History of the city of Salzgitter

The monument to the city's history in the Lebenstedt pedestrian zone

Stadtmonument in Salzgitter-Lebenstedt

Alongside Wolfsburg, Salzgitter is one of the most important cities founded in Germany in the 20th century. The city's history is characterized by the raw material deposits in its area - salt and ore.

It owes its name to the salt deposits in Salzgitter-Bad. The iron ore deposits were of decisive importance for the founding of the city of Salzgitter on 01.04.1942. In 1937, the Reichswerke "Hermann Göring" was founded with the aim of extracting ore, building a steelworks near Watenstedt and producing steel.

Construction of the steelworks complex at Watenstedt began in the same year. The demand for labor was enormous. Workers - initially recruited, later deported and forced to work - were brought to the construction area from all over the Reich.

Thousands of people died under the inhumane living and working conditions - the Jammertal and Westerholz cemeteries bear witness to this and are haunting places of remembrance in Salzgitter.

Salzgitter presents itself today as a city of contrasts:

Centuries-old villages with impressive half-timbered buildings, churches, monasteries and castles in the midst of new settlements and industrial plants. The city is many things at the same time: a brine spa, idyllic countryside, a village, a university location, home to both long-time residents and newcomers, a large city with a wide range of offers and - with the Big Five (Salzgitter-AG, Alstom, MAN, Volkswagen, Bosch) - the third largest industrial location in Lower Saxony.

The rose garden in Salzgitter-Bad

Read more about Salzgitter's history here:

Salzgitter-Lebenstedt around 1958

A large housing estate for more than 100,000 people was to be built near Lebenstedt, of which six "sections" were completed by the end of the war. The population grew from 20,000 to more than 100,000 within a few years. Settlements for the miners were also built in the south of the later urban area near the ore mines, but most of the workers lived in barrack camps.

At the end of the war, Salzgitter was not yet a real city and its continued existence was by no means certain: it lacked roads, schools, hospitals, churches, cultural facilities, a town hall, a railroad station and other urban and economic facilities. Labels such as "prairie town" or "torso" manifested themselves.

As a product of the Nazi regime, the Reichswerke Group disintegrated at the end of the war. In accordance with the initially applicable occupation law, the steelworks in Salzgitter was under the strict control of the British military government and a trustee administration.

After the closure, dismantling and demilitarization measures soon began. The entire crude rolled steel capacity and 75 percent of the pig iron capacity were lost. Two of the twelve blast furnaces remained, along with the main workshop, some auxiliary operations, four batteries of a coking plant, processing plants and a waterworks; one of the most technically advanced steel production plants lay idle.

After the Petersberg Agreement and after fierce resistance by the workers in Salzgitter against the demilitarization measures, which would have made it impossible to rebuild the steelworks at a later date, dismantling was halted.

The fight against dismantling and for the preservation of the town was a source of identity. The town's population consisted of long-time residents, those who had stayed, refugees and displaced persons; in 1950, 32,000 people belonged to the latter group, half of whom were Silesians. Reconstruction of the factories began in 1951 and they were released from the control of the military government in 1953.

Since 2015, a memorial stele at the town hall has commemorated the end of the dismantling of the steelworks and pays tribute to the resistance of the workforce, works council, trade unions, political parties, churches and population against the dismantling of the industrial plants.

In memory of the prevention of dismantling.

The year 1951 is considered the year of the "second city foundation". Financial support from the federal government (around DM 39 million by 1961) enabled the development of a municipal infrastructure and the construction of the missing facilities. The 1954 land use plan for Salzgitter defined Lebenstedt as the center of the city, which was to develop westward with its buildings. A competition was held in 1953 for the planning of the future town center. The winning design (Müller/Urmoneit) became the guideline for Lebenstedt's urban development. It envisaged a concentrated urban core for the entire open space between Alt-Lebenstedt and the new residential development. Construction of the city center began in 1957. A retail area of 35,000 m² was planned on an area of 11 ha.

The existence of Salzgitter was once again put to the test during the deliberations on the Lower Saxony regional and administrative reform from the mid-1960s, but the city emerged consolidated from the reorganization in 1974: the municipalities of Sauingen and Üfingen were incorporated into Salzgitter, and since 31 March 1974 the city has consisted of 31 districts, which are grouped into seven localities.