The town was founded before 1214, with the name 'Alvelde' recorded in 1214, 1221, and 1233. The toponymic element "-feld" means "open area", "an undeveloped, open field", or "an untilled field". "Al-" likely derives from the Indoeuropean root "el-/ol-" meaning "water", "damp", or "flowing". In 1426, Alfeld joined the Saxon League of Towns, thus becoming an indirect member of the Hanseatic League. The town was one of the smallest cities in the Hanseatic League, but had become prosperous in the fourteenth and fifteenth century through its trade in beer, hops, linen, and yarn. Alfeld originally belonged to the Diocese of Hildesheim, but was transferred to the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel after the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud. In retrospect, this Brunswick period constituted Alfeld's Golden Age, its economy and culture flourishing before the Thirty Years' War.
Main Sights
Sights in Alfeld include the town hall with its octagonal tower, the church Saint Nicolai and the Fillerturm, a medieval watchtower, and the Fagus Factory of 1911, a fine example of early modernist architecture by Walter Gropius. More famous are the Seven Hills in the north and the Lippoldshöhle, where a legendary robber-knight is said to have lived.
Culture
The assertion that the popular fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was born in Alfeld is false. Even though the miners who mined ore In the Seven Mountains believed in the existence of dwarfs, it is more likely that the cradle of the fairy tale is to be searched in France. The version the brothers Grimm heard and wrote down, as they travelled through the Seven Mountains, on the so-called Märchenstrasse is just one of many.
Economy
The biggest employer of the city is the SAPPI factory with its big chimney, which has become one of Alfeld's landmarks. Even more famous than SAPPI is the Fagus Werk, rebuilt in 1910-1915 after the blueprints of architect Walter-Gropius, what is said to be trend-setting for modern architecture.
Popular culture
Alfeld is a strategically important town fought over repeatedly by NATO and Red Army forces in Tom Clancy's novel Red Storm Rising, due to the bridges over the Leine River.
