Heidekreis

Heidekreis
District

Coat of arms
Country  Germany
State Lower Saxony
Capital Bad Fallingbostel
Government
 • District admin. Manfred Ostermann
Area
 • Total 1,873.5 km2 (723.4 sq mi)
Population (31 December 2015)[1]
 • Total 140,264
 • Density 75/km2 (190/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Vehicle registration HK (until 31.7.2011: SFA)
Website soltau-fallingbostel.de

Heidekreis ("Heath district") is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Harburg, Lüneburg, Uelzen, Celle, Hanover, Nienburg, Verden and Rotenburg.

History

Historically the region belonged to the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg and its successor states. The district was established in 1977 by merging the former districts of Soltau and Fallingbostel as Soltau-Fallingbostel (German pronunciation: [ˈzɔltaʊ falɪŋˈbɔstəl]). On 1 August 2011 it was renamed to Heidekreis.

Geography

The district includes the western half of the Lüneburg Heath (Lüneburger Heide). Since this landscape is so characteristic for the district, it calls itself "the Heath District". The capital is Bad Fallingbostel, although it has only 11,800 inhabitants and is only the fifth largest town in the district.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms displays:

Towns and municipalities

Towns Samtgemeinden
  1. Bad Fallingbostel
  2. Munster
  3. Schneverdingen
  4. Soltau
  5. Walsrode


Free municipalities

  1. Bispingen
  2. Bomlitz
  3. Neuenkirchen
  4. Wietzendorf


Unincorporated area

  1. Osterheide
  1. Ahlden
  2. Eickeloh
  3. Grethem
  4. Hademstorf
  5. Hodenhagen1
  1. Böhme
  2. Frankenfeld
  3. Häuslingen
  4. Rethem1, 2
  1. Buchholz
  2. Essel
  3. Gilten
  4. Lindwedel
  5. Schwarmstedt1
1seat of the Samtgemeinde; 2town

Culture and places of interest

Cultural matters are looked after by the those charged with communal cultural support within the towns and municipalities, the parishes, the banks, the Lüneburg Regional Association and private cultural initiatives.

Museums and collections

Cinemas

Lüneburg Regional Association

The county is a member of the Lüneburg Regional Association (Lüneburgischer Landschaftsverband), which looks after regional, cultural-political tasks.

Nature reserves

There are es 26 nature reserves in the county of Soltau-Fallingbostel.[2][3] The largest one (Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve) has an area of 13,222 ha in the territory of the county of Soltau-Fallingbostel, the smallest (Söhlbruch) has an area of 8 ha.[4]

Jewish cemeteries

There are four Jewish cemeteries in Soltau-Fallingbostel : in Ahlden, Rethem, Soltau und Walsrode.[5] There are protected cultural monuments – stone witnesses to former Jewish communities and a thriving Jewish parish live into the 1930s. The cemeteries are mainly on the edge of parishes.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Landesbetrieb für Statistik und Kommunikationstechnologie Niedersachsen, 102 Bevölkerung - Basis Zensus 2011, Stand 31. Dezember 2015 (Tabelle K1020014)
  2. ↑ Landkreis Soltau-Fallingbostel beim NLWKN
  3. ↑ Neue Naturschutzgebiete ab 2009 beim NLWKN
  4. ↑ Naturschutzgebiet "Söhlbruch", Kennzeichen: NSG LÜ 045
  5. ↑ LANDKREIS SOLTAU-FALLINGBOSTEL. In: Jüdische Friedhöfe nach der heutigen Verwaltungsgliederung – Niedersachsen. In: Übersicht über alle Projekte zur Dokumentation jüdischer Grabinschriften auf dem Gebiet der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Media related to Landkreis Soltau-Fallingbostel at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 52°55′N 9°45′E / 52.92°N 9.75°E / 52.92; 9.75

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/21/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.