Bad Fallingbostel

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Bad Fallingbostel
Coat of arms of Bad Fallingbostel
Bad Fallingbostel is located in Germany
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Bad Fallingbostel
Coordinates 52°52′3″N 9°41′48″E / 52.8675°N 9.69667°E / 52.8675; 9.69667Coordinates: 52°52′3″N 9°41′48″E / 52.8675°N 9.69667°E / 52.8675; 9.69667
Administration
Country Germany
State Lower Saxony
District Heidekreis
Mayor Rainer Schmuck (member of the CDU, but ran as an independent)
Basic statistics
Area 63.15 km2 (24.38 sq mi)
Elevation 67 m  (220 ft)
Population 11,404 (31 December 2010)[1]
 - Density 181 /km2 (468 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate hk
Postal code 29683
Area codes 05162, 05163
Website www.badfallingbostel.de

Bad Fallingbostel is the district town (Kreisstadt) of the Heidekreis district in the German state of Lower Saxony. Since 1976 the town has had a state-recognised Kneipp spa and has held the title of Bad since 5 August 2002. It has close ties to Walsrode, a few miles to the west. There is a British Army base in Bad Fallingbostel.

During World War II it was the site of two POW (prisoner-of-war) camps, Stalag XIB and Stalag 357, see the Fallingbostel Military Museum

Contents

[edit] Geography

[edit] Location

Bad Fallingbostel lies on the Böhme river in the southern part of the Lüneburg Heath between Soltau and Walsrode in the Heidmark. In the vicinity is the large military training area of Bergen-Hohne, which is utilised by the Bundeswehr and by NATO forces, as well as Fallingbostel Station, a large barracks for the British Forces in Germany.

[edit] Sub-divisions

The administrative borough of Bad Fallingbostel is also responsible for the villages of Dorfmark, Riepe, Vierde, Jettebruch and Mengebostel as well as the town itself.

[edit] Nearby towns and cities

Visselhövede
17km		 Neuenkirchen
20km		 Soltau
18km
Walsrode
7km		 Neighbouring towns and villages Osterheide
8km
Nienburg (Weser)
48km		 Hanover
64km		 Celle
47km

[edit] Religion

[edit] Evangelical church

The majority of the church-going Christian residents of the town belong to the Evangelical Lutheran church. Within the borough there are two church parishes:

  • Fallingbostel parish: the Church of St. Dionysius with 5,598 parishioners (and the Peace Church (Friedenskirche) in Bommelsen (municipality of Bomlitz) with 625 members)
  • Dorfmark parish: St. Martin's Church with 2,848 members

They are served by three pastors. Both parishes belong to the church district of Walsrode in the diocese of Lüneburg, which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover.

[edit] Roman Catholic church

The Catholic Christians in Bad Fallingbostel belong to the Roman Catholic parish of St. Mary of the Holy Rosary (Sankt Maria vom heiligen Rosenkranz), which was first founded in August 2004. This brought together the hitherto independent Catholic parish of St. Mary in Bad Fallingbostel with the neighbouring parishes of St. Mary's Church in Walsrode and the Church of the Holy Spirit in Bomlitz-Benefeld as well as the Church of the Sacred Heart in Visselhövede. The parish lies in the church district of Verden in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim.

[edit] Politics

[edit] Adopted town

In 1963 Bad Fallingbostel adopted the town of Rummelsburg (Polish: Miastko) in Pomerania, Poland. Every two years they meet in Bad Fallingbostel.

[edit] Twin-towns

Bad Fallingbostel is twinned today with the Polish town of Miastko (formerly Rummelsburg - see above) in the Pomeranian Voivodeship and with the French town of Périers in Basse-Normandie.

[edit] Merger into the town of Böhmetal

The Böhme valley in the Lieth

A merger of Bad Fallingbostel with the town of Walsrode and the municipality of Bomlitz was planned for 2011 to create the town of Böhmetal. Following a referendum on 2 November 2008 this plan was rejected by the citizens in Bad Fallingbostel with a clear majority. Just under 62% of the voters turned out, of whom 80% were against the merger.[2] In Walsrode and Bomlitz a small majority were in favour of a merger (56.4 % in Bomlitz and 53.8% in Walsrode). On 10 November 2008 the town council of Bad Fallingbostel voted against the merger.

[edit] Culture and places of interest

Memorial to Heinrich von Quintus Icilius (1864)
The Hof der Heidmark in an old Low German farmhouse

Bad Fallingbostel is host to the museum of the Archaeological Working Group (Archäologischen Arbeitsgemeinschaft). In the Osterberg Megalith Park large stones are displayed, which were transported from Scandinavia during the ice ages to the region around Bad Fallingbostel.

Other archaeological sights include the Sieben Steinhäuser, a prehistoric burial site with five dolmens, which is around 5,000 years old. There are located on the Bergen-Hohne Training Area (near Ostenholz). There is also a Bronze Age burial site near the village of Vierde.

Also worth seeing are:

  • the spa park (Kurpark)
  • the Hof der Heidmark with its Rummelsburg homestead, a Low German house in the Liethwald wood
  • the Evangelical Church of St. Dionysius in the town centre
  • the Quintus Memorial at St. Dionysius' Church
  • the Evangelical St. Martin's Church in Dorfmark
  • der village well in Dorfmark
  • the Hermann Löns grave in the Tietling juniper grove (Wacholderhain)
  • the grave of Erich von Manstein in Dorfmark

[edit] Economy and infrastructure

[edit] Transport

Bad Fallingbostel has two railway stations - Bad Fallingbostel and Dorfmark - on the Heath Railway from Hanover to Soltau.

Bad Fallingbostel lies on the A 7 motorway between the Walsrode three-way intersection and the Maschener Kreuz four-way intersection.

[edit] Personalities

[edit] People from the town

  • Friedrich Freudenthal (1849–1929), regional poet
  • August Freudenthal (1851–1898), regional poet
  • Helmut Schlüter (1925–1967), trades unionist and politician (SPD), MdB

[edit] People associated with the town

  • Heinrich von Quintus-Icilius (1798–1861), civil lawyer; a statue of him has been erected in Fallingbostel
  • Erich von Manstein (1878–1973), field marshal, laid to rest in Dorfmark near Fallingbostel

[edit] Events

Between 1997 and 2002 demoparties for the computing world took place in Bad Fallingbostel under the name of Mekka & Symposium.

[edit] Depiction on film

In the film 23 – Nichts ist so wie es scheint (23 - Nothing Is As It Seems) the two lead characters are thrown out of the train at "Fallingbostel" station by the guard because they are taking drugs. However, Fallingbostel has neither overhead catenary, as depicted in the film, nor have Intercity trains stopped here. From a kilometre sign that appears briefly in the scene, it was discovered that the station used in the film was the one at Neustadt am Rübenberge, whose station nameboards were swapped for the film shoot.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Bevölkerungsdichte der kreisfreien Städte und Landkreise - Stand 31.12.2010" (in German). Landesbetrieb für Statistik und Kommunikationstechnologie Niedersachsen. July 2011. http://www.lskn.niedersachsen.de/download/59963. 
  2. ^ Results of the referendum in Bad Fallingbostel/

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bad Fallingbostel
Towns and municipalities in Heidekreis
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