Leinefelde-Worbis () is a town in the district of

Eichsfeld The Eichsfeld ( or ; 'Oak-field') is a historical region in the southeast of the state of Lower Saxony (which is called , 'lower Eichsfeld') and northwest of the state of Thuringia (, 'upper Eichsfeld') in the south of the Harz mountains in Germany ...

, in northwestern

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

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 ...

. The town was formed on March 16, 2004, from the former independent towns Leinefelde and Worbis along with the municipalities of Breitenbach and Wintzingerode. In July 2018 the former municipality of Hundeshagen, and in January 2019 Kallmerode was merged into Leinefelde-Worbis. The population before the amalgamation was 14,387 for Leinefelde, 5,541 for Worbis, 1,021 for Breitenbach and 614 for Wintzingerode. The 10 parts of Leinefelde-Worbis are Leinefelde, Worbis, Breitenbach, Kirchohmfeld, Birkungen, Beuren, Hundeshagen, Kaltohmfeld, Wintzingrode, Kallmerode and Breitenholz.

Climate

Transport

Leinefelde station is located on the Halle–Hann. Münden and the Gotha–Leinefelde railways.

Bear sanctuary

Since 1997 Worbis has become known for its bear sanctuary, the Alternativer Bärenpark Worbis, which is operated by the German animal welfare organisation ''Stiftung für Bären – Wildtier- und Artenschutz''.Transparenz
Stiftung für Bären.

Museums

The Borderland Museum Eichsfeld, a

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

history museum located only a few miles away from Leinefelde-Worbis, presents different topics of the history of the German division and the GDR on an area of 1,000 squaremetres. The exhibition is displayed in both German and English.

People

Leinefelde is the birthplace of

Johann Carl Fuhlrott Johann Carl Fuhlrott (31 December 1803, Leinefelde, Germany – 17 October 1877, Wuppertal) was an early German paleoanthropologist. He is famous for recognizing the significance of the bones of Neanderthal 1, a Neanderthal specimen discovered ...

, the discoverer of

Neanderthal man Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. Neanderthal extinction ...

. It is also the birthplace of Johannes Krause, who determined the

Denisovan The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thousand years ago. D ...

are a distinct line of ''Homo'' distinct from modern humans and Neanderthals. Fuhlrott and Krause, born nearly 180 years apart, were also professors at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

. Worbis is the birthplace of

Bernard Quaritch Bernard Alexander Christian Quaritch ( ; April 23, 1819 – December 17, 1899) was a German-born British bookseller and collector. The company established by Bernard Quaritch in 1847 lives on in London as Bernard Quaritch Ltd, dealing in rare ...

(1819-1899), the London second-hand bookseller and publisher, and of Barbara Saß-Viehweger (born 1943), a German politician, lawyer and civil law notary.

References

Eichsfeld (district) {{eichsfeld-geo-stub