Kneitlingen is a municipality in the Wolfenbüttel

Wolfenbüttel (district)

Wolfenbüttel is a district in southeastern Lower Saxony, Germany. Neighboring districts are the district-free City of Braunschweig, the district of Helmstedt, the district of Harz in Saxony-Anhalt, and the districts of Goslar, Hildesheim and Peine...

 district in the German

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...

 state of 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...

, situated in Brunswick Land

Brunswick Land

Brunswick Land is a region in southeast Lower Saxony in the Harz Foreland in central Germany. It formed the heart of the old Duchy of Brunswick and the Free State of Brunswick...

 between the Elm

Elm (range)

The Elm is a range of hills north of the Harz mountains in the Helmstedt and Wolfenbüttel districts of Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a length of about 25 km and a width of 3–8 km and rises to an elevation of 323 meters. Surrounded by the Northern European Lowlands, the Elm is almost...

 and Asse

Asse (Germany)

The Asse is a small hill range in the district of Wolfenbüttel in southeastern Lower Saxony with a median height of 200 metres ASL; the highest elevation is the Remlinger Herse with a height of 234 m. There are more than 600 different plants found here; the Asse is mostly covered by trees...

 hill ranges. It is part of the Samtgemeinde Schöppenstedt

Schöppenstedt (Samtgemeinde)

Schöppenstedt is a Samtgemeinde in the district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Its seat is in the village Schöppenstedt.The Samtgemeinde Schöppenstedt consists of the following municipalities:# Dahlum...

.

The municipality has a population of 890 (as of 2005). It consists of the following four villages:

• Ampleben
• Bansleben
• Eilum
• Kneitlingen

Kneitlingen in the medieval Duchy of Saxony

Duchy of Saxony

The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...

 was first mentioned in a 1135 deed by Emperor Lothair of Süpplingenburg

Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor

Lothair III of Supplinburg , was Duke of Saxony , King of Germany , and Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 to 1137. The son of Count Gebhard of Supplinburg, his reign was troubled by the constant intriguing of Frederick I, Duke of Swabia and Duke Conrad of Franconia...

, who granted it to the newly created Benedictine

Order of Saint Benedict

The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...

 abbey of Königslutter

Königslutter

-External links:*...

. The Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 parish church was erected by the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

 about 1141; its apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...

 and groin vault

Groin vault

A groin vault or groined vault is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. The word groin refers to the edge between the intersecting vaults; cf. ribbed vault. Sometimes the arches of groin vaults are pointed instead of round...

 are preserved in the original condition. From 1235 onwards, the area belonged to the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

The village of Kneitlingen is known as the birthplace of the legendary trickster Till Eulenspiegel

Till Eulenspiegel

Till Eulenspiegel was an impudent trickster figure originating in Middle Low German folklore. His tales were disseminated in popular printed editions narrating a string of lightly connected episodes that outlined his picaresque career, primarily in Germany, the Low Countries and France...

. According to the tradition, he was baptised in the church of the neighbouring village of Ampleben, whereupon the christening party proceeded to the local tavern. On the way home in the afternoon, Till's tipsy midwife, crossing a brook, slipped on the gangplank and together with the child fell into a mud puddle, baptising him for the second time. Neither the nurse nor the baby was harmed, however Till was put into the bathtub at home, therefore baptised the third time that very day.