Unsere Region

The region of Braunschweig is surrounded by many beautiful and famous towns.as well as a beautiful countryside.
Harz Mountains
 The Harz Mountains is a mountain range in the south of Braunschweig and the highest mountain chain in northern Germany. The Brocken is the highest peak with a height of 1,141.1 m above NN. It’s a place for a wide range of activities like hiking, walking, mountain biking, swimming, country cross skiing, down hill skiing,) In the town of Bad Harzburg there is one of Germany's best spa resorts with a thermal salt water pool complex.
In the Harz Mountains you will find beautiful and famous old towns. Only the most important, belonging to the Unesco World Heritage will be mentioned:

Age: well over 700 years old (birth certificate issued 1223)
Founding Father: Count Gunzelin of Wolfenbüttel
Size: Almost 50.000 inhabitants
Symbolilic animals: wolf and owl
Geographic location: Peine is situated between the Harz Mountains to the south and the Lüneburg Heath to the north and between the cities  of Hanover to the west and Brunswick to the east.
Economy:
Peine is a town whose economy is based on a variety of industrial branches or, as our mayor likes to say: “Peine is famed both far and near for its quality steel and Härke beer”. In addition to the most up-to-date electric steelworks in Europe, the town is the home of a large number of firms in the plastic processing industry, manufactures of stationery, companies from the telecommunications and home entertainments branch and many more.
The Airport at Hanover-Langenhagen is only thirty minutes away. The way to Peine is not long and from Peine the rest of the world is easily accessible. A town which is open to the rest of the world, and at the same time a magnet for people.
Culture:
The people of Peine like to take responsibility for cultural life in the town themselves. A programme of culture events is a further feature of an attractive town.
Peine has it own theatre, for which we may be grateful to the steel industry.
The story is quite simple:
A captain of industry marries an actress, who performs on the stage, in a restaurant, but expresses the wish to do so in a proper theatre. Her husband presents her with one and today this attractive building belongs to the town.

The city of Goslar at the Harz Mountains belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage sites. It has a rich history stretching from the Neolithic via the ancient Saxon times, the Holy Roman German Empire, Reformation, The Iron Curtain, up to the reunifica-tion of Germany. The town was founded in the 10th century by the Salian Emperor Henry I., after the discovery of silver deposits in the nearby Rammelsberg.
Goslar had the oldest ore mine of Germany Initially the main product oft the Ram-melsberg was silver ore, then later copper, and finally lead. The mines were exhausted only in the 1980s, and were shut down in 1988. The ore contained an average of 14% of zinc, 6% lead, 2% copper, 1 g/t gold and 140 g/t silver. In the history of the Rammelsberg mine about 27 million tons of ore were extracted from the mountain.
Attracted by the occurrence of silver Emperor Henry II from 1005 on had a Medieval Imperial Palace of Goslar (Kaiserpfalz). The mines remained an Imperial estate and later were held in pledge by the Imperial city of Goslar. The Kaiserpfalz became a summer residence for the emperors, especially Henry III of Germany.

Our region was situated close to “The Iron Curtain” between East and West Germa-ny. After the unification Werningerode was restored and became the status of Unesco World Heritage Sites. Wernigerode contains several interesting Gothic buildings, including a fine town hall with a timber facade of 1498. Some of the quaint old houses which have escaped the numerous fires that have visited the town are elaborately adorned with wood-carving. Above the town rises the castle (Schloß Wernigerode); the original was built in the 12th century. The present castle was built between 1862 and 1893 and includes parts of the medieval building.

Gifhorn is a town 20 km north of Braunschweig. Near Gifhorn there are two special points of interest:

• International Windmill and Watermill Museum – mills

The romance of the past is tangible at the world's only International Mill Museum in Gifhorn. There are 15 authentic mills from Germany and all over the world in its 100,000 m² grounds.
Where the wind drives the sails
This international museum of windmills and watermills on the banks of the river Ise in Gifhorn opened to the public in 1980. Its array of mills is truly international, ranging from a replica of the traditional galleried Dutch windmill in the grounds of Sanssouci Palace to a Korean watermill. Mills from all corners of the world, including what is probably the biggest horse treadmill in Germany, mills from Ukraine, Greece, France and Spain and a Russian trestle windmill from the Archangel area can be seen at this remarkable open-air museum which is located in a beautiful lakeland setting. Its well-designed grounds provide a habitat for local wildlife.

• Heiliger Hein Heath
Near Gifhorn you will find the Heiliger Hain Heath. It’s a popular tourist destination due to its unique landscape, especially during the blossom time in August.
The Heiliger Hain Heath has extensive areas of heath land, typical of those that cov-ered most of the North German countryside until about 1800, but which have almost completely disappeared in other areas. The heaths were formed after the Neolithic period by overgrazing of the once widespread forests on the poor sandy soils of the geest, as this slightly hilly and sandy terrain in northern Europe is called.

The Heiliger Hain Heath is therefore a historic cultural landscape and now it is a nature reserve. The area of heath is kept clear mainly through grazing, especially by a North German breed of moorland sheep called the Heidschnucke. 

• Old Town
Another point of interest is the Old Town. A very nice quarter of the Old Town is the Kreuz-Church-Quarter around the Kreuz Church with many nice little lanes. Nearby is the old theatre, called Ballhofeins. On the edge of the Old Town are the Market Hall, the Leine Palace, and the ruin of the Aegidien Church which is now a monument to the victims of war and violence. Through the Marstall Gate you arrive at the bank of the river Leine, where the world-famous Nanas of Niki de Saint-Phalle are located.

The town is famous for the folk tale of the Pied Piper of Hameln (German: Der Rattenfänger von Hameln), a medieval story that tells of a tragedy that befell the town in the thirteenth century. The version written by the Brothers Grimm made it popular throughout the world; it is also the subject of well-known poems by Goethe and Robert Browning. Although Hamelin has a fine medieval old town with some remarkable buildings, the main attraction is the tale of the Pied Piper. In the summer every Sunday, the tale is performed by actors in the town centre.
The town is visited by about 3.8 Mio tourists annual and offers nearly 200.000 over-nights to national and international guests.