Westercelle is a suburb of the district town of

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, 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 (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, 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 of the

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

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

Politics

The chair of the local council (''Ortsbürgermeister'') is Michael Schwarz.

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 The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the ...

(DB)'s

S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...

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 21st ...

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

Intercityexpress The Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE ()) is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany. It also serves some destinations in Austria, Denmark (ceased in 2017 but planned to resume in 2022), France, Belgium, Switzerl ...

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at ma ...

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, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

s (Bruchhagen and Nadelberg) and the secondary school (''

Realschule ''Realschule'' () 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' ...

''). 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 Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. At a Schützenfest, contestants compete based on their shootin ...

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