On the west side of the railway line to Bremen, just above the town of Verden, lies the village of Dauelsen. Here, you will find Sachsenhain: a two-kilometer-long oval road deep in the landscape. Along its sides stand 4,500 large boulders, placed between 1934 and 1936 on Himmler’s orders.

Himmler had the site designed as part of a broader effort to develop a neo-pagan, pseudo-Germanic religious culture. Though this never fully succeeded, the legacy remains.

The choice of location and the number of boulders was no coincidence. Himmler drew on a 19th-century legend about a bloody event said to have taken place in the year 782. According to the tale, Charlemagne executed 4,500 pagan Saxons near Verden because they refused to abandon their Germanic religion and convert to Christianity. This so-called "Saxon Massacre" was reinterpreted in the 19th century as a story of Saxon heroism and Germanic pride. To commemorate the fallen Saxons, Himmler called for the placement of 4,500 boulders.

The site was then developed as a cultural landscape, a kind of open-air sanctuary where ceremonies and ideological gatherings could take place. Today, Sachsenhain has a dual meaning. The church on the grounds is intended as a place of inspiration for tolerance. At the same time, Sachsenhain remains a place where neo-Nazis still gather.