Bodenfelde is a municipality in the district of Northeim, 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 on the right bank of the

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

, approx. 35 km north of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, and 30 km northwest of

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

at the southwest border of the

Solling-Vogler Nature Park The Solling-Vogler Nature Park () is a nature park in South Lower Saxony in Germany. It has an area of and was established in 1966. The nature park includes the hill ranges of the Solling and the Vogler but also the Burgberg which lies east ...

History

Bodenfelde was first mentioned in a document signed by

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...

in 833. In the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...

Bodenfelde was a part of the county of Dassel. Amelith, Nienover, Polier and Wahmbeck are villages nearby Bodenfelde which were incorporated in 1974. There used to be a Jewish community in Bodenfelde. With the impending oppression of the Nazi regime, they left. Having been sold to a farmer in 1937, the wooden synagogue from 1825 survived

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

when the owner defended it from vandals. In the early twenty-first century, the

half-timbered Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

building was dismantled and exactly re-constructed in nearby Göttingen, which had a Jewish community in need of a synagogue (the local one having been destroyed during Kristallnacht. In 2008, serial killer Lydia L. a.k.a. the "Black Widow" was convicted and was sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1983 to 2000, Lydia L. insinuated herself into romantic or caretaker relationships with eight elderly men, and was convicted for the murders of the last four in order to get their money, either killing them herself or ordering their killings through her accomplice, Siegmund "Siggi" Sch., who received a 12 year sentence after the court judged him to be not completely culpable, as he had acted under the threat of death and was emotionally dependent on the main perpetrator.

Notable people

* (1764-1851), physician and taxidermist * Jakob Freudenthal (1839-1907), philosopher * (1859-1942), entrepreneur * (1882-1967), Protestant pastor and head of the Birkenhof children's home in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

* (1935-2022), lawyer

References

* Herbst, Detlev, ''Jüdisches Leben im Solling – Der Synagogenverband Bodenfelde-Uslar-Lippoldsberg und die Synagogengemeinschaft Lauenförde''. Uslar 1997 * Hoffmann, Lutz et al., ''Zwischen Feld und Fabrik: Arbeiteralltag auf dem Dorf von der Jahrhundertwende bis heute; die Sozialgeschichte des Chemiewerkes Bodenfelde 1896 bis 1986''. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 1986 * Junge, Walter, ''Chronik des Fleckens Bodenfelde – Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart''. Bodenfelde 1983 * Junge, Walter and Thomas Thiele, ''Flecken Bodenfelde mit seinen Ortschaften Bodenfelde, Nienhover und Wahmbeck – Vorgestern, gestern und heute''. Geiger, Horb am Neckar 1987 * Rock, Balzer, ''Die Ortsgeschichte von Bodenfelde''. Buchdruckerei Klapproth, Uslar 1940 Northeim (district) Holocaust locations in Germany {{Northeim-geo-stub