Lüneburg

Lüneburg
Coordinates	53°15′9″N 10°24′52″E
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Lower Saxony
District	Lüneburg
Town subdivisions	24 districts
Lord Mayor	Ulrich Mädge (SPD)
Basic statistics
Area	70.34 km2 (27.16 sq mi)
Elevation	17 m  (56 ft)
Population	72,057  (31 December 2006)
- Density	1,024 /km2 (2,653 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	LG
Postal codes	21335–21337–21339
Area code	04131
Website	www.lueneburg.de

Lüneburg is a city in Lower Saxony in north Germany. It is about 50km southeast of Hamburg. It is the capital of the District of Lüneburg. About 102,660 people live there.

The Ilmenau River, a tributary of the Elbe, flows through Lüneburg.

In medieval times the town was very rich due to the salt trade. Salt used to be transported along the Old Salt Route to the Baltic Sea from where it was sent by ship to other countries. There were salt mines near the town for a thousand years. Salt mining stopped in 1980. The salt mining caused a lot of deforestation. The countryside changed into heathland which is called the Lüneburger Heide (Lüneburg Heath).

On May 23, 1945 the Nazi war criminal Heinrich Himmler committed suicide in Lüneburg after he had been captured by the British Army. He swallowed a potassium cyanide capsule before his interrogation could begin.

Lüneburg is twinned with Scunthorpe, England.

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  Am Sande

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  Old crane and old store at the medieval Lüneburg harbour

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  Town hall

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  Old harbour