Armoured Corps Training Centre (Germany)

The German Tank Museum (German: Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster (DPM)) is an armoured fighting vehicle museum in Munster, Germany, the location of the Munster Training Area camp (not to be confused with the city of Münster). Its main aim is the documentation of the history of German armoured troops since 1917. It originated in 1983 from the instructional collection of the Panzertruppenschule, the Bundeswehr (German Army) school for training officers and NCOs of German armoured units. It is now a museum open to the public, jointly run by the municipality of Munster and the Lehrsammlung der Panzertruppen und Heeresaufklärungstruppe am Ausbildungszentrum Munster (teaching collections of the armoured combat troops). The museum site covers an area of over 9,000 square metres (97,000 sq ft). including 7,500 square metres (81,000 sq ft) of exhibition halls. In 2003 the museum opened a new building for special displays, a museum shop and a cafeteria.

Munster (West Low German: Munste), also called Munster (Örtze) or formerly Munsterlager, is a small town in the district of Heidekreis, in Lower Saxony, Germany almost equidistant from Hamburg and Hanover. The town is home to the German Army's largest garrison and is situated between the two training areas of Munster North and Munster South. It is also the fourth largest garrison in the German Armed Forces. The German Chemical Defence Research Establishment (Wehrwissenschaftliches Institut für Schutztechnologien – ABC-Schutz) and the Society for the disposal of chemical warfare agents and old armaments GmbH (Ltd.) (GEKA) are located in Munster. The town's make up is shaped by the soldiers and other government employees who make up the majority of its population, and the surrounding military zones restrict the town's growth, retaining its rural character.

The 9th Panzerlehr Brigade is a formation of about 5,000 men strong within the German Armed Forces or Bundeswehr, which is subordinated to the 1st Panzer Division in Hanover. The bulk of the brigade is stationed in Munster. Two battalions are based in Neustadt am Rübenberge. The brigade has become the "showcase of the German Army" as a result of its German Army Combat Vehicle and Aircraft Demonstration Exercises (German: Informationslehrübung Gefechts- und Luftfahrzeuge des Deutschen Heeres) which it has conducted for decades. These exercises demonstrate the capability of the Army's fighting vehicles and aircraft and how they operate jointly in various scenarios. The formation is classified as an armoured brigade within the Bundeswehr's intervention forces.

Munster Training Area (German: Truppenübungsplatz Munster) is a military training area in Germany on the Lüneburg Heath. It comprises two separate areas with different purposes: Munster North (Munster-Nord) (size: 102 square kilometres (39 sq mi)) and Munster South (Munster-Süd) (size: 74 square kilometres (29 sq mi)). The two areas are separated geographically by the town of Munster and several barracks. When the military training area was established a camp or Lager was built about 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) from the town centre which became known as Munsterlager. Between Munster North and South there is a road corridor to the nearby training area of Bergen-Hohne over which exercising troops can transfer from one area to the other. There are many rare and endangered plant species on this terrain today that thrive in the environment created by the training area.

Ilster is a small river of Lower Saxony, Germany. It flows into the Örtze north of Munster.

Kleine Örtze is a river of Lower Saxony, Germany. It flows into the Örtze near Faßberg.

Faßberg Air Base (German: Heeresflugplatz Faßberg) (ICAO: ETHS) is a Bundeswehr base located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) northeast of the municipality of Faßberg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The air base is jointly used by the German Army (Heer) and the German Air Force (Luftwaffe). Its main user is the German Army Aviation Corps.

Reddingen is a village in the municipality of Wietzendorf in Soltau-Fallingbostel district, Lower Saxony, Germany. The village, even with its associated hamlets of Reiningen and Halmern, only has 100 inhabitants. Formerly an independent municipality, it is part of Wietzendorf since 1974.

The Haußelberg is a hill, 119.1 metres (391 ft) above NN, in the Lüneburg Heath in the north German district of Celle. It is a popular viewing point in the otherwise very flat terrain of the Südheide Nature Park. In 1820 George IV of the United Kingdom tasked the Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory at Göttingen University, Carl Friedrich Gauss, to survey the Kingdom of Hanover. The mathematician Gauss used the summit of the Haußelberg as one of the triangulation stations for his land surveys, triangulating it to the Falkenberg, 150 metres (490 ft) AMSL, further west near Wardböhmen and to the Wilseder Berg, 169 metres (554 ft) AMSL, to the north. Another triangle was formed by the Haußelberg, the Falkenberg and Breithorn (Breitenhorn), 117 metres (384 ft) AMSL, south of Unterlüß. It has to be deduced that these points - the Breithorn, Haußelberg and Falkenberg - which are all hidden by woods today, were then on open, unforested hilltops, probably surrounded by heathland. Not until the large, systematic afforestation in the 2nd half of the 19th century did today's wooded hilltops emerge. In 2005 a new trig point was erected on the Haußelberg, near the original stone. Part of the triangulation network used for Gauss's survey was pictured on the reverse side of the 4th series of 10 Deutschmark banknotes. Whilst he surveyed from the Haußelberg, Gauss lived for 10 days on the farm of von der Ohe in Oberohe (today in the municipality of Faßberg). In a letter to his friend Dr. Olbers he wrote: ...there lived a family, whose head Peter Hinrich von der Ohe who spells his name zur Ohe, whose property is perhaps a square mile in area, but whose children look after the pigs. They have no comforts at all, such as a mirror, a toilet or the like ...

Wietzendorf (Eastphalian: Witzendörp) is a municipality in the district of Heidekreis, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 14 km southeast of Soltau, and 50 km southwest of Lüneburg. The population as of 31 December 2012 is 4,071 people.

Bispingen is a municipality in the Heidekreis district of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a popular tourist destination with several holiday/theme parks. Its territory also includes the nature preserve of the Lüneburg Heath around the Wilseder Berg.

The Luhe is a river in Lower Saxony, Germany. It runs through the Lüneburg Heath, and discharges into the Ilmenau and thus is part of the Elbe river system. The entire catchment area of the Luhe has been heavily populated since the New Stone Age as evinced by sites like the monuments at Soderstorf and the Oldendorfer Totenstatt grave sites. At the height of the present-day town of Winsen (Luhe) a bridge over the Luhe was controlled by Winsen Castle from the 13th century onwards.