Harenberg
Encyclopedia
Harenberg is a district of the town Seelze
Seelze
Seelze is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Leine, approx. 10 km west of Hanover. Today Seelze mainly plays the role of a bedroom town for commuters working in Hanover.-Division of the town:...

, in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Geography

Harenberg is situated approximately 2 km west of the city of Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

, close to the Bundesstrasse 441. The village lies on a flat landscape behind a hill, from which point there is a far-reaching view around, to Seelze and Hanover, as well as toward the Deister
Deister
The Deister is a chain of hills in the German state of Lower Saxony, about 15 mi southwest of the city of Hanover. It runs in a north-westerly direction from Springe in the south to Rodenberg in the north. The next the chain of hills that attaches in the south is called Small Deister...

. Harenberg also includes three smaller settlements outside the village. These are the settlements Kollrothshöh (on the hill halfway between Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

 and Harenberg), Cemetery (on the street linking Harenberg and Seelze) and Mill (on the Linnenberg hill between Harenberg and fellow village Döteberg), which lie on the historical access roads to Harenberg.

History

Harenberg can perhaps be traced back to the late Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...

 settlement period of the 8th century.
Its existence can more conclusively be validated from 1220 onward (documents from Hildesheim
Hildesheim
Hildesheim is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the district of Hildesheim, about 30 km southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste river, which is a small tributary of the Leine river...

 dated back to 1195 also may refer to it, but the obscurity of the spelling means this is not definitive). There is believed to have been an aristocratic family in Harenberg, who called themselves after their residence 'von Harenberg'. A Bernhard von Horenberge is mentioned in a Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...

n documents book from this time.

Harenberg developed through the settling of farms in the area through the ages, beginning to take shape around 1400. By 1600, Harenberg had 28 farm houses and had established itself as a village entity.

With the agricultural reforms of the 1830s, and the dawning of the Industrial Age
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...

, the village structure began to alter. A tax list from 1873 details 43 houses with 317 inhabitants. Two-thirds of these worked as members of the family, farmhands and farmgirls and day labourers. The other inhabitants worked within trades such as tailoring, shoemaking, carpentry, smiths or weaving, though Harenberg did not yet have any factory or railway workers.

In the following half century, the number of inhabitants increased more and more as neighbouring Hanover's factories and railway links expanded and Harenberg's locality to the city gained it new inhabitants. The population also swelled later through the effects of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, as refugees relocated.

As in most villages, the role of agriculture has been continuously declining since the 1950s. Despite its historical roots and rural surroundings, the Harenberg of today places little importance upon farming.

Places

Harenberg has a neo-gothic style church named the St. Barbara-Kirche, that was developed from a small chapel built in 1882 by Conrad Wilhelm Hase. The chapel had also been used as a burial ground initially, before the construction of the cemetery on Seelzer-Strasse in 1885.

The Harenberger Grundschule (eng: elementary school) serves the community children (up to age 10), and dates back to 1689. It is also used as a polling station in local elections. Harenberg does not possess any school serving children beyond this age though, so they must commute into Hanover in later years.

The Sportplatz, tucked down in the south west of the village, is home to the local football club Tus Harenberg of the Hannover 1. Kreisklasse Staffel 3 league. The club, established in 1928, also has table tennis and volleyball sides.

External links

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