Kreiensen is a village and a former 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 ...

. Since 1 January 2013, it is part of the town

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 ...

Geography

Kreiensen is situated on the river

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 ...

, approx. north of

Northeim Northeim (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, seat of the Northeim (district), district of Northeim, with a population of 30,118 as of 31 December 2023. It lies on the German Half-Timbered House Road. History Northeim is first mentioned in ...

, and south 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 lies in southern

Niedersachsen 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 ...

in the foothills 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 ...

and

Solling The Solling () is a range of hills up to high in the Weser Uplands in the German state of Lower Saxony, whose extreme southerly foothills extend into Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. Inside Lower Saxony it is the second largest range of hill ...

Mountains. On the north are the heights of the Helleberg, on the southwest the Hube, and on the northwest the Selter. The Gande, a northeastern tributary of the Leine, flows through the center of Kreiensen.

Religion

The

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church building stems from 1967. The

evangelical 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 was built in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in 1935 as one of a few examples of those times.

Transport

Kreiensen railway station is known as a railroad hub with five lines interchanging. In 1865, Altenbeken–Kreiensen railway was connected with Hanoverian Southern Railway that already existed. One year thereafter, Vienenburg–Goslar railway was connected. Between 1886 and 1889 a railway station building was constructed. Construction plans stemmed from Hubert Stier, then professor at the Royal College of Technology in

Hannover 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 ...

. It is a brick building. Its outside walls are covered with clay tiles in ochre colour. Some spots are ornamented with terracotta reliefs. Remarkable reliefs are a

Brunswick Lion The ''Brunswick Lion'' () is a Middle Ages, medieval sculpture, created in bronze between 1164 and 1176, and the best-known landmark in the Germany, German city of Braunschweig, Brunswick. The ''Brunswick Lion'' was originally located on the Bur ...

and an

eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

which represented

Coat of arms of Prussia The state of Prussia developed from the State of the Teutonic Order. The original flag of the Teutonic Knights had been a black cross on a white flag. Emperor Frederick II in 1229 granted them the right to use the black Eagle of the Holy Roman E ...

. These two reliefs refer to the fact that in those days one railway line belonged to the

Duchy of Brunswick The Duchy of Brunswick () was a historical German state that ceased to exist in 1918. Its capital city, capital was the city of Braunschweig, Brunswick (). It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel ...

whereas the other belonged to the

Province of Hanover The Province of Hanover () was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1866 to 1946. During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, alo ...

, both interconnecting in Kreiensen. In 2016,

DB Station&Service DB Station&Service was a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, responsible for managing over 5,400 train stations on the German railway network. On 1 January 2024, it merged with DB Netz to form DB InfraGO.Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

, NordWestBahn and

Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft The Metronom railway company () is a German partly-state-owned railway company based in the Lower Saxon town of Uelzen since December 2005. The company's activities focus exclusively on passenger transport, operating services from Hamburg to Br ...

Economy

For most of the 20th century, Kreiensen also served as an important logistic center for the Federal German Mail (

Deutsche Bundespost The (, ) was a German state-run postal service and telecommunications business founded in 1947. It was initially the second largest federal employer during its time. After staff reductions in the 1980s, the staff was reduced to roughly 543,20 ...

). When the latter was privatized and the new

Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway The Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway is a double-track, electrified high-speed railway between Hanover and Würzburg in Germany, in length. The line, built between 1973 and 1991, was the longest contiguous new project constructed by Deuts ...

was opened in 1991, Kreiensen quickly lost a number of jobs in both sectors.

References

Former municipalities in Lower Saxony Einbeck Duchy of Brunswick Populated places disestablished in 2013 {{Northeim-geo-stub