Oerbke

Oerbke is an unincorporated German village in Soltau-Fallingbostel district in the southern part of the Lüneburg Heath in Lower Saxony.

Oerbke lies on the A7 autobahn east of Bad Fallingbostel and is the seat of administration for the Osterheide area.

The farming village of Oerbke was first mentioned in the surviving records in 1256 and, by 1438, there were 8 farmsteads reported in the area as well as 4 individual houses (Kotstellen).

The farms and houses were also evident in the registers in 1563, 1589 and 1628, so they were very long-lived here, probably due to the fertile soil.

During the Third Reich the German armed forces, the Wehrmacht established a prisoner-of-war camp in Oerbke in which up to 30,000 soldiers from the Red Army were housed.