History of the city of North (East Frisia)
The history of the city of Norden can be traced back to the High Middle Ages, but the first traces of settlement can be found as early as the Stone Age.
Early to Middle Ages
The earliest evidence of the presence of humans in the northern part of the city is archaeological finds from the younger Stone Age (around 2000 BC). From the 6th century AD, Frisians migrated to East Frisia, which was previously settled by Chauken and Saxony . In the period that followed, regional market places developed, including the north. The place was able to benefit from its location at the intersection and end point of old trade routes ( Emsweg from Münster and coastal route from Bremen ) and gained in importance very early on. Cattle , shell limestone and salt were the main commodities. There is little evidence from the early days of the city, the interpretation of which is uncertain. A place called Nordhunwig was destroyed by the Vikings in 884 . In the same year the Vikings were defeated in the Battle of Norditi by the Frisians. In both cases, equating the name with the city is uncertain. To 1150 North was a suburb of the next to the Norder- also Auricher- and Harlingerland comprehensive Gau Nordendi, which after integration in the Ostfrieslands Frankish empire was applied and transferred a foreign count. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Franconian county constitution was largely eroded by the Frisians and the Großgau Nordendi broke up. After its dissolution, the north became the capital of the Norderland . The central importance of the place is testified by the fact that, in addition to two churches, there were also two monasteries and a castle in close proximity - a concentration that was not found anywhere else in the Norderland. Relations between the north and the surrounding area are, however, controversial. Urban or city-like structures can be spoken of by the second half of the 13th century at the latest.
In the year 1255, Norden was mentioned for the first time in a contract, which is often mistakenly confused with the granting of town charter. This error also explains why the north has been calling itself the “oldest city in East Frisia” until recently. However, Emden was first mentioned in a document in 1224, that is 31 years earlier, when an Emden merchant ship docked in London . At the same time, the north also had an urban character back then. At that time there were several castles of the predominant chief families of the place, such as the Ennenburg of the Attena at the former port and the Idzingaburg of the Idzinga family of the same name , from whose coat of arms the city of Norden later took the spur wheels. Under these castles one must, however, imagine the type of East Frisian chieftain's castles, as can still be seen today on the Bunderhee stone house .
The coat of arms also shows the apostle Andrew with the well-known St. Andrew's cross , a reference to the no longer existing town church, which was consecrated to St. Andrew. In contrast to St. Andrew's Church, the Ludgeri Church was the church of the northern surrounding area, whose villages in the city had administrative offices next to the church.
The city's history also records the founding of monasteries: In the 11th century, the Marienthal monastery was built on the Zingel , later the burial place of the East Frisian aristocratic Cirksena family ; the Dominicans settled at the Fräuleinshof in 1264.
During the time of the East Frisian chiefs from 1350 to 1464, Norden and its surrounding area belonged to the rulership of various chief families and then came into the hands of tom Brok from Brookmerland , and after their end to the counts and later princes of East Frisia from the house of Cirksena. This meant less political importance for the place, as the power centers of East Friesland developed in Aurich (initially the seat of tom Brok, later the Cirksena) and Emden (Cirksena, until they were expelled in 1595), which is why the place probably never had a city wall or the like has been attached. In the following years, the north was mainly a trading center, which was favored in the 14th century after storm surges by an expansion of the Leybucht . The place now had direct access to the sea. A seaport was created in the southern part of the city, which was important well into the 19th century and gave the city an economic boom over a long period, even if its trade was always inferior to that of the city of Emden. The north had its own trade flag , under which Norder ships sailed the North and Baltic Seas.
North under the Cirksenas
In 1531 an army of chief Balthasar von Esens devastated the unfortified city, including the previous building of today's Old Town Hall, several monasteries and the St. Andrew's Church. It stood north of the Ludgerikirche on the market square. Attempts to rebuild St. Andrew's Church failed, and the building gradually collapsed in the 17th and 18th centuries. The last remains of the St. Andrew's Church disappeared in 1756. It is unknown whether there was ever a town charter in Norden . After the reconstruction of the north, Count Enno II gave the place a town ordinance with the Instituta Nordana (1535). However, Count Edzard I had already referred to Norden as a “city” (1491 and 1498).
In the 16th century, Jews first settled in the city . The Jewish cemetery is the oldest in East Friesland.
In the 16th century, other polders were also diked, including in 1551 the Westermarscher Altes Neuland (578 ha), 1556 Süderneuland (633 ha), 1583 the Westermarscher Neuland (585 ha) and 1589/1593 the Addinggaster Neuland (229 ha). Up until 1678 there were no more polders.
The Reformation resulted in a partly bitter dispute between Calvinist Protestants and Lutherans in the north . The Count House promoted the Reformation. The sons of Edzard the Great, Enno II and Johann I, ruled largely jointly from 1528 to 1540, with Enno adhering to Lutheran doctrine, but Johann remaining Catholic. The Cuius regio, eius religio regulation, issued a short time later, was never implemented in East Frisia in the sense that the citizens were obliged to accept the confession of the sovereign. In this situation , Lutheran-minded and Calvinists (Reformed) fought bitterly over the church order in the north. Ultimately, the Lutheran clergy prevailed. The establishment of a Reformed community in Lütetsburg / Norden initially brought about pacification of the spiritual situation. The Inn- and Knyphausen family on the Lütetsburg was Calvinistic and allowed church services on the Lütetsburg. But in 1680 the conflict broke out again when the Reformed in Bargebur, then just outside the city gates, wanted to build a Reformed church. Angry northern citizens tore down the building again, the building was only completed in 1684 under the supervision of military troops.
Another point of conflict was the count's tax policy. The dispute escalated in 1602 when Count Enno III. conquered the city after refusing to pay homage to him. Enno recognized all privileges from the city and only granted them again after paying homage. In the years 1597/98 and again in 1611 the plague broke out in the city . During the Thirty Years' War Norden was besieged by Mansfelder (1622 to 1624), imperial (1627 to 1631) and Hessian troops (1637 to 1650).
In the 18th century, Norden owned an important sea fleet on the East Frisian coast. During the Christmas flood in 1717 , the northern part of the city, like all of East Frisia, was hit hard. The town of Itzendorf had to be abandoned, it is reminiscent of the Itzendorfplate, a shoal off the northern coast near the Westermarsch district.
New embankments were made in 1678 (Charlotten polder, 602 ha) and 1715 (Kleiner Addinggaster polder, 76 ha).
Under Prussian and Hanoverian rule
In 1744, East Frisia, and with it the north, fell to the Kingdom of Prussia through an prospectus . The Prussian state promoted in the following decades, the colonization of East Friesland - particularly by Moorkolonisierung , but also by embankments. Three polders were also diked in what is now the northern part of the city: in 1769 the Leysander Polder (145 ha), 1774 the Zuckerpolder (15 ha), 1775 the Buscherpolder (48 ha), 1781 the Schulenburg Polder (241 ha), 1789 the Lorenz and Friederikenpolder (60 ha) and finally in 1804 the Teltingspolder (28 ha). All are located south of the city center and were extracted from the Leybucht.
In 1794, seven Norder merchants and citizens from Hage founded the Fehnsiedlung Norderfehn, which was later renamed Berumerfehn . They mined peat there. To do this, they dug today's Berumerfehn Canal, which connected the northern harbor with the new fen colony. It is about 14 kilometers long. The peat was cut on an area of around 1,500 hectares and - for the first time in 1797 - transported north on the canal by small ships. The city was thus independent of the previously necessary imports of fuel, which was mainly obtained from the Groningerland and the Saterland .
After the Napoleonic occupation from 1806 to 1813, when Norden belonged to the Ems-Oriental department , the city fell to the Kingdom of Hanover in 1815 .
In the 1840s, several roads connecting the cities were built in East Frisia. This included the road from the north to Emden, completed in 1844, which also secured a connection to Aurich from Georgsheil . From 1844 to 1846, the Ernst-August-Polder (named after the Hanoverian king) was diked in the south of what is now the urban area.
The revolutionary year of 1848 also left its mark in the north. "Political life awoke." A citizens' association was founded, but its political activity was not sustainable. In addition, a vigilante group was set up to maintain public order. The first newspaper, the Norder Stadtblatt, appeared that year. Other publishers also made use of the newly won freedom of the press, but he too only had a short economic life. The Ostfriesischer Kurier was not founded until 1867 and remains the local newspaper of the Norderland to this day.
East Frisia came back to Prussia in 1866 with the end of the Hanoverian Kingdom . The city's access to the sea was severely restricted by dikes and was only maintained through the Norder Tief . The importance of the north as a trading center decreased as a result, but was compensated for by the beginning of industrialization . In the north, the Norder Eisenhütte , a chocolate and a sugar factory, tobacco, chicory , vinegar and mustard factories were built . The market continued to have supra-regional importance in the trade in cattle, wood and grain. For the most companies on town soon the 1806 from which developed Groningen originating Mennonites th January Doornkaat Koolman founded distillery Doornkaat .
North in the Empire
A significant event was the connection to the national rail network in 1883; the route was continued in 1892 to the Norddeich ferry pier, called Norddeich Mole . As a result, the city also gained importance for the through traffic of tourists to Norderney and other East Frisian Islands .
In the course of the Prussian territorial reform of 1885, the (larger) districts also replaced the previous offices in East Friesland. The north became the seat of the district of the same name , which consisted of the former offices of Norden and Berum.
In 1889 the construction of the first pier began in Norddeich, where in 1905 the coast radio station Norddeich Radio was built. In 1914 the city was connected to the electricity supply. During the First World War , prisoners of war were used on the farms in the north and the surrounding area. The coastal radio station in particular was of great importance for the Imperial Navy over the next four years and was protected accordingly. After the end of the First World War, a workers 'and soldiers' council took power for a short time in the north , but then quickly dissolved. As in the rest of East Frisia, the workers 'and soldiers' councils remained a short episode, not least due to the rural-conservative attitude in large parts of East Frisia.
Weimar Republic
In the following years tourism recovered in Norddeich. For 1926 it was reported that “every guest room was occupied”. The city of Norden and Norddeich, at that time still part of the municipality of Lintelermarsch, founded a joint spa association to promote tourism. The Frisia ferry company, founded in 1917, whose origins go back to 1871, significantly expanded its fleet in the following years and from 1930 also began using combined car / passenger ferries.
In 1929, the embankment of the Leypolders, combined with the construction of the Leybuchtsiel , largely restricted the city's access to the sea. As a result, the port of Norddeich is increasingly becoming the more important part of today's urban area.
National Socialism
In the local elections of March 12, 1933, the National Socialists , who had had their own local group since 1923, were able to unite the majority of the votes in the city. A few days later, waves of arrests against communists and social democrats began. A few weeks after the seizure of power by the Nazis there were attacks on political opponents: 27 Social Democrats and Communists were in the restaurant to exchange abused by Nazis brutally. On March 28, the SA closed all Jewish shops in the city and called for their boycott. This measure ended on April 5th. In the period that followed, Jews who had contact with “Aryan” northern women were led through the main streets of the village with a sign around their necks that read I am a racial defender (July 1935).
In the course of 1938 there was increased anti-Jewish agitation in the northern press. For many decades, Norden had a Jewish community with synagogues in Norden and on Norderney . The Norder synagogue was destroyed during the National Socialist pogroms on the night of November 9th to 10th, 1938. The school house and the rabbi's house are still standing. The synagogue in Norderney was spared the actions in connection with the November pogroms, as it had previously been sold to an ironmonger who wanted to set up a storage room there. The Jews living in the north were rounded up and brought together with the other East Frisian Jews to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , from where they returned weeks later. After the November pogroms, the Jewish community in Norden dissolved. The last Jews were transported to concentration camps in April 1940. During the time of National Socialism , almost half of the Jews in northerners were killed.
In the Second World War, the North was hit by bombs, which led to several deaths. Overall, the city survived the war, apart from the hardships of everyday life, “relatively lightly”. Like other cities and communities in East Friesland, the north took in the bombed-out Emder after September 6, 1944, after the seaport city had been badly destroyed by Allied air raids.
After the angry citizens of North had vigorously spoken to party leaders and responsible members of the Wehrmacht, the city was handed over to the Allies on May 4, 1945 without a fight.
North since 1945
The population of the north increased considerably as a result of the flow of refugees in the post-war period . One of the largest barrack camps in the northwest was located in the Tidofeld district. A new district, Norden-Neustadt, was created in the 1950s, primarily for the displaced.
From 1947 to 1950, the Leybuchtpolder was diked, on which the current district was later built. The last dike on the Leybucht so far was done by creating the 4.75 kilometer long Störtebeker dike. The dike workers were paid with part of the diked land - partly as an agricultural livelihood and partly as a sideline. "I consider it a matter of course that when distributing the settlement land in the Leybucht first and foremost the workers should be taken into account, from whose work this land was created in the first place," said the district president in Aurich, the head of the northern domain and building office communicated before the start of the first construction project. In addition, 53 larger holdings of 10 to 16 hectares were created.
A new district, Norden-Neustadt, emerged in the 1950s. The street names are still reminiscent of cities in the former East German territories, but also of cities in the former GDR . Until the 1970s, this district had a commercial and cultural life of its own. The center was Ernst-Reuter-Platz, around which various shops were grouped. In its heyday, Norden-Neustadt owned seven grocery stores, a bakery, an electronics store, a vegetable store, a book and stationery store, two dairy shops, a coal store that was attached to a mill, and a building and furniture workshop. There was also a post office on Nordseestrasse. Various refugee associations, a district football club ( Concordia Norden-Neustadt) and the Norden-Neustadt interest group ensured a wide range of cultural activities with numerous events.
Due to the structural change in agriculture, in which better yields were achieved with modern machines, the immigration of displaced persons and the lack of alternative employment opportunities beyond agriculture, the 1950s were a decade characterized by high unemployment. From this point on, there was also a generous expansion of the city's infrastructure, beginning with the sewer system in the city center (1958). In addition, new schools were built. The first calls for a bypass for the city center were loud, which was increasingly burdened by tourist traffic.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the old town in the north was extensively renovated, to which a large number of historically significant buildings fell victim . South of the market were mainly from the 18th century houses (along the narrow streets of Kirch, Sluice-, Uffen- and herring road), some of which still over open fires and the typical Ostfriesland slug possessed. Numerous houses on the streets mentioned were demolished, only a few on the east side of Uffenstraße and on the moat were preserved. The housing association Neue Heimat built apartment buildings and three high-rise apartment blocks on the now vacant site. As a further measure, several streets around the market square were widened. A new district hospital (now the Ubbo Emmius Clinic ) was opened in 1966 to provide medical care for the residents of the north and the surrounding area .
As a further measure, several streets around the market square were widened. This action again fell victim to old town houses (including the carpentry Nesso at the confluence with Klosterstrasse) (also along the moat, dam and slaughterhouse street), and the avenue plantings on Bahnhofstrasse and Norddeicher Strasse had to give way. The third house of the Three Sisters , which was demolished in the 1970s, was rebuilt in 1993, as the urban planning currents in Germany had meanwhile developed towards the conservative again and a completely different importance was now attached to the historically grown inner city. The demolition of the Schöningh house and the Vossenhuus were also planned around the 1970s .
In the 1960s, Meta Rogall was a pioneer of beat music in East Frisia. From 1961 onwards, bands from Great Britain , the Netherlands and Germany performed in their house Waterkant , including Otto Waalkes with his beat band The Rustlers. In later years Otto was a DJ at the Waterkant house for a short time . While Rogall was denied official recognition for her work for a long time, there are now books and a musical about her life. The North Media Center is also planning a large documentary.
Through the municipal reform of Lower Saxony in 1972, the city gained a number of surrounding communities as new districts and grew considerably in area. During the district reform in 1977, however, the city of Norden lost the seat of the district of the same name and has since been part of the district of Aurich with the district town of Aurich as a central center .
The city's infrastructure has been continuously expanded since then. In 1973 the Pentecostal church in Norddeich opened the Nazareth House, which in the years that followed welcomed many refugees, including boat people from Vietnam . In the Aurich district, the Vietnamese make up the second largest group of foreigners (637) after the Dutch. Most of them live in the north. Between 1969 and 1979, a lot was invested in infrastructure in the Norddeich district. The seal rearing station, the seawater swimming pool, new promenades and a sandy beach were created. As a result, Norddeich has been officially known as the North Sea resort since 1979 .
Economically, the north was extremely badly off in the 1980s. The closure of a branch of the office machine manufacturer Olympia and the slow decline of the Doornkaat distillery and other companies drove up unemployment. The record level was reported in early 1986: 29 percent. The railway stopped the rail traffic north- Esen in 1983.
The new health clinic in Norddeich opened its doors in 1996. In the 1990s, sometimes even before that, companies increasingly settled in a large industrial park in the south of the city (Leegmoor) , which gradually lowered unemployment, even if it is still the highest in East Frisia (see section Economy). The history of the coastal radio station Norddeich Radio ended in 1998. As early as the 1980s, but even more so in the 1990s, the city began to make the marketplace more attractive bit by bit, to return historical details to the buildings and to emphasize historical features later. Extensive renovations were also carried out, for example on the Vienna House , built around 1600. The heavy traffic load in the city center was also lessened: After decades of discussion and efforts to include it in the federal transport infrastructure plan , Norden received its bypass in 2009.
Development of the place name
It is believed that north is an indicative place name. It is interpreted as "lying to the north". Norditi , already mentioned in 885, is interpreted as a shortening of north widu , which could mean north forest. However , it remains unclear whether Norditi is identical to the north.
Population development
The city of Norden has a good 25,000 inhabitants today, but was still a manageable city with around 7,000 inhabitants around 1900. With the incorporation of the community of Sandbauerschaft, which ran almost in a ring around the city center, the north grew significantly in 1919. A significant boost in population development came after the end of the Second World War, when many refugees from the former eastern regions of the German Reich were taken in (see also Tidofeld displaced persons camp ). A second boost resulted from the incorporation of many small surrounding communities as part of the Lower Saxony municipal reform in 1972.
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Population of the places incorporated in 1972
The towns incorporated in 1972 are listed here with their population figures in 1961 and 1970 (census results on June 6 and May 27, respectively).
| place | 1961 | 1970 |
|---|---|---|
| Bargebur | 551 | 423 |
| Leybuchtpolder | 497 | 484 |
| Lintelermarsch | 1181 | 1383 |
| Easter March | 409 | 421 |
| Süderneuland I | 1425 | 1694 |
| Süderneuland II | 900 | 851 |
| Western March I | 539 | 687 |
| Western March II | 673 | 694 |
Note: The former community of Lintelermarsch is the current district of Norddeich.
literature
- Ufke Cremer, Johann Haddinga : North. The city chronicle. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-46-1 .
- The volume consists of two works: on the one hand the unchanged reprint of the city chronicle by Ufke Cremer from 1955, on the other hand from the northern city chronicle of the 20th century from the pen of Johann Haddinga. The first part is supplemented by notes in those cases in which the status of 1955 has been considered obsolete by recent research.
- Johann Aeils, Jan Smidt, Martin Stromann: Stone witnesses tell history. In search of traces of architectural treasures from northern building history. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-47-X .
- This work describes Northern architectural treasures from several centuries. Photos by Martin Stromann complete the book.
- Johann Haddinga, Martin Stromann: Norden / Norddeich - An East Frisian coastal town introduces itself. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-43-7 .
- Overview of the city of the north with (current) information on the city's history and sights. Most of the volume also contains translations into English and is extensively illustrated by Martin Stromann.
Individual evidence
- ↑ O. von Heinemann: The Kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Braunschweig: depicted in picturesque original views of their most interesting areas, most remarkable cities, seaside resorts, churches, castles and other monuments of old and new times. Taken from nature and engraved in steel by various artists. Vol. 2. Darmstadt 1858, p. 718 f.
- ↑ Herbert Obenaus (Ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , p. 1122.
- ↑ Thus writes the book author and local historian Johann Haddinga: "In the assessment of everyday practice, specifically: the relationships and entanglements between the up-and-coming regional center of the north and the whole of the north, the historians' opinions and theses do not clearly coincide." In: Johann Haddinga, Martin Stromann: Norden / Norddeich - An East Frisian coastal town introduces itself. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-43-7 , p. 37.
- ↑ DER NORDER VERTRAG 1255. Original text with translation by Gerd Dickers, Norden (PDF; 73 kB).
- ↑ Johann Haddinga, Martin Stromann: Norden / Norddeich - An East Frisian coastal town introduces itself. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-43-7 , p. 30.
- ↑ This is the verdict of the book author and local historian Ufke Cremer; in: Ufke Cremer, Johann Haddinga: North. The city chronicle. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-46-1 , Part I, p. 85.
- ↑ Johann Haddinga, Martin Stromann: Norden / Norddeich - An East Frisian coastal town introduces itself. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-43-7 , p. 52.
- ↑ entwaesserungsverband-norden.de.
- ↑ Johann Haddinga, Martin Stromann: Norden / Norddeich - An East Frisian coastal town introduces itself. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-43-7 , p. 46.
- ^ This is the verdict of the book author and local homeland researcher Johann Haddinga in: Johann Haddinga, Martin Stromann: Norden / Norddeich - An East Frisian coastal town introduces itself. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-43-7 , p. 46.
- ^ Dietrich Janßen: September 6, 1844: Emden goes under. Destruction and end of the war 1944/1945. Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2004, ISBN 3-8313-1411-X , pp. 24-26.
- ↑ Information on the Gnadenkirche Tidofeld website (as of December 14, 2009).
- ↑ Helmut Fischer: Land for workers who created it. In: Ostfriesischer Kurier. January 8, 2009, page 6.
- ^ Johann Haddinga: North in the 20th Century. Norden 2001, p. 66 f.
- ↑ Medienzentrum Norden: Meta-Doku - Medienzentrum Norden starts local project “Meta-Doku”. ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2010 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.
- ↑ East Frisian Courier. August 28, 2008, p. 9.
- ↑ Ufke Cremer, Johann Haddinga: North. The city chronicle. Verlag SKN, Norden 2001, ISBN 3-928327-46-1 , p. 85.
- ↑ Names - the overview for the letter N. At: ndr1niedersachsen.de.
- ^ Herbert Obenaus (Ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , p. 1122 (population up to 1939).
- ↑ a b Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality register for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 264 .
