Soltau () is a mid-sized town in the

Lüneburg Heath Lüneburg Heath (, ) is a large area of heath (habitat), heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen and is ...

in the district of Heidekreis, 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 has around 22,000 inhabitants. The city is centrally located in the

and is known nationwide especially for its

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity on ...

attractions like the Heide-Park and the Soltau-Therme.

Etymology

The name Soltau comes from ''Solt'' (salt) and ''au'' (meadow).

Geography

Location

Soltau lies between

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and

Hanover 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 ...

in the

on the rivers Soltau and Böhme.

Subdivisions

The municipality of Soltau has 16 '' Stadtteile'' (population in brackets as at 1 July 2003): # Ahlften (513) # Brock (158) # Deimern (198) # Dittmern (783) # Harber (1,291) # Hötzingen (332) # Leitzingen (62) # Marbostel (112) # Meinern (320) # Mittelstendorf (160) # Moide (39) # Oeningen (149) # Tetendorf (202) #

Wiedingen Wiedingen is a village in the borough of Soltau in the district of Landkreis Soltau-Fallingbostel, Soltau-Fallingbostel in the German state of Lower Saxony. The village has 142 inhabitants (as at: 2003Quelle: http://www.soltau.de/dokumente/36227/KE ...

(142) # Woltem (307) # Wolterdingen (1,012)

Climate

Klimadiagramm-Soltau-Deutschland-metrisch-deutsch

History

Middle Ages

The region of the

had already been settled by the start of the New Stone Age about 4,000 years ago. The Soltau area was initially occupied by a few individual farms. The parish of Soltau was probably founded around 830 and the first wooden church ''Sante Johannis Baptista'' (St. John the Baptist) was built. The first written record of Soltau was in the year 936 as ''Curtis Salta'' ("farm on the salt meadow").

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Otto the Great Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), known as Otto the Great ( ) or Otto of Saxony ( ), was East Frankish ( German) king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the eldest son of Henry the Fowler and Matilda ...

granted the estate to

Quedlinburg Abbey Quedlinburg Abbey ( or ) is a former abbey of secular canonesses ''( Frauenstift)'' in Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was founded in 936 on the initiative of Saint Matilda, the widow of the East Frankish King Henry the Fowler, as h ...

. Within a span of almost 600 years the village of ''Soltouwe'' emerged from ''Curtis Salta''. It was located in the area between St. John's Church and the Waldmühle mill. In 1304 the ''

Vogt An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...

ei'' of Soltau was sold to the

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

of Verden. Between 1383 and 1388 the village was established by order of the duke as protection against robber barons at the confluence of the rivers Böhme and Soltau near Hagen and Burg, which today is in the town centre. Subsequently, it was decided to demolish the castle there as part of the peace treaty at the end of the Lüneburg War of Succession; at the same time Soltau was given

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

on 15 July 1388 by way of compensation. In 1400 the

letters patent Letters patent (plurale tantum, plural form for singular and plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, President (government title), president or other head of state, generally granti ...

for the

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

was issued, which entitled the town to trade. In 1440 another letters patent was specifically conferred on

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

cobbler Cobbler(s) may refer to: *A person who repairs shoes * Cobbler (food), a type of pie Places * The Cobbler, a mountain located near the head of Loch Long in Scotland * Mount Cobbler, Australia Art, entertainment and media * ''The Cobbler' ...

s, linen and cloth-makers. The consequences of the war of succession in Soltau can clearly be traced and prevented the rapid growth of the new town; conditions were miserable and many farms were ruined. Moreover, Soltau was a long way from the centres of power, so did not receive much direct support and there were no local lords who felt an association with it. In 1479 Soltau became part of 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 ...

and an '' Amtsvogtei'' was established. In 1511 the town was totally destroyed by fire. The last known

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

battle took place in June 1519 on the 'Wiehe Holt' near Soltau and is known as the Battle of Soltau, which represented the high point of the Hildesheim Abbey Feud. According to long tradition it was only thanks to a ruse by the Soltau townsman, Harm Tyding, who pretended to the advancing Brunswick troops that he knew the whereabouts of a large Lüneburg army and led them on a detour, that the town was not destroyed again. The

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

saw little conflict in Soltau as a result of the firm stand taken by the Lüneburg duke, Ernest I and his commitment to introducing the Protestant-Lutheran faith in 1527.

Modern era

In 1533 the town hall was established in an old chapel in ''Marktstraße'' but it was destroyed in a fire. In 1567 another great fire destroyed large parts of the town. In 1588 the first school building was erected, although the first records of school teaching go back to as early as 1563. The plague raged in 1626 and the population dwindled dramatically. Before 1620 there were several years of legal disputes about the acquisition of building land outside the town wall. In 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 ...

Soltau was once again entirely destroyed. All that remained was a great ruin in the landscape and only one building from that time remains. It was a long time before the town recovered from the war's consequences. The traces of the war and the area's occupation by Swedish troops, which began in 1632, is still documented today by the ''Ellinger Grenzstein'' ("Ellingen Boundary Stone").

Market rights A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

and therefore the right to host two fairs a year and a horse market were conferred in 1668. The Old Town Pharmacy (''Alte Stadtapotheke'') was opened in 1796, the first

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

in Soltau. Soltau first became a

garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

town in 1712, a year when the first cloth factory was built. Napoleonic troops occupied the town in 1803 and turned it into a French border town for the

Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a client state of First French Empire, France in present-day Germany that existed from 1807 to 1813. While formally independent, it was ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte. It was named after Westphalia, ...

in 1810. Soltau belonged to the Canton of Harburg in the Department of Bouches-de-l'Elbe. In 1813 the Lützow infantry and

cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

s ended ten years of occupation. In 1826 the Old Town Hall (''Altes Rathaus'') was built on ''Poststraße''. In 1873 the first railway through Soltau was opened, the line which linked

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. It was followed in 1901 by the Heath Railway between

and

and, in 1912, the lines of the East Hanoverian Railways to Celle and

Lüneburg Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...

. In 1885 Soltau became a district town (''Kreisstadt''). In 1896 the gas works was built and, two years later, the gymnasium and shooting hall. On Christmas Eve 1906 a fire destroyed St. John's Church which had been mentioned in the records since 1464. It was then rebuilt and is still standing today. In 1911 the Lutheran Church was consecrated, the second Protestant church to be founded, and in 1915 the Catholic Church of St. Mary's followed. A royal officers' riding school was founded in 1913. Soltau Camp (''Lager Soltau''), the largest German

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

was built in 1914. In the same year the mining of potassium salts (''Kalisalz'') began at the Heinrichssegen Shaft; it had to be halted only four years later as a result of the war, after having reached a depth of just six metres. From 1934 several

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 ...

units were quartered at Wolterdingen Camp (''Lager Wolterdingen'') and after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

it was used to house refugees and forced labourers until about 1960. In April 1945, the town was partly destroyed by air raids, in which there were many more civilian victims than military ones. Soltau Holocaust-Mahnmal

That same month, prisoners from concentration camps were able to escape from a railway train that had been stopped in Soltau as the result of an Allied air attack. The prisoners were hunted down by members of the

, SS and

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

, with the help of several townsfolk, and 92 of them were shot dead. A few townspeople, by contrast, risked their own lives by providing the escapees with food and clothing. The post-war trials of those who took part ended in acquittals due to the lack of evidence. Consequently, all that could be recorded were several confirmed killings, but not murders.

Post WW-II

In 1949 Soltau became a British garrison during the

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 ...

and home of Headquarters 7th Armoured Brigade. They were based at the former SS Riding School on the outskirts of town (''Reitschule''). The base was the home of 207 Signal Squadron and 11 Ordnance Company. It was the most northerly posting for any British serviceman in BAOR (

British Army of the Rhine British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) was the name given to British Army occupation forces in the Rhineland, West Germany, after the First and Second World Wars, and during the Cold War, becoming part of NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) tasked ...

), excluding minor outposts like Dannenberg, Hamburg and

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, in what was known as

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. Armoured vehicles were regularly seen on the streets on their way to the military training area at Lüneburg and the HQ was responsible for the nearby Soltau-Lüneburg Training Area and its associated hutted camp at Reinsehlen. The signal squadron had three troops, two of which were armoured, using variants of the FV432 for telecommunication purposes. The soldiers were given the freedom of the town on 18 September 1982, and again after returning from the first Gulf War in 1991. They marched through the town to mark the occasion. The site of the British barracks was the first in Germany to be turned over to private hands in 1993, one year after the withdrawal of British troops. Today the old barracks is a business centre, used for doctors' practices and social institutions. It is also home to the ''Alte Reithalle'' ("Old Riding Hall") Event Centre which has become an important indoor event location after its finished restoration in 2003. In 1972 Soltau became a state-recognised spa and in 1987 was designated as a "state-recognised town with brine cure facilities". In the administrative reforms of 1974 16 surrounding villages were incorporated into the new municipality. In 1977 the districts of

Soltau Soltau () is a mid-sized town in the Lüneburg Heath in the district of Heidekreis, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It has around 22,000 inhabitants. The city is centrally located in the Lüneburg Heath and is known nationwide especially for its touri ...

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 ...

merged into the district of Soltau-Fallingbostel; Soltau lost its status as the district administrative seat. The Heide Park was opened in 1978; today it is the largest

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

in North Germany. Other tourist attractions include the Soltau Thermal Baths, which opened in 1990 and the North German Toy Museum which followed in 1994. In 1988 the ''Showpalast'' ("Show Palace") was founded at the Soltau

secondary modern school A secondary modern school () is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Secondary modern schools accommodated the majority (70–75%) of pupil ...

(''Hauptschule''); it remains Germany's only schoolchildren's cabaret. In 1998 a retail park opened in the Alm industrial estate. From 1996 there were discussions in Soltau about the construction of a

outlet store An outlet store, factory outlet or factory store is a brick and mortar or online shopping, online store where manufacturers sell their merchandise directly to the public. Products at outlet stores are usually sold at reduced prices compared to re ...

. The town failed several times in the courts, the last time in 2006 at the

Federal Administrative Court of Germany The Federal Administrative Court (, , BVerwG) is one of the five federal supreme courts of Germany. It is the court of the last resort for generally all cases of administrative law, mainly disputes between citizens and the state. It hears appea ...

. Protests were led by the surrounding towns of Verden, Rotenburg and Lüneburg]. In 2006 proceedings were begun to obtain permission to deviate from a planning objective which would enable the construction of an outlet centre in spite of the latest rejection. With a change to the state regional development programme in 2008 the establishment of a factory outlet centre in the tourist region of the Lüneburg Heath was finally granted. For the purposes of the town of Soltau, the town of Bad Fallingbostel and the municipality of Bispingen regional proceedings were begun. In February 2009 this process was concluded by the supreme state planning department (State Ministry of Economics) producing a positive outcome for Soltau and a negative one for its two competitors. Construction was due to start in 2010 despite Bispingen launching an appeal. It On 20 October 2004 an earthquake shook the region. It had a strength 4.5 on the

Richter Scale The Richter scale (), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and pr ...

and its

epicentre The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Determination The primary purpose of a s ...

was in Neuenkirchen. There had been a previous earthquake of strength 4 with an epicentre in Soltau on 2 June 1977. Since the beginning of 2005 there have been discussions about a memorial of eight representative

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

s from the Berlin Holocaust Memorial for "all victims of the Nazi dictatorship". However an internet survey by the newspaper, the ''Böhme-Zeitung'' showed that a majority of those who responded were against the memorial. This caused a furore nationally and gave those in favour of a memorial reason to accuse the opponents of having Nazi sentiments. Nevertheless, plans to erect the monument in central locations such as immediately in front of the station could not be carried out. This monument appeared from autumn 2006 to March 2007 in the vicinity of the remote site of the killings in the forest of ''Sibirien'' (today a hospital stands on the exact spot). The massive opposition from long-time residents of Soltau is frequently put down by them to the lack of commemoration of the many civilian and military victims from their own ranks, because they are not obviously included in the memorial. In March 2007 a concept for the transformation of the town centre was proposed. The Schaper Market, which had been built in the 1970s and lain empty since 2004, a footbridge (locally called the ''Fenner-Kringel'') and a multi-storey car park were demolished in 2008 and the theatre moved to Hagen, so that a new building could be built with a total sales floor of about . The new shopping centre was opened in March 2009.

Demographics

The oldest list of townsfolk in the town book of 1452 enumerates 42 households in Soltau, this represents a good 200 inhabitants based on the conditions of the time. Around 1600 there were about 100 households in Soltau, this corresponds to some 500 inhabitants who lived in about 70 houses. The

black death The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...

raged in 1626 and caused the population to plummet dramatically. After that, the number of inhabitants rose slowly at first; accelerating from 1940. In 1821 Soltau had 1.024 inhabitants. The large increase in 1974 is due to the regional reform and the incorporation of 16 surrounding villages. Following a short drop in the numbers the population grew again in the 1990s and reached its maximum in 2005 at 22,044. According to internal censuses the town has even greater numbers, e.g. in 2001 23,508, but this is mainly due to the inclusion of those with second homes. Since then the numbers have dropped slowly. This trend should stop in the next few years according to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation. For 2025 ¹

Population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

censuses

Culture and places of interest

Churches

Soltau churches include St. John's, which was first mentioned in 1464 and rebuilt after a fire in 1908. The

Lutheran Church Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

was the second Protestant church to be built in Soltau (in 1911) after St. John's had burnt down in 1906 and only a small replacement was built. Other religious buildings are the Catholic St. Mary's Church with a tower built in 1915 and a nave dating from 1975. The Holy Spirit Church in Wolterdingen is an old heath church which was built in a

brick gothic Brick Gothic (, , ) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Baltic region, Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock (though Glacial erratic, ...

style and mentioned in 1396, and when it was renovated from 1998 to 2001 medieval wall paintings were discovered. The Heidenhof Chapel was built in 1349, and the Zion Church of the

Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church The Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church (, abbreviated SELK) is a confessional Lutheran church body of Germany. It is a member of the European Lutheran Conference and of the International Lutheran Council (ILC) (of which the Lutheran Church � ...

dates from 1888. SpielzeugmuseumSoltau

Museums and leisure facilities

Opposite the Old Town Hall in the centre of the town is the building housing the North German Toy Museum with of exhibition floor. The Soltau Museum in a half-timbered house dating from 1830 which was renovated in 1988 and 2002 demonstrates the history of the town. It also traces the (pre-)history of Soltau up to 200,000 years ago. The Salt Museum was founded in one of the oldest houses in Soltau. In the surrounding region, the Heide Park amusement park is very well known. Other facilities are the Soltau Thermal Springs (''Soltau-Therme'') and the ''Hof Loh'' golf course. ''Breidings Garten'' is a municipal park with an artificial ruin in the town centre which was created in 1850. Other sights are the Hagen with its drawbridge and the so-called Marriage Well (''Heiratsbrunnen''), which was built in 1978 by Karlheinz Goedtke, the Waldmühle Library and the Ratsmühle.

Parks, nature reserves and cemeteries

Near the centre of town is the ''Breidingsgarten'', a landscaped park that is under heritage protection. It was laid out around 1850 along English lines and covers an area of . Within the garden, next to a villa built in the Italian style is a ruined building, an old farmstead and fish and ornamental ponds. It is currently in private hands but may still be visited. Other open spaces in the town include the Böhme Park and the Röders' Park am Halifax. Nearby recreation areas are the Wacholder Park, an area of heath with a sheep shed, the ''Ahlftener Flatt'', a lake from the last ice age, which is popular for ice skating in winter, and the Kuhbach Forest. Around Soltau there are various woods belonging to the Soltau Abbey Forest (''Klosterforst'') covering a total of which is managed by the Soltau Abbey Forestry Department. In Soltau's vicinity are several

nature reserves A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geolog ...

: the Böhmetal bei Huckenrieth, Ehbläcksmoor and the Schwarzes Moor near Dannhorn. Soltau has two cemeteries, the town cemetery and the forest cemetery. There are also the ruins of a

Jewish cemetery A Jewish cemetery ( ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Halakha, Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' (house of s ...

in which people were interred from 1721 to 1926.

Culture

The Soltau Cultural Society and the Culture Initiative organise readings and concerts in the town on the Böhme river. Since 2008 the cultural week ''Zwischenspiel - Das Zelt'' has taken place annually, with readings, concerts, cabaret and theatre performances in a circus tent. There are also events by the ''Soltauer Gespräche'' ("Soltau Talks") and the Soltau Artists House that has admitted writers, painters or musicians since 1995. The Waldmühle Library takes part in the Summer Reading Club Project which is part of the Cultural Secretariat of NRW (''Kultursekretariats NRW'').

Sports

The oldest sports club in Soltau is ''MTV Soltau'', which was founded in 1864. Today it offers 16 different activities, of which

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

is the largest with four men's, a women's, four girls' and 15 boys' teams of all ages. The second oldest club is ''SV Soltau'', founded in 1912. Here, too, the main activity is football, but there are also many other activities. In 2002 a third football club, SG Inter Soltau, was started, but it disbanded after a few years. The oldest

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

club is ''TC Blau-Weiß Soltau''. Founded in 1952, it opened the first tennis courts in Soltau. There is also a second tennis club, ''TVC Soltau''. In 1993 a

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

club was started, TTC 93 Soltau.

Pool Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

has been played in Soltau since 1987 at the ''Pool Billiard Sport Club Triangel''. The club plays in the highest Lower Saxon league and takes part in several German tournaments. There is also a '' Schützenverein'' (shooting club), the ''Schützengilde Soltau Stadt und Land'', which held its first '' Schützenfests'' in the 15th century and, since 1741, has had a ''Schützenfest'' almost every year. Soltau has another 20 or so smaller clubs offering around 30 different types of sport. Sports facilities include an indoor and open-air swimming pool, six sports fields, eight sports halls, a

riding hall A riding hall, indoor arena, indoor school (UK English), or indoor ring (US English) is a building (part of an equestrian facility) that is specially designed for indoor horse riding. Smaller, private buildings contain only space for riding, w ...

, a

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

, three

courts, four

nine-pin bowling Nine-pin bowling (also known as ninepin bowling, nine-pin, kegel, or kegeln) is a bowling game played primarily in Europe. European championships are held each year. In Europe overall, there are some 130,000 players. Nine-pin bowling lanes are mo ...

alleys, a

ten-pin bowling Tenpin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler bowling form, rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned Tetractys, evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The goal is to knock down all ten Bowlin ...

alley, squash courts, an

inline skating Inline skating is a multi-disciplinary sport and can refer to a number of activities practiced using inline skates. Inline skates typically have two to five polyurethane wheels depending on the style of practice, arranged in a single line by a ...

facility, a

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

field, a group of ponds for anglers and of indoor sports hall, the ''Heidewitzka''. The finals of the German water polo championships took place between 1960 and 1971 in Soltau. In addition since 2004 the Heide Park has been the annual venue for the

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

white water sprint as part of the Germany Cup. The Heide Park has also hosted, in April 2003, the World Wide Championship of LAN Gaming finals and in September 2006 the German qualifiers for the World Cyber Games 2006 in electronic sports and between 1997 and 2003 the annual pole-sitting world cup.

Economy

Industry

Many industrial and trading companies have settled in Soltau. There is a wide range of firms in the metalworking and mechanical engineering sphere including: ''Röders-Tec'' (high-speed cutting milling machines, blow moulding, pewter), ''G.A.Röders'' (die casting, injection moulding, toolmaking), ''Röhrs AG'' (plant manufacturing, industrial building, power plant services), ''Saxlund International'' (hauling engines, pumps), ''Nortec'' (mechanical engineering) and ''Colt International'' (technical building protection). In the food industry are firms like ''Harry-Brot'' (bread, cakes and pastries) and ''H&S Tee Pack Service'' (teabag packers) and in textiles: ''Gebr. Röders AG'' (felt) and ''Breiding'' (bedsprings) (founded 1836). In addition the firm of ''MVG Mathé-Schmierstofftechnik'' makes lubricants and the Greenpeace Energy Windpark generates electricity.

Trade

Soltau is the headquarters of ''hagebau'' (purchasing cooperative for building materials, wood and tile dealers) and JAWOLL (special deals market) and a

distribution centre A distribution center for a set of products is a warehouse or other specialized building, often with refrigeration or air conditioning, which is stocked with products (goods) to be redistributed to retailers, to wholesalers, or directly to con ...

for the firm of Deichmann (shoes). The building industry cooperative, ''ZEUS'', has its main headquarters in the town as do the cattle and meat merchants of Raiffeisen Viehvermarktung Zentralheide and the SLC Container Terminal with 250,000

containers A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

for Hamburg Harbour. From 1923 to the mid-1990s the headquarters of the

Edeka The Edeka Group is the largest German supermarket corporation , holding a market share of 25.3%. Founded in 1907, it currently consists of several co-operatives of independent supermarkets, all operating under the umbrella organisation ''Edeka ...

Group was in Soltau; it has now moved to

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district () of Minden-Lübbecke, situated in the cultural region ...

Banks

Soltau is the base for the ''Kreissparkasse Soltau'' bank and, until 2008, for the ''Volksbank Lüneburger Heide''. When the latter merged with the ''Volksbank Lüneburg'', the head office moved to Lüneburg. There are also branches of

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

and Postbank.

Education

The first recorded school teaching took place in 1563 in the

verger A verger (or virger, so called after the staff of the office, or wandsman in British English though archaic) is a person usually a layperson, who assists in the ordering of religious services, particularly in Anglican churches. Etymology ...

's living room. In 1588 the first school building was built by the church in ''Marktstraße'', the first state school followed in 1844. The building in ''Mühlenstraße'' still houses the Freudenthal Primary School today. In 1894 townsfolk founded a higher private school. In 1923 a

middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

was established. Today Soltau has three

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s (''Grundschulen''), a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

(''Gymnasium'') with just under 1,400 children, a

(''Realschule''), a

(''Hauptschule'') and a special needs school (''Förderschule''). In addition the charity Lebenshilfe Soltau supports a special needs centre, a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

for children with speech difficulties, a remedial kindergarten and a creche for early learners. The Soltau Vocational School (''Berufsbildende Schule'' or ''BBS'') is a combined school with four different streams of education under one roof. There is a grammar stream specialising in economics, a technical high stream (''Fachoberschule'') for technology and economics, and numerous vocational courses in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences (often shortened to FCS or FACS), is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and f ...

, careworking,

cosmetics Cosmetics are substances that are intended for application to the body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering appearance. They are mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either Natural product, natural source ...

gastronomy Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between Human food, food and culture, the art of preparing and serving rich or delicate and appetizing food, the cooking styles of particular regions, and the science of good eating. One who is well ver ...

agricultural science Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Professio ...

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

woodwork Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinetry, furniture making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by ...

metalwork Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on e ...

hairdressing A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A hairdresser may also be r ...

. About 2,400 schoolchildren attend. The adult education centre (''Volkshochschule'') Heidekreis is based in Soltau and Walsrode and currently offers about 930 courses. The Waldmühle Library is the largest in the district. The Heidekreis

music school A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

is also based in Soltau.

Media

The ''Böhme-Zeitung'' daily newspaper has been going since 1864 with a print run of 12,116 copies . In addition there is the weekly

free newspaper Free newspapers are distributed Gratis versus libre, free of charge, often in central places in cities and towns, on public transport, with other newspapers, or separately door-to-door. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising. T ...

, the ''Mittwoch aktuell'', with a circulation of 29,000 and the twice-weekly ''Heide-Kurier'' with 44,000 copies.

Infrastructure

Transport

Rail

Soltau's station, which is still called Soltau (Hannover) (abbreviated to ''Soltau (Han)'') by the

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 ...

belongs to the Hanover Railway Division and lies on the Uelzen–Langwedel railway (KBS 116), part of the America Line, from Bremen to

Uelzen Uelzen (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Uelzen (), is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the district of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a Hanseatic town and an independent municipality. Uelz ...

and on the Heath Railway (''Heidebahn'') (KBS 123) from Buchholz (Nordheide) to Bennemühlen(-

). There are two other stops - Soltau Nord and Wolterdingen - on the Heath Railway. Soltau also has a

goods station A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...

(Soltau Süd) in the OHE network with goods traffic links to Celle,

and

. These routes also used to have regular passenger services. The Lüneburg Transport Society (''Arbeitsgemeinschaft Verkehrsfreunde Lüneburg'') occasionally runs passenger trains on these lines to Celle and Lüneburg under the name

Heath Express The Heide Express (literally: "Heath Express") is the name used by the Lüneburg Transport Society (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Verkehrsfreunde Lüneburg) or AVL to market special railway trips with their historic trains on the East Hanoverian Railways (O ...

(''Heide-Express''). In summer there is also the ''Ameisenbär'' ("Anteater"), a historic Wismar railbus from 1937 that runs from Soltau via Bispingen to Döhle and back. The old Soltau–Neuenkirchen railway has now been dismantled. Between 1998 and 2001 there was a

roadrailer RoadRailers were a trailer or semi-trailer that could be hauled on roads by a tractor unit and then by way of a fifth wheel coupling, operate in a unit train on railway lines. The RoadRailer system allowed trailers to be pulled by locomotives ...

shuttle from Soltau-Harber to

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

in Italy which used to run several times a week for the firm of 'alli-Frischdienst' that used to be based in Soltau. The halt of Harber is now just used as a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains o ...

Roads

Since 1959 Soltau has had the

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

exits of Soltau-Süd and Soltau-Ost on the A 7 or E 45

autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

. Other major roads include the ''

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' (, ), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' are labelled with re ...

n'' B 3, B 71 and B 209 and the '' Landesstraße'', L 163. As well as the regular regional bus services run by the 'Verkehrsgemeinschaft Heidekreis', which links Soltau with the surrounding towns and villages, there is a free "experience bus" (''Erlebnisbus'') between July and October through the Lüneburg Heath, which links the numerous tourist sights in the region. The two routes of the ''Erlebnisbus'' have several stops in Soltau and at the Heide Park. In addition the coach line from Berlin to Cuxhaven via

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

and Bremen operated by the ' Berlin Linien Bus-Gesellschaft' stops at the town every day. In the summer there are also direct bus links to the Heide Park from Hamburg, Hanover, Lüneburg and Celle.

Cycling

The long distance cycle paths RFW 4 ( Leine-Heath Cycle Path) and RFW 15 (Heath Cycle Path or ''Heide-Radweg'') on the Lower Saxon long distance cycle network intersect in Soltau. In 2003 a cycle path concept was developed and implemented. For example, cycle boxes were erected at the station and the cycle network was expanded. In Soltau there are four ''Bett & Bike'' ("bed and bike") places that are recommended by the ADFC as especially "cycle-friendly".

Governance

Town council

The town council of Soltau comprises 34 councilors. As of the 2016 elections the councilors belong to the following parties or groups: * CDU: 12 seats * SPD: 9 seats *Bürgerunion (Townsfolk's Union): 4 seats * The Greens: 3 seats * AfD: 3 seats *dps (independents): 2 seats * FDP: 1 seats

Mayor

Soltau has a directly elected mayor (''Bürgermeister''). The office is currently held by Olaf Klang (independent), elected in 2021.

Elections

For elections to the

Landtag of Lower Saxony The Lower Saxon Landtag () or the Parliament of Lower Saxony is the state diet of the German state of Lower Saxony. It convenes in Hanover and currently consists of 146 members, consisting of four parties. Since 2022 the majority is a coalition ...

, Soltau is part of the constituency of Soltau together with the towns of

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

and Schneverdingen and the villages of Bispingen and Neuenkirchen. For

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

elections Soltau belongs to various Bundestag constituencies:

Town twinning

Soltau is twinned with: *

Coldwater, Michigan Coldwater is a city in and county seat of Branch County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city had a population of 13,822 at the 2020 census. The city is mostly surrounded by Coldwater Township, but the two are administered autonomously. H ...

, USA (since 1971) *

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The Ancient Diocese of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held s ...

, France (since 1972) * Flag of Germany

Osterburg,

(since 1991) *

Myślibórz Myślibórz (; ) is a town in northwestern Poland, in West Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is the capital of the Myślibórz County, with a population of 11,867. It is home to the first monastery of the Congregation of Sisters of Merciful Jesus and a ...

, Poland (since 1997) * Flag of Poland

Grünberg in Schlesien/Zielona Góra,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, (since 1997)

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Soltau shows the lion of the Welf dynasty behind a red city gate. The lion was part of the original town seal from around 1400 as the town belonged to the Dukes of Lüneburg, of the

House of Welf The House of Welf (also Guelf or Guelph) is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century and Emperor Ivan VI of Russia in the 18th century. The originally Franconian family from the Meuse-Mo ...

. Later the lion was depicted lying on the town gate, since the 19th century it has been depicted behind the gate.Erläuterungen zum Soltauer Wappen auf www.ngl.nl (Engl.)
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Notable people

* Christian Benbennek (born 1972), German football coach * Klaas Dijkhoff (born 1981), Dutch legal scholar *

Philipp Eggersglüß Philipp Eggersglüß (born 28 April 1995) is a German association football, footballer who plays as a right-back for Atlas Delmenhorst. Club career Eggersglüß joined SV Werder Bremen, Werder Bremen in 2012 from FC Verden 04. On 1 November 201 ...

(born 1995), German football player * Maximilian C. Jehuda Ewert (born 1974), German composer and violinist * Marcel Gebers (born 1986), German football player * Lars Klingbeil (born 1978), German politician (SPD) *

Klaus Lage Klaus Lage (born 16 June 1950) is a German musician from Soltau, Lower Saxony. He is known for his 1984 single "1000 und 1 Nacht (Zoom!)". Life Klaus Lage spent his childhood in Soltau before the family moved to Düsseldorf. Whilst living in ...

(born 1950), German singer * Marleen Lohse (born 1984), German actor * Dieter Möhrmann (born 1948), politician (SPD) * Thomas Ostermeier (born 1968), German theatre director * Friedemann Schulz von Thun (born 1944), German psychologist * Marcus Wedau (born 1975), German football player * August Wöhler (1819–1904), German railway engineer * Herbert Kappler, German war criminal

References

External links

*
North German Toy Museum, Soltau
{{Authority control Heidmark Towns in Lower Saxony