Celle
[key], city, Lower Saxony, N Germany, on the Aller River. Its manufactures
include food products, electronic components, chemicals, and oil-drilling
equipment. Wax processing and horse breeding are important locally. Celle
was chartered in 1294. Its castle was the residence of the dukes of
Lüneburg-Celle, a branch of the house of Braunschweig, from 1378 to
1705. The castle still houses a famous 17th-century Baroque theater. On
April 8, 1945, concentration camp prisoners who escaped during an air raid
while being transferred to Bergen-Belsen nearby were massacred here.
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