Northeim

Northeim is a German Ville of 30.600 inhabitants located in the south of the Land of Lower Saxony ( Niedersachsen in German).

History

Northeim is evoked for the first time in year 800, at the time of the establishment of Saxon colonists to the crossing of several shopping streets. The duchy of Northeim is attached to the duchy of Bavaria in 1061, bond which was demolished in 1070 because of a lawsuit for treason lost by the duke Otto von Northeim. This one died in 1083.

The cloister St Blasius was founded in the neighborhoods of the year 1100. Northeim is seen recognizing the title of city ( civitas in Latin) in the year 1204. In 1252, she sees herself entrusting clean rights ( ordentliche Stadtrechte ). 1252 are thus regarded as the year of birth of Northeim. The town of Göttingen, distant of 20 kilometers, imposed however its model of communal charter on Northeim in 1265.

Northeim obtained the right of coinage in 1334 and that to hold a market in 1336. The construction of the Gothic town hall (victim of a fire in 1832) and wall of fortifications around the city testify to the economic prosperity of Northeim to XIVème century. Three doors protected the enclosure from the city.

Northeim was member of the Hanseatic League of 1426 to 1554.

The Protestant Réforme of the beginning of XVIème century did not meet almost any catholic opposition. The monks of the cloister St Blasius lose the employers of the church St Sixti. During three centuries, Northeim will remain an entirely Protestant city.

The Guerre Thirty Year old put an end to the prosperity of the city. Northeim was occupied several times in 1626 and 1627, and had to fold vis-a-vis the troops of Jean Tserclaes de Tilly in June 1627. Half of the population of the city disappeared, and approximately 300 houses perished in the flames.

The mayor Johann Achterkirchen, in station of 1759 to 1789, made pave the streets and cut down the doors at the various entries of the city. Northeim counts 3400 inhabitants in 1820, against 2600 inhabitants fifty years earlier.

It is at the XIXème century that the city experienced its true development, thanks to the arrival of the railroad in 1854. In 1878, Northeim became a rail junction between Hanover, Göttingen, the area of Solling and the solid mass of the Harz. At the beginning of the XIXème century, close to an inhabitant on three (that is to say 2500 people) works for Bahn. The economic activity took its take-off at this period: construction of the Mill of the Cold ( Rhumemühle ) in 1865, sugar factory in 1876, manufactures cigarres in 1900. Vis-a-vis the surge of population of the surrounding villages, it is decided to carry out the construction of the first dwellings apart from the walls of the city.

The end of the Weimar Republic is marked in Northeim by a strong unemployment rate and an political instability, as in all Germany. The Nazis gain the elections with the Reichstag of July 1932 with 62% of the voices, a score higher than the national average. The local leader of NSDAP takes the town hall in 1934. The Jews of the city were persecuted. On the hundred Jews which the city with the beginning of the year counted, only one survived the Nazism after being off-set with the Concentration camp of Theresienstadt. It returned to live in Northeim after the war.

The city was the target of three bombardments combined in 1944 and 1945.

The immediate post-war period is marked by the difficulties of supply of the raw material population. It is only into 1950 that the situation improves and that unemployment moves back.

The city develops in the south, in direction of Göttingen. Several large companies are established in the years 1950 and 1960, like Thimm or the Continental AG, in the industrial park. Shopping malls develop with the variation of the downtown area, the activity in the pedestrian precinct suffers from it.

In 1974, the communal reform saves 10000 inhabitants with Northeim, because of the fastening of 15 localities in the city-center, which also shelters the administration of the district ( Landkreis ).

In 1992, is two years after the German Réunification, the army definitively leaves the barracks installed in the north of the city.

Today, Northeim counts approximately 30.600 inhabitants.

Economy and Infrastructures

Northeim is favorably located along several main roads of communication: the highway A7 (axis Hamburg - Hanover-Göttingen Würzbourg), the axes railway Hanover Frankfurt on the Hand, Göttingen-Nordhausen and Northeim-Ottbergen, as well as the trunk road 3.

Northeim is with 20 kilometers in the north of the university town of Göttingen, and with 16 kilometers in the south of Einbeck, a city known for its brewery activity.

Curiosities

the historical center, with its many Half-timbered houses of XVIème and XVIIème centuries
Cloister St Blasius, at the origin of the city. Today, a restaurant there is found.
Protestant Church St Sixti
Northeimer Seenplatte, a base of leisures to three kilometers of the downtown area.

Twinnings

Gallneukirchen (Austria), since 1992
Tourlaville (France), since 1967
Prudnik (Poland), since 1990

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