ILFELD  , a

town in Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, situated at the south foot of the Harz, at the entrance to the Bahrethal, 8 m . N. from Nordhausen by the railway to Wernigerode . Pop . 1600 . It contains an Evangelical church, a celebrated gymnasium, once a monasterial school, with a fine library, and manufactures of parquet-flooring, paper and plaster of Paris, while another industry in the town is brewing . It is also of some repute as a health resort . Ilfeld, as a town, dates from the 14th century, when it sprang up round a Benedictine monastery . Founded about 1190 this latter was reformed in 1545, and a year later converted into the school mentioned above, which under the rectorship of Michael Neander (1525—1595) enjoyed a reputation for scholarship which it has maintained until to-day . See Forstemann, Monumenta rerum Ilfeldensium (Nordhausen, 1843) ; M . Neander, Bericht vom Kloster Ilfeld, edited by Bouterwek (Gottingen, 1873) ; and K . Meyer, Geschichte des Klosters Ilpetd (Leipzig, 1897) .