Dietrich von Velen

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Full-length portrait of Dietrich von Velen, around 1645.

Dietrich von Velen (born January 8, 1591 at Paulsburg in Meppen ; † September 10, 1657 ibid) was Drost of the Emsland and founder of Papenburg .

Life

Dietrich von Velen came from the Westphalian noble family of Velen . He was a son of Hermann von Velen (1544-1609) and his wife Margaretha von der Horst (around 1560-1626). He was born on January 8, 1591 at the Paulsburg in Meppen. Dietrich was a cousin of the imperial field marshal Alexander II of Velen (1599–1675).

As a later son, he was originally intended for the clergy and attended the Jesuit high school in Mainz from 1602 to 1604. After the death of his older brother, he resigned to the secular class to be available as his father's heir.

Since August 17, 1626 he was married to Katharina Sophie von Wendt from the House of Holtfeld (1610–1647), a daughter of Lubbert von Wendt and his wife Agnes von Reuschenberg . The following children were born from this marriage:

From 1542 the office of Drosten des Emsland was hereditary in the Velen family. Later the Drostenamt of the Rheine-Bevergen Office was added. After the death of his father in 1609, Dietrich von Velen was designated hereditary landdrost of the Meppen office in Münster, this office was officially confirmed to him in 1611. From 1633 to 1638 he was expelled from Meppen due to the Swedish occupation. At that time, Dodo ruled in Innhausen and Knyphausen, and after his death in 1636 Anna von Schade ruled over the Emsland. At that time Dietrich von Velen was living in exile at the Sparenberg Fortress near Bielefeld. He was only able to return to Emsland in 1638. Dietrich von Velen was an advocate of the Catholic religion and was involved in the re-Catholicization of the Emsland, which had meanwhile become Protestant. He helped the Jesuits to set up a branch in Meppen and to found a grammar school .

The official seats of Drosten in Emsland were Nienhaus Castle near Aschendorf and Paulsburg Castle in Meppen. In addition, Dietrich von Velen was the owner of Velen Castle in the Münsterland. In addition, the Velen family owned a copper mill and operated three salt pans in Rheine. These entrepreneurial activities had made the family prosperous.

Dietrich von Velen died on September 10, 1657 (other sources cite December 14, 1657) at Paulsburg in Meppen. He was 66 years old and was buried in the choir of the church of Velen.

Papenburg

Bronze statue of Dietrich von Velen in the open-air museum von-Velen-Anlage in Papenburg.

In 1629 Dietrich von Velen bought the dilapidated Papenburg from Friedrich von Schwarzenberg , on the outskirts of East Frisia, and in 1631 he was given additional feudal rights. There he founded the first moor colony on German soil based on the Dutch model. To do this, he had a new canal dug that drained the bog colony into the Ems. On the Ems, he had this canal protected from flooding with a gate. During the Thirty Years' War the new colony suffered greatly from military impact. The occupation of the Emsland from 1633 to 1638 almost brought this project to failure. But after the Treaty of Westphalia was concluded, the settlement quickly recovered. Papenburg was given the status of a glory in 1657 by the Prince-Bishop of Münster, Christoph Bernhard von Galen .

In Papenburg, the Von-Velen-Anlage open-air museum today commemorates the foundation of the bog colony. In 1987, a monument to Dietrich von Velen in the form of a bronze statue in memory of the city's founder was erected on the site of the open-air museum, which was created by the sculptor Uwe Hantke. In addition, Dietrich-von-Velen-Strasse in Papenburg is named after him.

literature

  • Manfred Wolf: Dietrich von Velen (1591-1657) , in: Westfälische Lebensbilder , Volume 14, Münster 1987, pp. 63-77.
  • Wolf-Dieter Mohrmann: von Velen, Dietrich , in: Biographical Handbook for the History of the Osnabrück Region , published by the Landschaftsverband Osnabrück e. V., edited by Rainer Hehemann, Bramsche 1990, p. 296.
  • Johannes Rüschen: Dietrich von Velen zu Velen - pioneer of the moor and founder of Papenburg (1591–1657) , in: Emsländische Lebensbilder from a bygone era. Biographical notes on Emsland personalities from the 9th century to today , edited by Johannes Rüschen, Bremen 1993.
  • Johannes Rüschen and Paul Thoben: von Velen zu Velen, Theodor Dietrich , in: Emsländische Geschichte , Volume 25, published by the Study Society for Emsländische Regionalgeschichte , Haselünne 2018, pp. 307–327.

Web sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Windthorst-Gymnasium Meppen : School history , last accessed on December 12, 2017.
  2. ^ Website of the Von-Velen-Anlage open-air museum in Papenburg , accessed on December 12, 2017.
predecessor Office successor
Hermann von Velen Drost of the Meppen Office
1609–1657 		Hermann Matthias von Velen
personal data
SURNAME Velen, Dietrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Drost of the Emsland and founder of Papenburg
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1591
PLACE OF BIRTH Meppen
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1657
Place of death Meppen