Personalities

Many important personalities are closely associated with our town. Emperors and kings stayed here, for example the German emperors Otto II. in the year 973 and Otto III. in the year 990. Bishops were ordained here, for example the bishop Bernward of Hildesheim in the year 993 and the bishop Burchard of Worms in the year 1000.

	Theodor Storm worked as district judge in Heiligenstadt from 1856 to 1864. He wrote eight novellas and three fairy stories here. Besides he founded a choir in the town. Today many buildings, places and sights recall his stay in Heiligenstadt.
	The sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider was born around 1460 in the mill "Klausmühle". He is the most important son of the town.
	The Brothers Grimm stayed here on April 20th 1838 to an important book-discussion. Heiligenstadt owes them the connection to the "German Fairytale Street" in the year 1992.
	On June 28th 1825, one month before his doctoral examination, an unknown student of law named Harry Heine from Göttingen was baptized of the name Heinrich Heine in the church "St. Martin", after converting to Protestantism.
	During the Farmer`s War in May 1525 a farmers-army moved from Mühlhausen through the Eichsfeld and Heiligenstadt. This army was lead by Thomas Müntzer, the ex priest from Allstedt and by Heinrich Pfeiffer, an ex monk from the cloister in Reifenstein. The farmers stayed in front of the town and Müntzer, Pfeiffer and approx. 30 people came into the town. Müntzer preached in front of the church "Liebfrauenkirche". This sermon was so that the citizens stormed and plundered the convent "St. Martin" afterwards. They cracked the dishes and smashed up the brew-device, because there had been a quarrel between the priests and the citizens about the right to brew for decades. On top of that the incensed citizens took away the privileges from the priests and forced them to all the civil charges. This triumph didn`t last long. A few weeks later, at Whitsun tide, the duke of Braunschweig invated the town to re-establish the original relations.
	Goethe, Hebbel and Schinkel spent the night in Heiligenstadt. Schinkel was very impressed with the sight of the churchs in Heiligenstadt.
	Professor Johann Carl Fuhlrott, the discoverer of the Neandertaler (a primeval man), learned and taught at the grammar school in Heiligenstadt.
	Johann von Zwehl (1580-1652) lived here.He was a town-writer and a mayor. He defended the town in the Thirty Years`War. In this war Heiligenstadt was heavily damaged. The town had to pay large sums of contribution. Heiligenstadt didn`t have so much money. The town was going to sell a bell. But Johann von Zwehl advanced the citizens this money. There are many interesting stories about him. The town owes to him the building of the "Vierzehn-Nothelfer-Altar".
	The pedagogue Dr. Lorenz Kellner was born in the local district Kalteneber in the year 1811 as son of a teacher family. He worked successfully as seminar director in Heiligenstadt for 12 years. Afterwards he was moved to the royal government as a educative counsel to Marienwerder and Trier. In 1863 he became the doctorate at the University Münster. He got additional honorars and he was well-known in the whole country. He became a member of the government in Prussia and at the same time he was appointed a royal privy councillor.
	Martin Weinrich, an important son of the village Uder, was born in 1865. He absolved the teacher-seminar in Heiligenstadt, before he worked as a teacher in Dingelstädt and Magdeburg. Whem he became ill he came back to the Eichsfeld. He lived in Heiligenstadt till his death in 1925. He published many poem books in the dialect of his birth village. Today an association with his name in Uder commemorates him.