Altensalzkoth

Altensalzkoth is a village in the Lower Saxon town of Bergen in north Germany. It belongs to the parish of Eversen in the district of Celle on the Lüneburg Heath. It lies 13 km north of Celle on the Landesstraße L 240 and currently has 65 inhabitants.

The history of Altensalzkoth is closely bound to the saltworks in Sülze. When the moors in the vicinity of Sülze were exhausted, the boiling sites were moved initially to the Bornrieth Moor from 1673 to 1678. In 1719 the first discussions took place about moving the boiling sites again, because the Bornrieth Moor was also being exhausted. To achieve this the existing pipes to the moor from Lindhorst along the Örtze, were moved eastwards past Eversen to the Scheuer Bruch, south of Sülze, in the newly established village of Altensalzkoth. The survey staff charged with organising the move described this new site on their maps as Alte Salz kath, from which the present name of the village was later derived. In 1723 the new wooden pipes were finished. From 1725 brine was boiled in the salt huts of Altensalzkoth. Due to the increasing difficulty of transporting Sülze brine due to the long road, in 1793 the boiling sites started to move back to Sülze. A large number of those working in the saltworks left Altensalzkoth as a result. For those remaining behind a long battle began over the division of land in order to secure their livelihood from farming. Years later this was resolved by giving the settlers three acres (Morgen) of pasture and six acres of farmland each. Although this division of land enabled them to eke out a basic existence, the inhabitants also developed secondary occupations. Barrel-making gained an importance at this time. Many household objects were made from the wood of local trees and sold at the markets in Celle and Hermannsburg.

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