The village of Wittenburg is the site of a former Augustininan canons regular monastery, established in the 14th century in the place of a former castle, maybe erected by members of the Billung dynasty as early as 805.
On 1 January 1982, the line was closed completely between Harbarnsen and Lamspringe, on 31 May 1987 between Bodenburg and Harbarnsen, and on 29 May 1994 between Lamspringe and Bad Gandersheim and between Gronau and Elze.
In Löhne, line branch off to Rheine via Osnabrück (part of the Hanoverian Western Railway to Emden) and to Elze via Hamelin (continuing to Hildesheim) and, as a result, the station was long an important junction in northwestern Germany as an interchange station with its own marshalling yard.