DEUTSCHLAND | GERMANY |
Bundesland: Niedersachsen | Lower Saxony |
Landkreis: Goslar |
Sankt Andreasberg is situated at an elevation of 600 m in the Oberharz region of southeastern Lower Saxony, about 7 km west of Braunlage, 23 km southeast of the district town Goslar and about 92 km southeast of Hannover, the capital of Lower Saxony. Sankt Andreasberg has a population of about 1,500 (2023) and since 2011 is part of the municipality of Braunlage.
The first pits and a first settlement were probably established in the 12th century under the direction of the monks of the Cistercian abbey of
Walkenried. It is not known whether this settlement already bore the name Sankt Andreasberg, but the monks already named a mountain after the patron
saint of mining, St. Andrew. The earliest known written document that mentions sanct AndrewsBerges dates from 1487. In 1521 the village
received the mining privilege ('Bergfreiheit') from the counts of Hohnstein, which was confirmed in 1527. In 1535 the village was elevated to the status
of a town. After the counts of Hohnstein became extinct in 1593, Sankt Andreasberg came in possession of the Dukes of
Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel (until 1617), followed by the Dukes of
Braunschweig-Lüneburg (until 1665) and thereafter the Princes of Calenberg (later Electors of Hannover). From 1807 to 1813, Sankt Andreasberg
belonged to the Kingdom of Westphalia. The mining town was the capital of the canton of Andreasberg, district of Osterode in the département du Harz.
After the end of Napoleonic rule, Sankt Andreasberg belonged to the Kingdom of Hannover. The town was administered by the Clausthal
mining authority as an intermediate authority of the kingdom. In 1859, the district was combined with the district Zellerfeld and
the previously independent town of Clausthal to form the Zellerfeld district, with which it was incorporated into the new district Zellerfeld district in
1885. From 1866, this district belonged to the Prussian province of Hannover. Mining activities declined in the mid-19th century and finally ended in 1910.
As a town in the district Zellerfeld, Sankt Andreasberg became part of the newly founded state of Lower Saxony in 1946. The 1972 Law on the Reorganization of
Municipalities in the Harz Region resulted in the division of the district Zellerfeld, with Sankt Andreasberg being placed in the district of Goslar.
The formerly free mining town in the Upper Harz was the smallest independent town in the state of Lower Saxony until it merged with Braunlage on
1 November 2011.
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankt_Andreasberg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankt_Andreasberg]