Germany - Lower Saxony - Hannover

Greetings from the City of Hannover.

Sent by Uta, a postcrosser from Hamburg and Hannover, Germany.

Hanover or Hannover (German:  Hannover (help·info), [haˈnoːfɐ]), on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg (later described as the Elector of Hanover). At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Electorate was enlarged to become the capital of the Kingdom of Hanover.

In addition to being the capital of Lower Saxony, Hanover was the capital of the administrative area Regierungsbezirk Hannover (Hanover region) until Lower Saxony's administrative regions were disbanded at the beginning of 2005. Since 2001 it is part of the Hanover district (Region Hannover), which is a municipal body made up from the former district (Landkreis Hannover) and city of Hanover (note: although both Region and Landkreis are translated as district they are not the same).

With a population of 522,686 (31 December 2010) the city is a major centre of northern Germany, known for hosting annual commercial trade fairs such as the Hanover Fair and the CeBIT. Every year Hanover hosts the Schützenfest Hannover, the world's largest marksmen's festival, and the Oktoberfest Hannover, the second largest Oktoberfest in the world (beside Oktoberfest of Blumenau). In 2000, Hanover hosted the world fair Expo 2000. The Hanover fairground, due to numerous extensions, especially for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world. Hanover is also of national importance because of its universities and medical school, its international airport, and its large zoo. The city is also a major crossing point of railway lines and highways (Autobahnen), connecting European main lines in east-west-direction (Berlin - Ruhr area) and north-south-direction (Hamburg - Munich et al.). (read further)

Germany - Hamburg/Lower Saxony - Altes Land

Greetings from the Altes Land

Sent by Renee, a postcrosser from Stade, Germany.

Altes Land is an area of reclaimed marshland straddling parts of Lower Saxony and Hamburg. The region is situated downstream from Hamburg on the southwestern riverside of the Elbe around the towns of Stade, Buxtehude, Jork and the Samtgemeinde of Lühe. In Hamburg it includes the quarters of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder.

The region – the biggest contiguous fruit-producing region in Central Europe – extends over 143 km² (55 sq mi). 76.8% of the trees areapples, 12.7% are cherries. The areas closest to the Elbe are those with the highest population. They include the most fertile marshlands; towards the Geest the area connects to fens.

The fertile land led to the development of a culture dominated by farming. The villages are known as Marschhufendörfer, a special kind of village where the farmyards are set along a street with the land directly behind them. A characteristic feature is the richly-decorated half-timbered farmhouses with their elaborate gateways. (read further)

Germany - Brockenbahn

Brockenbahn or Brocken Railway.

Sent by Helga, a postcrosser from Apen, Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : The Brocken Railway (German: Brockenbahn) is one of three tourist metre gauge railways which together with the Harz Railway and Selke Valley Railway form the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways railway network in the Harz mountain range of Germany.

It runs from the station of Drei Annen Hohne at 542 m (1,778 ft), where it joins the Harz Railway, via Schierke and the Bode River valley to the summit of the Brocken, the highest mountain of the Harz at 1,141 m (3,743 ft) and part of the Harz National Park.

The Brocken Railway leaves Drei Annen Hohne station (542 m above NN), like the Harz Railway, in a southwesterly direction. Before exiting the station, however, it crosses the road to Schierke/Elend and then enters the Harz National Park. It then heads west to Schierke station (688 m), where until 1963, there was a siding to Knaupsholz granite quarry at about the half-way point. The line then runs for some distance along the valley of the Cold Bode, which lies south and far below the line. Next the 971 m high mountain, the Wurmberg, appears on the left, and the train crosses the Brocken Road for the first time.

After a tight left hand bend before the Eckerloch Bridge and another right-hander, the line reaches Goetheweg station (956 m), which is now only used as a locomotive depot. Then the line runs directly to the Brocken, encircling it in a spiral 1 ½ times, during which it crosses the Brocken Road again, and then finally ends after 18.9 km at Brocken station (1,125 m).

As early as 1869 there was a design for the construction of a railway to the Brocken, but it was turned down. A resubmission in 1895 succeeded, however, and, on 30 May 1896, the construction permit was issued once Prince Otto of Stolberg-Wernigerode had allocated the requisite land. The first section of the Brocken Railway, from Drei Annen Hohne to Schierke, was opened on 20 June 1898 and construction work for the remaining section up to the Brocken was begun on 4 October 1898. Initially services to the Brocken only ran between 30 April to 15 October; during the winter trains terminated at Schierke station. At the end of the Second World War significant damage occurred to the track, mainly through bombs and grenades, in the course of fighting in the Harz, which had been declared a fortress. The section to the Brocken was only reopened, therefore, in 1949.


The operator of the Brocken Railway until 5 August 1948 was the Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railway Company (NWE), after which it belonged from the Association of Publicly-Owned Companies (VVB), part of Saxony-Anhalt's transport services, and, from 11 April 1949 to the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany. Only after the German winter sports championships in 1950, which took place in Schierke, did winter trains run up to the Brocken summit. A railway station at Eckerloch was also built for the championships which was closed again after they had ended. The location of the former sidings at Eckerloch station can still be easily seen.

Goods trains continued to work the Brocken Railway right up to 1987, although since the construction of the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961 the Brocken and its station had been part of the out-of-bounds area and thus not accessible to the public. Up to that time the trains transported coal, oil and building materials up the mountain for the East German Border Troops and Soviet soldiers who were stationed there.

Passengers services on the Brocken Railway continued to run from Drei Annen Hohne to Schierke; usually only two pairs of passenger train pairs ran each day; however they could only be used with a special pass, because Schierke lay in the border zone with West Germany.

After German reunification the continued operation of the Brocken Railway was initially called into question, however united efforts by railway enthusiasts and politicians under the overall control of the then state Minister for the Economy, Horst Rehberger, helped to give the Brocken Railway a second chance. The German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) were also involived, because the Brocken Railway was needed to haul away the obsolete, military facilities on the Brocken. On 15 September 1991, after being renovated, the Brocken Railway was ceremoniously opened to the public with two steam-hauled trains. The trains were headed by locomotive no. 99 5903, a Mallet locomotive, which had been procured by the NWE in 1897/98, and locomotive no. 99 6001, a prototype developed in 1939 by the firm of Krupp.
Since the privatisation of the narrow gauge lines in the Harz in 1993 the Brocken Railway has been operated by the Harz Narrow Gauges Railways (HSB).

The steam trains on the Brocken Railway have become popular with thousands of tourists every year, offering convenient access to the top of the Brocken.

Up to six pairs of trains run daily to the top of the Brocken during the winter. Of those, four start and end in Wernigerode. During the summer, services are increased to eleven pairs of trains daily. The fastest train takes 49 minutes to reach the summit. The Brocken Railway is the only HSB line whose regular services are exclusively hauled by steam locomotives (specials are also hauled by diesel railbuses and diesel engines of Class 199.8, the latter for clearing snow).

Germany - Steinhude

Views of Steinhude.

Sent by Reni, a postcrosser from Hannover/Lower Saxony, Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : Steinhude is a village in the borough of Wunstorf in Hanover Region in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is a tourist resort on the southern shore of Lake Steinhude. Once a small, quiet fishing village, today Steinhude is well known as a recreation centre in the Steinhuder Meer Nature Park.

Steinhude lies on the southern shore of Lake Steinhude. To the east, the fishing village has grown and merged with its neighbouring village of Großenheidorn. To the south is the B 441 federal road and a small copse, the Hoheholz. Another landmark to the south is the 140m high potash heap near Bokeloh. Steinhude is linked to its western neighbour, Hagenburg, by a 1.5 km long lakeside promenade.

The shore of Lake Steinhude has been settled since early times. Steinhude itself was first mentioned in the records at the end of the 13th century as Stenhuthe. The small settlement lived by farming the land and fishing and, in the 17th century, became a market town. In 1641, during the Thirty Years War, the fishing village was almost totally destroyed. In the 18th century, linen weaving became the most important source of income. There was a chocolate factory in Steinhude as early as the mid-18th century, one of the first in Germany.

Administratively, Steinhude belonged to the Amt of Hagenburg and was ruled by the counts of Schaumburg. Following the division of that county in 1640, Steinhude became part of the county of Schaumburg-Lippe.

In the period 1761-1767 Count William I of Schaumburg-Lippe had the fort of Wilhelmstein built on an artificial island in the lake.

In the 20th century the small village begin to expand into a tourist resort. The influx of refugees after the Second World War, the increase in tourism and a modest upturn in the economy led to a significant growth in the size of the place.

After the Second World War in 1945 there were several major changes in the appearance of the village and surrounding landscape. Another artificial island, 35000 m² in area, the swimming island (Badeinsel) was built in 1975. Between Steinhude and Hagenburg an embankment was constructed and made into a lakeside promenade. Until 1964 the Steinhude Lake Railway (Steinhuder Meer-Bahn or StMB), a narrow gauge railway, ran from Wunstorf to Uchte, through Steinhude.

The Schaumburg municipality of Steinhude was incorporated into the borough of Wunstorf in the district of Hanover as part of the regional reform of 1974. In 2001 Hanover district became Hanover Region.

Germany - The Wadden Sea

The Wadden Sea.

Sent by Norbert, a postcrosser from Germany.

This is from UNESCO : The Wadden Sea comprises the Dutch Wadden Sea Conservation Area and the German Wadden Sea National Parks of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. It is a large temperate, relatively flat coastal wetland environment, formed by the intricate interactions between physical and biological factors that have given rise to a multitude of transitional habitats with tidal channels, sandy shoals, sea-grass meadows, mussel beds, sandbars, mudflats, salt marshes, estuaries, beaches and dunes. The inscribed site represents over 66% of the whole Wadden Sea and is home to numerous plant and animal species, including marine mammals such as the harbour seal, grey seal and harbour porpoise. It is also a breeding and wintering area for up to 12 millions birds per annum and it supports more than 10 percent of 29 species. The site is one of the last remaining natural, large-scale, intertidal ecosystems where natural processes continue to function largely undisturbed.

Germany - Lüneburg Heath

A map of Lüneburg Heath or Lüneburg Heidi.

Sent by Sandra, a postcrosser from Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : The Lüneburg Heath (German: Lüneburger Heide; also Lunenburg Heath in English) is a large area of heath, geest and woodland in 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 named after the town of Lüneburg. Most of the area is a nature reserve. Northern Low Saxon is still widely spoken in the region.

The Lüneburg Heath has extensive areas of heathland, typical of those that covered most of the North German countryside until about 1800, but which have almost completely disappeared in other areas. The heaths were formed after the Neolithic period by overgrazing of the once widespread forests on the poor sandy soils of the geest, as this slightly hilly and sandy terrain in northern Europe is called. The Lüneburg Heath is therefore a historic cultural landscape. The remaining areas of heath are kept clear mainly through grazing, especially by a North German breed of moorland sheep called the Heidschnucke. Due to its unique landscape, the Lüneburg Heath is a popular tourist destination in North Germany.

Germany - Arbeitstrachten

Local History Museum of Scheeßel. This card shows traditional working clothes in the countryside of North Germany.

Sent by Piet, a postcrosser from Germany.

Germany - Herzogschloss Celle

CELLE
Herzogschloss or Herzog Palace in Celle, Germany.

Sent by Rebecca, a postcrosser from Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : Celle Castle (German: Schloss Celle) in the German town of Celle in Lower Saxony was one of the residences of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg. This four-winged building is the largest castle in the southern Lüneburg Heath region.

Celle Castle is based on a fortified wall tower (Wehrturm) with the character of a water castle, that guarded a ford over the River Aller. This first fortification, called Kellu, was built by a Brunonen count around 980. Another forerunner of the castle, which may have been an extension of the wall tower, was founded in 1292 by Otto the Strict. The cellar vault and the lower stories of the watch tower have survived to the present day. Its ruins lie underneath the castle theatre. Around 1315 the actual Castrum Celle was first recorded. As a consequence of the Lüneburg War of Succession, in 1378 the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg moved their Residenz from Lüneburg to Celle and began transforming the Burg, now encircled by ditches and embankments, into a Schloss. About a century later the castle was further expanded by Frederick the Pious from 1471–1478, and the castle chapel was consecrated in 1485. Ernest I the Confessor had the castle decorated from 1530 in the renaissance style. At the same time, between 1520 and 1560, the defences, in the form of ramparts and bastions, were pushed further out. At this time the castle was typical of its era, a four-winged building with a rectangular courtyard, with massive corner towers, a large main tower and characteristic features of Weser Renaissance. (Read more)

Germany - Plesse Castle

Plesse Castle in Bovenden, Germany. View from the lower gate, with large and small towers at the background.

Sent by Amy, a postcrosser from Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : Plesse Castle is situated to the north of Göttingen in Germany, close to the village of Bovenden.

The castle was transferred in 1015 from the private estate of Meinwerk, bishop of Paderborn to the city of Paderborn. Since 1150 it is the seat of the noble lords of Plesse, who named themselves for the castle. Holy Roman emperor Henry VI traded Plesse Castle in 1192 for Desenberg Castle close to Warburg in Westphalia, but the trade was already reverted in 1195. In 1447 the lords of Plesse transferred their possession of Plesse Castle to the Landgrave Ludwig of Hesse and in return received it as a fiefdom. The explanation for it lies in the fragmentation of the dukedom of Brunswick-Göttingen. The leading noble families could not avoid being drawn into the ensuing conflicts. They therefore sought protection from a powerful liege lord. They found this protection and backup with another ruler, who was Ludwig of Hesse.

In 1536 the protestant reformation was introduced to the dominion of Plesse, which also comprised the surrounding villages. The house of Plesse became extinct with the death of Dietrich IV of Plesse in 1571. Landgrave William IV of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) then took possession of the dominion of Plesse, as this was his right as liege lord. Moritz of Hesse-Kassel converted the people of the Plesse dominion to the reformed creed in 1614. Between 1623 and 1624 he and his family took refuge in the castle various times. After a siege in 1627 during the Thirty Years' War the castle and the dominion of Plesse were ceded temporarily to the landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1660 the castle was abandoned finally and afterwards served as a quarry for the residents of the surrounding villages.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the castle in 1801. Subsequently to French occupation in 1807 the dominion became the Canton Bovenden in the Kingdom of Westphalia. After the collapse of Westphalia in 1813 the now Electorate of Hesse-Kassel retook control of the dominion of Plesse. In a barter between Prussia, the Kingdom of Hanover and the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel the dominion of Plesse became part of Hanover on May 1st, 1817. Starting in 1821 first attempts to restore parts of the castle were undertaken, and between 1853 and 1864, on initiative of the ruling family of Hanover, it came to a complete restoration of the castle. The earlier affiliation of Plesse to Hesse can still be seen even today. The villages of the former dominion of Plesse still belong not to the Lutheran state church of Hanover, but belong to the reformed church.

Germany - Insel Langeoog

The multiviews of Langeoog Island in Germany.

Sent by Anja from Gelsenkirchen in Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : Langeoog is one of the seven inhabited East Frisian Islands at the edge of the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea in the southern North Sea, located between Baltrum Island (west), and Spiekeroog (east). It is also a municipality in the district of Wittmund in Lower Saxony, Germany. The name Langeoog means Long Island in the Low German dialect.

Germany - Großer Homburg

The ruins in Homburg.

Sent by Andrea, a postcrosser from Germany.

This is from Wikipedia : The Großer Homburg is a hill, 403 m above sea level, in the Homburgwald, part of the Weser Uplands in the German state of Lower Saxony.

The Großer Homburg is located in the district of Holzminden above and north of the town of Stadtoldendorf and a couple of kilometres south of Eschershausen.

On the summit of the Großer Homburg are the castle ruins of the Homburg. There is a good view from the tower of the castle - for example south towards the Solling hills, where the highest hill in the Weser Uplands, the Große Blöße can be seen. On the western slopes of the Großer Homburg there are quarries where gypsum has been extracted for centuries.

Germany - Schönes Winterberg im Hochsauerland

Heilklimatischer Kurort und Winterspotplatz
WINTERBERG/Hochsauerland

Someone please translate those two lines for me :)

Sent by Manuela, a postcrosser from Grünenplan, situated in the north of Germany, 60 km south of Hannover.

Germany - Meppen - Schleusengruppe

Sent by Stefanie who lives in Meppen, Germany.

She wrote : " ... Meppen, a small town in the north-west of Germany, near the Dutch border. On the other side you can see a watergate at the River Ems ..."