of the oldest in Europe. Economy and infrastructure Tourism Hitzacker has a long tradition as a tourist destination. For instance, the Local History Working Group of Lüchow-Dannenberg (Heimatkundliche Arbeitskreis Lüchow-Dannenberg or HALD) held a conference in 1983 with the title "100 Years of Tourism in Hitzacker – 50 Year Old Local History and Museum Society“. Around the turn of the century, holidaymakers from the Hamburg and Hanover regions came to the spa hotel on the Weinberg hill. The hotel had its own spring used as a drinking fountain and for bathing by those taking the Kur. Day excursions on the river, along the Elbe, took place, and it had its own shipping line: Hamburg-Lauenburg-Dömitz. Today tourism has experienced a change. The health business has been replaced by "wellness" and beauty facilities. Hitzacker has since become a recognised climatic spa. Many of its hotels offer so-called wellness treatments and there is a spa area with a Kneipp basin and barefoot path. Hitzacker is the venue for musical events like the Hitzacker Summer Music Days (Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker) under the artistic direction of Dr. Markus Fein, and Hitzacker Music Week (Musikwoche Hitzacker) under the direction of Ludwig Güttler. There are three museums, including the Archaeological Centre with a Bronze Age open-air museum. On the Weinberg, vines have been cultivated for several centuries, and once a year the vintage is celebrated by the officiating wine queen. Hitzacker takes part in various marketing initiatives; for example the town is on the German Timber-Frame Road, the Lower Saxon Asparagus Road and a partner in the German-Dutch Orange Route. Transport Hitzacker has a railway link to Dannenberg and Lüneburg on the Wendland Railway. Another station on the same line is located in the local village of Leitstade. There are bus links to Lüneburg, Uelzen and Dannenberg as well as the county town of Lüchow. In Hitzacker there is a passenger ferry over the Elbe. Education There are three schools in Hitzacker: Hitzacker Primary School Bernhard Varenius School Hitzacker Free School Notable townsfolk Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick and Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel (1633–1714), duke, writer and art lover Hans Georg Ahrens (born 1944), German opera singer Claus von Amsberg (1926–2002), German diplomat and Prince of the Netherlands Bernhard Varenius (1622–1650), physician, geographer Ferdinand Wohltmann (1857–1919), agronomist Rudi Müller-Glöge (born 1951), German lawyer and vice-president of the Federal Labour Court References Johann Parum Schultze; Reinhold Olesch (ed.): Fontes linguae Dravaenopolabicae minores