Brunswick Land (German : Braunschweiger Land) is a historical region in the Southeast of the German state of Lower Saxony, centred around the city of Braunschweig. It refers to the core territory of the historic Duchy of Brunswick and its successor, the Free State of Brunswick, which was disestablished in 1946.
The area stretches from the Harz mountain range in the south along the Oker river down to the Burgdorf-Peine Geest in the North German Plain. The natural landscape includes the Elm, Asse and Salzgitter Hills, the Hainberg and Vorholz ranges in the west, as well as the Harly Forest.
Today Brunswick Land roughly corresponds to the central parts of the former Lower Saxon Verwaltungsbezirk Braunschweig in its pre-1978 borders, including:
The district of Holzminden, part of the Free State of Brunswick until 1941, today belongs to the neighbouring South Lower Saxony region. Likewise, the eastern Brunswick exclaves of Calvörde and Blankenburg today are part of Saxony-Anhalt, while the northwestern exclave of Thedinghausen belongs to Verden district.
On that basis and excluding several unincorporated territories in the Harz mountains, the region has an area of 4,716.43 square kilometres (1,821.02 sq mi) and a population of 1,115,876. The population density, at 237 people/km², is higher than the Lower Saxon and the German average.
Away from the main cities, the region encompasses large agricultural areas. The traffic infrastructure relies on numerous railway lines and controlled-access highways such as Bundesautobahn 2 and Bundesautobahn 39. The main employer in the region is Volkswagen headquartered in Wolfsburg.
Important educational facilities include the Braunschweig University of Technology, the Clausthal University of Technology, the Braunschweig University of Art, the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, as well as the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. Other institutions include the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection in Salzgitter, as well as Braunschweig locations of the German Aerospace Center, the Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (Julius-Kühn-Institut) and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute for Animal Health.
The Brunswick Landscape Association (Verein Braunschweigische Landschaft) with its seat in Braunschweig was established in 1990. As a cultural-political organisation, it has set itself the aim of promoting the identity of Brunswick Land and ties between the populations and their history after the foundation of the state of Lower Saxony. The effective area covers the central territories around the cities of Braunschweig, Salzgitter and Wolfsburg as well as the adjacent districts of Helmstedt, Peine and Wolfenbüttel. The association uses a silhouette of the Saxon Steed as its emblem.
The cities and districts of the larger Braunschweig Region form the eastern part of the Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region. The associated regional authorities closely cooperate in matters of regional planning and public transport.
The former Duchy of Brunswick arose in 1814 as successor of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, which for centuries was ruled by the Welf descendants of Henry the Lion. He had received the Duchy of Saxony as an Imperial fief in 1142 and chose the City of Braunschweig as his residence. One of the most powerful German princes, he entered into a fierce conflict with the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick Barbarossa and finally was banned in 1180. He could only retain his allodial possessions around Brunswick and Lüneburg, the nucleus of the later Welf duchy.
Like the tales that refer to Henry the Lion (as rendered by Agostino Steffani's opera Henrico Leone ), the legends about the medieval trickster Till Eulenspiegel from Kneitlingen, Brunswick Mum beer, or the alleged foundation of Braunschweig and Dankwarderode Castle by the Brunonid brothers Brun and Dankward, are rich in tradition. The densely forested mountains of the Harz and Elm ranges are the setting of numerous myths and fables.
Towns in the Braunschweig Region (including present-day urban districts):
Lower Saxony is a German state (Land) situated in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with 47,624 km2 (18,388 sq mi), and fourth-largest in population among the 16 Länder federated as the Federal Republic of Germany. In rural areas, Northern Low Saxon and Saterland Frisian are still spoken, but the number of speakers is declining.
Peine is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Hildesheim, Hanover and Gifhorn, and the cities of Brunswick and Salzgitter.
Wolfenbüttel is a district in southeastern Lower Saxony, Germany. Neighboring districts are the district-free City of Braunschweig, the district of Helmstedt, the district of Harz in Saxony-Anhalt, and the districts of Goslar, Hildesheim and Peine. The district-free city of Salzgitter cuts through the district of Wolfenbüttel in the southwest.
Wolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest concentration of timber-framed buildings in Germany. It is an episcopal see of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick. It is also home to the Jägermeister distillery and houses a campus of the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences.
Helmstedt is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the district of Wolfenbüttel, the City of Braunschweig, the District of Gifhorn, the City of Wolfsburg and the State of Saxony-Anhalt.
Eastphalian, or Eastfalian, is a West Low German language spoken in southeastern parts of Lower Saxony and western parts of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany.
The Duchy of Brunswick was a historical German state. Its capital was the city of Brunswick (Braunschweig). It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In the course of the 19th-century history of Germany, the duchy was part of the German Confederation, the North German Confederation and from 1871 the German Empire. It was disestablished after the end of World War I, its territory incorporated into the Weimar Republic as the Free State of Brunswick.
Adenbüttel is a municipality in the Gifhorn district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a member municipality of the Samtgemeinde Papenteich. The Municipality Adenbüttel includes the villages of Adenbüttel and Rolfsbüttel
The Free State of Brunswick was a state of the German Reich in the time of the Weimar Republic. It was formed after the abolition of the Duchy of Brunswick in the course of the German Revolution of 1918–19. Its capital was Braunschweig (Brunswick).
Didderse is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a member municipality of the Samtgemeinde Papenteich.
Meine is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a village and member municipality of the Samtgemeinde Papenteich. The Municipality Meine includes the villages of Abbesbüttel, Bechtsbüttel, Grassel, Gravenhorst, Meine, Meinholz, Martinsbüttel, Ohnhorst, Wedelheine, Wedesbüttel.
Rötgesbüttel is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a member municipality of the Samtgemeinde Papenteich
The County of Blankenburg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire. Its capital was Blankenburg, it was located in and near the Harz mountains.
The Duchy of Brunswick State Railway was the first state railway in Germany. The first section of its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway line between Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel opened on 1 December 1838.
The Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region is an economic and cultural region in Northern Germany. The metropolitan area comprises approximately one third of the area of Lower Saxony, with almost half the inhabitants of the state. It has about 3.9 million people in 20 districts and counties with a total of 431 municipalities and is defined by the German Ministerkonferenz für Raumordnung (MKRO) as a medium urban area in Germany.
The Elm-Lappwald Nature Park is a nature park in southwest Lower Saxony, east of Brunswick in central Germany. It is dominated by the forested hill ranges of the Elm, Lappwald and Dorm as well as the region known as the Helmstedt Bowl.
Lower Saxon cuisine covers a range of regional, North German culinary traditions from the region correspondingly broadly to the state of Lower Saxony, which in many cases are very similar to one another, for example cuisine from the areas of Oldenburg, Brunswick, or East Frisia.
The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose history was characterised by numerous divisions and reunifications. Various dynastic lines of the House of Welf ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. As a result of the Congress of Vienna, its successor state, the Duchy of Brunswick, was created in 1815.
The Jerxheim–Helmstedt railway is a 22 km-long railway line in the south-east of the German state of Lower Saxony that was opened in 1858. It opened up the area south of the Elm hills. Until 8 December 2007, there were passenger services on the route from Brunswick via Wolfenbüttel, Schöppenstedt, Jerxheim and Schöningen to Helmstedt, which was last marketed as the Südelmbahn. The section from Helmstedt to Alversdorf freight yard has since been operated as a connecting line to a facility of the Energy from Waste (EEW) company, formerly half owned by E.ON.
Lichtenberg Castle, also called the Heinrichsburg, is a ruined castle dating to the 12th century in the Lichtenberge hills near Salzgitter in the German state of Lower Saxony. The ruins are found south of and above the Salzgitter suburb of Lichtenberg on the steep summit of the Burgberg.
