The Elm-Lappwald Nature Park has since become part of the UNESCO and European Geopark of Harz–Brunswick Land–Eastphalia.
The settlement arose in the Eastphalian Salzgau region of the medieval Duchy of Saxony; the Immedinger relatives of duchess consort Matilda, wife of Henry the Fowler, founded a nunnery here as a proprietary monastery about 940.