Send Gift Baskets to Salzgitter, Germany

Salzgitter originated at the beginning of the 14th century around salt springs near the village of Verpstedt (later Vöppstedt). It was named after the neighboring village of Gitter – now a city borough. The name means “up on the salt”. After 200 years of salt production at various springs, the peasants in the area which is nowadays Salzgitter were chartered around 1350. They lost municipal law, however, when being transferred over to the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1667. The city of Salzgitter belonged to the parish of Hildesheim until 1803 when it was then transferred to Prussia. When the diocese was relocated in 1815, it became a part of the Kingdom of Hanover. In 1830, Salzgitter became an independent town and was granted its first municipal law.

After Hanover was transferred to Prussia in 1866, the town of Salzgitter became a Prussian municipality. The town of Vorsalz and the city of Liebenhall were also incorporated as part of Salzgitter. Saalz – also known as Salzed e Gittertor today – belonged to the City of Goslar. It was one of several small villages that were incorporated into the city in 1936.

The large iron ore body in Salzgitter that had been mentioned first in 1310 lent itself well to be exploited for the needs of the war effort leading to the establishment of Reichswerke Hermann Göring years later. To allow for easy development of the smelting action, a unique administration structure in the whole region was thought up. So, Hermann-Göring-Werke Salzgitter was declared an independent city in the Chancellor’s Order of 28 February 1942. Towards this aim, the town of Salzgitter and the municipalities Beinum, Flachstöckheim, Groß-Mahner, Hohenrode, Ohlendorf, and Ringelheim (7 in total, all belonging to the Landkreis Goslar) and Barum, Beddingen, Bleckenstedt, Bruchmachtersen, Calbecht, Drütte, Engelnstedt, Engerode, Gebhardshagen, Hallendorf, Heerte, Immendorf, Lebenstedt, Lesse, Lichtenberg, Lobmachtersen, Osterlinde, Reppner, Salder, Thiede-Steterburg (nowadays simply Thiede) and Watenstedt (21 in total, all belonging to the Landkreis Wolfenbüttel) were merged to form the Stadtkreis Watenstedt-Salzgitter. Most of the neighboring municipality was annexed in 1938, so when the new city was proclaimed on 2.8.1942 it started with 29 boroughs and then gained an additional 3 boroughs as boundaries were redrawn shortly afterward. The Landkreis of Holzminden was transferred from Braunschweig to Hanover, Prussia. Drütte concentration camp was a subcamp of the Neuengamme one and it served as a big labor camp where people were used for slave labor. It houses around 2,800 citizens and the entire structure is divided into four sections. Salzgitter was severely damaged during WWII by several bombings from both countries. After the Napoleonic Wars, the State of Braunschweig became part of Land Lower Saxony and Watenstedt Salzgitter became an ‘independent city in the ‘Administrative District of Braunschweig’.

In 1951, Stadt Salzgitter renamed itself “Stadt Salzgitter”, while the borough was renamed “Salzgitter-Bad”, constructing a connection between the towns. For both of these municipalities, this administrative reform marked the beginning of a new era. On 1 March 1974, they officially became part of Lower Saxony instead of being under the jurisdiction of the town and district capital that they did previously. Iron ore continues to be mined at the Salzgitter mines until 1982. The disposal of radioactive waste has been planned since 1975 in Schacht Konrad, another mining site in the area.