The town of Bergen

Derived from the Old Royal Hannover office Bergen, which merged with the newly founded district Celle after its incorporation into the Kingdom of Prussia, the Stadt Bergen is nowadays a centre of the northern part of the Celle district. Apart from Celle it is the only political community in the municipality and has had its town character since 1957.

Bergen and surrounding areas

With the communal restructuring in 1971 and 1973 the municipalities Becklingen, Belsen, Bleckmar, Diesten, Dohnsen, Eversen, Hagen, Hassel, Nindorf, Offen, Sülze and Wardböhmen were added to the Bergen District. Through this the number of inhabitants and the area has increased enormously. The district area of the former central town Bergen used to be 11 sq km. After the reformation it grew to 163 sq km.

Nowadays about 17.000 inhabitants live in Bergen. This number includes about 3.000 dependants of the British Forces with their families, which do not have to register.

Alongside the agricultural bases, the bordering Nato Training Area Bergen-Hohne influences trade and change, economical strength and the mixture of inhabitants of the Bergen District. The existing small and medium sized businesses are influenced by the military presence in the training area. Other than that there are several small and medium sized businesses from various economical areas whose regional and super regional significance evolved independently from the training area.

Schools and other institutions

Four primary schools belong to the town institutions: the Hinrich-Wolff- and the Eugen-Naumann-School (with integration classes for physically disabled children) and the schools in Sülze and Eversen.

The district of Celle is the responsible authority for the Hermann-Ehlers-Realschule, the Anne-Frank-Schule (Hauptschule) and the Käthe-Kollwitz-Schule (Special needs School). The Adult Education Centre Celle is also part of it. Furthermore there is one British School.

The town has a library, a town archive, a swimming pool, a museum (the Museum Römstedthaus), the Stadthaus (as a meeting point and function room for politics, arts, culture and functions of all kinds), a Vehicle Registration Office and thirteen village community houses.

You can find plenty of opportunities to go shopping, go out for a drink or a meal in Bergen. The town offers excellant shopping facilities, extensive spare time acivities, accommodation in various Hotels and B&Bs, this coupled with the international character of the Catering Industry gives Bergen a very cosmopolitan. For more information please contact Tourisms Bergen e. V.

The Sport facilities include approx. ten Sport Grounds, five gyms, one indoor tennis-court, three squash-courts, ten shooting ranges, six outdoor tennis-courts and several kegeln-alleys (similar to bowling).

To the infrastructure of Bergen belong six play schools, three OAP homes, the youth club "Bergwerk", one Women and Mother Centre, several mothers and toddlers groups, a public health and advice centre and a social service of the missionary office. Six sports clubs, ten shooting clubs and several authorities of independent support for youths offer together with the various clubs a varied and widely spread program of sensible free time activities to the inhabitants of Bergen. Furthermore the town has 32 football fields and playgrounds. An important town institution is the voluntary fire service which ensures fire protection and help in emergencies of all kinds in twelve local fire brigades with about 550 active members with good equipment and training which is also indispensable for the social life in many towns.

With the exception of some specialists the medical care is guaranteed by seven medical surgeries, six dental surgeries and three chemists. Three veterinary surgeries practice in Bergen. The ambulance service and the Patient transport Service is run by a local business.

Bergen was first mentioned as a parish in 1197. In both Bergen and Sülze, there is one parish of the Evangelic-Lutheran church which are both not assigned to the Church parish of Soltau. One roman-catholic parish and three free church parishes are doing their pastoral, welfare and social care.

Politics

The Council of the district Bergen has 33 seats of which, in the present election period, 1 is taken by the Mayor, 17 are taken by the CDU, 7 by the SPD, 5 by the WG, 2 by the GRÜNEN and 1 by the FDP.

The mayor of the district Bergen is Rainer Prokop.

Local councillors with a local mayor exist in Bergen, Becklingen, Belsen, Bleckmar, Diesten, Dohnsen, Eversen, Hagen, Hassel, Nindorf, Offen, Sülze and Wardböhmen.

Memorial Bergen-Belsen

A few kilometres outside of Bergen lays the memorial to Bergen-Belsen which has evolved to the central memorial of Lower Saxony and is visited by about 300.000 visitors per year. In the memorial stories of the Concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen are retold and memories of the crime of the NS-Time are kept awake. The suffering of Anne Frank and her diary are worldwide associated with the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

Under the heading "Anne-Frank-Peace-Days" and together with peace political subjects, every year youths from various nations meet in Bergen