The House in the Woods
In the woods west of the city of Soltau, near the town of Schneverdingen, stands a small abandoned house with an inscription on its façade: “Built in 1957 – demolished in 1963 – rebuilt 1966.” No reliable information about this specific building has been found in archives or publications to date. However, the dates can be placed in the historical context of the region.
In the 1950s and 1960s, many small weekend and hunting lodges were built in the Lüneburg Heath – often without permission.
At the same time, the Soltau-Lüneburg Agreement of 1959, which came into force in 1963, led to drastic changes:
Civilian use was prohibited on the so-called “red areas” east of Soltau because the British Rhine Army conducted tank exercises there. Outside these training areas, there were also conflicts with building and forestry authorities at that time, who often had unauthorized forest huts demolished by force.
It is therefore conceivable that this house in Reimerdingen was also demolished in 1963 as part of such measures – either for building code reasons or in connection with the military use of the heath. The subsequent reconstruction suggests that the owners rebuilt the building after a certain period of time, possibly in a modified form or with subsequent tolerance.
There is no concrete evidence of this house to date; however, the inscription refers to a fate shared by many small buildings in the heathland in the 1960s: a conflict between private retreat, official control, and military use of the landscape.
Visited: May 2, 2021
Location: Lower Saxony, Germany
Status: Abandoned
