Nordhausen

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Nordhausen


Country	Germany
State	Thuringia
District	Nordhausen
Population	42,765 (2005)
Area	89.32 km²
Population density	479 /km²
Elevation	180-260 m
Coordinates	51°31′ N 10°48′ E
Postal code	99734
Area code	03631
Licence plate code	NDH
Mayor	Barbara Rinke (SPD)
Website	nordhausen.de

Roland statue in Nordhausen.

Nordhausen is a city^[1] of about 45,000 people at the southern edge of the Harz mountains, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Nordhausen. It was once known for its tobacco industry, and is still known for its distilled spirit, Nordhäuser Doppelkorn.

1 History
2 Main sights
3 Notes
4 Twin cities
5 External links

[edit] History

The city is first attested in a 13 May 927 document of Henry the Fowler, but an earlier settlement on the site dates back to around 785. In 1220, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor made it an Imperial Free City, and in 1430 Nordhausen joined the Hanseatic League. From around 1500 the city began producing fermented grain liquor, which became famous under the name Nordhäuser Doppelkorn. In 1523, a year in which Thomas Müntzer spent some time in the city, the Reformation came to Nordhausen.

In 1866 the railway connected Nordhausen to Halle, Saxony-Anhalt.

On April 3 and 4 April 1945 three-quarters of the town was destroyed by bombing raids of the Royal Air Force, in which around 8,800 people died. On 11 April the Americans occupied the city, and on 2 July the Red Army took over. It has since been rebuilt, and, primarily since German reunification, had its ancient city center restored.

[edit] Main sights

A 17th-century Statue of Roland, at the outer wall of the Town Hall. It is considered a symbol of the town.
The Cathedral of the Holy Cross (Dom Zum Heiligen Kreuz). It dates back to a church built in the mid-10th century. In 1220 the church was converted to a cathedral. The building has a late Gothic nave, while the towers, crypt and cloisters are in Romanesque style.
The Frauenberger Kirche (St Maria auf dem Berg), a Romanesque church.
The Petriturm (St Peter's Tower), the remaining tower of a 14th-century church destroyed in 1945.
The Kunsthaus Meyenburg, an early 20th-century Jugendstil villa that houses a small museum of contemporary art.
The Theater, built in 1917.

[edit] Notes

^ Nordhausen is sometimes used to refer to the WW II concentration camp of Mittelbau-Dora in which approximately 20,000 prisoners lost their lives in an 18-month period. The camp, which included the Mittelwerk underground city in the Kohnstein mountain, the production site of V-2 rockets, was located about 3 km northwest of the Nordhausen and now hosts a memorial site. See Personal testimonials of U. S. 104th Infantry Division soldiers who helped liberate the camp, which they called "the Nordhausen camp" at the time.