Soltau (German pronunciation: [ˈzɔltaʊ]) is a mid-sized town in the Lüneburg Heath in the district of Heidekreis, in Lower Saxony, Germany.

The municipality of Soltau has 16 Stadtteile (population in brackets as at 1 July 2003):[3] The region of the Lüneburg Heath had already been settled by the start of the New Stone Age about 4,000 years ago.

The parish of Soltau was probably founded around 830 and the first wooden church Sante Johannis Baptista (St. John the Baptist) was built.

Between 1383 and 1388 the village was established by order of the duke as protection against robber barons at the confluence of the rivers Böhme and Soltau near Hagen and Burg, which today is in the town centre.

Subsequently, it was decided to demolish the castle there as part of the peace treaty at the end of the Lüneburg War of Succession; at the same time Soltau was given town rights on 15 July 1388 by way of compensation.

The consequences of the war of succession in Soltau can clearly be traced and prevented the rapid growth of the new town; conditions were miserable and many farms were ruined.

According to long tradition it was only thanks to a ruse by the Soltau townsman, Harm Tyding, who pretended to the advancing Brunswick troops that he knew the whereabouts of a large Lüneburg army and led them on a detour, that the town was not destroyed again.

[7] The Reformation saw little conflict in Soltau as a result of the firm stand taken by the Lüneburg duke, Ernest I and his commitment to introducing the Protestant-Lutheran faith in 1527.

The traces of the war and the area's occupation by Swedish troops, which began in 1632, is still documented today by the Ellinger Grenzstein ("Ellingen Boundary Stone").

That same month, prisoners from concentration camps were able to escape from a railway train that had been stopped in Soltau as the result of an Allied air attack.

Other tourist attractions include the Soltau Thermal Baths, which opened in 1990 and the North German Toy Museum which followed in 1994.

In 1988 the Showpalast ("Show Palace") was founded at the Soltau secondary modern school (Hauptschule); it remains Germany's only schoolchildren's cabaret.

In 2006 proceedings were begun to obtain permission to deviate from a planning objective which would enable the construction of an outlet centre in spite of the latest rejection.

This caused a furore nationally and gave those in favour of a memorial reason to accuse the opponents of having Nazi sentiments.

This monument appeared from autumn 2006 to March 2007 in the vicinity of the remote site of the killings in the forest of Sibirien (today a hospital stands on the exact spot).

The massive opposition from long-time residents of Soltau is frequently put down by them to the lack of commemoration of the many civilian and military victims from their own ranks, because they are not obviously included in the memorial.

The oldest list of townsfolk in the town book of 1452 enumerates 42 households in Soltau, this represents a good 200 inhabitants based on the conditions of the time.

[19] Other sights are the Hagen with its drawbridge and the so-called Marriage Well (Heiratsbrunnen), which was built in 1978 by Karlheinz Goedtke, the Waldmühle Library and the Ratsmühle.

Within the garden, next to a villa built in the Italian style is a ruined building, an old farmstead and fish and ornamental ponds.

In Soltau's vicinity are several nature reserves: the Böhmetal bei Huckenrieth, Ehbläcksmoor and the Schwarzes Moor near Dannhorn.

Since 2008 the cultural week Zwischenspiel - Das Zelt has taken place annually, with readings, concerts, cabaret and theatre performances in a circus tent.

Today it offers 16 different activities, of which football is the largest with four men's, a women's, four girls' and 15 boys' teams of all ages.

In addition since 2004 the Heide Park has been the annual venue for the canoe white water sprint as part of the Germany Cup.

There is a wide range of firms in the metalworking and mechanical engineering sphere including: Röders-Tec (high-speed cutting milling machines, blow moulding, pewter), G.A.Röders (die casting, injection moulding, toolmaking), Röhrs AG (plant manufacturing, industrial building, power plant services), Saxlund International (hauling engines, pumps), Nortec (mechanical engineering) and Colt International (technical building protection).

In the food industry are firms like Harry-Brot (bread, cakes and pastries) and H&S Tee Pack Service (teabag packers) and in textiles: Gebr.

In addition the firm of MVG Mathé-Schmierstofftechnik makes lubricants and the Greenpeace Energy Windpark generates electricity.

Soltau is the headquarters of hagebau (purchasing cooperative for building materials, wood and tile dealers) and JAWOLL (special deals market) and a distribution centre for the firm of Deichmann (shoes).

In summer there is also the Ameisenbär ("Anteater"), a historic Wismar railbus from 1937 that runs from Soltau via Bispingen to Döhle and back.

Between 1998 and 2001 there was a roadrailer shuttle from Soltau-Harber to Verona in Italy which used to run several times a week for the firm of 'alli-Frischdienst' that used to be based in Soltau.

In addition the coach line from Berlin to Cuxhaven via Magdeburg and Bremen operated by the 'Berlin Linien Bus-Gesellschaft' stops at the town every day.