Liebenburg is a municipality in the district of Goslar, 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 ...

Geography

The municipal area is situated north of the

Harz The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' der ...

mountain range, within the eastern

Salzgitter Hills The Salzgitter Hills (, also ''Salzgitterscher Höhenzug'') is an area of upland up to in height, in the Lower Saxon Hills between Salzgitter and Goslar in the districts of Landkreis Wolfenbüttel, Wolfenbüttel and Landkreis Goslar, Goslar and i ...

of the Innerste Uplands. It borders on the district capital

Goslar Goslar (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Goslar (district), district of Goslar and is located on the northwestern wikt:slope, slopes of the Harz ...

, approx. in the south; the adjacent municipalities in the north are

Salzgitter-Bad With a population of about 20,000, Salzgitter-Bad is the second biggest quarter of the German city Salzgitter in Lower Saxony. Salzgitter's name derives from it; the quarter is regarded as the historical and cultural centre of Salzgitter. History ...

and

Schladen Schladen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2013, it is part of the municipality Schladen-Werla. It is situated on the river Oker, approx. 15 km south of Wolfen ...

Wolfenbüttel District Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel (district), Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the lar ...

Subdivisions

The municipality comprises Liebenburg proper (with 2,140 inhabitants) and the following nine villages, which were incorporated on 1 July 1972 with the following population as of 30 June 2018: * Dörnten (1,189 inhabitants) with Kunigunde * Groß Döhren (872) * Heißum (301) * Klein Döhren (420) * Klein Mahner (333) * Neuenkirchen (206) * Ostharingen (246) * Othfresen (1,902) with Heimerode and Posthof * Upen (317)

History

Archaeological excavations of a

gallery grave A gallery grave is a form of megalithic tomb built primarily during the Neolithic Age in Europe in which the main gallery of the tomb is entered without first passing through an antechamber or hallway. There are at least four major types of gal ...

indicate a settlement of the area in the Late

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 ...

. The former

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

estates in 1235 belonged to the territory of the newly established

Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim The Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim () was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire from the Middle Ages until its dissolution in 1803. The Prince-Bishopric must not be confused with the Diocese of Hildesheim, which was larger a ...

. From 1292 to 1302, Prince-bishop

Siegfried II of Querfurt Siegfried II of Querfurt (mid 13th century – 5 May 1310) was the Prince-Bishop of Hildesheim from 1279 to 1310. Biography Siegfried was born to a noble family from the city Querfurt (which now belongs to Saxony-Anhalt). He was head of the chap ...

had the ''Levenborch''

spur castle A spur castle is a type of medieval fortification that is sited on a spur (mountain), spur of a hill or mountain for defensive purposes. Ideally, it would be protected on three sides by steep hillsides; the only vulnerable side being that where t ...

erected in the

, near where his episcopal lands bordered on 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 ...

. From 1366 it was pawned by his successors to the citizens of

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

, important to secure the trade route to the Imperial City of Goslar. The castle was seized by the warlike duke Henry V of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel 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- ...

in 1523 and temporarily served as hidden residence of his mistress Eva von Trott. The Catholic duke in turn lost it to the Protestant

Schmalkaldic League The Schmalkaldic League (; ; or ) was a military alliance of Lutheranism, Lutheran Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, principalities and cities within the Holy Roman Empire during the mid-16th century. It received its name from the town of Schm ...

, whose troops campaigned the Brunswick lands from 1542 until their final defeat in the 1547

Battle of Mühlberg The Battle of Mühlberg took place near Mühlberg in the Electorate of Saxony in 1547, during the Schmalkaldic War. The Catholic princes of the Holy Roman Empire led by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V decisively defeated the Lutheran Schmal ...

. 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 ...

, the stronghold was used as headquarters by the Imperial Generalissimo

Albrecht von Wallenstein Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland (; 24 September 1583 – 25 February 1634), also von Waldstein (), was a Bohemian military leader and statesman who fought on the Catholic side during the Thirty Years' War (1618–16 ...

in 1625, it was occupied by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

troops in 1633, and reconquered by the Imperial Army in 1641. By a 1643 peace treaty with the Braunschweig dukes, the heavily damaged castle was restored to Hildesheim, while day laborers and craftsmen lived within its walls. The Hildesheim prince-bishops promoted the settlement of

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 ...

families. The castle itself was partly rebuilt in a

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

style by the order of the

Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a former Bavarian dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including the Electorate of Bavaria, the Electoral Palatinate, the Electorate of Cologne, County of Holland, Holland, County of Zeeland, ...

prince-bishop Clemens August until construction work was abandoned due to the outbreak of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

in 1756. After the bishopric was finally secularised in 1802, Liebenburg fell to the

Kingdom of Hanover 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 Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...

in 1814.

Demographics

(from 1968 on numbers of inhabitants as of 31 December)

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2011 local elections: *

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

: 11 seats * CDU: 8 * Greens: 1 *

Die Linke Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...

: 1 *

Free Voters Free Voters (, FW) is a political party in Germany. It originates as an umbrella organisation of several Free Voters Associations (), associations of people which participate in an election without having the status of a registered party. These a ...

: 1 Elections in September 2016: * SPD: 10 seats * CDU: 7 seats * AfD: 2 seats * Alliance 90/The Greens: 1 seat * FDP: 1 seat *The LEFT: 1 seat

Mayors

*Since October 2013: Alf Hesse (SPD) *1996-2013: Hubert Spaniol (SPD)

References

External links

{{Authority control Goslar (district)