Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lüneburg Heath, has a castle (Schloss Celle) built in the Renaissance and Baroque styles and a picturesque old town centre (the Altstadt) with more than 400 timber-framed houses, making Celle one of the most remarkable members of the German Timber-Frame Road. From 1378 to 1705 Celle was the official residence of the Lüneburg branch of the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg (House of Welf), who had been banished from their original ducal seat by its townsfolk.Michelin et Cie (1993). Michelin Tourist Guide Germany (1st ed.) Clermont-Ferrand: Michelin. .
Geography
The town of Celle lies in the glacial valley of the Aller, about northeast of Hanover, northwest of Brunswick and south of Hamburg. With 71,000 inhabitants it is, next to Lüneburg, the largest Lower Saxon town between Hanover and Hamburg.
Expansion The town covers an area of . Flowing from the northeast, the Lachte discharges into the Aller within the town, as does the Fuhse flowing from the southeast. The Aller heads westwards towards Verden an der Aller, where it joins the Weser.
Climate Celle's annual precipitation is , which puts it in the middle third of locations in Germany. 39% of the Deutscher Wetterdienst's weather stations record lower values. The wettest month is August, which has 1.5 times the amount of precipitation as February, the driest month. Monthly precipitation varies only slightly and is very evenly spread throughout the year. Only 1% of German weather stations show a lower annual variation.
The Celle weather station has recorded the following extreme values: Its highest temperature was on 9 August 1992. Its lowest temperature was on 27 January 1942. Its greatest annual precipitation was in 2002. Its least annual precipitation was in 1959. The longest annual sunshine was 1,959.6 hours in 2003. The shortest annual sunshine was 1,260.5 hours in 1970.
Note
Subdivisions The town of Celle has the following 17 boroughs or Stadtteile, some of which were previously independent villages (population as at 1 January 2005): Altencelle (4,998), Altenhagen (922), Blumlage/Altstadt (8,526), Bostel (455), Boye (832), Garßen (2,978), Groß Hehlen (2,773), Hehlentor (7,974), Hustedt (736), Klein Hehlen (5,782), Lachtehausen (639), Neuenhäusen (8,082), Neustadt/Heese (10,887), Scheuen (1,165), Vorwerk (2,842), Westercelle (7,183) and Wietzenbruch (4,805).
History
Middle Ages
Celle was first mentioned in a document of A.D. 985 as KielluAdolf Bach: Deutsche Namenkunde. Band II, 1: Die deutschen Ortsnamen. Heidelberg 1953, p. 36 (which means FischbuchtHeinrich Wesche: Unsere niedersächsischen Ortsnamen. o. O. 1957, S. 38 or fishing bay). It was granted the right to mint and circulate its own coins under the minting rights during the 11th century and several coins were found in the Sandur hoard in the Faroes. In 1292 Duke Otto II the Strict (1277–1330), a Welf who ruled the Principality of Lüneburg from 1277 to 1330, left Altencelle, where there had been defences in the form of a circular rampart (the Ringwall von Burg) since the 10th century, and founded a rectangular settlement by the existing castle (Burg) to the northwest. In 1301 he granted Celle its town privilegesHeinrich Gottfried Gengler: Regesten und Urkunden zur Verfassungs- und Rechtsgeschichte der deutschen Städte im Mittelalter, Erlangen 1863, S. 479–482; see also S. 982–983. and in 1308 started construction on the town church.
In 1378 Celle became the Residenz of the dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg and in 1433 the princes of Lüneburg took up residence in the castle (Schloss). The ducal palace was situated on a triangle between the Aller and its tributary, the Fuhse. A moat connecting the rivers was built in 1433, turning the town centre into an island. In 1452 Duke Frederick the Pious of Lüneburg founded a Franciscan monastery. In 1464 the grain shipping monopoly generated an economic upturn for the town.
Early modern period
In 1524 the Reformation was introduced into Celle. In 1570 Duke William the Younger built the castle chapel, which was consecrated in 1585.
In 1660 Celle had 3,750 inhabitants.Jürgen Ricklefs et al.: "Geschichte der Stadt Celle", p. 103. Köln 1959. From 1665 to 1705 Celle experienced a cultural boom as a Residenz under Duke George William. This has been put down in particular to his French wife, Eleonore d'Olbreuse, who brought fellow Huguenot Christians and Italian architects to Celle. During this time the French and Italian Gardens were laid out and the baroque castle theatre built. Because of the persecution of Huguenots under Louis XIV many French Huguenots sought refuge in Germany, especially in Berlin and in the towns of Celle, Neuwied and Hanau. About 300 Huguenots settled in Celle, where a new residential area was laid out for them in the southwest of the centre. Its main street, Hugenottenstrasse, is still a sightworthy historical street with well-preserved wooden houses built at the beginning of the 18th century. Many French refugees worked in the castle as cooks and servants, but some of them opened shops in Celle as tailors, carpenters, joiners, confectioners, wig makers and glovers, thus introducing some French cuisine, fashion and lifestyle into the town. Some years later protestant refugees from Austria sought refuge in Celle as well. Emigrantenstraße is another historical street, which was laid out for the Austrians.
In 1705 the last duke of the Brunswick–Lüneburg line died and Celle, along with the Principality of Lüneburg, passed back to the Hanover line of the Welfs. By way of compensation for the loss of its status as a Residenz town numerous administrative institutions were established in Celle, such as the Higher Court of Appeal (Oberappellationsgericht), the prison and the State Stud Farm. That began its development into an administrative and judicial centre. Even today the Lower Saxony-Bremen State Social Security Tribunal and the High Court responsible for most of Lower Saxony are based in Celle, amongst others.
Celle is also still home to a prison (the Justizvollzugsanstalt Celle or JVA Celle), which was built in a baroque style in the west of the city centre between 1710 and 1731.Hans Pusen: Harz, Hannover, Lüneburger Heide, p. 34. München 1972 Sometimes tourists mistake it for a castle because of its typical baroque architecture. That the citizens of Celle once − in a vote − chose to have a prison in Celle rather than a university in order to protect the virtue of their daughters is not verifiable but it has remained a persistent anecdote in popular folklore.
In August 1714 George Elector of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick–Lüneburg (King George I) ascended to the British throne. Between then and 1866, when the town became Prussian during the Austro-Prussian War as part of the province of Hanover, Celle was a possession of the British Hanoverian line.
In 1786 Albrecht Thaer founded the first German Agricultural Testing Institute in the meadows in the Dammasch (dam marsh) (today Thaer's Garden). The Albrecht-Thaer School is nowadays part of a vocational centre in the Celle sub-district of Altenhagen.
Modern period In 1842 the Cambridge Dragoons Barracks (Cambridge-Dragoner-Kaserne) for the homonymous regiment named after the Hanoveran Viceroy Duke Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, was built in Celle. After being extended in 1913 and partially rebuilt after a fire in 1936, it was renamed Goodwood Barracks in 1945 and from 1976 to 1996 was the headquarters of Panzerbrigade 33 in the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr. In 1989 it was renamed again to Cambridge-Dragoner-Kaserne. Since 1996 the area has mainly been used to house one of the largest youth centres in Lower Saxony.
From 1869 to 1872 an infantry barracks was built for the 77th Infantry Regiment which also gave the main street (running the length of the front of the barracks) its name of 77er Strasse. In 1938 it was renamed the Heidekaserne ("Heath Barracks"). After the Second World War the barracks was used by British troops until 1993 during which time 94 Locating Regiment Royal Artillery held residency for over 25 years, followed briefly by 14 Signal Regiment, which relocated from Scheuen until the barracks were handed back to the local authorities. Today the New Town Hall (Neue Rathaus) and Celle Council Offices are housed in the restored brick building. Residential buildings and a town park have been established on the rest of the terrain.
In 1892 − with the help of numerous citizens' donations − the present-day Bomann Museum with its important folklore and town-history collections was founded. In 1913 the 74 metre high clock tower was built on the town church and its clockwork underwent a major restoration in 2008. In the 1920s the silk mill was built. It was merged in 1932 with the one in Peine to become the Seidenwerk Spinnhütte AG. This concern expanded during the Nazi era into an armaments centre under the name of Seidenwerk Spinnhütte AG. A subsidiary founded in 1936, the Mitteldeutsche Spinnhütte AG, led war preparations through its branches in the central German towns of Apolda, Plauen, Osterode, Pirna and Wanfried. Its only product was the parachute silk needed for the paratroopers of the Wehrmacht.Hubertus Feußner, Die Spinnhütte, = Apoldaer Heimat. Beiträge zur Natur und Heimatgeschichte der Stadt Apolda und ihrer Umgebung 2008, S. 29ff.
During World War I, Germany operated two prisoner-of-war camps in Celle, and among its prisoners were British, Polish, Romanian, French, Belgian and Russian POWs and civilians. In 1916–1917, the Germans operated a special sub-sector for Polish POWs at one of the camps, with the aim of subjecting them to propaganda and conscripting them into a planned German-controlled Polish army to fight against Russia.Stanek, pp. 45, 61
In September 1929 Rudolph Karstadt opened a Karstadt department store in Celle town centre, the façade of which was identical to that of the Karstadt store on Berlin's Hermannplatz. The Celle branch was demolished in the 1960s and replaced by a controversial new building, the aluminium-braced facade of which was meant to represent Celle's timber-framed houses.
Nazi era
During Kristallnacht, the anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany on 9/10 November 1938, the synagogue in Celle was saved from complete destruction only because it was in a very narrow lane and there would have been a risk to the adjacent leather factory and other parts of the historical city centre with its old wooden houses.