The Weser-river near Bodenfelde, the town is in the background
History
Bodenfelde was first mentioned in a document signed by Louis the Pious in 833. In the High Middle Ages Bodenfelde was a part of the county of Dassel. Amelith, Nienover, Polier and Wahmbeck are villages nearby Bodenfelde which were incorporated in 1974.
There used to be a Jewish community in Bodenfelde. With the impending oppression of the Nazi regime, they left. Having been sold to a farmer in 1937, the wooden synagogue from 1825 survived Kristallnacht when the owner defended it from vandals. In the early twenty-first century, the half-timbered building was dismantled and exactly re-constructed in nearby Göttingen, which had a Jewish community in need of a synagogue (the local one having been destroyed during Kristallnacht.[3]
In 2008, serial killer Lydia L. a.k.a. the "Black Widow" was convicted and was sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1983 to 2000, Lydia L. insinuated herself into romantic or caretaker relationships with eight elderly men, and was convicted for the murders of the last four in order to get their money, either killing them herself or ordering their killings through her accomplice, Siegmund "Siggi" Sch., who received a 12 year sentence after the court judged him to be not completely culpable, as he had acted under the threat of death and was emotionally dependent on the main perpetrator.[4]
Herbst, Detlev, Jüdisches Leben im Solling – Der Synagogenverband Bodenfelde-Uslar-Lippoldsberg und die Synagogengemeinschaft Lauenförde. Uslar 1997
Hoffmann, Lutz et al., Zwischen Feld und Fabrik: Arbeiteralltag auf dem Dorf von der Jahrhundertwende bis heute; die Sozialgeschichte des Chemiewerkes Bodenfelde 1896 bis 1986. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 1986
Junge, Walter, Chronik des Fleckens Bodenfelde – Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Bodenfelde 1983
Junge, Walter and Thomas Thiele, Flecken Bodenfelde mit seinen Ortschaften Bodenfelde, Nienhover und Wahmbeck – Vorgestern, gestern und heute. Geiger, Horb am Neckar 1987
Rock, Balzer, Die Ortsgeschichte von Bodenfelde. Buchdruckerei Klapproth, Uslar 1940
