Emder moat

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The Emden Stadtgraben is a canal in the East Frisian city ​​of Emden , which was created in the early 17th century as part of the construction of the Emden Wall . He served until the demolition of the wall as part of the fortification system and beyond until the early 20th century as a transport route in the East Frisian inland waterways .

Course and backwaters

The Emden Stadtgraben begins at the Alter Graben in the west of the city center and is in a semicircle in the west, north and east around the city center. After a few hundred meters, the Larrelter Tief branches off the city moat and flows westwards towards the district of the same name. In the north the Hinter Tief crosses the city moat, in the northwest the Treckfahrtstief branches off , which flows in the direction of the Kleines Meer . The Emden Stadtgraben ends at the Kesselschleuse , a rare ring chamber lock that connects four canals: next to the Stadtgraben, the Ems-Jade Canal , the Fehntjer Tief and the foothills of the Falderndelftes , a medieval to early modern part of the Emden harbor .

history

The Emden moat was built from 1606 to 1616 by the city builder Gerhart Evert Pilooth , later advised by the Dutch fortress builder Johan van Valckenburgh , as part of the belt of fortifications around the city. The modernized Emden city fortifications had to pass the first and at the same time the greatest test during the Thirty Years' War , when East Friesland was used as a place of rest and retreat by the troops of the Protestant military leader Ernst von Mansfeld . While the rest of the county suffered great hardship , Emden was the only place unoccupied. After arriving in East Frisia in 1622, the Mansfeld troops advanced on the city in January 1623 and occupied the surrounding villages: Borssum , Uphusen , Wolthusen , Hinte and Larrelt . Although Mansfeld had several thousand soldiers and experience in fortress warfare, he did not manage to get much closer to the city than the range of their cannons.

For centuries, the natural depths, drainage canals and the city moat as a connection between the canals west of Emden and those east of Emden were the most important modes of transport in the region. Not only the villages but also many farms were connected to the city of Emden and the port of Greetsiel via ditches and canals. The boat traffic with Emden was particularly important. Village boatmen took over the supply of goods from the city and delivered agricultural products in the opposite direction: “From the Sielhafenort, smaller ships, so-called Loog ships, transported the cargo to the inland and supplied the marsh villages (loog = village). The loog ships from the Krummhörn enlivened the canals of the city of Emden until the 20th century. "

Peat, which was mostly extracted in the East Frisian Fehnen , played an important role as heating material for the inhabitants of the Krummhörn for centuries . The peat ships brought the material on the East Frisian canal network to the Krummhörn villages. On their way back into the Fehnsiedlungen the Torfschiffer often took clay soil from the march and the manure of cattle with which they their home were dug fertilized land.

Leisure and infrastructure

The bank facing the city center is largely undeveloped, in the Bentinkshof and Groß-Faldern districts there are only the club houses and boat harbors of the Emden water sports club and the Emden rowing club . The entire area in front of the ramparts was otherwise expanded as a promenade for local recreation purposes in the 1970s. The bank facing out of town is only built on with residential buildings on a short section in the Früchteburg district . Otherwise there is only (semi) public infrastructure on that bank, including a combined indoor and outdoor swimming pool in Früchteburg, the Bolardus cemetery and the Emden Clinic in Barenburg and two streets in Wolthusen where the buildings are only on the banks extends away from the street.

literature

  • Bernd Kappelhoff: History of the city of Emden from 1611 to 1749. Emden as a quasi-autonomous city republic. Verlag Rautenberg, Leer 1994, without ISBN (East Frisia in the protection of the dyke, vol. 11).
  • Theodor Janssen: Hydrology of East Frisia. Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1967, without ISBN.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This article is based, unless otherwise referenced, on Theodor Janssen: Gewässerkunde Ostfrieslands. Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1967, without ISBN, p. 211 ff.
  2. ↑ Bernd Kappelhoff: History of the city of Emden from 1611 to 1749. Emden as a quasi-autonomous city republic. Verlag Rautenberg, Leer 1994, without ISBN (East Frisia in the protection of the dyke, vol. 11). P. 11.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Brünink: Der Graf von Mansfeld in Ostfriesland (1622-1624) (Treatises and lectures on the history of East Frisia, Volume 34), Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1957, without ISBN, p. 91.
  4. ^ Harm Wiemann / Johannes Engelmann: Old streets and ways in East Frisia . Verlag Deichacht Krummhörn, Pewsum 1974, p. 169 ( East Frisia in the protection of the dyke , vol. 8)
  5. ^ Gunther Hummerich: The peat shipping of the Fehntjer in Emden and the Krummhörn in the 19th and 20th centuries. In: Emder Yearbook for Historical Regional Studies in Ostfriesland , Volume 88/89 (2008/2009), pp. 142–173, here p. 163.