Bowerre
| Bowerre | ||
 Bowerre in Herford, the last exposed area of the old Werre before it was partially filled in or piped between 1969 and 1976. The artificial water inlet can be seen in the center of the picture. The river Aa can be seen in the foreground, which is connected to the arm on the right. |
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| Data | ||
| location | North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany | |
| River system | Weser | |
| Drain over | Aa → Werre → Weser → North Sea | |
| muzzle | In Herford in the Aa coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 4 " N , 8 ° 40 ′ 4" E 52 ° 7 ′ 4 " N , 8 ° 40 ′ 4" E |
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| Mouth height |
63 m above sea level NN
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| length | 124 m | |
The Bowerre is an approximately one kilometer long river in the city center of Herford , which is now partly filled up and piped. It is the original course of the Werre . There is no longer an influx. The pipe under the route is now a rain or mixed water sewer with the associated house connections.
Surname
The name "Bowerre" is shortened to "Borwerre" from "Bornewerre" (17th century). "Born" (source, well, trough) refers to a cattle trough that was located near the Bergertor. The name has only appeared on maps since the beginning of the 20th century, before that the river arm was simply referred to as “Werre”. Apparently, knowledge of the origin of the water was still widespread at that time.
Location, geography, course
The course of the Bowerre still forms the border between the New Town of Herford in the northeast and the old town in the southwest.
Originally the Bowerre branched off from the Werre at Bergertor, one of the five former Herford city gates that lead to Stiftberg . In the course of the Weddigenufer built in 1912, a bridge led over the Bowerre there. Since the redesign of the streets in this area, the inflow below the bridge arch has been filled; the superstructure of the bridge with the railings is still there. In the adjoining Weddigenuferpark, through which the Bowerre flowed, there is now a memorial for the victims of war and tyranny. Not far from here, a bleaching factory was operated between 1890 and the 1920s. This street area was later called "Zur Bleiche". One of the five municipal day-care centers now stands on the spot where the bleaching plant was located.
The former Easter bridge, under which the Bowerre then flowed, connected Bergertorstrasse and thus the Neustadt with Johannisstrasse in the old town. Then the Bowerre ran parallel to Komturstrasse behind the Catholic Church of St. Johannes Baptist . This place was considered particularly picturesque and was often painted, drawn or photographed from the Easter bridge. The subsequent short section between Klosterstraße and Höckerstraße was expanded as a service and delivery road after being filled in and called “An der Bowerre”.
The Mittelstädter Bridge from Höckerstrasse to Gehrenberg was one of the few connections between the old and new towns . It was built around 1400 and was demolished in 1972. Since 1909, the Linnenbauer, whose monument stands on Linnenbauerplatz, has stood on a pillar of the bridge . The Linnenbauerdenkmal shows the last hand weaver in Herford, the Elverdisser Fritken Oberdiek, who brought his linen to the wholesaler in town and sold it there, counting his money for the bales of canvas with a mischievous smile. The Linnenbauer or linen weaver is comparable to the Kiepenkerl .
Since the 10th century there has been a mill on the Mittelstädter Bridge, the mill wheel of which was driven by the Bowerre. The Mittelstädter Mühle or Abteimühle was demolished when the Bowerre was filled in in 1972.
Today the Linnenbauerplatz is an inner city square with a children's playground where shoppers can relax. The current design of the playground with a watercourse and a ship is reminiscent of the Bowerre. To the north of this is the Herford City Library in a building of the former Kopka furniture factory.
In the further course of the Bowerre, a connecting path was created up to the confluence of Hämelinger Straße and Berliner Straße , which borders on a private park on the west side and houses on the east side.
Under the Berliner Strasse and the street “Am Pulverturm”, where an underground car park was built in the river bed in the area of a branch of the Sparkasse Herford , the Bowerre continued over the area of the municipal Catholic elementary school Wilhelmsplatz ( Wilhelm-Oberhaus-Schule ), where in a part until the 1960s the Herford volunteer fire brigade was located up to the school wall. Between the Schulwall and the Arndtstraße a dry depression can be seen in parts, which indicates the course of the Bowerre. West of the bridge over Arndtstrasse, which has meanwhile been filled in, the Bowerre receives water from an inlet and flows parallel to the Steintorwall up to the confluence with the Aa .
Tributaries
A tributary to the right of the Bowerre was the so-called Kleine Werre. It branched off from the Bowerre near the Bergertor, flowed through the Neustadt and rejoined the Bowerre north of Hämelinger Straße. The historian Dr. Rainer Pape suspects that it is an early moat in the new town. The Kleine Werre was filled in in 1945/46 for hygienic reasons. Due to the construction of Berliner Straße and the subsequent developments, the river bed was completely built up in the 1960s / 1970s and is no longer recognizable in today's cityscape.
history
Human interventions
The New Town of Herford, which was laid out between 1224 and 1250 east of the old town , was surrounded by a wide moat that absorbed most of the water from the Werre. The original course, the Bowerre, was preserved and from then on marked the border between the two independent districts. During the Thirty Years' War , the river north of the wall was bent in an arc to the west in order to use it as a city moat. The river was also used to operate water mills.
Piping and spillage in the 20th century
In 1962 the Herford city council decided to fill in the entire length of the Bowerre in order to save the costs of maintenance. The reasons given were, however, the poor water quality, the unpleasant smell, plagues of rats and the nuisance of passers-by from blowing foam balls. This was followed by a process of several years with opponents of this decision, but in 1967 it was decided in favor of the city. Between 1969 and 1976 most sections of the Bowerre were drained and filled in. Since then, there is only a 120 m long remnant of the original body of water on the Steintorwall. Parts of the river bed were turned into roads and paths by the mid-1980s.
The earlier plan to completely fill in the Bowerre was dropped in 1982 with a change in the development plan. Instead, the still open section should be included in the urban green spaces. The problem of odor nuisance, which in the following years led to a lawsuit with local residents, was solved in 1986 by desludging the river and creating an artificial water supply. A line was laid from the Aa to Arndtstrasse for around 100 meters. Water is pumped up from the Aa through this several times a day, which then flows back to the Aa.
Far-reaching consequences of the construction work
The lowering of the groundwater level associated with the drainage has led to damage to the foundations of adjacent buildings over the years. In general, river clearing is now seen as a totally missed type of urban redevelopment. Plans for a (partial) restoration of the original course of the river have been in existence since the early 1990s, but for cost reasons none of these has yet been implemented.
literature
- Brünger, Wilhelm: Herford. A settlement geographic study. Emsdetten 1936
- Rainer Pape: Sancta Herfordia. History of Herford from the beginning to the present . Bussesche Verlagshandlung GmbH, Herford 1979, ISBN 3-87120-857-4
- Rainer Pape: The old Herford , Herford 1982
- Otto Büter: Die Bowerre - Urlauf der Werre , in: Der Remensnider , Jg. 16 (1988), No. 3, pp. 63-65.
- Karsten Althöfer-Westenhoff and Bernd Josef Wagner: History in the river - Herford research; Vol. 15 , Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, Bielefeld, 1997, ISBN 3-89534-203-3