Epe (Westphalia)
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Epe (Westphalia)
City of Gronau (Westphalia)
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| Height : | 38-57 m |
| Area : | 47.77 km² |
| Residents : | 15,294 (2013) |
| Population density : | 320 inhabitants / km² |
| Incorporation : | 1st January 1975 |
| Postal code : | 48599 |
| Area code : | (0 25 65) |
Epe is a former municipality in the Borken district in North Rhine-Westphalia on the border between Germany and the Netherlands (northern Münsterland ). Epe, which has been a district of Gronau since 1975 , has around 15,000 inhabitants and is located on the Dinkel .
geography
Natural location
Epe is located in a valley of the Dinkel at a height of 41 m above sea level. NN . The highest point in the peasantry Am Berge is 57 m above sea level. NN . Two streams form roughly the boundary of the district : In the east the Goorbach , in the west the Flörbach . To the west of the Dinkel lowlands on the border with the Netherlands lies the Amtsvenn , a moor and heather area . Large parts of the moor between Epe and Alstätte are now a nature reserve .
Neighboring places
Neighboring towns are Gronau , Ochtrup , Metelen , Nienborg , Heek , Graes and Alstätte .
Peasant communities
In addition to the actual village, a number of farmers belong to Epe. These are (clockwise, starting in the north) Kloster, Riekenhof, Am Berge, Storkerhook, Fuchte, Gerdingseite, Langeseite, Lasterfeld, Brinkerhook, Wieferthook, Kottigerhook and Sunderhook.
On the mountain is the largest farming community in terms of area, Kottigerhook the largest in terms of population.
The peasant communities in the vicinity of the village have lost their rural character due to the expansion of the buildings and the designation of industrial areas. In the southern farming communities (Langeseite, Lasterfeld, Brinkerhook) with their courtyards and predominantly agricultural land, the original landscape is still preserved.
history
Local history
Already in the period between 2000 and 1700 BC A settlement of the Eper area can be proven. Finds of weapons, pieces of jewelry and clay pots are evidence of this Neolithic settlement. The finds are in the museum in Münster .
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The church, built around 1175, was probably a stone building. The baptismal font from this period still preserved today indicates this. The church seems to have stood on the floor of the courtyard at Epe and was therefore a separate church .
In 1188 the village of Epe was first mentioned in a document in Count Dale zu Diepenheim's list of properties (today in the Rijksarchief Utrecht ). The count owned a third of the church patronage. The name Epe is derived from the ancient Germanic Apa ( "place on the river / water" ).
In 1325 the court at Epe was first mentioned in a document. It was owned by the Lords of Keppel zu Nienborg , who for a long time had the right of patronage over the parish. Heinrich von Wüllen was in 1380 with the court to Epe invested . So it became the Wüllen house. It stood in the immediate vicinity of Dinkeln (today Scheper's mill).
In 1400 farms were first mentioned on the Langeseite and Gerdingseite. Ten years later, Mr. von Plettenberg expanded and beautified Epe.
Fires broke out in 1583, 1588 and 1593 during the Eighty Years' War .
In 1803 Epe fell to the County of Salm-Horstmar according to the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss . In 1806 Epe came to the Grand Duchy of Berg under Napoleon's brother-in-law Murat and fell to the French Empire in 1811 . As a result of the Wars of Liberation and the resolutions at the Congress of Vienna , Epe became Prussian in 1815 .
In 1875 the railway line from Gronau via Epe to Dortmund was opened. In 1881 the first textile factory was founded, the weaving mill of the Laurenz brothers from Ochtrup, with 500 mechanical looms . A spinning mill was put into operation in 1904/1905. A dye works followed . In 1967 the plant was closed.
In 1882 a fire largely destroyed the place.
In 1886 the village church collapsed.
Epe lost considerable areas and a large number of inhabitants when the rural communities of Buterland and Eilermark were rescheduled from St. Agatha Epe to St. Antonius Gronau in 1896.
The Germania cotton spinning mill was founded in 1897 by the Jannink family of manufacturers from Enschede. Plant II was put into operation in 1910. Up to 700 workers were employed. After the First World War , Germania issued a 25-pfennig change replacement stamp as emergency money . In 1992 the plant was closed. On the night of February 28, 2009, a fire broke out in the Germania II factory building, which completely destroyed the building.
With the flourishing of the textile industry, the population increased again at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries . Several Catholic schools were built.
In 1904 the Eper gas works was built. The bailiff Pilatus had a central water supply network built in 1905. In 1907 the village received a Protestant school and in 1911 a Protestant church. Eper Park was also laid out in 1926.
On April 1, 1934, the parishes of Dorf Epe and parish Epe were combined to form the new parish of Epe.
Jewish community
On the night of November 9-10, 1938, also known as the Reichskristallnacht or Reichspogromnacht , the synagogue in Wilhelmstrasse was desecrated and set on fire. Finally, all Jews from Epe (the Pagener, Eichenwald, Lebenstein, de Witte, Rothschild, Andriesse families) were deported to the extermination camps. Epe was "free of Jews".
The Jewish cemetery was established in 1828 and used until 1936 for the burial of the Jewish deceased from the communities of Gronau, Epe and Nienborg. Today there are 54 grave monuments in the cemetery, the cemetery is maintained by the city of Gronau. In 1828 the area belonged to the parish of Epe, today located in the city of Gronau.
In 2008 and 2009, Stolpersteine were laid in Oststrasse and Merschstrasse to commemorate the Jews who formerly lived and deported there. The “Förderkreis Alte Synagoge Epe e. V. ”has set itself the goal of redesigning the empty synagogue building into a place of remembrance and learning. The building has been a listed building since 2018 . The utilization is planned for 2020.
Local government reform
In the course of the local government reform , Epe became a district of Gronau on January 1, 1975, contrary to the wishes of many citizens.
Rübezahlsiedlung
After the end of the Second World War, many displaced persons and refugees ended up in Epe in Westphalia. Epe was hardly destroyed in the war, and so the place was assigned a relatively high quota of around 2,000 homeless people.
Initially, they were housed with farmers, in private apartments or in barracks. However, this could not be a permanent solution. So it was decided to build a settlement. The choice fell on a heather area in the southeast of Epe, which until then had only been used as a cadaver cemetery. The ground consisted primarily of white sand, from which even dunes occasionally formed.
The area was named Rübezahlsiedlung after the Silesian legend Rübezahl , because most of the new settlers came from Silesia . Plots between 700 and 1,100 square meters were specified for the settlement. This should promote fruit and vegetable cultivation as well as keeping small animals for self-sufficiency and for stocking up for times of need. The site was made available by the Catholic parish on October 1, 1949. The long lease was one penny per square meter per year. From 1950, unit buildings were erected on the land. First of all, the streets Am Hünenkirchhof , An der Woeste and Am Buddenbrook were built on. This was followed by St. Georgs Platz , Schlesierweg , Hohe Weg , Birkenweg and Föhrenkamp . The center of the Rübezahlsiedlung is the Georgskirche. It was built with considerable personal contribution by the Rübezahl settlers. The first clergyman was Pastor Josef Pohl, also a Silesian. The Pfarrer-Pohl-Weg in the settlement is named after him.
Until the 1960s, traditions from the old homeland such as Thanksgiving, church processions and neighborhood festivals were maintained.
Population development
| year | population |
|---|---|
| 1820 | 1,130 |
| 1895 | 6.124 |
| 1899 | 3,820 |
| 1905 | 4,803 |
| 1925 | 6,173 |
| 1932 | 7,032 |
| 1939 | 7,623 |
| 1946 | 9,479 |
| 1950 | 9,875 |
| 1972 | 13,000 |
| 1999 | 15,368 |
Culture and sights
Churches
The Catholic parish church of St. Agatha is a neo-Gothic hall church that was built at the end of the 19th century after the previous church collapsed in 1886. The tower has a height of 65 meters and is the landmark of the place.
On October 1, 1967, the pastoral care district of St. Antonius was removed from the parish of St. Agatha and made a parish. The chaplain to St. Agatha, Matthias Offers, was appointed the first pastor. On June 29, 2006 the parish of St. Antonius Epe was returned to the mother parish of St. Agatha. The Catholic St. Antonius Church became, alongside the St. George Church, a branch church of the parish church of St. Agatha.
The former Catholic branch church St. Antonius Epe was a modern church building from the 1960s and was built with substantial donations from local believers. The 35 meter high campanile stood 10 meters away from the church. Since 2009 there have been plans to demolish the St. Antonius Church in order to build a nursing home on the site. The church building was profaned on June 5, 2010, 44 years after its inauguration in December 1966, against the will of the faithful by the head of the pastoral care department in the Episcopal Vicariate General in Münster . After the profanation, the church building was torn down and the bell tower, the last visible sign of St. Antonius Epe, was blown up on August 30, 2010. The pews as well as the altar and other items from the former church were sent to Croatia to equip a new church there. Many materials were temporarily stored and are to be returned after the St. Antonius Chapel has been built. The sacred objects cannot be accommodated in the new chapel, as there is not enough space for them. The four bells from St. Antonius were hung in the steeple of St. Agatha Church in Epe above the bells that were already there.
The Catholic Church of St. George has been a branch church of the parish church of St. Agatha since it was founded in the 1950s.
St. Agatha Church Epe
former St. Antonius Church Epe
St. George's Church Epe
Evangelical Church Epe
Monuments
During excavation work in 1994, an old well was discovered in front of the Nacke house . Together with the figure of a girl, called Änneken , it recalls the old water supply in Epe.
After the two world wars, the residents supplied themselves with peat from the Amtsvenn as fuel. The peat cutter memorial should remind of the arduous work.
Änneken at the fountain Nacken Pütt
The peat cutter
recreation
Eper Park on the banks of the Dinkel was created in 1926.
In the south-east is the Eper Bülten sports and leisure center with an outdoor pool, soccer field, tennis facility, riding arena, fishing ponds, dog park and mini golf course.
education
Epe has three primary schools :
- George School
- Bernhard Overberg School
- Hermann Löns School
The former schools Carl-Sonnenschein Realschule and Hauptschule Epe were transferred to the new Euregio comprehensive school ( secondary level II ) in 2019 . Many specialist and general topics of adult education are taught on site in the Euregio Adult Education Center ( VHS).
Social life
In Epe there are cultural, sports, Christian and Jewish as well as social clubs. Social life is shaped in particular by five shooting clubs, gymnastics and swimming clubs and two football clubs (Vorwärts Epe / FC Epe).
Heimatverein Epe
With almost 1000 members, the Heimatverein Epe eV, founded in 1993, is an important part of society. The association has found its home in the Heimathaus at Von-Keppel-Straße 10. With numerous publications, initiatives and events, the Heimatverein contributes to the preservation of the local area, local lore and history.
Economy and Infrastructure
traffic
Epe can be reached via the A 30 , the A 31 , the Dutch A 35 , the B 54 and the B 474 . Epe station is on the Westmünsterlandbahn Dortmund - Enschede.
Epe is located near the Enschede Canal Harbor. The nearest airport is the international airport Münster / Osnabrück .
economy
The Salt Extraction Company Westphalia (SGW), a joint venture between Solvay, Vestolit and Bayer , extracts over two million tonnes of table salt annually from the salt storage facilities at Zechstein 1 in Epe, which is fed as brine to locations of the chemical industry in the Ruhr area ( Vestolit / Marl Chemical Park ) , on the Lower Rhine ( Solvay in Rheinberg ) and to Belgium ( Solvay ).
The empty salt stores are used to store natural gas. The Epe cavern storage facility is located southwest of the village in the Kottigerhook and the Amtsvenn . Natural gas is stored underground in caverns at a depth of 900 to 1500 m . The working gas volume of the caverns is over 2.5 billion m³. This makes the system the largest of its kind in Europe. The operators are E.ON Ruhrgas ( 52 ° 9 ′ 42.9 ″ N , 7 ° 0 ′ 13.3 ″ E ), RWE Gasspeicher and Trianel ( 52 ° 10 ′ 25.3 ″ N , 6 ° 59 ′ 8 , 5 ″ O ) as well as the Dutch companies Essent (belongs to RWE ) and Nuon (belongs to Vattenfall ). The stored natural gas comes from the Netherlands, the North Sea and Russia; the supply area extends from Hamburg to Frankfurt and the Netherlands.
The German BP stored in five caverns petroleum. The company Eneco from the Netherlands put a new underground natural gas storage facility into operation in 2011.
In the southeast of Epe there is a medical supplies warehouse for the Bundeswehr. The local economy is characterized by medium-sized companies. The local retail trade is losing importance because of the range of goods on the Internet.
Oil spill in the Amtsvenn
In April 2014, it was discovered that large quantities (estimated at 200,000 liters) of oil had leaked out of one of the underground cavern storage facilities of the Strategic Federal Reserve in the Official Venn at a depth of 1,000 meters and reached the surface. There they threaten nature reserves and the groundwater. Until the end of May it was not clear whether the oil was coming from the salt cavern storage facility itself or from a supply line. On May 28, 2014, the district government announced that the oil leak was found on the supply pipe to the cavern storage facility at a depth of between 200 and 300 meters.
Postal Service - Postal History
- On January 1, 1830, a postal expedition was set up in Epe (Prussian General Circular No. 2).
- With the issue of the first Prussian postage stamps on November 15, 1850, Epe received a ring number cancellation with the number 384 for the cancellation of the stamps. All Prussian ring numbering stamps were withdrawn on March 31, 1859.
- Epe received its first postcode on July 25, 1941, initially 21 , later 21a .
- When the four-digit postcode was introduced on March 23, 1962, it was changed to 4436 .
- On April 30, 1977, the independent post office Epe was closed and incorporated into the post office Gronau.
- Since May 1, 1977 the postmark GRONAU, WESTF. 2 is used, a GRONAU-EPE stamp is also used.
- After reunification , the postcodes in Germany became five digits; Gronau postcode 48599 has been in effect since July 1993 .
Personalities
- Bernhard Höting (* 1821 in Epe; † 1898 in Venice), Bishop of Osnabrück (1882–1898)
- Hermann Terdenge (* 1882 in Epe, † 1959 in Münster), diplomat, ambassador in Buenos Aires
- Josef Gesing (* 1886 in Epe; † 1963 in Trier), architect
- Heinrich Kemper (* 1897 in Epe, † 1957 in Münster), pediatrician and local researcher
- Walter Werner (* 1912 in Glogau / Silesia; † 1998 in Gronau), member of the state parliament, lived in Epe after the Second World War
- Edilbert Dinkelborg , OFM (* 1918 in Epe; † 1991 in Salvador), Bishop of Oeiras-Floriano in northeastern Brazil (1959 to 1991)
- Anne Garbe (* 1945 in Epe), member of the state parliament (SPD)
- Gregor Luthe (* 1970 in Epe), entrepreneur, chemist and toxicologist
Web links
- Website of Epe (Westphalia)
- Salt mine and natural gas storage facility in Epe
- Salt mining and oil and gas storage in western Münsterland (article)
- Epe in the Westphalia Culture Atlas
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article on mv-online.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 28, 2010
- ^ Christian H. Freitag: Stories and history of the Eper gas works. In: Bürgerbuch Gronau and Epe. 2002/03, pp. 49-51
- ↑ Stephanie Reekers: The regional development of the districts and communities of Westphalia 1817-1967 . Aschendorff, Münster Westfalen 1977, ISBN 3-402-05875-8 , p. 231 .
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Website of the Old Synagogue Epe )
- ↑ General Assembly 2016. (No longer available online.) In: www.epe.de. March 6, 2016, archived from the original on May 13, 2016 ; accessed on May 13, 2016 . 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.
- ↑ Martin Bünermann, Heinz Köstering: The communities and districts after the municipal territorial reform in North Rhine-Westphalia . Deutscher Gemeindeverlag, Cologne 1975, ISBN 3-555-30092-X .
- ↑ The "Law for the reorganization of the municipalities and districts of the new division Münster / Hamm (Münster / Hamm Law)" of July 9, 1974 ordered the regional reform in the region around the Westphalian regional centers of Münster and Hamm at the municipal level. The law came into force on January 1, 1975. Section 37 regulates the merger of the cities of Epe and Gronau to form the new city of Gronau (Westf.)
- ↑ Markus Kampmann. A giant falls: How the tower of St. Anthony's Church sinks to the ground . in: westfaelische-nachrichten.de , accessed on May 11, 2011
- ↑ Martin Borck. Ten bells in the church tower . in: westfaelische-nachrichten.de , accessed on May 11, 2011
- ^ Regional Association Westphalia-Lippe: Epe community park in LWL-GeodatenKultur
- ↑ WDR short message April 29, 2014: Oil contamination near Gronau greater than previously assumed ( Memento from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Dagmar Dehmer in the Tagesspiegel of April 29, 2014: When crude oil gushes out of the pasture
- ↑ Florentine Lady in the World of April 25, 2014: Authorities do not find oil leak in the Münsterland
- ↑ Nina Magoley on WDR from April 30, 2014: Serious environmental damage ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Print test was successful: Oil leak found in Gronau ( Memento of the original from May 31, 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. , WDR on May 28, 2014
- ^ Official Journal of the Royal Postal Department No. 44, Ordinances. Number 238 . Instruction for the introduction of stamps for franking the letters
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