Detmold

Detmold lies among the low hills and open country of Westphalia, near a crossing of the Werre on the old trade road from Paderborn to Lemgo. Its first recorded name, Theotmalli, appears in 783, when Saxons fought Charlemagne's forces nearby during the Saxon Wars. The locality later gave its name to a wider district and grew where a road crossing could support exchange and administration.

In 1263 Bernard III of Lippe fortified the settlement with stone walls and granted it a municipal charter, placing the market at the centre of the town's rise. A later charter confirmed market rights, and trade brought enough prosperity to attract conflict with Soest in 1447. Fire struck hard in 1547, destroying more than seventy houses. In 1550 Detmold became the permanent residence of Count Simon III, and it remained the capital of Lippe.

Southwest of the town, the Grotenburg has a prehistoric circular rampart. The nearby Hermann monument commemorates Arminius's victory over Roman legions in 9 AD, although the exact battlefield need not have lain there. Detmold's strongest historical identity is tied to Lippe's court, but the surrounding landscape also carries much older memories of fortification and warfare.