Liebenburg

Liebenburg is a municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany.GeographyThe municipal area is situated north of the Harz mountain range, within the eastern Salzgitter Hills of the Innerste Uplands. It borders on the district capital Goslar, approx. 12km in the south; the adjacent municipalities in the north are Salzgitter-Bad and Schladen in Wolfenbüttel District.SubdivisionsThe municipality comprises Liebenburg proper (with 2,308 inhabitants) and the following nine villages, which were incorporated on 1 July 1972: Dörnten (1,326 inhabitants) with Kunigunde Groß Döhren (908) Heißum (312) Klein Döhren (438) Klein Mahner (375) Neuenkirchen (233) Ostharingen (249) Othfresen (2,064) with Heimerode and Posthof Upen (358)HistoryArchaeological excavations of a gallery grave indicate a settlement of the area in the Late Neolithic. The former Saxon estates in 1235 belonged to the territory of the newly established Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim.From 1292 to 1302, Prince-bishop Siegfried II of Querfurt had the Levenborch spur castle erected in the Salzgitter Hills, near where his episcopal lands bordered on the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. From 1366 it was pawned by his successors to the citizens of Braunschweig, important to secure the trade route to the Imperial City of Goslar.