Salzgitter

Salzgitter is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. Located just a few kilometres south of Brunswick, it was founded in 1942 by the Nazis. Population: 115,500.

In medieval times there were salines at the place and villages where the salt was mined. In the 20th century the place was abandoned except for a few hamlets. Due to the occurrences of iron ore in the ground the Nazi government decided to establish huge steel works. These so called Hermann-Göring-Werke (named for Hermann Göring) industrialised an agricultural area in just a few years. Thousands of miners, mostly forced labourers, worked in the mines, which served mainly for producing weapons and ammunition. Until 1945 just houses and a few schools were built in addition to the mines, but no other community facilities.

After the war the British military administration decided to blow up the mines, but this was never put into action. In the following years a true city grew around the mines, but it is an obviously new town with almost no sights.