# Oerbke

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**Oerbke** is an [unincorporated](/source/Unincorporated_area) [German](/source/Germany) village in [Soltau-Fallingbostel district](/source/Soltau-Fallingbostel_district) in the southern part of the [Lüneburg Heath](/source/L%C3%BCneburg_Heath) in [Lower Saxony](/source/Lower_Saxony). Oerbke lies on the A7 [autobahn](/source/Autobahn) east of [Bad Fallingbostel](/source/Bad_Fallingbostel) and is the seat of administration for the [Osterheide](/source/Osterheide) area.

## History

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. Until 1935 the village had been a purely agricultural settlement for centuries.

During the [Third Reich](/source/Third_Reich) the German armed forces, the [Wehrmacht](/source/Wehrmacht) established a prisoner-of-war camp in Oerbke in which up to 30,000 soldiers from the [Red Army](/source/Red_Army) were housed.[1] After 1945 Oerbke Camp was initially used by the British Forces as a detention centre and displaced persons camp. Later the Oerbke East settlement (*Ostsiedlung Oerbke*) was used for troops exercising on the [Bergen-Hohne Training Area](/source/Bergen-Hohne_Training_Area).

### Family names

Closely linked to the history and development of the village are long-established families. The oldest family names include:

- 1379: henneke hoyers, Odde, henneke luders
- 1438: Ludeke in deme Broke, Olveke, Sandman, Hermen Lange, Ghildehus, Hermen Hoyers, Eggerd in der Koten, Henneke Odden, Tideke Ebeling, Hinrik Hoyers, Henneke Luders
- 1528: Jacob im Broke, Carsten Hoyger, Roders, Olücke, Hinrick Odden, Marthinß, Laurentius, Bartolt Lüders, Peter, Hans Wobbeken

## Cultural monuments

- Cemetery of the Unknown Soldiers (*Friedhof der Namenlosen*), a war cemetery in which about 30,000 Russian prisoners-of-war from the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War) are buried in mass graves.

## References

1. ["Kriegsgräberstätte: Osterheide - Oerbke, Sowjetischer Kriegsgefangenenfriedhof - Bau, Pflege und Instandsetzung | Volksbund.de"](https://kriegsgraeberstaetten.volksbund.de/en/friedhof/osterheide-oerbke-sowjetischer-kriegsgefangenenfriedhof). *kriegsgraeberstaetten.volksbund.de*. Retrieved 2025-09-25.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Oerbke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oerbke) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oerbke?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.