Emden at the time of the German Empire

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At the time of the German Empire, the seaport city of Emden experienced an economic upswing from a city that had stagnated for several decades to become the third largest German North Sea port after Hamburg and Bremen and the largest Prussian North Sea port.

Emden and the relationship with Prussia before 1871

The "return" to Prussia was generally welcomed in Emden and in parts of East Frisia. The annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by Prussia, so many people from Emden hoped, would also bring better times economically. For East Frisia, the “first” Prussian rule from 1744 to 1806 brought a revival of peatland cultivation and successful new dykes, for Emden in particular an - albeit modest - revival of trade after decades of stagnation.

Lord Mayor Leo Fürbringer

Game at the Ratsdelft 1913
The Emden town hall around 1880

The rise to an important port and industrial city is inextricably linked with the name of Leo Fürbringer (1843–1923). He served as Lord Mayor from 1875 to 1913; this period still bears his name today: the “era of Fürbringer”. In those decades the port of Emden was expanded to become the seaport of the Ruhr area, followed by industrial development.

Schweckendieck bust

In cooperation with the Emden representative in the Prussian state parliament, Carl Schweckendieck , Fürbringer campaigned for the expansion of the port facilities. Emden benefited from the self-sufficiency efforts of the German Reich : They wanted a separate connection between the Ruhr area and the sea in order to be independent of the Dutch mouth of the Rhine. The port of Emden offered good conditions because it was the westernmost seaport in Germany and the distance from the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area to Emden was shorter than to all other German seaports - with the exception of Papenburg and Leer, which, however, had a significantly shallower Ems fairway.

Photo of the visit by Kaiser Wilhelm II on July 2, 1902 to the inauguration of the new Emden port

During the Prussian district reform in 1885, Emden became a district-free city , the surrounding area (some of today's Emden districts such as Twixlum, Wybelsum, Larrelt, Wolthusen, Petkum and others, the Krummhörn , Hinte , Werdenum and the northwest of today's municipality of Moormerland around Oldersum) has since formed the until 1932 existing district of Emden . Its position as an independent city still has an impact today, Emden is the only independent city in East Frisia.

extension of infrastructure

Telegraph office

Portrait of State Secretary Dr. by Stephan, 1885

Heinrich von Stephan promoted the telegraphy location in Emden, mainly by laying submarine cables overseas. The then ultra-modern gutta - percha- insulated submarine telecommunication cables were used.

Land reclamation

Polders on the Dollart and in Emden

The next major embankment measure was the Kaiser Wilhelm Polder southwest of the city center in 1876. It not only resulted in a large increase in area, but also made it easier to connect the villages west of Emden via a new country road, the forerunner of today's Landesstraße 2. In the following decades, new districts (including the administrative district ) were built on the diked area .

channels

Apart from the railway line between Emden, Münster and the Ruhr area, which was completed in the 1850s, there were only a few transport options. In particular, there was no connection for barges. Therefore, between 1880 and 1900 there was a significant expansion of the inland connections of the Emden port. First and foremost, the construction of the Dortmund-Ems Canal (1892–1899) should be mentioned, supplemented by the Ems Lateral Canal from Oldersum to Emden. The Ems-Jade Canal was added between 1880 and 1888 . This connected Emden with Wilhelmshaven and was also intended to drain large parts of the Auricherland . In the course of this construction, the boiler lock , unique in Europe, was built (1886/1887). The seaward accessibility of the Emden harbor was significantly improved in 1888 when the Nesserland lock was inaugurated after a two-year construction period .

train

In addition, by closing the gap in the railway line (Bremen-) Oldenburg-Leer (1869), a continuous railway connection to the (south) east was created. The East Frisian Coast Railway opened on June 15, 1883. The railway line served as an extension of the Hanoverian Westbahn and led via the north, Esens and Wittmund to the then state border with the Oldenburg near Asel . The Emden – Pewsum – Greetsiel circuit was used from July 27, 1899 from Emden to Pewsum and was extended to Greetsiel on September 21, 1906. In addition to the regional and supra-regional standard-gauge rail connections and the small train to the surrounding area, there was also a tram in the city from February 23, 1902 (until 1953). It connected the town hall with the outer harbor and served as a feeder for the Borkum ferries as well as for the daily shuttle traffic for the port employees.

View of Wilgumer Straße, the historic core of the working-class district of Port Arthur / Transvaal

Industrial settlements

In the years between the German Wars of Unification and the First World War , Emden recorded a significant upswing in industrial development. A paper mill was opened as early as 1867 (it remained the city's largest employer with around 160 to 180 employees until 1900), followed by the Cassens shipyard in 1875 .

The Nordseewerke was founded in 1903 , but after just a few years the business ran into financial difficulties - the city of Emden had to intervene to maintain the shipyard and jobs. With the entry of the Ruhr industrialist Hugo Stinnes in 1911, the final breakthrough to a modern shipyard was achieved. The large shipyard was Emden's largest industrial company until the early 1970s. In 1913, the Great Sea Lock was inaugurated as another major infrastructure measure . With an internal length of 260 meters, it was considered one of the largest sea locks in the world at that time. With the construction, a new harbor basin was created, the new inland port . Here mainly ores and coal were handled, for or from the Ruhr area.

Political conditions

Population growth

The port and the new industrial companies could not meet their labor needs from the Emden population alone. In addition to East Frisians who moved to the seaport city from the surrounding area (if they did not commute), workers from other parts of Germany also came to Emden. Since the living space was insufficient, a new district was built for the dock workers from 1901, which later in that decade was given the double name Port Arthur / Transvaal , named after two events of that decade: the sea battle at Port Arthur in the course of the Russo-Japanese War and the Transvaal province in South Africa, the scene of the Boer War at the time . The first single-storey houses are designed in the style of a workers' settlement , multi-storey buildings were added in the following years.

Strikes and the rise of trade unions and social democracy

With the increase in industrial operations and port handling, the Social Democrats in Emden and Leer became stronger. The Social Democrats appeared in public for the first time on October 6, 1889, during the Reichstag election campaign. With their top candidate Paul Hug , they achieved a total of 90 percent of the votes in the 1890 Reichstag election in the Emden / Norden / Leer constituency, but 30 percent in the city of Emden. In March of that year, the Pomeranian carpenter Carl Bigitschke co-founded a trade association for his profession, which, however, dissolved again after four years. It took until 1902 for an SPD local association to be officially founded. At that time, the local association comprised 40 members, the number of which rose to 598 by 1914, including 81 women. The largest strike before the First World War occurred in 1905 when around 200 dock workers went on strike between November 18 and December 30. In addition to wage claims and working time regulations, it was also about recognizing the transport workers' union as a negotiating partner. The employers reacted with lockouts and the use of strikebreakers, who were brought in by train from abroad and led into the factories under police protection, which led to violent clashes. Lord Mayor Fürbinger was finally able to arbitrate. The union was recognized, but had to part with leaders. In addition, a collective agreement was set up until 1907. Strikes also broke out in other industries at that time.

First World War

In the first year after the outbreak of the First World War on August 1, 1914, Emden played a role in naval warfare twice: on the one hand as the namesake of the cruiser Emden, on the other hand as the port from which the submarine that sank the Lusitania left .

Boat with survivors in front of the wreck of the SMS Emden

The small cruiser SMS Emden left its stationing place in Tsingtau on August 2, 1914 and during the trade war in the Indian Ocean brought up or sank 23 enemy merchant ships and two warships within two months. On November 9, 1914, she was sunk in a battle with the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney near the Cocos Islands . The chivalry of Captain Karl von Müller and his crew displayed during the cruiser war in the Indian Ocean was also echoed by the enemy .

Walther Schwieger with the Pour le Mérite (portrait from 1917)

The Imperial Navy used Emden as a naval port, where torpedo boats and submarines were moored. From its base in Emden, the submarine U 20 ran out on April 30, 1915 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger . A day later, the Lusitania passenger ship left New York en route to Liverpool. A few days later it was sunk by U 20 off the coast of Ireland . The sinking cost the lives of 1198 people and aroused great international outrage , especially in the USA, which had not been a war participant until then . The later unrestricted submarine war finally let the USA join the war on the side of the Entente .

The First World War meant a collapse in cargo handling for the port of Emden. Whereas in 1913 this was 1.55 million tons for imports and 1.68 million tons for export, during the war it did not exceed a six-figure sum for imports and exports (exception: in 1918 the export was 1.07 million tons). The port reached its lowest point in 1919, when imports amounted to 414,000 tons and exports to 488,000 tons - values ​​that were only undercut in the 20th century at the end of the Second World War. In addition to minesweepers, the Nordseewerke also built fish steamers that could also be used to search for mines. The shipyard also repaired numerous naval vehicles.

The supply situation in the city had to be regulated by a large number of offices. Food was rationed, and the city leaders set up a "usury" to prevent excessive prices. 531 Emden soldiers died in the war.

literature

  • Kurt Asche: Town houses in East Frisia. Verlag SKN, Norden 1992, ISBN 3-922365-39-6 .
  • Marianne Claudi, Reinhard Claudi: Golden and other times. Emden, city in East Frisia . Gerhard Verlag, Emden 1982, ISBN 3-88656-003-1 .
  • Reinhard Claudi (Ed.): Stadtgeschichten - Ein Emder Reading Book 1495/1595/1995. Gerhard Verlag, Emden 1995, ISBN 3-9804156-1-9 , therein:
  • Walter Deeters : "Ostfriesland's political character": a combat script and its consequences. In: Emder yearbook for historical regional studies of East Frisia , Volume 65 (1985).
  • Gottfried Kiesow : Architecture Guide East Friesland. Publisher German Foundation for Monument Protection, Bonn 2010.
  • Gunther Hummerich: On the trail of an Emder street . Cosmas- and Damian-Verlag, Emden 2000, ISBN 3-933379-02-4 (Emder city views, volume 2).
  • Dietrich Janßen, Marten Klose: Emden tram . Self-published, Emden 2008, without ISBN.
  • Eberhard Kliem: The City of Emden and the Navy - From the Great Elector to the Federal Navy. Verlag ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-8132-0892-4 .
  • Eckart Krömer: Small economic history of East Frisia and Papenburg . Verlag SKN, Norden 1991, ISBN 3-922365-93-0 .
  • Dietmar von Reeken : East Frisia between Weimar and Bonn. A case study on the problem of historical continuity using the example of the cities of Emden and Aurich. (Sources and studies on the history of Lower Saxony after 1945, Volume 7). Verlag August Lax, Hildesheim 1991, ISBN 3-7848-3057-9 .
  • Axel von Schack, Albert Gronewold: Working alone, you won't get tired of it. On the social history of the city of Emden 1848-1914 . Verlag Edition Temmen, Bremen 1994, ISBN 3-86108-233-0 .
  • Heinrich Schmidt : Political history of East Frisia. (East Frisia in the protection of the dike, vol. 5). Verlag Rautenberg, Leer 1975, DNB 200446355 .
  • Ernst Siebert, Walter Deeters, Bernard Schröer: History of the city of Emden from 1750 to the present. (East Frisia in the protection of the dike, vol. 7). Verlag Rautenberg, Leer 1980, DNB 203159012 , therein:
  • Walter Deeters: History of the City of Emden from 1890 to 1945. P. 198–256.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Schmidt: East Frisia in the protection of the dike: Political history of East Frisia . Self-published, Leer 1975, without ISBN, p. 430.
  2. ^ Heinrich Schmidt: East Frisia in the protection of the dike: Political history of East Frisia . Self-published, Leer 1975, without ISBN, p. 430.
  3. ↑ Axel von Schack, Albert Gronewold: Work alone, you won't get full. On the social history of the city of Emden 1848–1914. Verlag Edition Temmen, Bremen 1994, ISBN 3-86108-233-0 , pp. 180 and 182ff.
  4. ↑ Axel von Schack, Albert Gronewold: Work alone, you won't get full. On the social history of the city of Emden 1848–1914. Verlag Edition Temmen, Bremen 1994, ISBN 3-86108-233-0 , p. 266ff.
  5. ↑ Frank Nägler:  Müller, Karl von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 439 ( digitized version ).
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Lüdde: The death that ran out of Emden. In: Emder Zeitung, weekly magazine, October 5, 2002.
  7. ↑ Axel von Schack, Albert Gronewold: Work alone, you won't get full. On the social history of the city of Emden 1848–1914. Verlag Edition Temmen, Bremen 1994, ISBN 3-86108-233-0 , p. 298.