Dorstadt is located in the northern foothills of the Harz mountain range. The municipal area stretches from the eastern slopes of the Oderwald hills down to the Oker river, about halfway between Wolfenbüttel and Schladen. Neighbouring municipalities are Ohrum in the north and Heiningen in the south, as well as Börßum east of the Oker.
History
The settlement was first mentioned in an 1110 deed, when Bishop Udo of Bishopric of Hildesheim granted the episcopal fortress at Schladen to the Saxon noble Eiko of Dorstadt.
Dorstadt was restored to Hildesheim in 1643, however, the premises decayed and had to be resettled with Catholic nuns after the Thirty Years' War. The Wittelsbach prince-bishop Maximilian Henry of Bavaria initiated the reconstruction of the monastery in a Baroque style from 1680 onwards. After the Hildesheim prince-bishopric was mediatised to Prussia in 1803, Dorstadt was secularised and the convent dissolved. The manor is a private property up to today.
Politics
Seats in the municipal council (Gemeinderat) as of 2011 local elections: