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Helmstedt (Lower Saxony)




Germany is located in Central Europe and it shares borders with Denmark in the North, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France in the West, Austria and Switzerland in the South and Poland and the Czech Republic in the East. The North Sea and the Baltic Sea represent additional National Borders in the North. The official language of Germany is German and Berlin is the capital.
 
Helmstedt is a city located at the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. Helmstedt had 26,000 inhabitants till 2004. In former times the city was also called Helmstadt. Helmstedt developed in the vicinity of the Benedictine St. Ludger's Abbey that was founded around 800 by Saint Liudger as a missionary station. Helmstedt was first mentioned in 952 and then it became a city in 1247. It belonged to the Abbacy of Werden until 1490, when it was bought by the Duchy of Brunswick-Luneburg. From 1576 to 1810, the University of Helmstedt was located here.
 
From the late 1940s to 1990, the town was the site of a major border crossing between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. The main rail and autobahn route between West Germany and Berlin, across the GDR, German Democratic Republic began at Helmstedt. Official military traffic from NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries to West Berlin was allowed to use only this route.
 
With an area of 47,618 square kilometers and nearly eight million inhabitants, Lower Saxony lies in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the country's sixteen states of Germany. Lower Saxony borders on from north and clockwise the North Sea, the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The state of Bremen forms two enclaves within Lower Saxony. The state's principal cities include Hanover, Braunschweig, Osnabruck, Oldenburg, and Gottingen.
 
Helmstedt can also be considered as the preeminent, historical and potential tourism destination that enjoys a very positive reputation with worldwide travelers to become one of the most visited places.

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