Osterode am Harz

Osterode am Harz is a town in the Goettingen district of southeastern Lower Saxony, Germany, on the southwestern edge of the Harz mountains and on the German Timber-Frame Road. It was granted town rights in the early 13th century, suffered heavily during the Thirty Years War, and came under the House of Hanover in 1665. During World War II the town held a prisoner-of-war camp from 1939 to 1941 and later a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp from 1944 to 1945, before American troops captured it in April 1945. As of December 31, 2024, the town had a population of 21,598 across 102.54 square kilometers.