Burgforde

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Burgforde
City of Westerstede
Coordinates: 53 ° 16 ′ 23 "  N , 7 ° 56 ′ 35"  E
Postal code : 26655
Area code : 04488

Burgforde is a district in the north of Westerstede , the district town of the Lower Saxon district of Ammerland .

history

In 1266, Count Johann I founded a Gräftenburg as a defense on the road that led from the Ammerland via Felde and Moorburg to East Frisia . So the rule of the county of Oldenburg over the Ammerland should be secured against the East Frisians. The name Burgforde is derived from this castle and a ford over the Kleine Norderbäke (then Linsweger Bäke ), so it can be translated as a castle by the ford .

The servants settled around the fortress and worked as mutt sideline in agriculture. This means that the history of Burgforde's origins differs fundamentally from that of other villages in the region, which mostly emerged as Esch settlements from the 9th century . In 1679 there were a total of 23 mutt sites, but not a single househusband . The oldest ban mill in the parish of Westerstede, a post windmill that was located in Burgforde, was leased to a mutt - elsewhere only householders could afford the lease for a manorial mill.

Although intended as a fortress against the East Frisians, the fortress Haus Burgforde was never besieged. Around 1550 it had completely lost its importance as a fortress after Count Anton I had converted the Apen house , which he had acquired in 1538, into a modern fortress. The Burgforde house then fell into disrepair and then mostly only served as the hunting lodge of the Oldenburg counts and at times as the official residence of the Drosten and Bailiffs of Westerstede. In 1746 the former fortress became part of the hereditary fiefdom of the bailiff Alarich von Witken , which was given the name “Wittenheim”, derived from “Witkens Heim”. This name can still be found today in the names of a hotel and the road to Felde. After Witken and his descendants died, the former castle fell into disrepair. Around 1800 the inventory was auctioned and the remains of the building were torn down. Today only the Burgplatz with the moat is visible.

From 1738 the postal route from Bremen via Oldenburg to Amsterdam crossed Burgforde and continued its course through Moorburg over a moor dam through the Lengener Moor to East Frisia. This route replaced, not least through the use of Alarich von Witken, an older postal route to Neuschanz , which had passed through Apen since 1733, but was hardly passable in bad weather.

literature

  • Hermann Ries: Chronicle of the community Westerstede . Plois Verlag, Westerstede 1973.

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