Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp

Mittelwerk ([ˈmɪtl̩.vɛʁk]; German for "Central Works") was a German World War II factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flying bombs, and other weapons.

The Kohnstein is a hill in Thuringia, Germany, 2 kilometres southwest of the village of Niedersachswerfen and 3 kilometres northwest of the centre of the town of Nordhausen. Gypsum mining created tunnels in the hill that were later used as a fuel/chemical depot and for Nazi Germany factories, including the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory that used Mittelbau-Dora slave labour.

Niedersachswerfen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2012, it is part of the municipality Harztor.

Nordhausen is a Kreis (district) in the north of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise): Harz and Mansfeld-Südharz in Saxony-Anhalt; Kyffhäuserkreis and Eichsfeld in Thuringia; and Göttingen and Goslar in Lower Saxony.

Harztor is a municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It was formed on 1 January 2012 by the merger of the former municipalities Ilfeld and Niedersachswerfen. In July 2018 the former municipalities of Harzungen, Herrmannsacker and Neustadt/Harz were merged into Harztor.

The Nordhausen tramway network (German: Straßenbahnnetz Nordhausen) is a network of tramways forming part of the public transport system in Nordhausen, a city in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany. Opened in 1900, the network is currently operated by Stadtwerke Nordhausen, and has three lines, including one linking Nordhausen with nearby Ilfeld, running as a tram-train on the tracks belonging to the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways.

The South Harz Nature Park (German: Naturpark Südharz) is located in the county of Nordhausen in north Thuringia, Germany. The act designating this nature park in the Harz Mountains came into force on 31 December 2010 and thus founded the fifth nature park in Thuringia. It has an area of 267 km². The park is managed by the South Harz Tourist Association (Südharzer Tourismusverband e.V.) in conjunction with the Kyffhäuser Nature Park. The nature park covers parts of the southern foothills of the Lower Harz, the gypsum karst landscape of the adjacent Zechstein belt and the transition region with the North Thuringian bunter sandstone country. In the south, the park is bounded by the valley of the River Helme; on the other sides by the state border of Thuringia. Its western boundary is part of the German Green Belt. To the east is the South Harz Karst Landscape Biosphere Reserve (in Saxony-Anhalt), to the north, the Harz/Saxony-Anhalt Nature Park and to the northwest, the Harz Nature Park (in Lower Saxony). The entire Harz is a so-called major nature reserve (Großschutzgebiet) in which the Harz National Park is also located. Within the nature park there are ponors, karst springs, subsidence lakes and dolines as well as steep gypsum cliffs. Thanks to the many caves, numerous species of bat - including the barbastelle - live in the beech woods, where they find suitable places to roost. It is also home to the wildcat and lynx. Areas of dry grassland with orchids are the remnants of old meadows and pastures on the karst surfaces. The highest point in the South Harz Nature Park is the Großer Ehrenberg (635.5 m above sea level (NN)).

Nordhausen (pronounced [ˈnɔʁtˌhaʊ̯zn̩] ) is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Nordhausen district and the urban centre of northern Thuringia and the southern Harz region; its population is 42,000. Nordhausen is located approximately 60 km (37 miles) north of Erfurt, 80 km (50 miles) west of Halle, 85 km (53 miles) south of Braunschweig and 60 km (37 miles) east of Göttingen. Nordhausen was first mentioned in records in the year 927 and became one of the most important cities in central Germany during the later Middle Ages. The city is situated on the Zorge river, a tributary of the Helme within the fertile region of Goldene Aue (golden floodplain) at the southern edge of the Harz mountains. In the early 13th century, it became a free imperial city, so that it was an independent and republican self-ruled member of the Holy Roman Empire. Due to its long-distance trade, Nordhausen was prosperous and influential, with a population of 8,000 around 1500. It was the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt, today's capital, and Mühlhausen, the other free imperial city in the land. Nordhausen was once known for its tobacco industry and is still known for its distilled spirit, Nordhäuser Doppelkorn. Industrialization accompanied railway construction that linked the cities to major markets in the mid-19th century. In the late 19th century, narrow-gauge railways were constructed in this region through the Harz mountains. In December 1898 the Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railway Company (Nordhausen-Wernigeroder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) or NWE added a line, with the full network operating by 1899. The Harz Narrow Gauge Railways are maintained today by local authorities and frequented primarily by tourists. In the early 20th century, this became a centre of the engineering and arms industries. During World War II, the Nazi German government established and operated the nearby KZ Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where 60,000 forced labourers had to work in the arms industry. They were prisoners of war and persons from occupied territories. Some 20,000 persons died because of the bad conditions. In April 1945, most of the city was destroyed by Royal Air Force bombings, resulting in 8,800 casualties (more than 20% of the population). Most of the historic buildings in the city were destroyed; it suffered the most damage during the war of any city in Thuringia. A week later the United States troops occupied the city, followed weeks later by the Soviet Red Army. The city was within the Soviet zone of occupation, and later the territory was known as East Germany. Hundreds of German scientists and their families from Nordhausen were among thousands deported to the Soviet Union after the war to work on advanced rocket and other arms engineering projects. Nordhausen is the birthplace of the mathematician Oswald Teichmüller, known for his groundbreaking work on the Teichmüller spaces – which were named after him. It is the site of the Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule Nordhausen), founded in 1997 after the reunification of Germany. The university has 2,500 students.

Ilfeld is a village and a former municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the south foot of the Harz, at the entrance to the Bährethal, 8 miles (13 km) north from Nordhausen by the railway to Wernigerode. Since 1 January 2012, it has been part of the municipality of Harztor.

Hohnstein/Südharz is a former Verwaltungsgemeinschaft ("collective municipality") in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. The seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft was in Ilfeld (part of Harztor). It was disbanded in July 2018 and all member municipalities merged into the town of Harztor.The Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Hohnstein/Südharz consisted of the following municipalities: Buchholz Harztor Harzungen Herrmannsacker Neustadt/Harz