Edewecht

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 53 ° 8 '  N , 7 ° 59'  E
Basic data
State :	Lower Saxony
County :	Ammerland
Height :	10 m above sea level NHN
Area :	113.51 km 2
Residents:	22,453 (Dec 31, 2019)
Population density :	198 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	26188
Primaries :	04405, 04486
License plate :	WST
Community key :	03 4 51 004
Community structure:	15 districts
Address of the municipal administration:	Rathausstrasse 7 26188 Edewecht
Website :	www.edewecht.de
Mayoress :	Petra Lausch (independent)
Location of the community of Edewecht in the district of Ammerland

Edewecht ( Low German Erwech , historically: Adewacht ) is a municipality in the district Ammerland in Lower Saxony ( Germany ).

geography

Geographical location

The geographical center of the municipality is at 7 ° 59 '32 east, 53 ° 06' 44 north and is located in today's Industriestrasse in Edewecht. The main town is 18 km west of the city of Oldenburg.

The westernmost point of the municipality is Lohorst (E 7 ° 50 '), the easternmost point is in Wildenloh ( E 8 ° 08'), the northernmost point in Fintlandsmoor (N 53 ° 10 ') and the southernmost point in Hohendamm (N 53 ° 03 ').

Flowing waters

Important rivers are the Zwischenahner coming Aue and coming from the south Vehne , which flows near the village Osterscheps in the floodplain. A smaller receiving waterway that is important for Edewecht's local drainage is the Espergöhler Bäke , which flows into the floodplain from Portsloge in Edewecht. It is the only Geestbach that has its source in the municipality and is still relatively natural in the upper reaches of Portsloge, and in the Edewecht area it has been straightened and technically developed.
The community naturally drains through the floodplain in a south-westerly direction over the Jümme and Leda to the Ems . In the middle of the 20th century, the construction of the Leda barrage put an end to the winter floods of the floodplain and Vehne lowlands, which had been common up until then and which reached the outskirts of Osterscheps, Edewecht and Jeddeloh. For river maintenance , the Ammerländer Wasseracht is based in Westerstede responsible. In the municipality, the fishing rights are on the Vehne and on the Aue to Osterscheps at Fischereiverein Edewecht e. V., the floodplain below Osterscheps is managed by the Scheps e. V. looked after from 1931. The municipal section of the coastal canal is shared by both fishing associations.

Expansion of the municipal area and landforms

With an area of ​​11,340 hectares, Edewecht is the fourth largest and at the same time southernmost municipality in the Ammerland. The municipal area extends 20 km on the west-east axis and 12 km in north-south direction. The elevation of the terrain in the western municipality area is 3.5 m above sea level (floodplain) and increases to 18 m above sea level ( Wildenloh ) to the east . The landscape is characterized by the alternation of the Geestrücke of the Oldenburg-East Frisian ground moraine with former raised bogs . In the municipality there are four Geest hills on which ash was created. Among them, the Edewechter Esch is the largest and longest in the Ammerland with an area of ​​around 100 hectares. In prehistoric times, loosely scattered settlement began in the outskirts of this higher, drier ash. These old village centers are located in Westerscheps, Osterscheps, Edewecht and Jeddeloh I. With the incorporation of Friedrichsfehn (1934), the two Geest hills of the Großer and Kleiner Wildenloh were added to these original ash areas.

Today, the small-scale landscape, structured by open meadows, hedgerows and forest areas, is boldly described in tourism advertising with the term Ammerland park landscape .

Nature reserves

In the municipal area, five remaining areas of the formerly extensive raised bogs with a total area of ​​around 350 ha are designated as nature conservation areas (NSG):

• Fintlandsmoor (NSG WE 88; 50 ha)
• Dänikhorster Moor (NSG WE 181; 20 ha)
• Moorkämpe Süddorf (NSG WE 199; 19 ha)
• Vehnemoor (NSG WE 270; Edewecht: 206 ha)
• Jeddeloher Moor (NSG WE 226; 50 ha)

The NSG Fintlandsmoor, Dänikhorster Moor and Moor Süddorfer champion is remains small-scale structured, rural Handtorfstiche . These drained areas have often developed into peat birch sites through natural succession or regenerate after rewetting as a habitat for raised bog-bound communities. In the protected areas of the industrially peated Vehnemoor, the first wetting areas are currently initiating extensive renaturation. In the long term, the former raised bog character is to be restored here through the various stages of renaturation.

Community structure

The community consists of 15 farmers . Nord Edewecht I and Nord Edewecht II form a closed settlement area as the town center. The municipal administration and the church are located there. With 6331 people, about 30% of the community population live in Edewecht.

The second largest place in the community is Friedrichsfehn with around 4700 inhabitants . The farming communities Husbäke , Jeddeloh I , Jeddeloh II , Klein Scharrel , Osterscheps and Portsloge each have less than 2000 inhabitants. Kleefeld , Süddorf , Westerscheps , Wittenberge and Wildenloh are even smaller .

(Population figures as of June 30, 2015).

Neighboring municipalities

The municipality of Edewecht borders on three cities and five municipalities. These are the Ammerland municipalities of Apen , Westerstede and Bad Zwischenahn , the independent city of Oldenburg , the municipality of Wardenburg in the district of Oldenburg and the municipalities of Bösel , Friesoythe and Barßel ​​in the district of Cloppenburg . The list starts in the northwest and continues clockwise.

climate

The climate in Edewecht is strongly Atlantic due to its proximity to the North Sea, with moderately warm summers and relatively mild winters. Climate data from the closest measuring station of the German weather service in Friesoythe-Altenoythe (N 53 ° 04 '; O 07 ° 54') indicate a long-term temperature mean of 9.6 ° C and an average rainfall of 784 mm / year for the reference period 1981-2010. In general, summer and autumn are more humid, while winter and spring are somewhat drier (maximum June: 78 mm; minimum April: 45 mm).

history

Early days

Edewecht is one of the oldest villages in the Ammerland. Archaeological finds from Osterscheps and Süddorf-Voßbarg prove the presence of people since the Paleolithic. Archaeologists suspect a large stone grave from the early Stone Age (the so-called “pastor's grave” ) in a raised ground at the Portslog fish pond, surrounded by boulders . Important finds from the Roman Empire include several bog bodies such as the man from Hogenseth (year of discovery: 1920) and the men from Husbäke (1931 and 1936 , death period between 75 and 215 AD), a boardwalk between Edewecht and Jeddeloh I (dated to Birth of Christ) and a rare Roman bronze saucepan .

Around 500 AD, farmers from the Chauken tribe settled in the Ammerland and thus presumably also in Edewecht, and in the late 7th century the settlement of Saxony began. After Charlemagne's victory over the Saxons (785 AD), Christianization takes place and the obligation to tithe is introduced. At the same time, the new county constitution forms the basis of fixed administrative structures (“pagus ammeri”) . An important discovery from the 13th / 14th centuries. Century is a button-sized, shimmering blue " Alsengemme ", as a lucky charm presumably depicting the three kings (an enlarged replica is today in front of the South Edewechter "Alte Apotheke").

Medieval to Thirty Years War (first settlement phase)

The place name "Edewecht" can be found for the first time in 1139 in connection with the donation of a " decimam adewacht " (= the tithe to Edewecht) to the Bremen Cathedral and St. Willhadistift. Adewacht presumably refers to the current flowing through Edewecht Aue , wakes up in this interpretation with customs office guard spot to translate ( s. U. "Tollhus up'n Wurnbarg") . The places Scheps (1260: "Scepesen", 1390: "Schephusen") and Jeddeloh ("Yedelo") are mentioned for the first time in the Bruchhauser Lehnsregister around 1260 / '70.

Settlement centers of the community were the four agriculturally usable ash fields on the Geest ridge. A total of 27 farms from this early period are documented in the parish of Edewecht. Wester- and Osterscheps (13 full farmers) were settled as a cluster village, while Jeddeloh was a single farm settlement of two full farmers. In Edewecht, 12 farms west of the elongated Esch (today about the course of the state road 831) formed a row village . Over the following centuries, these full farmers (“house people”) formed the socially determining “farmers” who self-administered the community on a cooperative basis. The basis of the self-administration were the 16 paragraphs of the "Edewechter Bauerbrief" (written around 1600), which above all regulated the economic and social issues of the village community. The autonomy of farmers and farmers' certificates was tolerated by the rulers as long as they were in accordance with their legal requirements.

With the complete settlement of the ash in the 13th century, the first settlement period was largely over. In the following period in 1305 Nord-Edewecht mentioned the forerunner of today's St. Nikolai Church with a chapel .

From 1400 feudal rights increasingly passed to the Oldenburg rulers and since then Edewecht has belonged to the core area of ​​the Oldenburger Land , which formed the overriding historical framework of Edewecht's local history until its dissolution in 1946.

In order to bring their new power to bear, the Oldenburg counts settled in Edewecht in addition to the established householders and a lower knight nobility on seven small estates ( "Ick slah de Eier in de Pann" ) . Westerscheps as the intersection of the old military route to Apen , a road to Harkebrugge in the Münsterland and the navigable floodplain was fortified by military means. Two defensive structures, set up at different times, were supposed to protect the Oldenburg Ammerland from enemy incursions. From around 1500, a wall with an upstream ditch system at the natural bottleneck between the floodplain and Fintlandsmoor blocked the way to Godensholt and thus towards the county of East Friesland . A second, star-shaped ski jump guarded from around 1440–1460 west of the Oellienbrücke the crossing of the floodplains into the Münsterland and also protected against East Frisian incursions. There was also a customs post here that controlled ship and wagon traffic in the direction of Münsterland ( cf. “Tollhus up'n Wurnbarg” ) .

However, this hill quickly failed to fulfill its task, as already from 1471 onwards, because of border disputes at Aue and Vehne, there were several armed incursions from the neighboring Niederstift Münster . In these so-called “ Munster feuds ”, Edewecht and the surrounding villages were completely burned down three times by 1538. After the feuds ended, the importance of the counts' ministerials declined , and they gradually became peasants.

In 1450, the plague killed many residents. At the same time, however, several mills were evidence of high-yield arable farming . From the end of the 16th century, the “farmers” allowed a limited settlement of small farms, so-called mutts . The relationships between long-established full farmers and this new, less-qualified middle class were not without tension and were explicitly regulated in the farmer's certificate. The place Edewecht was considered to be the most populous village in the Ammerland. Around 1530, the Reformation began in Edewecht with the work of the first Lutheran pastor .

During the Thirty Years' War , Count Anton Günther's policy of neutrality was able to keep Edewecht, which was endangered by its border location, out of acts of war, but Edewecht, Scheps and Jeddeloh had to tolerate the billeting of imperial mercenaries in 1627/28. In 1624 Edewecht was destroyed a fourth time by a great fire.

Danish and French times

From 1667 to 1773 Edewecht was administered by the Danish authorities as part of the County of Oldenburg . After a four-day interregnum in 1773, during which Edewecht also belonged to the Russian Empire , Oldenburg regained its sovereignty and was elevated to a duchy in 1774 . In 1803 , Oldenburg was awarded the adjacent Niederstift Münster for the renunciation of the Elsflether Weserzoll . As a result, Edewecht lost its function as a border town. During this period (1730 to after 1800) up to eight ship carpenters' workshops are remarkable, which mainly used traditional barges for the north German canal system that was emerging at the time on the navigable Vehne . Some also built sailing ships suitable for the ocean. Today the statue of "Käpt'n Kuper", a ship sculpture on Kleinbahnweg (artist: Dieter Sur and Klaus Groh ) and the former Heinrich Brand shipyard in Oldenburg remind of this Edewecht shipping era .

In 1811, Northern Germany was occupied by Napoleonic troops and Edewecht was a mairie in the department of the Weser estuaries until 1813 . The French Constitution and the Napoleonic Code were in effect for a short time , although the population was reserved about these political and administrative innovations. At the end of the so-called " French era ", the aim was to return to the old structures. However, in 1814 with the new version of the Oldenburg state constitution, the peasant-cooperative self-government was gradually disempowered and a political municipality Edewecht was created.

19th century - common division and peatland colonization (second settlement phase)

Between the Thirty Years' War and the so-called "French era", the population of Edewechts more than tripled, which, in addition to comparatively good living conditions, was due to the common division that was supposed to give the poorer population social and economic improvements. The Edewecht community was mapped as early as 1749, and from 1790 communal lands in the Esch villages of Edewecht, Jeddeloh and Wittenberge came into small-scale ownership. In 1782 the first permanent settlement took place in Portsloge , in 1794 the settlement of the "Scharrelsberg" began, from which the Klein Scharrel farmers developed.

The peat colonization that began in the first half of the 19th century had the greatest significance in terms of settlement and population history for Edewecht. From 1827 to 1844, the municipality's first bog colony, today's Jeddeloh II, was built on Langendamm in Vehnemoor . This was also due to the establishment of the border between the county of Oldenburg and the Niederstift Münster in 1790 , which added parts of the Vehnemoor with the Jeddeloher meadows to the state of Oldenburg. Further colonizations followed in 1846/47 on Wildenlohsweg (today Kleefeld ) and in 1851 with the colony behind the Wildenloh (today Friedrichsfehn ). Within half a century, the number of Edewecht farmers doubled.

The development of the impassable moors through various traffic routes was causally related to the development of the state (1822: “Scharreler Damm” to Wardenburg , 1830/40: “ Edewechter Damm ” to Altenoythe ). The fortified Chaussee Edewecht - Oldenburg, built between 1874 and 1895, had the convenient consequence for Edewecht that the previous detour via Zwischenahn was no longer necessary . At that time no fewer than six brick factories were producing in the community for the construction of clinker streets and solid settler houses .

Overcoming the natural limitations intensified the exchange of goods and accelerated communication.

In the second half of the 19th century the population stagnated since the settlement reserves were largely depleted, the Moorkolonisierung crafted hard and privation was ( "The First sien Dod, the Tweet sien need, the Third sien bread" ) and the general employment situation bad stayed. That is why around 1700 people - almost every second Edewechter - migrated to the Wilhelminian-era industrial areas or hired themselves out as seasonal migrant workers (e.g. " Holland-goers "). The pressure of settlements fell accordingly.

The turn of the 20th century - the path to modernity

Towards the end of the 19th century, agricultural productivity rose noticeably as a result of the - still modest - mechanization , the replacement of pest management with artificial fertilizers and the willingness to innovate on the part of peat land and new settlers. Witnesses of this rapid upswing were six new grain windmills built between 1865 and 1890 , the establishment of a dairy cooperative in 1900 (forerunner of today's Zentral-Käserei) and the establishment of the "Ammerland Meat Factory" in 1908 (today: Meica) . At the beginning of the 20th century, electricity plants were built in Jeddeloh I and Edewecht, and all the farmers were electrified by 1921. The increasing mobility through bicycles and automobiles as well as the increasing spread of public telephones or radio devices changed the living conditions.

Decisive economic impulses came from two large transport projects. From 1855 to 1893 the Hunte-Ems Canal was built (1925–1935 expanded to form a coastal canal ), which made the vast areas of the Vehnemoor in the south of Edewecht usable through drainage ( cf. “NSG Vehnemoor” ) . Canal and bridge construction offered families in need a welcome income. The second project was the construction of the Zwischenahn - Edewecht small railway , which was extended to Edewechterdamm in 1920. Both projects were a prerequisite for the supra-regional marketing of agricultural products, bricks and - predominantly - peat products . The latter favored the establishment of numerous peat factories, peat litter factories and peat farm companies. The booming peat industry also provided employment for many Dutch and Polish workers.

After potting and draining, the peatland could then be used for agriculture. As a result, the raised bog colonization revived again: Jeddeloh II (1901) and Kleinscharrel (1905) were expanded as planned and in 1911 the new raised bog colony "Süd Edewechtermoor" was created (since 1920 the farmers' associations Süddorf and Husbäke). In the mid-1920s, the reform pedagogical “ Volkshochschulheim Edewecht ”, which was recognized far beyond the Oldenburger Land, was built here , in which in 1927 the community's first kindergarten was established.

First World War and Weimar Republic

The First World War also meant changes for Edewecht. Agriculture was obliged to pay livestock and grain taxes, and there were no soldiers on the farms. From 1915 onwards, replacements were found in the up to 6,000 prisoners of war who were used in the “Jordanshof” (Husbäke) and “Langenmoor” (Heinfelde) farms as harvest workers and for peatland cultivation.

In 1918, the Edewecht community complained of at least 149 war dead and 10 missing soldiers. After the end of the First World War, until the internal political situation stabilized in 1919, a peasant council initiated by the rural ruling class acted briefly to maintain order and counteract radical changes in property relations. In economic terms, the Edewechter peat industry experienced further growth impulses during the crisis of the early Weimar Republic , as heating coal was scarce due to reparation deliveries and the elimination of Upper Silesian mines . Later, the National Socialists' drive for self-sufficiency strengthened the use of local fuel peat. During this time, the meat industry developed, which is still one of Edewecht's main economic pillars. Both the peat and meat products industries overtook the previously predominant agricultural economy and strongly promoted the economic upswing of the community.

Politically, there was a growing right- wing trend among voters in the late Weimar Republic . While the first parliamentary elections in Edewecht in 1919 still resulted in a bourgeois- social-democratic majority, the rise of the NSDAP to the milieu party of the agrarian Oldenburger Land began in 1928 at the latest . At the same time, the first local group of the NSDAP in Ammerland was founded in Edewecht. In the state elections in 1932, the NSDAP achieved 84.6% of the votes in the Edewecht community. For tactical reasons, there were soon rapprochements with the parish, whose leaders had been at least close to the NS branches since 1930.

Period of National Socialism (1933–1945)

Individually perceptible disadvantages of the tight NS-forced organizations ( Reichsnährstand , German Labor Front , youth organizations, etc.) were offset by price increases for agricultural products as well as the economic revival through emergency work and the incipient NS armaments boom, which improved the economic situation.

“The simultaneity of fundamental approval of the Nazi regime and criticism of or disregard for individual measures was characteristic of the great majority of Edewechter, who, despite clear votes for the NSDAP in the elections before the takeover of power, were by no means convinced or even fanatical National Socialists. They mostly reacted to the situation of practical rule exercised by the Nazi regime, which was new for them too, according to the experience, which has been confirmed time and again in rural areas, that one can best come to terms with the respective authorities as long as an adequate lifestyle seems to be guaranteed. "

The representatives of the Edewecht parish also remained calm in the so-called “ church struggle”. However, from 1934 Pastor Georg Hanßmann tried to withdraw the Edewecht parish as far as possible by orienting itself towards the Confessing Church .

In 1933 a regional reform took place, as a result of which parts of Jeddeloh II fell to the municipality of Wardenburg (today: Harbern I). The municipality of Edewecht had smaller gains through the Harkebrugger Mark west of Westerscheps and the Hansa area south of Husbäke. The gain of the Friedrichsfehn district from the dissolved municipality of Ofen was significant .

As a result of these incorporations, the area grew from 9,412 ha to 11,340 ha, combined with an increase in population. This made the construction of several "dwarf schools" necessary, which not insignificantly burdened the community budget. The "red" adult education center Edewecht was converted into the " Reichsbräute- und Heimmütterschule Husbäke " in 1937 .

World War II - Edewecht's fifth destruction

Since 1940 there were again prisoner-of-war camps in Edewecht, so u. a. in the former RAD warehouse “Hogenset”. As in the First World War, the prisoners of war and foreign forced laborers (estimates between several hundred to well over 1000 people) were employed in agriculture and peat plants. Edewecht did not suffer any major war damage until the end of 1944, but the effects of the war were "tangible" right from the start. So Edewechter had to support fire brigade units in the fire fighting in the bombed Bremen and Wilhelmshaven and you could watch overflights of the bomber fleets and also the bombings from the Rostrup military airfield . The end of the war became apparent in 1944 when the remaining men were drafted into Volkssturm companies.

With the start of the Allied advance into northwest Germany at the end of March 1945, the coastal canal that bounded the municipality was militarily expanded to become a " Sea Lion Position " security line . Soldiers were quartered with the residents of the community. As the front approached, the Germans blew up the Edewechterdammer canal bridge on April 15 , shortly afterwards the crossings in Husbäke and Jeddeloh II and finally the bridge at Klein Scharrel on April 20. On April 16, low-level aircraft fire caused the first civilian deaths, and in the afternoon the Canadian artillery began shooting in , which developed into barrage by midnight.

After the formation of a bridgehead on April 17th, the Canadian troops made only gradual progress in the impassable moorland and on the mined or blasted roads, despite massive artillery support and ongoing use of fighter-bombers . South Edewecht was only reached on April 25th. The place Edewecht was completely in Canadian hands on April 27, Jeddeloh I and Port Lodge on the following day. A little later, the neighboring community of Bad Zwischenahn was reached in Ekern .

412 members of the Wehrmacht and around 300 Allied soldiers died in the bitter fighting in the municipality. Although many had fled the fighting into the moorland areas that were impassable for the Sherman tanks , 104 bystanders also fell victim to the fighting. 45% of the building stock - more than 370 residential houses and more than 600 agricultural buildings - were total losses.

A week before the ceasefire in Edewecht, Scheps and Portsloge, centuries-old townscapes with thatched farms were irretrievably wiped out.

Post-war period - reconstruction (third settlement phase)

After the end of the Second World War, Edewecht belonged to the British zone of occupation . Since November 1, 1946, the municipality has belonged to the newly founded state of Lower Saxony , which in 1949 became a member of the Federal Republic of Germany . Immediately after the end of the war, around 3,000 people in the community were homeless, and a further 1,000 people lived in damaged buildings. The villages were marked with emergency shelters, and many were starving. While the more than 100 civilian dead were buried in the church cemetery immediately after the end of the war, it was decided in August 1945 that the German soldiers, who had been buried in field graves during the fighting, should be relocated to a new central “war cemetery ” . The Canadian soldiers who died in the fighting were reburied in the central Canadian war cemetery ("Canadian War Cemetery") in Holten, the Netherlands, and the British dead were transferred to their homeland.

The care and integration of refugees and displaced persons - almost a quarter of the total population (2000 people) - were almost unsolvable tasks. The centuries-old Protestant uniformity was abolished by the influx of new Catholic citizens. The material shortage could only be countered by improvising and organizing on the black market . In addition, all social and political areas were denazified by mid-1949 , which affected 533 NSDAP party members, 76 SA and four SS members in Edewecht . In 1946, the first free election after the end of the Nazi era resulted in a liberal-social-democratic community council.

Only after the currency reform did the economy regain its footing, and the orderly reconstruction began as part of a barracks clearance program and new local planning. Another contributory factor was that Edewecht, along with Haren (Ems) , Friesoythe and Cloppenburg, was declared by the State Ministry to be one of four emergency communities in Lower Saxony that should be given priority in the reconstruction. In this phase, Edewecht celebrated the 800th anniversary in 1950, and the wooden bell tower of St. Nicholas' Church , which burned down during the fighting in 1945, was rebuilt as a symbol of the community. The pastoral care and integration of Catholic believers in Edewecht was served by the construction of a chapel on Holljestrasse in 1953 (today: youth center).

In the following years, Edewecht transformed itself into an economic community and a service center during the " economic miracle " phase . The designation of several industrial areas since the end of the 1960s has contributed to this, among which the industrial area "Im Brannen" established Edewecht's now important position in the food industry ( see Heinz zu Jührden ) . Linked to this economic structural change was the steadily decreasing importance of agriculture as an employer. Even the peat economy has not achieved the importance it used to be, and its current necessity is being discussed controversially. As a result, the small railway , which was last only active in freight traffic, had to be discontinued in 1991 , the route of which was prepared as a tourist bike touring route in 1995.

The community in Edewecht met the need for living space for the population, which is still increasing today, by designating large settlements on the Esch areas, which were previously taboo for building ("Dichterviertel", "Süderesch", "Hoher Esch", "Musikerviertel", "Pastorensiedlung") and on farms that are no longer managed or relocated. The Edewechter street names "Dierkshof", "Grubenhof", "Bunjeshof", "Holljehof" and "Deyehof" refer to these former farms. Due to the brisk construction activity, the districts of South and North Edewecht merged and Portsloge is also following this trend. Another focus of the settlement was Friedrichsfehn due to its attractive location in Oldenburg. After the war in 1955 there was only one moor colonization in Wittenriede (see Fintlandsmoor ).

An episode of the " Cold War " was the stationing of a US Army unit (51st USAAD) in South Edewecht. From March 1973–1988 they guarded nuclear-armed anti-aircraft missiles in Westerscheps until they were replaced in 1988 by the non-nuclear Patriot system. In 1993 the Westerschepser rocket position was given up and is now a wind and solar park.

The Micro Hall Art Center (MHAC) existed in Edewecht from 1986 to 2006 . Originally it was founded in 1971 as the “Five towers micro hall center” in Augustfehn by Klaus Groh , because the exterior of it was based on the German Barcelona pavilion - albeit with five ventilation shafts. In 1986 the facility in Augustfehn was closed and relaunched in Edewecht in a converted old building, albeit under the name Micro Hall Art Center . Until 2006, exhibitions , performances , theater and cabaret took place here on approx. 100 m² of exhibition space and 400 m² of garden space . The Literaturium, a private cultural center, was housed in part of the building. In 2006 the facility was closed for reasons of age, as there was no operator to replace it.

In 2000, the 850th anniversary of the town was celebrated, in connection with which a functional replica of the former Edewechter coker windmill was built in the center of the town (original in the museum village of Cloppenburg ).

Population development

Population development of Edewecht from 1702 to 2017 according to the data opposite

The following table shows the population figures determined from historical and current sources for the settlement epochs and events shown in the text.

District Friedrichsfehn with the Wildenloh (right) and the Roten Steinwegsee, south of it the coastal channel

year Residents 1702 a ~ 900 1769 a ~ 1,400 1855 a 3,451 1895 a 3,452 1925 b 5,565 1933 c 6,000 1950 c 9,470	year Residents June 6, 1961 d 9,967 August 1, 1964 d 10,745 October 25, 1968 d 11,995 December 31, 1972 d 12,723 June 3, 1974 d 13,383 1985 c 14,166 1990 c 15,334	year Residents 1995 c 17.097 December 31, 1998 18,210 December 31, 2000 19,226 December 31, 2002 20,085 December 31, 2004 20,654 December 31, 2006 21,013 December 31, 2007 21,127 December 31, 2016 22,031
a according to Winkler
b according to Winkler
c according to the website of the municipality of Edewecht
d evaluations by the community of Edewecht for the state statistical office according to Winkler

The average age in the municipality of 42.9 years is below the Lower Saxony state value (44.3 years) and that of other municipalities in Ammerland (as of 2018).

Religions

The largest religious community is the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Edewecht with around 11,000 members. Besides there is the Catholic chapel community of St. Vincent Pallotti, the Methodist Church and the Evangelical Free Church community (Baptists) in Jeddeloh I . These four church congregations have been working together in the Ecumenical Working Group since the early 1980s . On January 8, 2006, this cooperation was given a binding structure regulated by statutes through the establishment of a local ACK ( Working Group of Christian Churches in Edewecht, ACKE ).

politics

Municipal council

The council of the Edewecht municipality consists of 34 councilors. This is the specified number for a municipality with a population between 20,001 and 25,000. The 34 council members are elected by local elections for five years each. The current term of office began on November 1, 2016 and ends on October 31, 2021.

The full-time mayor Petra Lausch is also entitled to vote in the municipal council.

The last local election on September 11, 2016 resulted in the following:

Political party	Sept 11, 2016				Sept 11, 2011				Sept 10, 2006				Sept 9, 2001
	be right	in %	Seats		be right	in %	Seats		be right	in %	Seats
CDU	12,237	41.16%	14 seats		9,511	38.6%	13 seats		10,598	42.8%	14 seats		12,544	47.8%	16 seats
SPD	9,843	33.11%	11 seats		9,053	36.7%	13 seats		9,280	37.5%	12 seats		10,067	38.4%	12 seats
Green	2,776	9.33%	3 seats		3,669	14.9%	5 seats		1,427	5.8%	2 seats		1,678	6.4%	2 seats
FDP	1,816	6.10%	2 seats		1,043	4.2%	1 seat		2,083	8.4%	2 seats		1,957	7.5%	2 seats
UWG	1,644	5.53%	2 seats		1,357	5.5%	2 seats		1,374	5.5%	2 seats		-	-	-
The left	804	2.70%	1 seat		-	-	-		-	-	-		-	-	-
NPD	604	2.03%	1 seat		-	-	-		-	-	-		-	-	-
voter turnout	10,218 of 18,050				8,472 of 17,008				8,630 of 16,414				9,012 of 15,031
	56.6%				49.8%				52.6%				60.0%

mayor

In the last mayoral election on May 26, 2014, the non-party Petra Lausch was re-elected with 85.4 percent unopposed candidate. The turnout was 45.3 percent. It is the third term of office for Lausch.

badges and flags

The coat of arms of the municipality of Edewecht shows a blue post mill with black sailing logs on a green hill in silver. Since 1934, the Edewecht community has had the first post windmill built in 1456 in its coat of arms and seal.

The flag of the municipality is white (silver) in the upper half, blue in the lower half and covered with the municipality's coat of arms.

Town twinning

• Krosno , Poland
• Wusterhausen / Dosse , Brandenburg
• Czermin (Powiat Pleszewski) , Poland

Jeddeloh II has had a partnership with Breddin since 1991 .

Culture and sights

St. Nikolai Church in Edewecht with a wooden bell tower

Windmill Kruse-Deeken in Westerscheps

Edewecht coke mill

Landscape window "Mühlen" in Westerscheps

theatre

“De Plattsnackers” are a Low German theater ensemble from Jeddeloh I. The ensemble's pieces are performed in the Gasthof Witte in Jeddeloh I. The "Speelkoppel Friedrichsfehn" uses the gymnasium Friedrichsfehn once a year for three weeks as a Low German theater stage. Since 2001, the amateur ensemble of the “Theater Pur” from Edewecht has been performing self-written plays, from crime novels to comedies, in the hall of the “Hempen Fied” restaurant in Ekern.

Museums

The Tollhus up'n Wurnbarg is a local and open-air museum in Wittenberge. The ensemble consists of several old buildings, which are idyllically situated on the course of the river Aue around a former customs house (Low German: Tollhus). The "Tollhus" was a customs house of the county of Oldenburg to the Niederstift Münster, whose border in Edewecht roughly followed the course of the rivers Vehne and Aue. The original location of the smoke house , built in 1758, was on the turnpike in front of the entrenchments and weirs of the Oellienbrücke (Auebrücke Kortenmoorstrasse in Westerscheps). Since 1428, users of the Heerstraße Ammerland - Münsterland and the Aue had to pay customs to the Vogt at this customs station. In 1961 the "Tollhus" was demolished and in 1962 it was rebuilt true to the original on the Wurnbarg site. Today it serves as a local museum and presents numerous objects from the history of Ammerland agriculture. There is also a coach house, a bleacher's hut and a bakery. Guided tours take place on request. The Tollhus up'n Wurnbarg can be used as a branch of the Edewechter registry office for marriages since the end of 2014.

art

The Ammerland e. V. is an interest group Ammerländer Kulturveranstalter. This includes the Rastede Art and Culture Circle , the Westerstede Lecture Society , the Westerstede Railway Station Association , the LITERATURIUM Klein Scharrel / Edewecht , the Wiefelstede Local History Museum and the Studio Galerie Rastede. There is a constant cultural exchange between the Ammerland district and the Pleszew district in Poland.

The Edewechter Kunstfreunde offer a cultural program from the most varied of disciplines: concerts from classical to jazz to popular light music, readings, lectures and art exhibitions.

Buildings

The Protestant St. Nikolai Church is the oldest building in the town. The church with the free-standing wooden bell tower was first mentioned in a document around 1305. The original preserved in the church are remarkable vault paintings from the late 15th century as well as the pulpit from 1653, which is decorated with numerous carvings, and the baptismal bowl carrier from 1656. In 2002, the replica of the three-winged crucifixion altar made in 1520 in the workshop of the “ Master of Osnabrück ” became a high-ranking Late Gothic work of art from Oldenburg sacred art recovered. The free-standing, wooden bell tower of the church is unique for the Ammerland. It is the symbol of the evangelical parish.

In Edewecht there are several keep which were built here to defend the farms. In most cases, however, they only served as storage. The best preserved one is the Heinje Bergfried from 1476. Next to it grows the largest weeping silver fir tree in Germany. Another keep is at the Oellien-Hof.

The municipality of Edewecht has had a post mill in its coat of arms since 1934 . Even today there are two functioning mills in the municipality: in Westerscheps there is a Galerieholländer mill , which was built in 1799 and renovated in 1998. It can be visited by arrangement. The Wallholländer windmill in Osterscheps was built on an earth wall in 1888. This mill is still fully functional and was also renovated in 1998. On the ground floor there is a documentation on mill customers as well as on the history and renovation of the mill. A grain- grinding coker windmill from Edewecht was acquired in 1956 by the museum village of Cloppenburg and rebuilt there. Today there is a replica of this mill in the center of Edewechter. As a branch of the Edewechter registry office it serves u. a. for wedding ceremonies.

Parks

The farm garden Anke zu Jeddeloh in Jeddeloh I is a 5000 m² garden behind a Gulf house and consists of various plantings for the sun area, the partial shade and the shadow area. Under an old tree population and embedded in generous lawns, rhododendrons with accompanying plants, varied herbaceous borders, valuable conifers can be discovered on a guided tour or, optionally, the attached tree nursery can be visited.

Natural monuments

In the north of Edewecht, in the listed garden park of the Lehei - Heinje tree nursery, there is a botanical rarity in Germany's largest weeping delt ( Abies alba 'Pendula' ), a peculiar hanging shape of the silver fir with an initially rising trunk and heavily drooping side branches. Immediately next to it is one of Edewecht's preserved keep.

Sports

Edewecht offers its citizens a wide range of club sports. VfL Edewecht , whose 1st men's handball team was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga in 2009 , is known beyond Edewecht's borders . The soccer team of SSV Jeddeloh is also well known , which played in the Lower Saxony Oberliga from 2012 to 2017 and was promoted to the Regionalliga Nord in 2017.

Edewecht has four sports halls (Heinz-zu-Jührden-Halle, Göhlenweghalle at the grammar school and the sports halls at the Edewechter elementary school and at the Astrid-Lindgren school). In Edewecht, in addition to the central sports field Zum Stadion, there are other sports fields at the Heinz-zu-Jührden-Halle and at the Astrid-Lindgren-Schule. There are also sports fields and other sports halls in the farming communities.

The modern stadium pool is a combined indoor and outdoor pool with an attached sauna and wellness area and is used for the diverse offers of the Edewechter swimming club. A shooting range that meets the latest requirements is used by the Edewechter shooting clubs. There are also seven more shooting ranges in the farmers' communities.

Equestrian sports close to home are possible in the Portsloge equestrian center, friends of model sports are welcome at the model airfield in Jeddeloh I. The ship model club Bad Zwischenahn-Edewecht e. V. has weekly model ship trips on its club water "Espergöhler Teich" in the Portsloger Busch. Tennis fans can use the Edewecht tennis club with 5 clay courts and an indoor court with carpet that was renovated in 2010.

A regional peculiarity is street boaring, which is practiced as a club in the farming communities Portsloge and Westerscheps.

societies

The hometown association "Lustögde Goodheit" e. V. in Westerscheps has existed since 1919 and has set itself the goal of preserving the Low German language, preserving local customs and traditions and maintaining the old costumes. Theater performances are also held on the stage in "Tollhus up'n Wurnbarg" (see above). The annual highlight of the program is the hosting of the “Grooden ammerschen Arntefier” with a large parade in Westerscheps. The association is based in Tollhus up'n Wurnbarg.

The “De Afrümers e. V. ” from Süddorf were brought into being in 1982 by young people in order to create a range of meaningful leisure activities in the village. The association has become known through the annual open-air party in Süddorf and the trek cinema, which took place for the last time in 2017.

The "Trecker Treck Edewecht e. V. “ has been organizing official pulling competitions for standard tractors on a prepared meadow area in the Edewechter Göhlen area since 1988, which have also been valuation runs of the German Championship in Tractor Pulling since 1992. Today the association is represented at tractor pulling events all over Germany and Europe with the club's own brake trucks "Red Shadow" and "Red Shadow SE" built in Edewecht. The “Red Shadow TE (Third Edition)”, which was first used in 2013, is part of the latest generation of brake trucks and is currently the most modern in Europe. He was awarded the gold medal of the European Tractor Pulling Committee .

The Edewecht event forum has existed since 2013 on the initiative of citizens, entrepreneurs and the municipal administration . The aim of the association is to strengthen the cultural offer and to organize events close to the people (e.g. Christmas market, market party). At the same time, it offers a low-threshold platform for broad participation in events and for lobbying.

Regular events

Market party in spring, Easter bonfire , setting the maypole , tractor pulling, Christmas market, “Groode Ammersche Arntefier”, open-air party by the “Afrümers” Süddorf.

Culinary specialties

The Ammerländer smoked ham is a well-known delicacy that has matured for at least six months. It is popular with asparagus. A real Ammerland snack with black bread is also part of the rest.

A local, hearty specialty is kale with pinkel (a grützwurst). Kale is a typical winter vegetable and is also known in other regions as brown, leaf, pick or winter cabbage. Traditionally, a kale meal consists of kale with potatoes, pee, cooked sausage (so-called smokers) and belly meat (Kasseler or Kasselernacken). The kale season starts in autumn after the first frost. Many restaurants therefore offer special dates for this traditional meal from autumn to Maundy Thursday. Often the cabbage meal is preceded by sociable cabbage trips with friends, neighbors, colleagues or clubs in the great outdoors.

Bookweeten Janhinnerk is a hearty specialty from the moor. Buckwheat used to be grown as a grain substitute on bog areas, as it thrives well on poorer soils. Its coarse flour tastes aromatic and nutty. Prepared as a pancake with toasted bacon mixed in, it is traditionally served with beet syrup. Another buckwheat specialty is buckwheat tart.

Bückelsbraten is another culinary specialty for social gatherings. The so-called "Bückel" are low-fat salted herrings that have been soaked for three days and that are skewered and smoked in the open fire. There is also hearty black bread and “ Heet un Sööt ” - hot beer with sugar!

Spoon drink - in the traditional spoon drink, grain is drunk from a tin spoon held in the left fist. The drinking ceremony is accompanied by a Low German alternation between host and guests:

Ick see di - Dat frit mi
Ick sup di to - Dat do cheers
! - Cheers!
Ick heb di tosapen - Hest drapen the right hand
So wi dat always lifts doh'n - So sounds ok goh'n again.

After Prost the pewter spoon must be licked with the tongue so that they do not leave wet marks on the tablecloth when depositing.

Economy and Infrastructure

Horticulture in Jeddeloh I

Edewecht plant of the Deutsches Milchkontor

The food industry in particular has settled in the municipality of Edewecht. Another focus is metal construction.

Established businesses

Edewecht is a center of the food industry. Numerous nationally known products are manufactured on site. Established medium-sized manufacturers are:

• Meica : The Ammerländische Fleischwarenfabrik Fritz Meinen GmbH & Co has its company headquarters in Edewecht.
• Deutsches Milchkontor (formerly Nordmilch ): The Edewecht plant employs over 550 people. a. Make sliced ​​cheese, butter and sweet whey powder . The dairy is considered to be the most modern in Europe. The products can be found in stores under the brand names Milram and Oldenburger .
• Abraham : In 1998 the Abraham Group took over the Ammerland ham smokehouse Sandstede from the Edewechter district of Osterscheps. The Ammerland ham , which is now protected by name, is still produced there. Abraham has been a brand of Bell Germany in Seevetal since September 2012 .
• Bley meat and sausage products: The family business has been producing hand-salted Ammerland farmer's ham as a specialty in the Edewechter industrial area since 1988 and other regional food products such as air-dried raw sausage, kale, cooked sausage and pee for the northern German market as well as Denmark and the Netherlands.

There are also numerous other smaller meat processing companies. The most important companies outside of the food industry are the metal and element builder Haskamp with 200 employees, the machine and plant manufacturer BACKHUS Eggersmann Group as the world market leader in handling technology for composting, waste processing and soil remediation, the Sommerfeld company in the construction industry and several internationally renowned tree nurseries . After the merger with Wienerberger, only a small location in Jeddeloh I remained of the formerly important Poroton manufacturer Oltmanns .

media

In addition to the daily newspaper Nordwest-Zeitung , the Hunte Report and the Ammerländer Sunday newspaper are distributed in Edewecht .

Public facilities

• Bath at the stadium: combined indoor and outdoor pool with attached sauna and wellness area.
• Book cellar: Public library jointly sponsored by the parish and the Protestant parish.
• Catholic library in the parish center of St. Vinzenz-Palotti .
• Youth centers: "Church" (Edewecht) and Friedrichsfehn

education

There are four primary schools in the community, including an all-day school , a high school and a grammar school (secondary level I) as well as a special school with a focus on learning and intellectual development (Astrid Lindgren School).

The previous Edewecht secondary and secondary school was merged in 2013 to form the Edewecht Oberschule. It is run as a partially bound all-day school. Schoolchildren can take part in afternoon offers on three days of the week (Tuesday to Thursday); two days are compulsory. A special focus here is on homework supervision, preparation for final exams and athletic (socially affective) education. As the only secondary school in Lower Saxony, it has had the "Plattdüütsche School" rating since 2016 for its wide range of activities relating to Low German.

The secondary school in Osterscheps was closed due to declining registration numbers.

Around 96 percent of children between the ages of three and six can attend a morning group at the kindergarten, and the offer is supplemented by afternoon groups and all-day groups. There are also integrative offers in almost all locations. The kindergartens are partly municipal and partly church sponsored.

In the 2010s, facilities in the crèche area (morning and all-day groups) were also created. All nurseries (two groups in Edewecht / Stadion) are municipal sponsors. A new construction of a day nursery (two groups) in Edewecht-Friedrichsfehn is planned. With offers from Edewechter child minders, the community of Edewecht will achieve the legally required childcare places for children under 3 years of age.

traffic

The community can be reached quickly from the A 28 and A 29 federal motorways and the B 401 federal road via a well-developed road network. The municipality is served by the following bus lines of the Bremen / Lower Saxony transport association :

• 375 Süddorf - Edewecht - Bad Zwischenahn
• 380 Barßel ​​- Osterscheps - Edewecht - Friedrichsfehn - Oldenburg
• 910 Friesoythe - Süddorf - Edewecht - Oldenburg

There is no direct bus connection to the district town of Westerstede.

The public bus route 393 supplements the public transport offer on weekdays with regular round trips through the farmers' groups in the municipality and also offers connections to Bad Zwischenahn (ZOB):

• Edewecht - Klein Scharrel - Friedrichsfehn - Jeddeloh II - Husbäke - Edewecht - Bad Zwischenahn
• Bad Zwischenahn - Husbäke - Jeddeloh II - Klein Scharrel - Friedrichsfehn - Jeddeloh I - Edewecht

The nearest train station is in the neighboring municipality of Bad Zwischenahn ( Bremen - Oldenburg - Emden line with intercity trains, regional express and regional S-Bahn stops ). From 1912 to 1991 the community owned its own railway, the Bad Zwischenahn – Edewechterdamm railway .

In addition to a cycle path around Edewecht , which was opened in 2006, parts of larger cycle paths (Ammerland route, heron path) cross the community. There is also a network of cycle paths.

As an inland waterway , part of the coastal canal runs through Edewecht. There are several landing stages in the municipality.

The closest commercial airport is Bremen (approx. 60 km away).

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the church

• Hermann Kruse (before 1560 - † 1599), first Lutheran clergyman at the Doberan Minster
• August Heidkämper (* 1889 in Jeddeloh I; † May 31, 1975 in Edewecht): building contractor and building materials dealer. 1946–1966 Mayor of Edewecht, 1946–1967 member of the district council. Winner of the Federal Cross of Merit (1962), Honorary Mayor in recognition of his achievements in the reconstruction of the war-torn Edewecht (1966).
• Johann Bünting (* May 20, 1782 in Edewecht; † February 6, 1853 in Leer): founder of the company " Joh. Bünting & Co. " (including "Bünting Tee")
• Hein ten Hoff (born November 19, 1919 in Süddorf; † June 13, 2003 in Hamburg): professional boxer and multiple German and European heavyweight champion; longtime President of the Association of German Professional Boxers
• Johann-Dietrich zu Jeddeloh (born February 25, 1914, † August 1999 in Jeddeloh): tree nursery man and breeder; Internationally renowned conifer specialist and breeder, founder of the “Pinetum” in the Rostrup garden culture center
• Heinz zu Jührden (born October 1, 1920 in Edewecht; † July 3, 2008 in Edewecht): 1966 to 2001 mayor Edewecht (honorary mayor), 1968 to 1991 district administrator Ammerland (honorary district administrator); Bearer of the Great Cross of Merit of the Lower Saxony Order of Merit (1990); received the independence of the Ammerland as district administrator during the district reform in the 1960s and 1970s and, as mayor Edewecht, is the initiator of the industrial area "Im Brannen".

Personalities associated with the community

• Count Anton Günther (born November 10, 1583 in Oldenburg, † June 19, 1667 in Rastede): Imperial Count of Oldenburg; owned a count's hunting lodge in Edewecht around 1650/1660 on today's “Grubenhof” street
• Joseph Beuys (born May 12, 1921 in Krefeld; † January 23, 1986 in Düsseldorf): action artist and art theorist; seriously wounded as a soldier on April 27, 1945 in Edewecht
• Heinrich Christian Brand (born September 27, 1821 in Hundsmühlen; † 1891): Shipbuilder, trained at a shipyard in Edewecht and founded his own shipyard here in 1850 , which was relocated to Oldenburg in 1853 and went bankrupt in 1997 due to an insurance claim
• Alfred Bruns (born June 11, 1907 in Oldenburg; † February 21, 1974 in Husbäke): painter; 1960/1961 1st chairman of the Association of Visual Artists
• Uwe Gränke (* 1965 in Korbach): May 2006 - May 2012 Provost of Jerusalem and representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) in Israel, Palestine and Jordan; previously 1999–2006 pastor of the Martin Luther Church in Süddorf
• Ludwig Wilhelm Martin Morisse (born October 16, 1870 in Brake, † September 22, 1936 in Oldenburg): church restorer and painter; restored 1906 pre-Reformation ceiling paintings in the Edewechter St. Nikolai Church
• Johann Ludwig Mosle (born January 2, 1794 in Varel, † October 24, 1877 in Oldenburg): Minister of Oldenburg; propagated the Edewecht-defining Hunte-Ems Canal as a shipping route and for bog colonization in 1844 (cf. locality "Mosleshöhe")
• Bertha Ramsauer (born November 14, 1884 in Oldenburg; † July 12, 1947 ibid.): Adult educator; 1923–1935 head of the Edewecht adult education center in Husbäke
• Heinrich Seidel (born June 25, 1842 in Perlin, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, † November 7, 1906 in Groß-Lichterfelde near Berlin): writer and engineer. In 1889 wrote the poem " Brun Jeddeloh " (in: Glockenspiel - Volume VII of the Collected Writings)
• Wolfgang Späte (born September 8, 1911 in Podersam , † April 30, 1997 in Edewecht): 1942 in the test center of the Luftwaffe Rechlin responsible for the development of the Me 163 rocket aircraft and his test pilot; Winner of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and the French gold medal for services to aviation
• Klaus Groh (* 1936 in Neisse , Upper Silesia): artist and book author; Founder and director of the International Artists`Cooperation (1969–1990), founder of the Dada Research Center, founder and director of the Klein-Scharreler Micro Hall Art Center and the cabaret LITERATURIUM (1971–2006); Member of the scientific advisory board of the Biennale in Florence (Italy), curator of various art projects (including "Ammerland Art Path")
• Thomas Kossendey (born March 4, 1948 in Berlin): Politician (CDU), 2006-2013 Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense

Folk tales

How the devil wanted to destroy Oldenburg

According to an Oldenburg legend, the Zwischenahner Meer is a work of the devil - "Düwelswark".

And this is how it happened: when the Oldenburgs built their first church, it annoyed Lucifer very much, and he intended to prevent this plan. In his temper, he tore a large lump of trees and bushes out of the earth at midnight and flew it over the moor to throw it at the church. When he had come a long way, a white rooster crowed. Then the horned one was frightened, knowing that he would lose all power with the third " Kikeriki " and he shouted:

"Witte Hahn witt, I eight 'di een Schitt and wiek which no step" .

The devil continued on his way. After a while a red rooster crowed. Then said the devil:

"Rode Hahn rot, you step me up the Fot, what do you do me for need!"

In order to move forward more quickly, he dropped part of his heavy load, from which the little Wildenloh was born. Next morning dawned and a black rooster crowed. The devil had lost his game and cried out in anger:

"Swarte Hahn swart, you turn me in't hard. O, where mi dat smart! "

and dropped the rest of the forest over the moor, today's great Wildenloh. But where he had torn out the trees, there was a wide hollow that filled with water. It is called the Zwischenahner Meer. The city of Oldenburg has remained unmolested by the devil ever since.

The ghosts of Wildenloh

If you hike through the Wildenloh late in the evening, you can often see three ghosts there. The first ghost is Rode Jan Harm , a red-haired ferryman from Elsfleth, who pushed a rich merchant into the water while crossing the Weser and stole his money box. After a life full of booze, however, he had to treat death as a ghost and worried the Elsflethers. Finally, the pastor managed to banish him to the Wildenloh, where he still has to count bickberry leaves to this day. The second ghost is the merchant Muhle from Oldenburg. He cheated a worker out of a large inheritance and so he had to go around the house after his death. When the residents of the house could no longer bear this, they called two priests from Vechta, who banished Muhle to Wildenloh, where they ordered him to count all the heather blossoms. The third ghost is Mayor Rottmann from Oldenburg. He won a lawsuit wrongly by perjury. As a punishment, he too had to haunt the Wildenloh as a ghost after his death and scoop out the spring in the Wildenloh with a bottomless bucket.

The courageous maid from Wildenloh

In the middle of Wildenloh there was once a large farmhouse. One day the farmers went to Jeddeloh for a wedding. A band of robbers of seven brothers from the Vehnemoor learned of this and they decided to break into the courtyard.

When it got dark, the robber brothers crept around the farmhouse, but found everything locked. So they decided to dig a hole under the wall and penetrate the hall. But now a vigilant maid was watching over the house and noticed the impending danger. She armed herself with a peat spade and listened to where the robbers were at work. When the first robber looked out of the hole, the maid stabbed his head off and pulled his trunk into the house. The brothers waiting outside called softly: “ Are you inside? "And the maid answered in a disguised voice" Yes! ". So one after the other crept in and one after the other they were finished off. As the last robber prepared to crawl through the hole, he felt blood on his hands and quickly pulled his head back. The maid had already scraped off a piece of his scalp.

The robber bandaged his head and went to Jeddeloh for the wedding. There he danced like mad and exclaimed high-spirited: “ Hello, hello, hello! De Magd van'n Wildenloh, har se the säwten man darto! Hoho, hoho, hoho! ". It wasn't until much later that the guests found out what it was all about.

Years later, a well-dressed gentleman came to the farm and asked for the maid's hand. This probably wanted to follow him. A few days later the gentleman drove up in a carriage and drove through the Vehnemoor with his bride. On the way he put his head on her chest and asked her to rub his curls a little. When the bride did this, she recognized the robber she had wounded long before. This now said: “ I kidnapped you to avenge the death of my brothers. "

When he arrived at the robber's house, he dragged the maid into the hallway, where there was a large block of wood with a sharp ax blinking in front of it. Then the bride knew what fate was intended for her. Then she resorted to a ruse and asked to be allowed to take off the precious wedding dress beforehand. The robber understood and wanted to help her. When he kneeled in front of her, she quickly grabbed the ax and struck so that he fell dead to the ground.

Now the maid jumped on the carriage and drove the horses back to Wildenloh. Her employer was standing in front of the farmhouse, to whom she now called: “ Hello, hello, hello! The maid van'n Wildenloh would now have the säwten darto! Hoho, hoho, hoho! "

Ick slah de eggs in de Pann

In ancient times, the Oldenburg Count had seven knights in Edewecht, who were supposed to protect the Ammerland against attacks by the Bishop of Münster.

One day the Junker zu Jeddeloh rode to the church in Edewecht with his two squires and his wife was left alone on the farm. Suddenly the people from the Münsterland appeared and surrounded the house. The woman was startled, but gave the intruders a friendly welcome and offered them something to eat. While the uninvited guests were enjoying it, the woman unobtrusively moved the Munster's guns aside and hurried to Edewecht in no time at all. There she reported to the junkers and squires gathered in the church what had happened. These swung on their horses, rode to Jeddeloh and surrounded the courtyard. The people of Münster who could not find their weapons were killed in a scuffle. Only one boy was able to escape and hid in the Vehne, where one of the squires discovered him. In his fear the boy pleaded that the squire might give him his life, that he would never again make a raid into the Ammerland.

But the squire was hard-hearted and said to himself

" Ick slah de eggs in de Pann, then there came no chick van "

and killed the boy too.

Heinrich Seidel also wrote the ballad " Brun Jeddeloh " in 1889 for the attack by the "Münsterschen ".

Jümmer een been vör't anner set

On the footpath from Edewecht to Osterscheps there is a place called “ De Schatt ” because treasure is said to be buried there.

Once, two men wanted to dig up this treasure and began to dig. They knew that the work could only succeed if not a word was spoken and went to work in silence. When they felt something hard under the spade, a strange vehicle approached. A horse and a rider walked in front of a carriage; The rider was as much on the earth as on the horse. He jumped up and put his right forefoot in front of the horse, sat up again, and the horse pulled the left hind foot after it. Then the rider dismounted and put his left foreleg in front of the horse, and the horse pulled the right hind foot behind. So it went on, and one can imagine that it did not go quickly. That's why one of the treasure hunters shouted : “ You stupid Kärl, if you have to set the Pärd een been vör't anner, then schustu ok man leever glieks unnen bliwen! "

Then the apparition disappeared, but the treasure was gone too, and all digging was of no use.

From the pastor's grave

In the Portsloger Busch there is a place known as the “pastor's grave” . According to legend, there was a pastor named Greverus in Edewecht a few centuries ago . He was devoted to drinking and indulged in the hunt during the Sunday rest. After his death he was buried in the Edewechter cemetery, but because of his misconduct he could not calm down. At midnight he began to walk again; the churchyard was haunted. The pastor's corpse was then exhumed and buried in the so-called “pastor's grave” in the port box near the “Bremer Stehrt”. To prevent the pastor from going back, he was buried in a stone chamber on which a large stone was placed. Nevertheless, it was still haunted at this point. Every night the pastor has to count the blades of grass on the neighboring pasture. If he has succeeded in doing this for a year, he moves a houndstooth closer to the Nikolaikirche on New Year's Eve. If he has achieved this, he is redeemed.

There is also the legend that you can't get a load of hay down from the pasture on which the pastor's grave lies after sunset because the horses become shy and no longer want to pull.

Numerous stone finds and terrain models suggest that the “pastor's grave” in Portsloge could be a destroyed large stone grave. The pastor is likely to be either Pastor Magister Gerhard Greverus, who worked from 1636–1676, or Pastor Herrmann Greverus (1676–1727).

From the Edewechter church mill

In 1456 the Edewechter church jury and the Oldenburg count brothers Moritz and Gerd came up with an original sales contract. The Count Brothers sold the Edewechtern for two tons of herring annually " den windt, de in de lucht (= air) weyet, to ener windmolen to buwende (= build)". If the mill should fall victim to a fire, it could be set up again, so that the Edewechter could keep the wind for ever. This was the hour of birth of the Edewechter church post mill, which was one of the first ban mills in the Ammerland. Their location was between Edewecht and Scheps [today: street "Am Möhlenbüllen" (= mill hill) in the Evenkamp settlement]. The way to the mill was called "Wehwaters Weg", which can be interpreted as follows: Since the banks of the adjacent Aue and Vehne were often under water, the neighboring Münsterlanders are said to have said: " Oh, what does the Aerwachter hebbt veel Wehwater ( = Holy water) ". This post mill still adorns the coat of arms of the municipality of Edewecht.

From Edewechter's tithe

When Wiefelstede was still the only church in the Ammerland, Easter Schepers were also obliged to pay a fee there. They had to pay a so-called draft and a delivery of eels, which the preacher from Wiefelstede had picked up in Osterscheps. But this annoyed the Easter Schepser very much and so one day they attacked the fully loaded car of the preacher on Hemeler-Weg and burned everything on it. Then there were negotiations with the Wiefelstedern and the Easter Schepser had to promise to bring rye and eels to a certain place in Wiefelstede, where the preacher should receive the tithe. If this did not come in time, the Easter Schepser were allowed to throw their taxes into a pit located there and turn around. The hole into which the rye was thrown is therefore still called the Roggenkuhle today.

Besides rye and eel, a pig was also to be delivered. One day, when the preacher was late, he found the pig in the rye hollow, but it had eaten itself to death on the rye. The Schepser were then allowed to give their tithes to a Gristeder farmer, who had to entertain the Schepser and feed their horses.

Others

• A traditional superstition from Edewecht names a mixture of 13 earthworms in brandy as a remedy for gout and rheumatism, which can be swallowed whole.
• A curiosity also noted in Berlin newspapers was that in the 1930s eight pairs of twins were sitting at the school benches among the approximately 100 pupils at the Jeddeloh I elementary school.
• In 1934, along with other Ammerland motifs, the train station and the small train by Edewecht were the locations of the popular cinema comedy “Krach um Jolanthe” based on the play “De Swienskummödi” by August Hinrichs (director: Carl Froelich , actors and others Albert Lieven , Carsta Löck , Fritz Hoopts , Jaspar von Oertzen ).
• In 1955, the then "Entenfarm Bölts" in Westerscheps (today: Wichmann Enten ) and other places in the community were the locations for the movie "We Like the World" (Director: RA Stemmle ; actors including Topsy Küppers , Kurt Heintel , Peer Schmidt , Inge Meysel and many others).

literature

• Albrecht Eckhard: Klein Scharrel 1794–1994: History of an Ammerland peasantry in the community of Edewecht . Isensee, Oldenburg 1994, ISBN 3-89442-211-4 .
• Albrecht Eckhardt (Hrsg.): History of the community Edewecht in the Ammerland . Isensee, Oldenburg 2005, ISBN 3-89995-226-X .
• Helmut Harms: From “salvation” to disaster. The Ammerland 1945/46 . Plois, Westerstede 1995, ISBN 3-9802558-2-4 .
• Hartmut Kahlen: Our port lodge - village life in the Ammerland . Self-published, 2003.
• Heinrich Kruse, Klaus Kruse: Village chronicle Jeddeloh I 800 years . Self-published, 1990. ( Download )
• Thomas Kossendey, Gerd von Seggern (ed.): Brown moor becomes green land - Kleefeld: a village book . Littmanndruck, Oldenburg 1982.
• Herrmann Lübbing: Oldenburg legends. 2nd Edition. Heinz Holzberg, Oldenburg 1968, ISBN 3-87358-017-9 .
• Fritz Warnke: The bridgehead Edewechterdamm. The fighting in the Edewecht area, April 1945 . Self-published, Edewecht 2000.
• Günter Wegmann: The end of the war between Weser and Ems 1945 . Bültmann & Gerriets, Oldenburg 2000, ISBN 3-928076-13-2 .
• Friedrich Winkler: Chronicle of the community Edewecht . Self-published, Edewecht 1974. (1st reprint 1985)
• Friedrich Winkler: The community of Edewecht in old pictures . Plois, Westerstede 1982, ISBN 3-9802558-0-8 .
• Dieter Zoller: Contributions to the archaeological land survey for the district of Ammerland, municipality of Edewecht III. In: Oldenburger Jahrbuch 80 (Ed .: Oldenburger Landesverein für Geschichte, Natur- und Heimatkunde e.V.). 271-300. Prull Druck, Oldenburg 1980, ISSN  0340-4447 .

Web links

Commons : Edewecht  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the municipality of Edewecht

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Office for Statistics Lower Saxony, LSN-Online regional database, Table 12411: Update of the population, as of December 31, 2019  ( help ).
2. ↑ Homepage Ammerländer Wasseracht
3. ↑ Homepage Fischiverein Edewecht
4. ↑ Homepage Fischiverein Scheps e. V. from 1931
5. ↑ Homepage of the Ammerland district
6. ^ Homepage DWD Friesoythe-Altenoythe
7. ↑ ^{a b} Dieter Zoller: Contributions to the archaeological survey of the land for the Ammerland district, Edewecht III.
8. ↑ Hartmut Kahlen and Chroninikteam Portsloge (2003): Our Portsloge. Village life in the Ammerland. Pictorial Chronicle.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Christoph Müller (2000): The Edewecht parish in the time of National Socialism. Oldenburg Yearbook 100: 161 - 176.
10. ↑ Karl Ludwig Sommer: Edewecht from the end of the First to the end of the Second World War. In: Albrecht Eckardt (Hrsg.): History of the community Edewecht in Ammerland . P. 310 f. Isensee, Oldenburg 2005, ISBN 3-89995-226-X .
11. ↑ ^{a b} FRAGMENTS from the history of the KIRCHENGEMEINDE EDEWECHT. (PDF) In: Achim Neubauer. Ev.-Luth. Edewecht parish, accessed on June 28, 2019 . 
12. ^ Edewecht War Cemetery , accessed on August 19, 2015
13. ↑ Homepage 5th US Army Artillery Group
14. ↑ Chronicle of the anti-aircraft missile battalion 24
15. ↑ Nuclear weapons for the Air Force in Lower Saxony
16. ↑ Winkler, p. 336.
17. ↑ Winkler, p. 286.
18. ^ Population development in Edewecht ( Memento from October 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
19. ↑ Winkler, p. 335.
20. ^ Lower Saxony Municipal Constitutional Law (NKomVG) in the version of December 17, 2010; Section 46 - Number of MPs , accessed on January 6, 2017.
21. ↑ Overall results of the 2016 municipal elections on September 11 , 2016 , accessed on January 6, 2017
22. ↑ Third term of office for Petra Lausch - Greens call for correction in growth course , accessed on September 10, 2014.
23. ↑ Main statute of the community Edewecht
24. ↑ http://www.jeddeloh2.de/html/breddin.html
25. ↑ Homepage Speelkoppel Friedrichsfehn
26. ↑ Homepage Edewechter Kunstfreunde ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
27. ↑ Lower Saxony Mühlenstrasse: Kokermühle Edewecht
28. ^ Homepage Edewechter Reit- und Fahrverein eV
29. ↑ Homepage of the ship model club Bad Zwischenahn-Edewecht e. V.
30. ^ Homepage of TC Edewecht
31. ↑ Homepage Boßelerverein "Frei weg" Portsloge e. V. founded in 1919
32. ↑ Homepage Pleasure Goodness
33. ↑ Homepage of the association "De Afrümers"
34. ↑ Homepage Trecker Treck Edewecht e. V. ( Memento from May 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
35. ↑ Homepage event forum Edewecht e. V.
36. ↑ Homepage Meica
37. ↑ locations. (No longer available online.) DMK Deutsches Milchkontor GmbH, archived from the original on November 29, 2014 . 
38. ↑ Homepage Dt. Milchkontor Edewecht ( Memento from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
39. ^ Abraham's homepage ( Memento of June 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
40. ↑ Homepage Bley
41. ↑ Homepage Haskamp
42. ↑ Homepage of the Backhus Eggersmann Group
43. ↑ Citizen bus Edewecht (timetable)
44. ↑ Ammerland route
45. ↑ Historic Brand Shipyard
46. ↑ Ludwig Strackerjan: Superstition and Legends from the Duchy of Oldenburg 1–2. Stalling, Oldenburg 1867, section 111.
47. ↑ Illustration to this in: Friedrich Winkler: The community Edewecht in old pictures. Plois, Westerstede 1992, ISBN 3-9802558-0-8 .