Salzgitter (German pronunciation: [zalt͡sˈɡɪtɐ] ⓘ; Eastphalian: Soltgitter)[3][4] is an independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig.

Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitter is one of the seven Oberzentren of Lower Saxony (roughly equivalent to a metropolitan area).

Salzgitter originated as a conglomeration of several small towns and villages, and is today made up of 31 boroughs, which are relatively compact conurbations with wide stretches of open country between them.

The area of the City of Salzgitter consists of 31 boroughs (German: Stadtteile; often called villages): Bad, Barum, Beddingen, Beinum, Bleckenstedt, Bruchmachtersen, Calbecht, Drütte, Engelnstedt, Engerode, Flachstöckheim, Gebhardshagen, Gitter, Groß Mahner, Hallendorf, Heerte, Hohenrode, Immendorf, Lebenstedt, Lesse, Lichtenberg, Lobmachtersen, Ohlendorf, Osterlinde, Reppner, Ringelheim, Salder, Sauingen, Thiede, Üfingen and Watenstedt.

The towns with their boroughs are: Salzgitter originated in the beginning of the 14th century around salt springs near the village Verpstedt (later Vöppstedt).

After 200 years of salt production at various springs, the peasants in the area which is nowadays Salzgitter were chartered around 1350, but lost municipal law again when being transferred to the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the beginning of the 16th century.

When the diocese was transferred to Prussia in 1803, the municipal law was reconfirmed, but taken away once more in 1815, when Salzgitter became part of the Kingdom of Hanover.

In order to facilitate an unobstructed development of the smelting works, a unique administration structure in the whole area was conceived.

Towards this aim, the town of Salzgitter and the municipalities Beinum, Flachstöckheim, Groß-Mahner, Hohenrode, Ohlendorf and Ringelheim (7 in total, all belonging to the Landkreis Goslar) and Barum, Beddingen, Bleckenstedt, Bruchmachtersen, Calbecht, Drütte, Engelnstedt, Engerode, Gebhardshagen, Hallendorf, Heerte, Immendorf, Lebenstedt, Lesse, Lichtenberg, Lobmachtersen, Osterlinde, Reppner, Salder, Thiede-Steterburg (nowadays simply Thiede) and Watenstedt (21 in total, all belonging to the Landkreis Wolfenbüttel) were merged to form the Stadtkreis Watenstedt-Salzgitter.

In the course of the local administrative reform of Lower-Saxony effective from 1 March 1974, the municipalities Üfingen and Sauingen (formerly Landkreis Wolfenbüttel) were incorporated, increasing the number of boroughs to 31.

Population figures in order to the then area, i.e. until 1942 the contemporary quarter Salzgitter-Bad and from 1942 on the Independent City Watenstedt-Salzgitter and Salzgitter respectively.

In 1568, the Reformation was established in Salzgitter, and two ecclesiastical superintendencies came into existence: the southern part of the area of the modern city, the Superintendency of Salzgitter, pertained to the Province of Hanover and thus ecclesiastically to the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover (and, within it, to the Consistory of Hildesheim); the northern part (the Superintendency of Lebenstedt), however, belonged to the Free State of Brunswick and therefore to the Evangelical Lutheran State Church in Brunswick.

When the city of Watenstedt-Salzgitter was created in 1942, the entire area was attached to the state of Brunswick both politically and ecclesiastically.

The two superintendencies are called Propstei (provostry) today, and both the Propsteien Salzgitter-Bad and Salzgitter-Lebenstedt comprise additional parishes which are not within the city of Salzgitter.

Roman Catholics who after the Reformation moved into the city belonged, as in the Middle Ages, to the diocese of Hildesheim, which established a separate deanery in Salzgitter.

According to calculations based on census data, Salzgitter in 2011 had the highest proportion of Muslim migrants of all major cities in Lower Saxony.

[9] After the creation of Salzgitter a state commissar was set in place as provisional Mayer of the city of Watenstedt-Salzgitter.

After World War II, the military government of the British zone of occupation installed the communal constitution of Britain.

Salzgitter's Coat of Arms consists of a silver furnace visible behind a silver pinnacle wall on which there is a buckler whose upper ground is green and adorned with two saltern instruments and whose lower ground is gold and adorned with a black sledge and black iron.

Salzgitter-Lebenstedt is the end of a local line coming from Braunschweig and passing the other train stops of Salzgitter.