Gifhorn

Gifhorn
Old town hall
Gifhorn
Coordinates	52°29′19″N 10°32′47″E
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Lower Saxony
District	Gifhorn
Town subdivisions	6 districts
Mayor	Manfred Birth (Ind.)
Basic statistics
Area	104.86 km2 (40.49 sq mi)
Elevation	50 - 68 m
Population	41,558 (31 December 2010)
- Density	396 /km2 (1,026 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	GF
Postal codes	38501–38510, 38516, 38518
Area code	05371
Website	www.stadt-gifhorn.de

Gifhorn (German pronunciation: [ˈɡɪfhɔʁn]) is a town and capital of the district Gifhorn in the east of Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of about 42,000 and is mainly influenced by the small distance to the industrial and commercially important cities nearby, Brunswick and Wolfsburg. Further, Gifhorn is part of the metropolitan area of Hanover-Brunswick-Göttingen-Wolfsburg.

The oldest verifiable source dates the existence of the city in the year 1196.

Gifhorn is home to the International Wind- and Watermill Museum, which contains a comprehensive collection and working replicas of the world's most common windmills.

Geography

Gifhorn is situated about 20 km north of the city of Brunswick and about 15 km west of Wolfsburg. In the city, the Bundesstraße 4 and 188 meet. At the northern end of the city, the Lüneburg Heath starts. Gifhorn lies at the confluence of the Rivers Ise and Aller.

History

Gifhorn was first mentioned in 1196. It was located at the crossing of two then important merchant routes: The salt street (German: Salzstraße) being a main trading route for salt between Lüneburg and Brunswick, and the grain street (German: Kornstraße) transporting grain between Celle and Magdeburg.

Education

Schools in Gifhorn include the Humboldt Gymnasium, the Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium, Fritz-Reuter-Realschule, Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Realschule, Albert-Schweitzer-Hauptschule and the Berufsbildenden Schulen I and II. Alfred-Teves-Schule, which was called Volksschule Süd between 1954 and 1958, was open between 1954 and 2010.

International relations

Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Gifhorn is twinned with:

• Xanthi, Greece
• Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, Ukraine
• Dumfries, United Kingdom
• Gardelegen, Germany (Saxony-Anhalt)
• Hallsberg, Sweden
• Złotów, Poland

External links

• Gifhorn homepage (German)
• International museum of mills (German)