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39-585: The town center is located at an elevation of 77 ft (23 m) on the Oker river near the confluence with its Altenau tributary, about 13 km (8.1 mi) south of Brunswick and 60 km (37 mi) southeast of the state capital Hannover . Wolfenbüttel is situated about half-way between the Harz mountain range in the south and the Lüneburg Heath in the north. The Elm-Lappwald Nature Park and

78-417: A Konzertmeister held a somewhat less senior position. Equivalent positions existed in other European countries and were referred to with equivalent names. In Finnish kapellimestari is still the primary word used of conductors. (listed chronologically by date of birth) In contemporary German, the term "Kapellmeister" has become less common than Dirigent (conductor). When used today it designates

117-655: A Dom Lambert, a monk of Ligugé Abbey in France, who was beheaded there on 3 December 1943. Roughly 14% of Wolfenbüttel are foreigners and 27.2% of the town has a migration background. The town is also the location of the former Northampton Barracks, which housed units of the British Army of the Rhine until 1993 (postcode: BFPO 101). Today, Wolfenbüttel is smaller than the neighbouring cities of Braunschweig (Brunswick), Salzgitter , and Wolfsburg , but, because it

156-612: A culvert under the Mittelland Canal before it is joined by the Schunter from the east near Groß Schwülper. It then flows down to its mouth into the River Aller , which is located between Gifhorn and Celle at Müden . Since the early ninth century the middle Oker river has formed the diocesan boundary between the bishoprics of Halberstadt and Hildesheim , established by Emperor Charlemagne and his son Louis

195-568: A waterfall laid out in 1863 into the Oker. Downstream in the river's fast-flowing waters, the Verlobungsinsel ("Betrothal Island") is to be found. Left and right of the Oker in this area are many crags that are popular with climbers . In the Goslar vicinity of Oker the river is seriously polluted with heavy metals from the slag heaps as well as groundwater and surface runoff from

234-536: A Kapellmeister but was supported by a somewhat unreliable combination of noble patronage, publication, and concert income. Mozart never was a Kapellmeister in the sense given above. In 1787, he was given a paid position in the court of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II as Kammercompositeur (chamber composer), but authority in matters musical at the court was exercised primarily by Antonio Salieri . In reviews, diaries, and advertising, Mozart

273-612: A center of the arts and science: Already in 1604, the composer Michael Praetorius (1571–1621) served as Kapellmeister of the Brunswick dukes. From 1682, the composer Johann Rosenmüller (1619–1684), who had to flee Germany due to allegations of homosexuality, spent his last years in Wolfenbüttel. Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) directed the Ducal Library, and established one of

312-401: A sense of routine or failure to project glamour: "a Kapellmeister now describes a pale, meek figure beating time. A policeman on duty at the podium directing the musical traffic, no more." In fact, Thielemann, who is fully aware of the historical usage of the term, would himself prefer to be called a "Kapellmeister": "it implies such virtues as knowledge of a work, great ability, and dedication to

351-544: Is a park located on the coast of Lake Michigan named after Wolfenbüttel. Oker The Oker ( pronounced [ˈoːkɐ] ) is a river in Lower Saxony , Germany , that has historically formed an important political boundary. It is a left tributary of the River Aller , 128 kilometres (80 mi) in length and runs in a generally northerly direction. The river's name was recorded around 830 as Obacra and, later, as Ovokare und Ovakara . The origin of

390-721: Is also home to the Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv , the state archives of Lower Saxony, as well as the renowned Biblioteca Augusta . Beginning in 2009 the Landesmusikakademie Niedersachsen is located in the Seeliger Park and sponsored by the state of Lower Saxony to promote music education at various levels. The herb liqueur Jägermeister 's headquarters of Mast-Jägermeister are still located in Wolfenbüttel, as are some of its distillation sites. Wolfenbüttel hosted

429-645: Is known as the Große Oker ("Great Oker") and it is impounded below Altenau by the Oker Dam . From the dam wall to the former village of Oker , which is today part of Goslar , the Oker is on certain occasions suitable for canoeing . This section, often called the "Oker Valley" ( Okertal ), includes the Romkerhall Waterfall. Here the Romke stream drops about 64 metres (210 ft) in height over

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468-653: The Asse hill range stretch east and southeast of the town. With a population of about 52,000 people, Wolfenbüttel is part of the Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region . It is the southernmost of the 172 towns in Northern Germany whose names end in büttel , meaning "residence" or "settlement." Between 2006 and 2014, the mayor of Wolfenbüttel was Thomas Pink, who was reelected in 2014 with 67.7% of

507-579: The Ducal Library ( Herzogliche Bibliothek , the later Bibliotheca Augusta ) two years later. During the Thirty Years' War , Danish troops under King Christian IV occupied the fortified town in 1626. Upon the nearby Battle of Lutter , they were besieged by the Imperial forces of General Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim . Re-conquered in 1627, the Wolfenbüttel fortress remained under

546-734: The Expo 2000 bridges over the Oker in Braunschweig and its surrounding area were artistically designed; after 2004 this was carried out as part of the Okerlicht project. Left tributaries (from source to mouth): Right tributaries: Oste class fleet service ship Kapellmeister Kapellmeister ( / k ə ˈ p ɛ l m aɪ s t ər / kə- PEL -my-stər , US also / k ɑː ˈ -/ kah- , German: [kaˈpɛlˌmaɪstɐ] ), from German Kapelle (chapel) and Meister (master), literally "master of

585-578: The Saxon count Widekind of Wolfenbüttel erected a water castle on the important trade route from Brunswick to Halberstadt and Leipzig . Destroyed by Henry the Lion in 1191, and again by his great-grandson Duke Albert I of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1255, the fortress and town, as well as nearby Asseburg Castle , were seized in 1258 by Albert I from the House of Asseburg , the descendants of Widekind. The castle

624-525: The Oker is dammed by the Eisenbüttel Weir. In the Bürgerpark shortly before Braunschweig's old town the Oker divides into the western and eastern bypass channels ( Umflutgraben ) which circumnavigate the historic city centre at a slightly higher level. These channels were laid in the 16th century as the external moats of the town's defences. The actual course of the Oker through the centre of

663-671: The Pious in the Duchy of Saxony . North of Schladen the royal palace ( Königspfalz ) of Werla was established on the banks about 20 metres (66 ft) above the river bed. From the High Middle Ages the Oker between the villages of Ohrum and Börßum formed the eastern boundary of the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim with the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , and further south to Wiedelah (today part of Vienenburg ) with

702-773: The Prince-Bishopric of Halberstadt, which became the Prussian Principality of Halberstadt following its secularization in 1648. The Bishopric of Halberstadt was likewise mediatised in 1803, and according to the Final Act of the 1815 Vienna Congress , the Oker was the eastern border of the Kingdom of Hanover with the Duchy of Brunswick and the Prussian Province of Saxony . When the Kingdom of Prussia annexed Hanover in 1866, it became

741-422: The chapel choir", designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term has evolved considerably in its meaning and is today used for denoting the leader of a musical ensemble, often smaller ones used for TV, radio, and theatres. In German-speaking countries during the approximate period 1500–1800, the word Kapellmeister often designated

780-675: The command of Gottfried Huyn von Geleen . In June 1641 the Battle of Wolfenbüttel was fought here, when the Swedish forces under Wrangel and the Count of Königsmark defeated the Austrians under Archduke Leopold of Habsburg , however, they failed to occupy the town. Over two centuries, especially under Duke Julius' successors Henry Julius and Augustus the Younger , Wolfenbüttel grew to be

819-501: The director of music for a church. Thus, Georg Reutter was the Kapellmeister at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna , where his young choristers included both Joseph and Michael Haydn . Becoming a Kapellmeister was a mark of success for professional musicians. For instance, Joseph Haydn once remarked that he was glad his father (a wheelwright ) had lived long enough to see his son become a Kapellmeister. The term also implied

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858-602: The director of music for a monarch or nobleman. For English speakers, it is this sense of the term that is most often encountered, since it appears frequently in biographical writing about composers who worked in German-speaking countries. During that period, in Italy, the position (Italian: maestro di capella ) largely referred to directors of music assigned to cathedrals and sacred institutions rather than those under royal or aristocratic patronage. A Kapellmeister position

897-506: The director or chief conductor of an orchestra or choir. It suggests involvement in orchestra or choir policy (for example, selecting repertoire, concert schedules, and guest conductors) as well as conducting. In military settings it refers to a bandmaster . The music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra traditionally holds the old-fashioned title Gewandhauskapellmeister . In other German opera houses,

936-412: The end of the 18th century, many of the nobility had declined in their economic power relative to the newly prosperous middle class. Eventually, the maintenance of a Kapelle became too expensive for most nobles, which led to a decline in the number of Kapellmeister positions. A well-known instance occurred in 1790, when Prince Anton Esterházy succeeded his father Nikolaus and dismissed almost all of

975-529: The first lending libraries in Enlightenment Europe. However, the ducal court eventually returned to Brunswick in 1753 and Wolfenbüttel subsequently lost in importance. During World War II , the city prison became a major execution site of prisoners of the Gestapo . Most of those executed were members of various Resistance groups. Victims include Marguerite Bervoets and Fernande Volral , and

1014-648: The inner Prussian border between the provinces of Hanover and Saxony as well as the border, north of Börßum to Ohrum between the Province of Hanover in the west and the Duchy of Brunswick in the east. From 1945 to 1990 the Inner German border between East and West Germany ran down the centre of the Oker between Wiedelah and Schladen, today between the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony . Since

1053-432: The latter's extensive musical establishment. But Prince Anton was hardly alone in doing this; during this same period, "the steady decline in the number of orchestras supported by aristocratic families represented a ... change that affected all composers and their works." This was a difficult time for musicians, who needed to find new ways to support themselves. For instance, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) never worked as

1092-637: The metal smelters there. From the village of Oker the River Oker flows away in a northeasterly direction to Vienenburg , where it is joined from the south by the Radau and then from the southeast by the Ecker . After these two confluences the river continues southeast past the Harly Forest , after which it bends north to flow through Schladen and Wolfenbüttel to Braunschweig . In south Braunschweig

1131-545: The name is derived from the roots ov- and -akara meaning “upper” (cf. New High German ober- ) and “onward rushing” (rendered in German as “Vorwärtsdrängende”) as distinct from its tributary, the Ecker , whose name means only “onward rushing”. The Oker rises at about 910 metres in the Harz National Park in a boggy area on the Bruchberg in the Harz mountains of central Germany . This early section

1170-409: The possession of considerable musical skill. When the 18th-century actor and musician Joachim Daniel Preisler heard the famous soprano Aloysia Weber ( Mozart 's sister-in-law) perform in her home, he paid her the following compliment in his diary: The well-known Mozardt is her brother-in-law and has taught her so well that she accompanies from a score and plays interludes like a Kapellmeister. By

1209-608: The term generally refers to a deputy conductor reporting to the Generalmusikdirektor (general music director, usually also the chief conductor). An opera company may have several Kapellmeister, ranked as Erste Kapellmeister (First...), Zweite Kapellmeister (Second...), etc. The conductor Christian Thielemann has offered a nuanced account of the Dirigent / Kapellmeister distinction in contemporary usage. He suggests that "Kapellmeister" has unfairly acquired

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1248-472: The then-ailing incumbent, Leopold Hofmann . This never took place, since Mozart died (December 1791) before Hofmann did (1793). Variant spellings capellmeister and capelle , to refer to the orchestra or choir, are sometimes encountered in English language works about composers who held the title. The word Hofkapellmeister specified that the Kapellmeister worked at a nobleman's court ( Hof );

1287-452: The three-day International German Bus Pulling Championships in May 2009, where five-person teams pull a 16-ton bus 30 meters. Every year starting in late November, Wolfenbüttel stages a Christmas market with food and drinks. Locals often come and enjoy the pre-Christmas atmosphere. Wolfenbüttel is twinned with: A bridge in Wolfenbüttel is named after each of these cities. In Kenosha, there

1326-453: The town was covered and, today, runs through pipes emerging again north of the old town. The water level in the city area is controlled by the St. Peter's Gate Weir ( Petritorwehr ) in the western and the " Wends Weir" ( Wendenwehr ) in the eastern ditch. Following the merger of the two channels northwest of the city centre the Oker runs north of the district of Watenbüttel  [ de ] in

1365-503: The vote. In August 2018 he left the German Christian Democratic Union party. In September 2021, Ivica Lukanic (Independent) became Wolfenbüttel's first politically independent mayor, beating Dennis Berger (SPD) in a run-off with 55.7% of the vote. A first settlement, probably restricted to a tiny islet in the Oker river, was founded in the tenth century. It was mentioned in 1118 as Wulferisbuttle , when

1404-587: Was a senior one and involved supervision of other musicians. Johann Sebastian Bach worked from 1717 to 1723 as Kapellmeister for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen . Joseph Haydn worked for many years as Kapellmeister for the Esterházy family, a high-ranking noble family of the Habsburg monarchy . George Frideric Handel served as Kapellmeister for George, Elector of Hanover (who eventually became King George I of Great Britain ). A Kapellmeister might also be

1443-468: Was commonly referred to as (Herr) Kapellmeister Mozart . It seems that Mozart's prestige, along with the fact that he frequently appeared in public directing other musicians, led to the use of "Kapellmeister" as a term of respect. In April 1791, Mozart applied to become the Kapellmeister at St. Stephen's Cathedral and was designated by the City Council to take over this job following the death of

1482-631: Was largely undamaged by the war, its downtown is rich in half-timber buildings, many dating several centuries back, and it still retains its historical character. Wolfenbüttel is located on the German Timber-Frame Road . Wolfenbüttel is home of several departments of the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences and the Lessing-Akademie  [ de ] , an organisation for the study of Lessing's works. It

1521-566: Was rebuilt by the Welf duke Henry I of Brunswick from 1283 onwards. By 1432, the town became the permanent residence of the Brunswick Princes of Wolfenbüttel . Devastated in the 1542 Schmalkaldic War , it was largely rebuilt in a Renaissance style under Duke Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg , including several gracht waterways laid out by Hans Vredeman de Vries . The duke vested the citizens with market rights in 1570 and founded

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