moved to Lüneburg. There are also branches of Deutsche Bank and Postbank. Education The first recorded school teaching took place in 1563 in the verger's living room. In 1588 the first school building was built by the church in Marktstraße, the first state school followed in 1844. The building in Mühlenstraße still houses the Freudenthal Primary School today. In 1894 townsfolk founded a higher private school. In 1923 a middle school was established. Today Soltau has three primary schools (Grundschulen), a grammar school (Gymnasium) with just under 1,400 children, a middle school (Realschule), a secondary modern school (Hauptschule) and a special needs school (Förderschule). In addition the charity Lebenshilfe Soltau supports a special needs centre, a kindergarten for children with speech difficulties, a remedial kindergarten and a creche for early learners. The Soltau Vocational School (Berufsbildende Schule or BBS) is a combined school with four different streams of education under one roof. There is a grammar stream specialising in economics, a technical high stream (Fachoberschule) for technology and economics, and numerous vocational courses in economics, information technology, technology, home economics, careworking, cosmetics, gastronomy, agricultural science, construction, woodwork, metalwork or hairdressing. About 2,400 schoolchildren attend. The adult education centre (Volkshochschule) Heidekreis is based in Soltau and Walsrode and currently offers about 930 courses. The Waldmühle Library is the largest in the district. The Heidekreis music school is also based in Soltau. Media The Böhme-Zeitung daily newspaper has been going since 1864 with a print run of 12,116 copies . In addition there is the weekly free newspaper, the Mittwoch aktuell, with a circulation of 29,000 and the twice-weekly Heide-Kurier with 44,000 copies. Infrastructure Transport Rail Soltau's station, which is still called Soltau (Hannover) (abbreviated to Soltau (Han)) by the Deutsche Bahn belongs to the Hanover Railway Division and lies on the Uelzen–Langwedel railway (KBS 116), part of the America Line, from Bremen to Uelzen and on the Heath Railway (Heidebahn) (KBS 123) from Buchholz (Nordheide) to Bennemühlen(-Hanover). There are two other stops - Soltau Nord and Wolterdingen - on the Heath Railway. Soltau also has a goods station (Soltau Süd) in the OHE network with goods traffic links to Celle, Uelzen and Lüneburg. These routes also used to have regular passenger services. The Lüneburg Transport Society (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Verkehrsfreunde Lüneburg) occasionally runs passenger trains on these lines to Celle and Lüneburg under the name Heath Express (Heide-Express). In summer there is also