Seelze’s heart can be found in the railroad. As a small town of about 30,000 residents, the railway is a vital artery that connects Seelze to the rest of the country.
Seelze is known for being a “bedroom community” of Hanover. That is, many of Hanover’s workers call Seelze home and commute every day. The town has three stations on the Hanover S-Bahn lines (S1 and S2), making it a convenient locale that is only ten kilometers (about six miles) away from Hanover’s city center.
Seelze Rangierbahnhof (Rbf) or marshalling yard is also very important. This is one of the main hubs for freight trains not only in Germany, but all of Europe! The length of track runs about seven kilometers and over 200 freight trains pass through every day.
But for those who don’t just pass through this town, there are attractions here to see, too. The quaint and pretty stands out from the crowd with its green spires and red-and-beige bricks. And the Catholic Dreifaltigkeitskirche is a unique structure that was designed by the famous artist Gerd Winner.
One of the town landmarks is certainly its Obentraut monument. It was built to honor a fallen rider-general, Michael Elias of Obentraut, who died in a battle during the 30-year war in 1625.
The monument itself is unusual, with a large stone pyramid, metal knight’s helmet and large boot, but there is a reason behind it. It is said that Sir Elias needed to ready himself so quickly for the fight that he rode into battle without his helmet, and only one boot.
While the tale of this knight has been remembered, what about the general history of Seelze? In a country so steeped in history, surely this town can be no exception, right? But, in fact, it has only been a town since 1977! After some bureaucratic and administrative restructuring, eleven villages were merged together to form the modern town of Seelze — although the history of these villages go back as far as 1096!
