Hermann Löns first came to Walsrode in the year 1893. He praised the heath and the town so well, that the people of Walsrode adopted a new name for their town in his honour, the name Hermann-Löns-town ("Hermann-Löns-Stadt").

Löns was born on 29th August 1866 in Kulm (West Prussia). His parents were from Westphalia. His father got his first job as a grammar school teacher in Kulm and married his fiancé "Klara Kramer", a chemist's daughter from Paderborn, there too. After just about two years the family moved to "Deutsch-Krone", where Hermann Löns spent his youth.
His parents where posted back to their old home in 1894, so that Hermann could finish his grammar school there. Originally he wanted to study science, but his dad thought of this not being prosperous. So Hermann unwillingly had to study medicine.

Münster, Greifswald and Göttingen where the places he passed during his scientific training. In 1890 he broke up with his dad and Hermann left his parents’ house for good never to return.

He jumped (as he called it himself) with both feet into the journalism. Via Kaiserslautern, Gera and Hamburg he found his way to Hanover, where he also married his fiancé, Elisabet Erbeck.
His first job he found at the publisher "Hannoverscher Anzeiger", where he became known instantly under the pseudonym
"Fritz of the river Leine" (Fritz von der Leine) and "Ulenspeigel" with his funny and clever articles. During his time as a journalist he got to know and to like the heath very well. He couldn't get enough of the vegetation and zoology of this typical northern German countryside and documented it in various ways. His poetic work is edited in more than 10 million copies.

The unions of the Hermann-Löns-districts in Germany and Austria intercede for his intellectual inheritance and are resident in Walsrode.

With 48 years of age Hermann Löns volunteered for military service during World War I. He was killed only four weeks after joining an 26th September 1914 at Loivre (Reims de Champagne).

His last work, a war diary named "Life is dying, arising and destruction" (Leben ist Sterben, Werden und Verderben) was introduced to the public in 1986 in Walsrode as a historic document and personal legacy.