Best Things to Do in Salzgitter, Salzgitter, in the German state of Lower Saxony, is a 20-minute car ride south of the city of Braunschweig (Brunswick), and is known as a major steel producer in Europe.
Salzgitter is a relatively young city, having been established in the 20th century in response to the influx of people drawn to the area by the steel industry and the Volkswagen factory. Before that, this area was a collection of estates belonging to various nobility, and many of their grand manors and manor homes are still standing.
Even though Ringelheim and Flachstöckheim are privately owned, they are situated in historic parks that are accessible to the general public.
Discover the old salt spring that gives Salzgitter its name at Salzgitter-Bad, as well as the ruins of a fortress erected by Henry the Lion and a Medieval church with frescoes from the 15th century, all throughout the countryside.
Best Things to Do in Salzgitter
St.-Marien-Kirche, Engerode
The high Engerode neighborhood is home to Salzgitter’s oldest still-standing church.
The St.-Marien-Kirche was built on the site of a Romanesque pilgrimage chapel established by the knight Thietmar von Engerode in 1236. This structure was erected next to his home; its tower later used as the main aisle of a nearby church.
The 15th-century frescoes depicting scenes from Christ’s life that were painted on the Gothic vaults are still in dazzling condition.
Images of his baptism, turning water into wine (at the Wedding at Cana), arrest, crucifixion, and burial are as clear as day.
Gut Flachstöckheim
Flachstöckheim, which is now part of Salzgitter, was once home to the von Schwicheldt family, one of the wealthiest in the Braunschweig area during the Middle Ages.
The settlement was owned by a single family as early as the 15th century, and it was this family that commissioned the construction of an impressive half-timbered manor house in the early 18th century, which they would continue to expand upon into the early 19th.
During the Seven Years’ War, Prince Henry of Prussia stayed at the house, and he had French POWs build a Baroque garden that was eventually renovated in the English style.
Today, this area features an outdoor stage for summertime children’s theater productions.
Even though you can’t go inside, the park with its lofty, centuries-old trees and the mansion, Kavalierhaus (for high-ranking court officials), and water mill are all worth seeing from the outside.
Salzgittersee
Many of the huge bodies of water in the Salzgitter region are relics from the city’s industrial past and are now protected nature preserves.
As an illustration, the Heertersee was carved out so that ore mines could channel their pit water into the lake.
The Salzgittersee was likewise created by humans, but it served as a pleasure area after being artificially enlarged in the 1960s.
The lake has an area of 75 ha, has a maximum depth of 17 m, and is subject to regular health department inspections.
More than a kilometer of sandy beaches line the east and west banks, attracting crowds whenever the sun is shining.
There is a large pirate-themed playground for kids and a recreation center with watersports equipment on an island in the middle of the lake.
Friedhof Jammertal
Visit the Jammertal Cemetery in the nearby Lebenstedt neighborhood after seeing the Turm der Arbeit, which harkens back to a more ominous time in Salzgitter’s history.
In Salzgitter, concentration camps like Arbeitserziehungslager Hallendorf were responsible for the deaths of approximately 3000 individuals.
For offenses like as listening to foreign radio stations, criticizing National Socialism, or simply not following the rules at the Reichswerke Hermann Göring steel factories, people might be sent to the camps without a trial.
There are memorials to the Jewish, French, Polish, and Soviet victims, among others.
The names of the five people commemorated on these stones are inscribed on metal sheets and kept in binders nearby.
Skulpturenweg Salzgitter-Bad
A sculpture path emerged on the southern side of Salzigitter-Bad between 1999 and 2008.
Overall, there are nine pieces, and they’re all by well-known artists like Gerd Winner and Ulrich Rückriem and Hiromi Akiyama. Among the locations where these sculptures may be viewed, four can be found in the Mahner Berg golf course, two in the Greifpark, and two near the hot salt springs.
All of the sculptures are made of steel to pay homage to the city’s many steel mills and to engage in a conversation with Salzgitter’s past and present.
Gauß-Stein
Shortly after leaving the ruins of Castle Lichtenburg, you’ll come across an unassuming plinth bearing a plaque.
The Gauß-Stein may not seem significant at first view, but 19th-century polymath Carl Friedrich Gauss placed it there, so if you’re a mathematician or history buff, you might be interested in that fact.
During King George IV’s 1820 survey of Hanover, this stone served as a triangulation point. Only a small fraction of the 2,000 triangulation points that existed in 1820 still have monuments at their locations.
Museum Schloss Salder
There is a beautiful Weser-Renaissance palace built in 1608 for the lords of Saldern’s landholdings in the village of Salder, which lies inside Salzgitter’s borders.
The municipal museum in Salzgitter has been open for more than 55 years, and visitors never have to pay to go inside.
The museum is multifaceted, covering not only the ore mining history of Salzgitter, but also exhibiting artwork and children’s toys from the 1800s to the 2000s. The massive Ichthyosaur fossil, discovered in an ore mine in 1941, dates back to the Lower Cretaceous Period (about 115 million years ago) and is on display at the museum. An “Ice Age Garden” is located on the grounds, shedding light on the lives of the Neanderthals whose fossils have been discovered in the area around Salzgitter.
Turm der Arbeit
The potential primary landmark of Salzgitter can be found in the city’s pedestrian zone.
In 1995, the artist Jürgen Weber unveiled the Turm der Arbeit, a sculptured memorial that recalls the troubled history of Salzgitter.
The Reichswerke Hermann Göring iron mines and six concentration camps were located in Salzgitter during the Nazi era.
The city has a complex relationship with work and labor due to its involvement in Germany’s post-war economic miracle.
The bronze and marble monument stands at 13.73 meters in height and weighs 36.5 tons. It features reliefs that recount the story of the concentration camps, the city’s evacuation during the war, and the struggle to prevent the closure of its iron industry.
There’s a statue of a foundry worker at the summit.
Bismarckturm in Salzgitter
After Otto von Bismarck’s death, hundreds of towers were erected around Germany to honor Germany’s first chancellor.
The Salzgitter tower, built in 1900 in a city recently endowed with ironworks, features a metal scaffolding that measures 12 meters in height. Located on top of a 275.3-meter hill in Hamberg, this iron structure features 57 stairs leading up to a viewing platform. The pedestal itself is made of stone and measures five meters in height.
The tower’s iron framework makes it unique among Germany’s three Bismarck towers.
Next, we’ll go over the ruins of Burg Lichtenberg, a castle that dates back to the 12th century and is located on a hillside just below the tower.
Burgruine Lichtenburg
The ruins of a castle built by one of the most powerful monarchs of the time, Henry the Lion, can be found atop Hamberg’s highest point, some 200 meters from the Bismarck Tower.
Henry was able to protect his power base against imperial Goslar and episcopal Hildesheim and maintain control of the region’s valuable trade routes thanks to the fortification.
The original structure of the castle lasted until the 16th century, when cannons fired during the Schmalkaldic War destroyed it.
The current walls, gates, and outbuildings were built on the ancient foundations in the 1890s, while the central keep was reconstructed in the same year.
A trebuchet replica, which has been on the site since 2005, can be found when exploring the area.
Rosengarten und Gradierpavillon
Saltwater springs are what give the city of Salzgitter-Bad its name, and they may be found close to the town square and the town hall.
The brine waters of Salzgitter were first documented in 1125, and the salt well is 243 meters deep. In the 1970s, a rose garden was designed around the well, and the old pump that was used to extract saltwater from the well’s depths was left in place on the lawn.
In 2009 the Gradierpavillon was created as a new facility for salt production, piping water to the surface and catching the salt in blackthorn bundles, which are positioned on a rack above a basin.
Kniestedter Gutshaus
The oldest half-timbered structure in the city is located right on the Rosengarten and dates back to 1533. As a result of the construction of a road in the 1970s, the Kniestedter Gutshaus had to be dismantled and relocated to its current position.
Around the Rosengarten, the home was the first of a tiny cluster of old timber-framed buildings known as the Traditionsinsel (Traditional Island).
When the nobility von Kniestedt family outgrew their mansion in the 1600s, they moved their employees into the Kniestedter Gutshaus.
It is now used as a community center, with a music academy on the second story and a ceremonial hall on the first.
Schloss und Park Ringelheim
A former Benedictine abbey, in existence for about 900 years until its secularization in 1803, may be found near Salzgitter’s southern boundaries. After a period of service as a monastery, the building underwent Baroque-style renovations in the 1700s, at which point it was transformed into a manor home and, in the years following World War II, a lung sanatorium.
The privately owned land is currently vacant as its new use is being planned, but the monastery church and the English garden built out there in the 1800s are open to the public.
The church’s high altar, side altars, and pulpit date to the 18th century, and the organ, a 31-register Baroque masterpiece, is widely considered to be among the finest in all of Lower Saxony.
A magnificent sandstone bridge spans the park’s historic fish pond network, which the monks created over the course of 110 hectares.
Burg Gebhardshagen
The village of Braunschweig on the shores of Lake Heertersee is home to one of the oldest castles in all of Braunschweig and all of Brunswick.
Until the end of the Thirty Years’ War in the middle of the 17th century, the Lords of Hagen called this moated castle, first mentioned in 1186, home.
By then, the castle was no longer strategically significant, and it was converted into a farm.
After the mining industry in Salzgitter grew flourishing in the 19th century, a number of wealthy businessmen made the elegant home their home.
The castle’s vaulted vaults are now available for events, and concerts and annual festivals like the Schützenfest (traditional shooting sport) are held there.
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Kniestedter Kirche
You can visit the Salzgitter-Bad church that once served the nearby village of Kniestedt and is now used as an art museum.
Though the structure itself may be much older, the earliest written record of it dates back to the year 1455.
After it ceased holding services in the 1970s, the building was turned into a performing arts center in 1985 without compromising its historic integrity.
Arndt von Kniestedt, who passed away in 1611, is commemorated with a grave effigy placed just inside the entryway. Arndt is represented in armor, and the crests of the various branches of the von Kniestedt family may be seen in the panel’s four corners.
See if there’s a music or comedy event that strikes your interest if you find yourself with some free time in the evening.