Holungen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Eichsfeld in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 December 2011, it is part of the municipality Sonnenstein, of which it is an Ortschaft. It lies approximately from the university town of Göttingen. With a population of around 1,000, it is one of the medium-sized villages in the district. Coat of arms On the coat of arms, the right half represents the Sonnenstein, a hill very close to the town. On the upper left quarter, the Wheel of Mainz represents the Archbishopric of Mainz, and the lower left quarter shows two crossed hammers indicative of potash mining and symbolising the environment. Over many decades, mining was of enormous economic importance. Origin of the name The research into the origin of the name traces it back to antiquity. Evidence for the origin comes mostly from documents in the Gerode Monastery. The name “Holungen” is said to derive from the German word “Hold” (= a gentle benevolent goddess or woman). However, in speech, this word is indistinguishable from “Holt”, an older German word for wood. In old title deeds the name also appears as “Holdungen”, which suggests the name could also derive from “Haulungen”, meaning “pasture in a clearing on sloping ground”. This interpretation infers that Holungen was designated as a “Waldsiedlung” (settlement in a forest). Villages whose names end in “-ungen” were all founded in an earlier settlement period. Therefore, is it possible that Holungen's founding could date back as far as the initial colonisation of modern Germany by Germanic peoples. It could have existed as far back as 531, the Second Settlement Period (all placenames ending in “-ungen”), when the Franks conquered Thuringia. Later on, the northern part of Eichsfeld, including Holungen, belonged to the Saxons. Saxon characteristics and peculiarities were taken up. This also explains why a language border (isogloss) runs through Holungen. Residents speak Low German, while people of the neighbouring town of Bischofferode speak standard German. Location Holungen is located at the foot of the Ohm Hills at the bottom of the Bode valley, about 35 km from the Harz mountains. It is a so-called Haufendorf ("clustered village"; denotes an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square). To the south lie the Sonder and the Ohmberg with the “Wilde Kirche” (Wild Church). The Hohenkammer lies to the west, where the Segeltal valley separates