Sanctuary

Basic data
State :	Lower Saxony
County :	Diepholz
Joint municipality :	Church Village
Height :	40 m above sea level NHN
Area :	12.53 km 2
Residents:	473 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	38 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	27259
Area code :	05448
License plate :	DH, SY
Community key :	03 2 51 018
Community structure:	2 districts
Association administration address:	Rathausstrasse 12 ; 27245 Kirchdorf
Website :	www.kirchdorf.de
Mayor :	Gero Enders
Location of the community of Freistatt in the district of Diepholz

Freistatt is a municipality in the district of Diepholz in Lower Saxony . Freistatt has been an independent political municipality since 1922, and has been a member of the integrated municipality of Kirchdorf since 1974 . However, the parish responsible for all Evangelical Lutheran sanctuaries is still referred to as the “Anstaltsgemeinde” due to the history that was shaped before the institutions of today's Diakonie Freistatt .

geography

Entrance to Freistatt with "Bethel im Norden" flags

Barrack in Deckertau

The sanctuary covers an area of 12.53 km², the largest part of which is the protected Wietingsmoor .

Community structure

Most of the residents live in the core area of Freistatt near the federal highway 214 ; The district of Heimstatt, about 6 km to the north, with the old people's home, the Sprekelshorst settlement and the assisted living facility in Deckertau are part of Freistatt .

history

Haus Moorhort 2015, location of the memorial site “Freistatt Fuersorge” of Bethel in the north, which can be visited on request

House Moorhort

Friedrich von Bodelschwingh founded in 1899 in Wietingsmoor the Bethel Branch Office in Wietingsmoor . By 1901, 1,010 hectares of land had been purchased. Friedrich von Bodelschwingh's motto was “work instead of alms” - whoever wanted to stay in Freistatt had to commit to regular work and participation in church services, among other things. The aim of the employment was the reclamation of the raised bog, for this extensive work (including drainage, peat removal, cultivation, fertilization) was necessary. Deserved colonists should then receive their own piece of land in order to be able to start a family there independently. However, this goal was never achieved.

The Diakonie Freistatt developed from the institutions and businesses that followed . Almost exclusively the staff of these facilities as well as the pupils and inmates lived on site.

In 1922, the new community on the edge of the moor, in which people from marginalized groups, their carers and their families could live, was spun off from the municipality of Wehrbleck and made an independent political municipality of Freistatt, in which, apart from the groups mentioned, mostly farmers lived.

Employees leaving the Bodelschwingh institutions were initially unable to keep their apartment in Freistatt. It was only after the Second World War that retirees were able to stay in Freistatt, and since 1965 employees have been able to build or buy their own houses in Freistatt. In 1999, properties in the Bäckerweide development area were sold to families for the first time who were not employees of the Diakonie Freistatt. To this day, the political community of Freistatt has had problems being perceived as an independent institution. For example, in 2012 the CDU Bundestag member Axel Knoerig wrote on behalf of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag in a posthumous eulogy on the occasion of the 75th birthday of the former member Walter Link , who worked as a deacon in Freistatt from 1968 to 1978 As a resident of the “ Anstaltsgemeinde Freistatt, whose reputation was not the best”, he initially had a hard time as a politician.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, conventional agriculture has been gradually restricted and converted to management within the framework of nature conservation. In 1995 peat extraction was stopped and the Freistätter Moor has been a nature reserve since 1994 .

The German National Railroad and German Federal Railways operational from 1 October 1923 to 25 September 1966 meant a passenger train operating on the western section of the railway line Nienburg-Diepholz . Freistatt was (at km 42.0) a stop on this route. The importance of the route for local passenger traffic was rather low throughout the entire operating time: in 1927 and 1963 four pairs of trains were used between Sulingen and Diepholz. Uerdingen rail buses were always used as vehicles. After the line was closed to passenger traffic, the line was mainly used by diesel locomotive-hauled tank wagon block trains that transported the oil and oil products extracted in the region. Today, oil and sulfur tankers from DB Cargo Germany are still on the route . At the former peat factory in Freistatt there are still the remains of a loading ramp and rotting sidings of the Freistatter Moorbahn.

politics

Municipal council

The municipal council is composed of 9 councilors (all independent voters - UWG Freistatt). (Status: local elections on September 11, 2016).

mayor

Gero Enders has been honorary mayor of the community of Freistatt since 2006. Armin Tiemann was the municipal director from 1974 to 2004.

Previous incumbents:

until 1976: Karl-Heinz Hügel
1976-2006: Wilhelm Kolwei
since 2006: Gero Enders

coat of arms

Blazon : The coat of arms of the community of Freistatt shows a green crooked oak tree in silver on a green ground, which is attached to a red post on the left with 3 golden ribbons.

Economy and Infrastructure

Freistätter Feldbahn

Citizens have a supermarket, café, doctor's office, community office, craft shops, sports hall, mini golf course and a small animal enclosure at their disposal. There is also a high ropes course in the community.

Freistatt is known nationwide for the still functional moor railway ( Feldbahn ), which used to be used to transport the peat from the tapping points to the peat factory and which today transports day trippers from Freistatt to Heimstatt and back in the warm season.

Since 2010, Freistatt has been offering more and more tourist excursion destinations: On the community connecting road Freistatt-Heimstatt there is a planetary path, which shows the distances of the individual planets to the sun true to scale over approx. 5 km.

Sensory garden sanctuary

In the sensory garden there is a playground, water games and a lot to discover for the little ones. Events such as B. Bread baking together or the "Feldbahn-Diplom" take place. These attractions were created through job qualification measures and were funded by the EU and the State of Lower Saxony , among others .

In the Wietingsmoor on the road to the Heimstatt district, a lookout point with a parking lot for bird watching was created, as this area of the moor in particular is used every year by many cranes on their migration for a stopover.

Sons and daughters of the church

Wilhelm Ehmann (1904–1989), German musicologist and church musician. He was born the son of a deacon who worked in the Moorstatt House .

Personalities

Walter Link (1937–2010), deacon and graduate sports teacher, member of the state and Bundestag of the CDU , used to live in Freistatt.
Gustav von Bodelschwingh (1872–1944), worked from 1910 to 1912 as pastor and theological director of the institution in Freistatt.

Others

There is civic engagement in the sports club, the volunteer fire brigade, in the parish, in the church and trumpet choir.

Web links

Commons : Freistatt - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ State Office for Statistics Lower Saxony, LSN-Online regional database, Table 12411: Update of the population, as of December 31, 2019 ( help ).

↑ Bethel in the north: The institutional church communities in Freistatt and in the Birkenhof ( memento of the original from July 21, 2015 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. @1@ 2
↑ Bethel in the north, aid for the homeless: Moorhort memorial inaugurated ceremoniously ( memento of the original dated August 31, 2017 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. @1@ 2
^ Samtgemeinde Kirchdorf: Community Freistatt . P. 10
↑ Axel Knoerig: Commemoration of the family and friends of Walter Link on the occasion of his 75th birthday ( Memento of the original from March 19, 2015 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. . Berlin July 28, 2012 @1@ 2

↑ Ortwin Skrotzki: The route 219a Diepholz-Sulingen-Nienburg ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 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. . www.eisenbahnkultur.de @1@ 2

↑ Freistätter Feldbahn: The Freistätter Feldbahn

↑ Freistätter Feldbahn: Planet Path

↑ Freistätter Feldbahn: Senses garden

[Metadaten_Einwohnerzahl_DE-NI-1] State Office for Statistics Lower Saxony, LSN-Online regional database, Table 12411: Update of the population, as of December 31, 2019 ( help ).