unionist and politician (SPD), MdB * (1950–2010), politician (SPD), member of the Bremen City Parliament * (born 1958), Lutheran theologian, Oberkirchenrat of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, CEO of the Social Service Agency of the Protestant Churches in Lower Saxony

People associated with the town

* (1798–1861), civil lawyer; a statue of him has been erected in Fallingbostel * Erich von Manstein (1887–1973), field marshal of the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

, laid to rest in Dorfmark near Fallingbostel * (1871–1950), German writer, an elementary school teacher and educational reformer * Hans Stuhlmacher (1892–1962), educator, Wehrmacht officer and local historian; a street was named after him in Bad Fallingbostel * Walter Schultz (1900–1957) Bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg in Schwerin during the National Socialist period and 1950-1952 Pastor in Bad Fallingbostel

References

External links

Website of the town of Bad Fallingbostel

Fallingbostel Military Museum

Information pages of the three communities about the abortive merger

Pages on the citizen's campaign "Pro-Fusion" (Pro-Merger)
{{Authority control Towns in Lower Saxony Spa towns in Germany Heidmark