Westercelle is a suburb of the district town of

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle (district), Celle in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller (Germany), Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about ...

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, that lies 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) south of the town centre on the river

Fuhse The Fuhse is a river of Lower Saxony, Germany, a left tributary of the Aller. Spelled Fuse in maps of the 19th century and earlier, the name is thought to derive from the ancient Fosa flumen, after which the Germanic tribe of the Fosi took thei ...

History

The village derives its name from its location west of the original settlement of Celle, now called

Altencelle Altencelle is part of the borough of Celle in Lower Saxony and lies southeast of the town centre, west of the River Aller and east of the Fuhse. It is linked to Celle by the B 214 federal road and state highway K 74. History The present day n ...

("Old Celle"). The first houses were built on the banks of the river. Westercelle developed into a purely agricultural, relatively large village with farms on both sides of the road running from Celle south towards

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 ...

, which later became the B 3 federal road. Individual farmsteads still exist in the suburb. In 1974 the village was incorporated into the town of Celle.

Religion

The

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

of the

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 ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Westercelle is the Christ Church (''Christuskirche'').

Politics

The chair of the local council (''Ortsbürgermeister'') is Kathrin Fündeling.

Coat of arms

The green shield of the village coat of arms is divided diagonally from top left by a wavy white line that symbolises the river Fuhse. Above is a white horses' head, below a white lime tree leaf.

Economy and infrastructure

Road

Since the 1970s industry and commerce has settled in the new trading estates sited in favourable locations next to the B 3. The trading estates include ''Street One'' and ''trispel''. Following completion of the second section of the eastern ring road in 2011 Westercelle should be relieved of its heavy through traffic.

Rail

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 ...

(DB)'s

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

line from Celle via Burgdorf and

Lehrte Lehrte () is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 17 km east of Hanover. In the 19th century Lehrte was the most important railway junction in the former Kingdom of Hanover. As of the 2 ...

to Hanover runs towards the west through this part of Celle. The nearest station is Celle (occasional

Intercityexpress Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE () and running under this category) is a high-speed rail system in Germany. It also serves destinations in Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands as part of cross-border services. It ...

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...

and

trains).

Bus

The town's bus lines: nos. 1 (Westercelle-Celle-Vorwerk-Garßen), 6 (Westercelle-Celle-Hafen-Neustadt-Neustädter Holz) and 7 (Gewerbegebiet Westercelle-Westercelle-Celle) stop in Westercelle. In addition there are regional bus lines 1-15 (Westercelle-Celle-Vorwerk-Groß Hehlen-Bergen), 1-45 (Westercelle-Celle-Vorwerk-Garßen-Lachendorf), 6-65 (Eicklingen-Wathlingen-Nienhagen-Adelheidsdorf-Westercelle-Celle), 6-85 (Westercelle-Celle-Hafen-Neustadt-Hambühren-Südwinsen-Wietze) and 7-75 (Nienhorst-Adelheidsdorf-Großmoor-Dasselsbruch-Gewerbegebiet Westercelle-Westercelle-Celle). The bus network is run by the Celle bus company, CeBus.

Education

In Westercelle there are three general educational schools: two

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 (Bruchhagen and Nadelberg) and the

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

(''

Realschule Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), F ...

''). The ''Jugenddorf Westercelle'' is a youth centre.

Culture and points of interest

* Westercelle has an open-air swimming pool that is no longer run by the town, but by a private company. * The river meadows of the Fuhse are worth seeing.

Sport

Westercelle has a shooting club, founded in 1644, a sports club, Vfl Westercelle, which was formed in 1950 and a riding and driving club on the Trift.

Regular events

Schützenfest A Schützenfest (, '' marksmen's festival'') is a traditional festival or fair featuring a target shooting competition in the cultures of Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. At a Schützenfest, contestants compete based on thei ...

Personalities

*Edmund Rehwinkel (1899–1977), politician specialising in agriculture and farmer's representative

Sources

* Artur Müller-Davidi: ''Westercelle: Hinweise für die Erforschung der Geschichte des Dorfes''. Celle, 1981 * Horst Bolle: ''Chronik des Dorfes Westercelle''. Celle, 1951

References

External links

Celle town website
{{Municipalities in Celle Celle