Rethen is a former municipality in the district of Gifhorn, Lower Saxony. The village was probably founded during the Saxon Wars of Charlemagne. In the Middle Ages, Rethen was a border town between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim and Diocese of Halberstadt. In 1974 Rethen and Eickhorst were incorporated into the municipality of Vordorf, which belongs to the Samtgemeinde Papenteich. Today the village has about 1200 inhabitants.
Geography
Geographical position Rethen is located in middle Germany, in relatively short distance north of the city of Braunschweig and not far from the major cities of Salzgitter and Wolfsburg. The village lies south of the Lüneburg Heath and three kilometers northwest of Vordorf, the seat of the municipality. Rethen is located directly on the Lower Saxony L 321. Nearest major traffic routes are the B 4 (4 km to the east), the B 214 (6 km to the west) and the A2 (6 km to the south). Nearest middle centers are Gifhorn, Peine and Wolfenbüttel.
Geology The village is centrally located on the sandy-loamy plateau of the Papenteich approximately 75–82 m above sea level. The landscape around Rethen is predominantly characterized by arable farming and individual wooded areas. The various soils of the district are of medium to good quality.ZGB: Regional planning for the relocation of the B4 in the area between Braunschweig and Gifhorn (PDF; 1,9 MB). Flat soils over calcareous marl are better rated, in the village also called "unser Klei". Sands and loams are glacial-post-glacial depositions. Isolated boulders near the surface, small boulders and flints are boulder deposits of the Elster- and Saale glaciation.
A special feature are the near-surface limestone marl layers of the so-called "Rethen-Meiner Upper Cretaceous basin" in the Rethen area as well as in Meine and Vordorf, formed in a shallow sea about 80 million years ago. The limestone marl contains fossils from this Cretaceous period, such as sponges, sea urchins, and mussels. Until the beginning of the 20th century, a commercially used lime pit south-east of Rethen was a rich finding place. Today the pit is no longer opened up, however, even today isolated finds are made in the course of soil excavations such as construction pits.
Waters
Rethen used to be known for its very productive water springs, which were used equally by Rethen residents and the inhabitants of neighboring villages. For decades, a spring near the village pond has been available to the public and is still regularly used by farmers today. In the Rethen district there are also two creeks with historical significance: Vollbütteler Riede (also: Mühlenriede, Mönchsgraben) The Mühlenriede was a boundary marker between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Halberstadt around the year 1000. At that time, the stream bore the name Druchterbiki, which later gave rise to the name Druffel-Bach. According to old border maps, the creek rises north of Rethen and flows past the villages of Algesbüttel, Klein Vollbüttel, Druffelbeck and Ribbesbüttel into the creek Hehlenriede and finally into the Allerkanal. Rötgesbütteler Riede (also: Dingbanksriede) The name of this small creek derives from the old dingbanks near Rötgesbüttel, before they were moved to the Schierenbalken in the 16th century. The historic dingbanks are located about 3.5 kilometers northeast of Rethen on Rötgesbüttel territory.
Natural Reserve Maaßel
In the north of Rethen, the soils become increasingly wet and the predominantly agricultural area is increasingly interspersed with tree cover. This tree cover then turns into an Oak-hornbeam forest. The forest area extends between Rethen, Rötgesbüttel and Vollbüttel. The area belongs to the new Naturschutzgebiet (nature reserve) Maaßel since 2019.
People Demographic development It is not possible to find any exact population figures for the time before the year 1821. The only reliable dates are sporadic documents, mentioning the number of different farms and buildings in Rethen. In 1489 a document listed 3 Hufner (full farmers), 4 smallholdings and 13 Kötner (small Prussian house owners). This didn't change much until the next notification in 1773 with 6 Hufner, 14 Kötner and 4 Brinksitzer (lowest level farmers). An enlargement of the village started after the end of the 18th century. As a result of these sparse notes, scientists believe that between 200 and 250 people were living in the village during the middle ages.
The next enlargement was triggered by refugees of World War II. Many of them removed later further to the west. This was mainly because of the nonexistent possibilities of housing space within the village. The latest enlargement started during suburbanization in the 1990s, activated by new preparations of land for building and the vicinity to several larger cities and highways. Model calculations shows a further growth of population figures during the next decades based on the facts named above.Contribution for research project City 2030
RethenDemographic development since 1821 Development Year Population Year Population Year Population 1821 328 1933 478 2000 1222 1848 365 1939 503 2005 1223 1890 386 1950 848 2006 1214 1900 420 1961 687 2013 1137 1905 470 1970 725 2015 1125 1912 514 1980 843 2021 1138 1925 499 1990 879 Quellen: Brand, Renate: Papenteich in alten Ansichten. Eschenbach 1995, ISBN 3-89570-057-6.Papenteicher Nachrichten, Ausgabe 395 - May 2007, S. 5.Einwohnerstatistik Papenteich, retrieved 23 October 2018.Gemeindeverzeichnis von 1900, retrieved 31 December 2021.Kirchengemeindelexikon zu Rethen (Vordorf), retrieved 31 December 2021.Verwaltungsgeschichte Gifhorn , retrieved 31 December 2021.
History
Prehistory The first signs of settlement within the boundaries of Rethen go back more than 5000 years. In 1995 megalithic tomb remains were found near the village. The settlement, belonging to the tomb, is assumed within 3 km.
Abandoned villages There are several Abandoned villages in the immediate vicinity, including Dudanroth (1000 AD), Bromhorst (1007 AD) or Arnsbüttel. Most of these are located outside the present-day municipal boundaries. All settlements fell desolate between the 13th and 16th centuries. Explicitly documented are:
Algesbüttel was mentioned first time in the year 1022. The place had around 7 farms and one church. The last documentary mentioning was in 1480 as a fiefdom of Lüneburg. Ossenrode (Asenroth) was mentioned first time in the year 1112. The place had around 4 farms and was situated in the north-east of Rethen. Archaeological records belongs to the 12th and 14th century. Zinsrode (Sinesrode) was situated between Rethen and Vordorf. The place is located but not ascertained. At the surface area several arranged stones can be seen. The last documentary mentioning was in the end of the 15th century. Wendenbüttel (Wendenbutle) was mentioned first time in the year 1007 and was situated in the south of Rethen. Archaeological records belongs to the 10th and 14th century.
Foundation Documentary mentions The first documentary mention of Rethen comes from 2 April 1301. At that time, the village was purely agricultural, with mainly cattle breeding and only a little arable farming. The content of the deed is the sale of five hooves and four meadows in "Rethene". The knight Balduin von Wenden and his squires Ludolf and Georg sold this property to the Monastery St. Crucis (Braunschweig).Braunschweiger Urkundenbuch, Bd. 2, S. 244. Online bei archive.org
Some years later, a legal dispute between Duke Otto of Brunswick and Lord of Süpplingenburg and the St. Crucis Monastery over five hooves is documented. It is not known whether these are the same hooves as those of the knight Balduin. In any case, Otto and probably also the Knights Templars in Brunswick laid claim to these hooves. After the dissolution of the Knights Templar in 1312, Otto was informed in 1314 that he and the Knights Templar had no right to the property in Rethen.Braunschweiger Urkundenbuch, Bd. 2, S. 416. Online bei archive.org
Church The church can also be dated back to the early days of the village. The first mentions are found in the years 1323 and 1341; they concern the parish household and the election of churchwardens. The church tower that still exists today may have existed at that time (estimates put it in the 13th century). The Gothic-style tympanum above the portal is more likely to date to the 15th century, based on similar depictions in neighbouring parishes.
Indirect mentions Rethen is thus in any case older than the documented mentions indicate. An older age was already indicated in 1641. Georg von Rethen, mayor of Braunschweig, wrote about his family history that his ancestor Heinrich Bethmann had already been granted estates in Rethen and the church patronage by Bishop Hartbert of Hildesheim in 1199. However, no documentary evidence of this is known.Oskar Kiecker/Hans Lütgens: Die Kunstdenkmale der Provinz Hannover, Regierungsbezirk Lüneburg, Kreis Gifhorn, Hannover 1931.
Toponymy In the latest scientific published papers (1994), Rethen is considered as a frankish founding, related to the founding of Meine. It is believed, that the Franks founded several settlements while they subdued the Saxons in the 8th century. In that century, an important road crossed the, in that time existing, Northforest in east–west direction, supposable in the vicinity of Rethen and Meine. A number of examples were already explored, where several Frankish settlements where assigned to one central village. However, this relation continued just short time. Already in the 11th century, the border between the Bishopric of Halberstadt and the Bishopric of Hildesheim divided both villages. Several tryouts of the different Bishops of Hildesheim to take over the Rethen area failed. The border existed for around 500 years, up to the Protestant Reformation.
Nobility
According to the family chronics, written in 1641, already around 1211 "Heinrich Bethman from Chur in the land of Rhetia" received the feudality about court, jus patronatus about church and the right of hunting. The documentary mentioning of these rights was firstly found in a document from the year 1383/85. Based on his long-standing experience in the war service Bethmann suppositiously built his house in some kind of a water castle on a small island in the village pond. During the following decades the village was attacked several times by different local robber barons. In the years 1308, 1380, 1381 and 1388 they destroyed Rethen nearly completely. At one of these raids (presumably on 13 July 1381) the water castle was also destroyed.
Consequently, the masters of Rethen left the village after about 150 years of presence and relocated in Braunschweig. Also the left Rethen, they kept the patronage right about Rethen. The family became extinct presumably in the 18th century. After the connection of the parishes of Adenbüttel and Rethen in the first half of the 16th century, the master von Rethen and the Freiherr von Marenholz (patronage right in Adenbüttel) concerted the patronage right in the combined church municipality. Nevertheless, in the course of the time the right went over more and more to the family of Marenholz. This exercised it up to the death of the last patron (baron of Marenholz-Nolte) in 1969.
Early modern period till modernity
In the year 1625, during the Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War, troops of Emperors Ferdinand II troops made their winter camp near Rethen. Houses and Church were looted and the citizens had to work at sconces construction near Wolfenbüttel. Also in the 1640s lootings are reported more than once, mostly by Swedish soldiers.