Leer is a town in the district of Leer, the northwestern part of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated at the river Ems, on the border with the Netherlands.
It has a railway and autobahn connection to Groningen, Netherlands, Emden, Bremen and the South (Rheine and the Ruhrpott industrial region).
Leer had been a settlement long before it was first mentioned in written documents. Originally the city was situated at a maeander near the mouth of the river Leda into the Ems, which is still the center of the town today. Even though Leer is some 30 km (19miles) away from the coast, it can be reached by large ships via the Ems. Leer lies close to the Dutch border, the district of Leer shares a border with the Dutch province of Groningen.