Heidmark

The Heidmark is an area of the Lüneburg Heath, much of which has not been accessible to the population since about 1935/1936. The establishment of a large military training area (Truppenübungsplatzes Bergen) by the German armed forces, the Wehrmacht, as part of their rearmament and preparation for war resulted in the evacuation of 24 villages and, since then the training area has been out-of-bounds to non-military personnel. Today it has become the Bergen-Hohne Training Area, the largest of its kind in Europe.

The region of 'Heytmarke' was recorded in the Celle Vogtei registers as early as the 15th century. It belonged to the district office (Amtsvogtei) of Fallingbostel and comprised the parishes of Fallingbostel, Dorfmark, Meinerdingen and Düshorn including Ostenholz. Today it refers to the region between Fallingbostel, Soltau and Bergen which, since the creation of the military training area in 1935/1936 has been largely closed to the public. The centre point of the Heidmark was Fallingbostel.

The folk in the area around the Sieben Steinhäuser and the Falkenberg suffered much during the Thirty Years War, especially in those villages that lay on the routes taken by the Army. The life of its farmers was for a long time dependent on sheep farming, but this faded into the background during the first half of the 19th century and the whole landschape changed and fields were cultivated on the heathland with its loamy, sandy soils. The herds of moorland sheep, the Heidschnucke, disappeared as the tracts of heathland were afforested and made way for plantations of beech, oak and spruce, resulting in the emergence of mixed woods. Many attempts were made in the eastern Heidmark to make economic progress. The discovery of artificial fertiliser enabled the heathland farmers to become genuinely self-sufficient. They earned more income from their fields and were able to sell grain and fruit.

Crafts were an important source of income and employment in the Heidmark. It was especially common in Oerbke where there were numerous lines of work. As well as the farming and estate families, tradesmen also settled in the Heidmark and built estate houses and manor houses. In 2007 many of these manorial building are still standing. There are small village schools in the Heidmark, as well as several parishes and numerous societies.

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Wikipedia