History of the city of Esens
The history of the city of Esens begins around the year 800. Esens is first mentioned in 1310 in its original spelling Eselingis . Later names of the city were Ezelynck (1420), Eselinge (1421) and Ezense (1424). For a long time , the city was the capital of the Harlingerland , which was able to retain its independence to a large extent even after it was united with East Frisia. With the transition from East Frisia to Prussia, the city began to slowly decline in 1744, which could only be ended in the 20th century, when tourism gained economic importance.
Middle Ages until 1540
The exact founding date of the place is unknown. Finds from the migration period (urns in Norddorf, long houses and ceramics from the early seventh to the middle of the 8th century) suggest that the surrounding area was continuously settled. There is no evidence of Neolithic or Bronze Age settlement in the urban area itself. Relics from the Roman Empire have been discovered here and there. The place was probably founded around 800 as a trading and market place on the storm surge-proof Geestrand not far from the coast to meet the needs of the rural settlers to sell their products by sea. The place where the city was founded was chosen favorably. Three trade routes led from the land side to Esens, and the place was connected to the North Sea by a navigable sluice . The city was able to develop into a market place with supra-regional importance. The presence of Dutch merchants is documented in 1321 .
The medieval core of the city is the square of streets around the church hill with the market square. It was divided into the Markt, Steinstrasse and Jücher quarters . With the development of the Neustädter Quartier, the medieval settlement core was rounded off. It is not known when the first church was built in Esens. In the 13th century, the St. Magnus Church was built on the site where a wooden church had probably previously stood. The building was a three-aisled tufa church with which the Harlingers cemented their independence from sovereigns, similar to the Brokmerländer or other East Frisian regional communities .
In the late Middle Ages, the Harlingerland with Esens came under the influence of tom Brok . The chiefs of Stedesdorf were appointed by them as bailiffs in Esens. In the struggle for supremacy in East Frisia, Chief Wibet changed sides, whereupon the tom Brok had Esens destroyed in 1426. After the overthrow of the chief dynasty from Brokmerland , Wibet rose to become an independent chief of Harlingerland. Under his rule, a moated castle was built in 1427/30 in the southeast of the then still unfortified market town. After the victory of Cirksena in the East Frisian Wars of Unification, Esens fell into the hands of Wibet's son-in-law Ulrich Cirksena , who later became Count of East Frisia, from 1440 . In 1454 Ulrich left the city to his nephew and loyal follower Sibet Attena . Under his son Hero Omken (1473-1522), who denied the sovereignty of the Cirksena over the Harlingerland, the city was fortified with ramparts, moats and four gates in 1490, which set narrow limits to the expansion of the city area. Century. The Cirksena tried several times in the following period (1494, 1515, 1524 and 1525) to underline their claims to rule in Harlingerland with the siege of the capital. In 1524 Count Edzard von Ostfriesland attacked the Harlingerland and forced Balthasar , the son of Hero Omken, to submit to him. After a settlement was made, Balthasar had to pay a sum of 4,000 guilders for the withdrawal of the count's troops and renounce the support of the Vitalienbrüder . In addition, the castle in Esens was to be razed, but this did not happen. Balthasar even had the fortifications of the city expanded. So he had the Nordertor removed and a battery tower and a vault with loopholes built there. A picket fence was built around the wall.
However, the clashes with the East Frisian counts continued. When Enno II took over the rule in East Frisia as the new count, a new agreement was made between the parties in 1529, in which the mutual claims were determined. An attempt to make Balthasar a prisoner despite promised escort had previously failed. A year later, Enno Balthasar forced other Junckers of the Grafschap Ost-Friessland to take a fiefdom in the church . and to give up most of his dominion. The fortifications of Esens were subsequently razed, but the castle was not. Balthasar left with his sister Onna, who was married to the gentleman there, in the County of Rietberg . From there he came to the Catholic Duke Karl von Geldern , a declared enemy of the Protestant Cirksena, who gave him his support in regaining his rule.
With this, Balthasar broke the so-called Geldrische feud off the fence. With Geldern's help, he invaded East Friesland and wreaked havoc and suffering throughout the country (see also: Battle of Jemgum ). Count Enno was forced to give Balthasar back his old rule and to make further concessions. The Harlingerland was from now on under the official suzerainty of Geldern and lost its independence.
Between 1537 and 1540, Balthasar granted Esens town rights. At that time there were already more than 300 houses within the city walls.
With the backing of his ally Karl von Geldern, Balthasar robbed and pillaged the lands of his neighbors. With this he even got the otherwise hostile Maria von Jever and Count Enno to join forces against him. With his support for piracy, he also turned the Hanseatic city of Bremen against him. In the summer of 1540, the town of Esens was besieged by troops from the Jever rule, which was allied with Bremen . During the siege, the sick Balthasar died in October 1540 as the last male descendant of his sex.
From the rule of the Rietberger to the beginning of the first Prussian rule (1540 to 1744)
After the death of Junker Balthasar, the Harlingerland and with him Esens fell to his sister, Onna von Rietberg, and her son Johann. In 1547 the town and castle of Esens were reinforced by a second rampart and moat. The old citizen pasture in front of the herd gate had to give way. To compensate, the Esensians received a new pasture for 300 pigs in 1563. After the male line of the Counts of Rietberg died out , the Counts of East Friesland became Ennos III due to the marital union. with Walburga von Rietberg , whom he married in Esens in 1581, her successor. Enno III. In 1600 in the Berum comparison, however, he renounced Rietberg in favor of his daughters and received the Harlingerland with Esens as the capital. In 1597–1598 the plague raged in Esens for the first time.
The Harlingerland remained legally independent, but was linked in personal union with East Frisia. The office in Esens remained in existence after 1600 as a higher and appeal court for the Harlingerland. The city served the Cirksena as a second residence next to Emden and later Aurich until they died out in 1744 . From 1611 the East Frisian sovereigns had coins minted at the Esens castle.
On May 26, 1586 Walburgis von Rietberg died shortly after the birth of her son at the age of 30 in Esens. With it, the line of the County of Rietberg from the Werl-Arnsberg family died out. She found her final resting place in the Magnus Church in Esens, where Enno II had an epitaph and a tomb erected in her honor in the Magnus Church.
Esens was occupied several times during the Thirty Years War . First, troops of the Protestant military leader Ernst von Mansfeld moved to East Frisia . The powerless Count Enno III. abandoned his residence to Aurich and withdrew to Esens, where he lived like a prisoner, as Ernst von Mansfeld's troops followed him, arrested him and stole the 300,000 thalers that, according to the provisions of the Berumer settlement, were used as compensation for the assignment of the initially Harlingerland, which did not belong to East Frisia, were intended by the Counts of Rietberg. This loss caused even greater difficulties for Enno's descendants in later times. After the withdrawal of the Mansfelder, the town was occupied by imperial troops under Tilly in 1627 . Then Hessian troops occupied Esen. The plague breaks out again in 1635.
The period of the Thirty Years' War probably also saw the settlement of the first Jews in Esens , whose 300-year history is still evident today in the ruins of the synagogue, the Jewish cemetery and the museum in the August-Gottschalk-Haus .
After the old connection to the sea was no longer navigable for large seagoing vessels due to silting up and dikes, a new port was built for the place in Bensersiel in the late 17th century . At that time there were eight guilds in the city: the blacksmiths 'guild, the wool and linen weavers' guild, the bakers 'guild, the barbers' guild, the carpenters 'guild, coopers, glaziers and carpenters, the shoemakers' guild, the shopkeepers 'and wall tailors' guild and the Carters.
After the East Frisian Princely House was extinguished in 1744, their entire property, including the Harlingerland, fell to the Prussian Kingdom .
First Prussian rule (1744 to 1806)
The Prussians razed the castle, which was no longer needed, and finally also decongested the city. As early as 1745 the chancellery and with it the higher court in Esens were closed and in 1748 the mint was relocated to Aurich , and Esens became a small provincial town in the region.
When the Berlin hymn book was to be introduced in Harlingerland in 1781 , it led to general protests in the region in 1782/83, in which Esenser citizens in the city took part in 1782/83 with stones and sticks . Shortly afterwards, the congregations were given the option of using the hymn book.
Under Dutch, French and Prussian rule (1806 to 1815)
Eleven days after the battle of Jena and Auerstedt , on October 25, 1806, Dutch troops were marched by their King Louis . They crossed the Ems and marched a few days later to Aurich. Ostfriesland and Jeverland became the department of Oost-Vriesland . On March 11, 1808, the department in Aurich was ceremoniously integrated into the Kingdom of Holland . Church bells rang in the city and 21 gun salutes were fired. Royal Dutch coats of arms were attached to the castle and town hall, and the tricolor was hoisted on the castle tower .
In the following three years, East Frisia (with the exception of the Rheiderland , which was annexed to the department of Groningen) was the eleventh department of the Kingdom of Holland as Oost-Vriesland . When all the charges, duties and taxes applicable in the kingdom were introduced here on January 1, 1809, serious tumult broke out in Esens, in the course of which the windows of the houses in which the tax officials lived were broken and the house of the chief magistrate was stormed. The riots could only be ended after four brigades of gendarmes were transferred to Esens.
In early 1810, French troops began to occupy Holland. A few thousand French soldiers marched into East Frisia shortly afterwards. East Friesland became the Departement de l'Ems-Oriental (Osterems) . There were also changes in local government. The mayor was henceforth called Maire . Esens became a canton in the Jever arrondissement. In contrast to the Prussian times, when the East Frisians were expressly not subject to compulsory military service, they had to provide soldiers under French rule. When the military was first drafted, 17 men were drafted into service in Esens, which again led to unrest and desertions, which quickly subsided. When Napoleon's defeat became apparent after the Russian campaign and Hamburg was temporarily liberated by Russian troops in March 1813 , an uprising broke out in East Frisia, which spread from Friedeburg via Reepsholt , Leerhafe , Burhafe , Buttforde , Dunum , Stedesdorf to Esens . The French officials fled and sought protection in Aurich. The power of the French was not yet broken. The prefect put down the uprising with reinforcements from Groningen. Insurgent and French troops met at Rispel (near Wittmund ). The battle ended in defeat for the insurgents. After this armed clash, the riots initially stopped. In the wars of liberation against Napoleon, Esenser citizens took part with a Landwehr set up in 1814 , which returned from France in 1816 without losses. After the collapse of French rule, the Prussians again moved in between 1813 and 1815 and the old national borders were re-established.
Esens in the Kingdom of Hanover (1815 to 1866)
After the Congress of Vienna (1815) Prussia was obliged to pay for British war supplies to East Friesland to the United Kingdom in personal union affiliated Kingdom of Hanover cede. The transfer took place in 1815. Esens became the seat of two offices , Esens-Stadt and Esens-Amt (the area around the city) in the Landdrostei Aurich . During the Constitutional Conflict of Hanover , the mayor of the city, Eduard Wedekind, was transferred as a punishment in 1841. He had previously spoken out in open protest against the repeal of the constitution by King Ernst August and knew that the people of Esens were behind him.
The Hanoverian rule brought an improvement in the infrastructure for East Frisia. If the streets and paths in East Frisia were previously in poor condition and partly impassable, a large-scale road construction program has now begun. Esens was connected to the road network that still exists today with a road to Ogenbargen in 1843 .
During the revolution of 1848/49 there was a large rally on the market square in Esens in 1849, at which Rector Carl Gridmann confessed to the Frankfurt National Assembly and accused the princes of not keeping the promise to give their countries new constitutions. He was later sentenced to four weeks in prison for this.
Under the rule of Hanover, the St. Magnus Church was rebuilt in 1848 according to plans by the consistorial master builder Friedrich August Ludwig Hellner , who came from the capital of the kingdom , after the old church building had to be demolished due to dilapidation.
From the German War to the end of the Weimar Republic (1866 to 1933)
After the German War of 1866 , the Kingdom of Hanover and with it Esens again fell to Prussia. In 1885, as part of an administrative reform, the Wittmund and Esens offices and the town of Esens became the Wittmund district. Wittmund was determined to be the seat of the district and Esens was deprived of further functions, but was given a boost in its development as a market place for the supply of the agriculturally dominated surrounding area through the connection to the network of the later Reichsbahn in 1883 and to the Leer-Aurich-Wittmund small railway (1909) Marshland and Geest areas as well as the islands of Langeoog and Spiekeroog, which are part of the Harlingerland. In the period that followed, several companies and cooperatives were founded, including a cooperatively operated meat factory, a gas works and a cooperative bank. At the turn of the century, tourism began to develop on the islands and Esens, with the sewage ports Bensersiel and Neuharlingersiel, became a traffic junction for supplying the islands of Langeoog and Spiekeroog.
At the time of the Weimar Republic , besides handicraft businesses and retail stores, a large dairy and a shell limestone mill determined the economic picture. At that time Esens was considered a stronghold of the liberal DDP , which, for example, won 43.9% of the votes in the 1920 elections to the Reichstag . Towards the end of the Weimar Republic, right-wing parties grew stronger.
Period of National Socialism and World War II
In the Reichstag elections of March 5, 1933 which was NSDAP with a share of 56.8% of the vote strongest party in Esens followed by 1933 under the name battlefront Black-White-Red antretenden German National People's Party , the 21.1% of the vote could unite. Only 13.8% of the voters voted for the SPD and 2.9% for the KPD.
Apart from a few actions by the shopkeepers' guild against Jewish competitors and rare attacks by individuals or groups against the Jewish community, there had hardly been any significant disputes between Jews and Christians in Esens before 1933. In the local elections of March 12, 1933, the Jew Simon Weintal ran again for a seat on the city council, but could only get the votes of the Jews living in Esens, which was not enough for re-election.
After the election, a new council of citizens was formed in the city, which decided as one of the first measures to exclude Jews from the award of contracts for supplies to the city. The boycott of Jewish shops in Esens began on March 28, 1933. On April 12, 1933, the East Frisian daily newspaper from Esens reported: “Jews do not belong in German rifle clubs. At the last general meeting, all foreigners including Jews were excluded from membership. "
Economically, the situation improved in the first few years after the Nazis came to power. Out of gratitude, two streets in Esens were renamed Hindenburgstrasse and Adolf-Hitler-Strasse . Infrastructure measures, such as the expansion of the port in Bensersiel, reduced the unemployment rate in the city. At the same time, the exclusion of Jews continued. Many Jews then left the city. The last burial in the Jewish cemetery took place on March 31, 1938. During the November pogroms of 1938 the synagogue was burned down by the Esenser SA and all Jews in the city were arrested. The Jewish cemetery was desecrated in the spring of 1940, so that only a few tombstones remain here today. At least 40 of the 139 Jews permanently or temporarily living in Esens between 1933 and spring 1944 perished in the Holocaust. 56 emigrated abroad, mainly to the USA, Argentina and Israel.
During the Second World War , a training camp for naval artillerymen was set up near Esens in 1942, later also a prisoner of war camp, the inmates of which were used both in commercial operations and in agriculture. In the following years, Esens suffered extensive losses of people and buildings due to bombing. The attack of September 27, 1943 turned out to be particularly devastating. 165 people lost their lives and large parts of the city center were destroyed.
At the end of the Second World War, first Canadian and later British troops moved into Esens. One of the first measures of the military administration was the removal of all local politicians from the time of National Socialism . In their place, the military administration appointed Adde Cassens as mayor and 15 unencumbered citizens as city councilors.
Post-war development
The population of Esens increased considerably due to the expulsion and the flow of refugees in the post-war period . More than 1500 refugees had to be taken care of, which led to major problems. In 1946 the proportion of refugees and displaced persons in the total population was 18%. By 1950 it rose to 24%. In 1949, of the city's 4,047 residents, 698 were displaced and 274 were refugees, relocated and evacuated.
The economy was slowly improving. In 1951 the Esens-Bensersiel bathing and tourist association was founded. From 1960, massive investments are made in the development of tourism. In 1972, Esens was merged with the surrounding communities to form a single community. In the same year Esens and Bensersiel were recognized as coastal resorts. After further investments in the tourist infrastructure, both places were declared a North Sea resort (health resort) in 1990 . Bensersiel has also been a North Sea spa since 1996 . The number of overnight stays in Esens-Bensersiel rose from 77,000 (1964) to 241,000 (1971), in 1988 it was 710,000, in 1990 even 777,000 overnight stays per year.
Today, tourism in the city and the surrounding region is the most important economic factor in which major investments continue to be made, especially in the Bensersiel district.
In 1965 the entire old town was designated as a redevelopment area. With the help of targeted measures, the inner city received a comprehensive modernization in the following years with the church square, the house of encounter, the warft stage, arcades and the Balthasar fountain. A north bypass was also included in the redevelopment concept to calm traffic in the city center. It was the basic requirement for the conversion of Steinstrasse into a pedestrian zone , in 1974 the first in East Frisia. In 1984 the city received first prize in the state competition "Building and Living in Old Surroundings" for its urban redevelopment.
In 2002, the city of Esens celebrated the award of city rights 475 years ago as well as the 425th anniversary of the Schützencompagnie Esens eV, which was founded in 1577 as a vigilante and guarantor of civil order. On the occasion of the double anniversary, various celebrations and actions took place from June to October 2002. The bear campaign left a lasting impression, in which 44 artistically designed Buddy Bears put the Esens heraldic animal in the focus of the citizens as well as the numerous guests of the city.
Population development
The city of Esens now has a good 7,000 inhabitants and is therefore one of the smallest cities in East Frisia in terms of population. On the one hand, there were significant boosts in the population development after the end of the Second World War, when many refugees and displaced persons from the former eastern regions of the German Reich were taken in. The population of Aurich in 1946 was almost exactly 50 percent higher than in 1939 (base year).
|
|
|
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Ostfriesische Landschaft - Ortschronisten: Esens, Stadt, Landkreis Wittmund by Gerd Rokahr (PDF; 99 kB)
- ^ A b Karl-Ernst Behre, Hajo van Lengen : Ostfriesland. History and shape of a cultural landscape . Aurich 1995, ISBN 3-925365-85-0 , p. 81.
- ↑ a b c Herbert Obenaus (Ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , p. 570.
- ↑ Helmut Jäger, Erhard Kühlhorn: Esens. - Historical-regional excursion map of Lower Saxony. Gütersloh 1978, p. 40.
- ^ Heinrich Schmidt: Political history of East Frisia. (= East Frisia under the protection of the dike. Volume 5). Rautenberg, Leer 1975, p. 146.
- ^ Karl-Ernst Behre, Hajo van Lengen: Ostfriesland. History and shape of a cultural landscape . Aurich 1995, ISBN 3-925365-85-0 , p. 157.
- ^ Biographical lexicon for East Frisia: Enno III.
- ↑ a b Harry Pladies: Ostfriesland the time of Napoleon. In: The light buoy. Issue 19, Leer o. J., quoted here from: rhaude.de , accessed on January 8, 2010.
- ^ Walter Deeters: Small State and Province. General history of modern times. In: Karl-Ernst Behre / Hajo van Lengen: Ostfriesland. History and shape of a cultural landscape . East Frisian Landscape, Aurich 1995, ISBN 3-925365-85-0 , p. 169.
- ↑ HGIS Germany 2006–2007: Landdrostei Aurich (PDF; 23 kB).
- ↑ Gottfried Kiesow: Architectural Guide Ostfriesland . Verlag Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-86795-021-3 , p. 339.
- ^ Herbert Obenaus: Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , p. 570.
- ↑ The end of the Jews in East Frisia. Catalog for the exhibition of the East Frisian landscape on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1988, ISBN 3-925365-41-9 , p. 52.
- ^ Herbert Obenaus: Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , p. 570.
- ↑ Gerd Rokahr: Why was Esens bombed? (Homepage of the Bunker Museum Emden ) ( Memento from July 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Esens.de: A Brief History of the City of Esens , accessed on September 26, 2017.
- ↑ Esens Bear Town - A lovable town that has many bears , accessed on December 25, 2010.
literature
- Gerd Rokahr : A Chronicle of the City of Esens . Brune-Mettcker-Verlag, Wittmund 2010, ISBN 978-3-87542-075-3 .
- Johann Anthon Andree: History and Description of the City of Esens 1840, arr. by Heinrich Pasternak. with an introduction by Gerd Rokahr. Esens 1998, OCLC 248267804 .
- Gerd Rokahr: The Jews in Esens. The history of the Jewish community in Esens from its beginnings in the 17th century to its end in the National Socialist era . East Frisian Landscape, Aurich 1987. (1994, ISBN 3-925365-76-1 )
- Siegfried Schunke: From the chief's seat to the seaside resort. Esens. A piece of East Frisian history. Esens 1978, DNB 810307804 .
Web links
- Esens.de: A short history of the city of Esens
- Esens Castle
- Reconstruction drawing of Esens Castle by Wolfgang Braun