Gandersheim

Gandersheim, a small town of 2507 inhabitants in Brunswick, 30 miles N. of Göttingen by rail. Its famous abbey, dating from 852, continued even after the Reformation to give the title of abbess to the daughters of German princes, and until 1803 was itself a principality. Its abbess, Hrotswitha or Roswitha (c. 932-1002), wrote a series of curious dramatic works. See DRAMA (p. 83), and an article by Hudson in the English Historical Review (1888).