The Christian religion is the root of our culture. Its spread in northern Germany is therefore a particularly important historical event.
The establishment of early Christianity was also associated with violence and coercion, for it took place in the course of the conquest of Saxony by the Frankish ruler Charlemagne around 800 A.D. Punishments up to and including death were intended to prevent the Saxons living here from continuing to sacrifice to their old gods or from using their old burial mounds, which were now understood to be pagan. That the Frankish conquerors lacked the will or the means to enforce this consistently in this country is revealed by many burial grounds with burials from both the time before and after Christianisation. Only gradually did churches appear and new cemeteries were built near them. Churches then became the most important and impressive buildings in the northern German landscape for centuries.