The Derneburger ponds are located near Derneburg in the municipality of Holle. They were created at the time of the abbot Gottfried Arnu (1718-1766) by Cistercian monks from the then Derneburger monastery as fish ponds. The watermill Derneburg, which is located on an arm of the cute on the edge of the area, dates from 1598.
Under Count Ernst zu Münster, the former monastery in 1814 as a result of the connection of the Principality of Hildesheim to the Kingdom of Hanover by the English King George III. was given as a merit for his achievements at the Congress of Vienna, the plant was redesigned to an English landscape garden, which could also be resorted to the fish ponds, which were expanded into a water landscape.
Since 1955, the ponds belonged to the state domain Derneburg and were also used as fish ponds. When the state domain Derneburg was dissolved in 2007, the Paul-Feindt-Stiftung bought the ponds including the water mill from the state of Lower Saxony.
The ponds are still managed and used for carp breeding. So that nature conservation and fish farming can be reconciled, small white fish are exposed in the ponds as prey fish for the water birds, which are then eaten instead of the young carps. The dams between the ponds are grazed with sheep, so that they do not Verwalden.
The Derneburger ponds are an important habitat and breeding biotope for numerous waterfowl. So come here u. a. Greylag goose, mute swan, heron and pochard, great crested grebe, little grebe and black-necked grebe, as well as numerous other ducks, but also various rales. In addition, numerous other bird species are native, including gray heron, dipper, gray wagtail and kingfisher. In the mid-1970s, the ponds formed the starting point for the only inland breeding population in Lower Saxony. In addition, the ponds, which are visible from well-developed trails, habitat for various amphibians, insects and bats, such as noctule, beard, dwarf, broad-winged and water bat. Part of the Laves Cultural Trail in Derneburg runs south of the ponds within the reserve.