Helmstedt is situated in a basin between the Elm and Lappwald hill ranges, at the transition area between the northern foothills of the Harz mountains and the North German Plain. It is surrounded by the Elm-Lappwald Nature Park. The town centre is located about 36 kilometres (22 mi) east of Braunschweig, 45 kilometres (28 mi) west of Magdeburg, and 90 kilometres (56 mi) east of the state capital Hanover.
The municipal area includes the localities of Barmke and Emmerstedt, both incorporated by a 1974 administrative reform, and Büddenstedt, incorporated in 2017, as well as the resort town of Bad Helmstedt, about 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) east of the town centre. Helmstedt currently has about 25,000 inhabitants (2015).
From 1807 the town was part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia, from 1815 it was part of the Duchy of Brunswick, and from 1871 it was part of the German Empire. During World War I, in 1916–1917, Germany operated a special prisoner-of-war camp for ethnic Polish officers from the Russian Army, with the aim of subjecting them to propaganda and conscripting them into a planned German-controlled Polish army to fight against Russia (Poland was partitioned between Germany, Russia and Austria at the time).[3] In 1918, French officers were also detained in this camp, their return begin un January 1919.
^ "LSN-Online Regionaldatenbank, Tabelle A100001G: Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes, Stand 31. Dezember 2022" (in German). Landesamt für Statistik Niedersachsen.
^Stanek, Piotr (2017). "Niemieckie obozy jenieckie dla Polaków z armii rosyjskiej w latach I wojny światowej (1916–1918)". Łambinowicki rocznik muzealny (in Polish). 40. Opole: 45, 55. ISSN 0137-5199.
^"Henke, Heinrich Philipp Konrad" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 269, see para 2. His son, Ernst Ludwig Theodor Henke (1804–1872), after.......
^"Ahrens, Franz Heinrich Ludolf" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 433–434.
^"Schneidewin, Friedrich Wilhelm" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 345.
^"Partnerstädte". stadt-helmstedt.de (in German). Helmstedt. Retrieved 2021-02-14.