BAD GANDERSHEIM

also called Gandersheim, city, Lower Saxony Land (state), north-central Germany. It lies in the Leine River valley. Bad Gandersheim is remarkable for an 11th-century convent church containing the tombs of famous abbesses and for the former abbey, which was moved there in 852 by the duke of Saxony, whose daughters were the first two abbesses. Louis III granted a privilege by which the office of abbess was to continue in the ducal family as long as any member was found willing and competent to accept it. The German king Otto III gave the abbey a market, a right of toll, and a mint. The abbey was ultimately recognized as a holding of the Holy Roman Empire, and its abbess was given a vote in the imperial Diet. The conventual estates were extensive, and its feudatories included the elector of Hanover and the king of Prussia. Protestantism was introduced in 1568, and the last Roman Catholic abbess, Augusta Dorothea of Brunswick, died in 1589; but the Protestant abbesses enjoyed imperial privileges until Gandersheim was incorporated into the duchy of Brunswick in 1803. The memory of Gandersheim is preserved by its literary memorials: the 10th-century poet, dramatist, and historian Hrosvitha was a member of the sisterhood at Gandersheim, and a priest named Eberhard of Gandersheim (fl. early 13th century) wrote a rhyming chronicle that is probably the earliest historical work composed in Low German. Saline baths northeast of the city attract tourists. Bad Gandersheim's manufactures include toys, cigars, aluminum products, chemicals, and glass. Pop. (1995 est.) 11,616.