PEINE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, 16 m. by rail N.W. of Brunswick, on the railway to Hanover and Hamburg. Pop. (1905), 15,421. The town has a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church and several schools. Its industries include iron and steel works, breweries, distilleries and brickyards, and the manufacture of starch, sugar, malt, machinery and artificial manure. There are also large horse and cattle markets held here. Peine was at one time a strongly fortified place, and until 1803 belonged to the bishopric of Hildesheim.