Lohheide () is an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in the district of Celle, 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 covers an area of and has 764 inhabitants (as at 31 December 2006). Together with administrative area of

Osterheide Osterheide () is an unincorporated area in the district of Heidekreis, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The area has 2,463 inhabitants (as at 31 December 2020). Its administrative seat is the village of Oerbke; other villages are Ostenholz and Wense. T ...

it is part of the Bergen-Hohne Military Training Area.

History

In 1935 the German armed forces, the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

, established the military training area of Bergen between

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

and

Fallingbostel Bad Fallingbostel (Northern Low Saxon: ''Bad Fambossel'') is the district town (''Kreisstadt'') of the Heidekreis, Heidekreis district in the Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Since 1976 the town has had a state-recognised Kneipp spa and ha ...

. A total of 24 villages were evacuated and their inhabitants relocated. In 1938 the Bergen Area Estate (''Gutsbezirk Platz Bergen'') was created to administer the training area and it was subordinated to Fallingbostel district. In 1945 the ''Gutsbezirk'' was split into two independent areas, known as the Osterheide and Lohheide Estates. Osterheide remained part of Fallingbostel district, whilst Lohheide was re-subordinated again to Celle district. Today Lohheide lies within the NATO Bergen-Hohne firing ranges in Soltau-Fallingbostel district which were established in 1958.

Legal status

According to § 16 of the Lower Saxony Municipality Regulations (NGO) the management of unincorporated or unparished areas is to be governed by a regulation. The extant version of this regulation was issued on 4 December 1996. This states that "the delivery of public services for the area's sphere of activity is the responsibility of the land owner" which in the case of Lohheide and Osterheide, is the Federal Government. The constitution of an unincorporated area is different from that of municipality. Its instruments are the district principal (''Bezirksvorsteher'') and a council of elected representatives of the inhabitants. The mayor is proposed by the land owners and then elected by the council. The participation rights of the inhabitants are limited to the election of representatives as well as the opportunity to ask questions and listen to the public proceedings of the council.

Cultural monuments and places of interest

The following places of interest may be found in Lohheide: * '' Schloss Bredebeck'' on the Liethbach stream (part of Hohne camp), * the

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen (), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, ...

visitors' centre and memorial site, * the cemetery for the victims of tyranny in Hohne camp, * the German war cemeteryNames of the fallen buried in Lohheide war cemetery
/ref> und * the monument to Colonel-General Werner Freiherr von Fritsch, * near Hörsten, the Soviet war cemetery

References

External links

Infosite of Lohheide
{{authority control Celle (district) Unincorporated areas of Germany