Kneitlingen is a municipality in the

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel (district), Wolfenbüttel Distri ...

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 ...

. It is part of the ''Samtgemeinde''

Elm-Asse Elm-Asse is a ''Samtgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was named after the hill ranges Elm and Asse. Its seat is in the town Schöppenstedt. It was formed on 1 January 2015 by the ...

. The most recent German census counted a population of just 853 people.

Geography

Kneitlingen is situated in

Brunswick Land Brunswick Land () is a historical region in the Southeast of the German state of Lower Saxony, centred around the city of Braunschweig. It refers to the core territory of the historic Duchy of Brunswick and its successor, the Free State of Brunswi ...

between the

Elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...

and

Asse Asse () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality located in the Belgium, Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. It comprises the towns of Asse proper, Bekkerzeel, Kobbegem, Mollem, Relegem and Zellik. Asse is also situated in the Pajottenland. ...

hill ranges. The municipality consists of the following four villages: * Ampleben * Bansleben * Eilum * Kneitlingen

History

Kneitlingen in the medieval

Duchy of Saxony The Duchy of Saxony () was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 CE and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire (Francia) by 804. Upon the 84 ...

was first mentioned in an 1135 deed issued by Emperor

Lothair III Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg ( June 1075 – 4 December 1137), was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of Germany in 1125 b ...

, whereby he granted the estates to the newly established

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

abbey of

Königslutter Königslutter am Elm is a town in the district of Helmstedt in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography It is located on the northeastern slopes of the Elm hill range, within the Elm-Lappwald Nature Park, about east of Brunswick, west of the distr ...

. The Romanesque parish church was erected by the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

about 1141; its

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

and

groin vault A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: La ...

are preserved in the original condition. From 1235 onwards, the area belonged to the

Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg The Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg (), commonly known as the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg or Brunswick-Lüneburg, was an imperial principality of the Holy Roman Empire in the territory of present day Lower Saxony. In 1235, Otto I, Duke of ...

, the lordship was enfeoffed to various local noble families. The village of Kneitlingen is known as the birthplace of the legendary trickster

Till Eulenspiegel Till Eulenspiegel (; ) is the protagonist of a European narrative tradition. A German chapbook published around 1510 is the oldest known extant publication about the folk hero (a first edition of is preserved fragmentarily), but a background i ...

. According to the tradition, he was baptised around 1300 in the chapel of nearby Ampleben Castle, whereupon the christening party proceeded to the local tavern. On the way home in the afternoon, Till's tipsy midwife, crossing a brook, slipped on the gangplank and together with the child fell into a mud puddle, baptising him for the second time. Neither the nurse nor the baby was harmed, however, Till was put into the bathtub at home, therefore baptised the third time that very day. The former robber baron castle of Ampleben was purchased by Duke Magnus I of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1355, upon its slighting the surrounding estates including the Romanesque parish church were acquired by the city of Brunswick in 1454. The citizens laid out a stone pit in the Elm range quarrying for

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

. Ampleben, Bansleben and Eilum were incorporated into the Kneitlingen municipality on 1 March 1974.

References

External links

Official site of Samtgemeinde Schöppenstedt

Ampleben private site

(Emergency Currency) Series 1 and 2. Til Eulenspiegel. http://webgerman.com/Notgeld/Directory/K/Kneitlingen.htm {{Authority control Wolfenbüttel (district)