in 1188 and by Pope Honorius III in a 1216 deed. The abbey affiliated to the Bishopric of Hildesheim generated several filial monasteries and left a collection of notable manuscripts, now kept at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. In 1523 the Prince-bishop of Hildesheim had to cede Wöltingerode to Duke Henry the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel as a result of the Great Diocesan Feud. Henry's son Duke Julius turned Protestant in 1568 and in consequence a Lutheran abbess was installed as head of the monastery. During the Thirty Years' War the Hildesheim Prince-bishop Ferdinand of Bavaria, backed by the Catholic League and his Wittelsbach relatives, took the occasion to regain the lost territories. Referring to the 1629 Edict of Restitution issued by Emperor Ferdinand II, he had the nuns expelled and put the abbey under Jesuit rule. Nevertheless, in 1632 the Catholic canons again had to abscond from the approaching Swedish army and Wöltingerode, though it finally fell back to the Hildesheim Bishopric in 1643, remained Lutheran until the 1803 secularisation. Today Wöltingerode is known for its abbey church, a Romanesque basilica of the late 12th century with an attached cloister and a crypt, which serves for storage of the Wöltingerode Korn, distilled here since 1682. Politics Seats in the last municipal assembly (Stadtrat) as of 2011 elections: Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD): 10 (38.92%) Christian Democratic Union (CDU): 8 (29.98%) Bürger für Vienenburg (Free Voters): 5 (17.51%) Green Alternative Voters (GAW): 2 (8.69%) National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD): 1 (3.00%) In December 2012, the assembly voted for the amalgamation with Goslar. Transport Vienenburg's railway station, opened in 1840 on the Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway of the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway, is the oldest preserved one in Germany and a regional railway hub. From Vienenburg, railway lines run in four directions: north to Brunswick, southeast to Halberstadt–Halle, south to Bad Harzburg and southwest to Oker–Goslar. The old goods line to Langelsheim was a victim of the division of Germany and was never reactivated. Vienenburg lies on the B 82 (link to the A 7 Hannover/Kassel) and 241 (Goslar) federal highways as well as the B 82 (link to the A 2; Brunswick, Berlin/Dortmund) and the B 6/B 6n (links to the A 14 Halle/Leipzig−Magdeburg and to Goslar and Bad Harzburg). Notable people Frederick Rese (1791–1871), bishop of Detroit Christoph Gudermann (1798–1852), mathematician Werner Willikens (1893–1961), Nazi politician Fritz