Die Gleichen

Die Gleichen are a pair of hills, up to 430 metres high, in the district of Göttingen in South Lower Saxony in Germany.

They are about 400 metres apart and are located south of the Garte stream and north of the Wendebach, both right, eastern tributaries of the River Leine.

Not until the wake of the course of the Vienna Congress was ownership of Neuengleichen relinquished to the Kingdom of Hanover and from then on re-transferred back to the House of Uslar (at Altengleichen), which since 1825 had been called Uslar-Gleichen.

The occupants moved to farms that formerly supplied them in the neighbourhood; the castles fell into ruins that are still visible, especially on those of Altengleichen.

The Göttingen mathematician, David Hilbert, used to ask in his lectures why the hills were called die Gleichen (literally: "the same").

Copperplate engraving by Matthäus Merian dating to pre-1650: in the centre the Alte Gleichen ; right: the Neue Gleichen
Castle ruins on the Alte Gleichen
Memorial tablet on the Alte Gleichen