Atens

Atens City of Nordenham Coordinates: 53 ° 29 ′ 39 ″ N , 8 ° 28 ′ 20 ″ E
Height :	0-3 m above sea level NN
Incorporation :	1908
Postal code :	26954
Area code :	04731
Location of Atens in Lower Saxony

Atens is a district of the Lower Saxon town of Nordenham in the northeast of the Wesermarsch district at the mouth of the Weser.

history

First settlement

From the 1st century BC A settlement on a Wurt in Atens can be proven. Whether the village center is actually on a Wurt or on a Geest island is under discussion. Around 1400 it was in the then wide foreland of the Weser dike on the north bank of the Heete and less than 500 m from the west bank of the Weser .

middle Ages

The Friedeburg

In 1404 the people of Bremen built a fortification, the Vredeborch ('Friedeburg'), near the village of Atens . From here they went to the field against the insurgent inhabitants of Butjadingen and Stadland . The northern part of the Wesermarsch was still an island at that time and was separated from the mainland by the Heete . The Heete was not sealed until around 1450. The “Friedeburg” restaurant owned by the merchant Wilhelm Müller was demolished in 1956/57 to make way for the Nordenhams town hall. The former Vredeborch is said to have been located here.

The Bremen presence on the one hand caused mistrust on the part of the Oldenburg counts, who wanted to expand their power over Butjadingen themselves, and on the other hand caused conflicts with the other Butjadingen chiefs who were calling feuds against the Bremen people. In the course of these conflicts, the sons of the Stadland chief Dide Lubben (Didde Lübben), Dude and Gerold, opposed the people of Bremen. In 1418 they attacked the "Friedeburg" together about 50 other men. The attack failed and the two Lubbens were executed in Bremen. According to legend, the younger brother Gerold picked up the severed head of his brother Dude and kissed it. With this brotherly gesture, the Bremen council gave Gerold the freedom to marry a bourgeois daughter. Gerold refused this, however, he would rather buy the freedom. This was rejected by the Bremen Council and he was also executed. The execution scene was redesigned in a painting by the painter Hugo Zieger in 1894 under the title "The kiss of brother" as a symbol of the Frisian will for freedom. The painting is on display in the Nordenham Museum.

Atens Monastery

In 1505 the short history of the Carmelite monastery at Atens began, which presumably stood on the site of today's St. Mary's Church. The prior of the Carmelite monastery in Appingen near Greetsiel and confidante of Edzard I , Johannes Kruse , tried to establish a convent of the Carmelites in Atens. In 1513 the new monastery was accepted into the Carmelite order. Johannes Kruse remained the prior of the Atens monastery until 1528, his successor being Petrus de Monte . But as early as 1530 the Reformation seems to have found its echo in the monastery, since it was reported as desolate in the Carmelite order.

Modern times

The Christmas flood of 1717 claimed 800 victims in the four parishes Abbehausen, Atens, Blexen and Esenshamm.

In 1876 Wilhelm Böning founded the Butjadinger Zeitung , which appears twice a week. In 1886 the newspaper moved to Nordenham, and from 1949 the paper was called Kreiszeitung Wesermarsch .

From the 19th century

Since the middle of the 19th century, the municipality of Atens has developed into today's city of Nordenham . As a result of industrialization , many industrial companies settled in the northern part of the municipality of Atens around the turn of the century. At the end of the founding years, around 6,000 inhabitants lived in the then rural community of Atens / Nordenham, by 1910 by 8,000, of which only around 1,500 lived in Atens. The community tried from 1907 to become a town. On May 1, 1908, Nordenham was awarded the city charter 2nd class, Atens became a district.

Monuments

In the Bürgerpark there is the Kaiser Wilhelm I monument and opposite the bronze statue of the businessman and local politician Wilhelm Müller .

Sons and daughters of the church

Günther Erdmann (1907–1980), German lawyer and diplomat, Consul General in Casablanca
Wilhelm Müller , (1821–1899), businessman and local politician

literature

Wolfgang Günter [u. a.]: Nordenham. The story of a city , ed. commissioned by the city of Nordenham by Eila Elzholz, Isensee-Verlag, Oldenburg 1993 - ISBN 3-89598-153-2

Individual evidence

↑ See Peter Schmid, settlement archaeological results on prehistory and early history, in: Wolfgang Günther (and others), Nordenham. History of a city, Oldenburg 1993, pp. 13–51, pp. 13ff.
^ Heinrich Schmidt, The area of Nordenham in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, in: Wolfgang Günther (among others), Nordenham. History of a city, Oldenburg 1993, pp. 81–160, pp. 129ff.
^ Heinrich Schmidt, The area of Nordenham in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, in: Wolfgang Günther (among others), Nordenham. History of a City, Oldenburg 1993, pp. 81–160, p. 150.

[1] See Peter Schmid, settlement archaeological results on prehistory and early history, in: Wolfgang Günther (and others), Nordenham. History of a city, Oldenburg 1993, pp. 13–51, pp. 13ff.

[2] Heinrich Schmidt, The area of Nordenham in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, in: Wolfgang Günther (among others), Nordenham. History of a city, Oldenburg 1993, pp. 81–160, pp. 129ff.

[3] Heinrich Schmidt, The area of Nordenham in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, in: Wolfgang Günther (among others), Nordenham. History of a City, Oldenburg 1993, pp. 81–160, p. 150.