History of Stockum (Witten)
The history of Stockum , which today belongs to the city of Witten as the Stockum district , has been shaped by a wide variety of areas of tension and interests over the centuries. The story is closely connected to the Langendreer district, which today belongs to Bochum , with which Stockum temporarily formed the Langendreer office . Nevertheless, Stockum was assigned to the city of Witten in the course of the municipal reform of 1929.
General historical overview
The first recorded mention of Stockum dates back to the year 882. In the Werdener Urbare a place called villa stochem is mentioned, in which taxable “free farmers” from the Brukterergau settled. The name Stochem (Stock-Heim) comes from the Franconian-speaking area. The place was most likely created under Charlemagne . In the area of the Schulte-Niermann farm ( Stockumer Bruch / Tiefendorf ) there was a moated castle belonging to a Franconian knight who called himself op der Heyde .
This early importance of the place can also be explained by the extensive land for common use. The Stockumer Mark, which stretched as far as the Wartenberg and Gedern as far as the Ruhr , was not divided into individual properties until the beginning of the 19th century after almost a hundred years of disputes.
The individual Stockumer and Düren courtyards were subject to various landlords. Stockum and Düren have always been viewed as closely related over the centuries. From 1850 to 1929 they belonged to the Langendreer office , in the course of the municipal reform of 1929 Stockum and Düren became districts of Witten. Ecclesiastically, Stockum-Düren has belonged to the parish of Lütgendortmund since the turn of the millennium and only became an independent parish in 1906, although its own cemetery had existed since 1855 and the Protestant church was inaugurated in 1902.
The middle age
In the Middle Ages, the division of inheritance and new settlements resulted in smaller farms: Kotten, which the full farmers were mostly subject to taxes. In this way the tax burden of the large courts was distributed. In the 11th century, a Meyer- or Schultenhof spun off, which rises to the lower nobility (Schulte auf dem Hofe). A Gotfriedus de Stochem is a free judge of the county of Dortmund from 1270 to 1289 and a Berrent van Stochem , a free judge of the Dortmund free court in 1335 . There are indications that one of the courts of justice of the free court ("tho deme stene op der heyde") was near Stockum. The Schultenhof was later closely related to the knight's seat on the heath and sank in importance again to a farm. The knight's seat at Heyde, in turn, came into conflict with its ties and dependency on Dortmund and on the feudal lord, the Count von der Mark , especially during the Great Dortmund Feud in 1388/89. The whole place was burned down and devastated.
15th century
The place was also completely destroyed in the feuds of 1423/24.
Between 1417 and 1461 there was a fratricidal war in the county of Mark for the inheritance and rule of the country. Emperor Sigismund did not intervene, but stood on the side of Duke Adolf von Kleve, and then again enfeoffed Gerhard von der Mark with the rule. 26 places were devastated in the period up to 1437, including Stockum-Düren. In 1444/49 the Soest feud ruled . The fratricidal quarrel finally ended with the death of Gerhard in Schwerte in 1461 .
When the duke and his army marched against Nijmegen towards the end of the 15th century , Stockum was supposed to provide an army wagon and four servants, but the peasants refused the order and only sent two servants.
16th Century
In 1586 Spanish troops of the general La Berlotte devastated the place. We know today that coal was already being dug in Stockum at this time. This goes back to the church book of Lütgendortmund, in which there is the entry in 1599: “Kruse in Kolberg stayed dead!” This Kruse was buried in its tunnel when the route collapsed. This was said for a long time, namely that the miners heard his ghost shouting later while mining coal: "Richt dall im Koüllerskämpken", which means that he (Kruse) was lying in the collapsed stretch.
17th century
In 1609 the last ruler of the Klevisch-Märk region died, and after brief disputes the area fell to the Electorate of Brandenburg .
The county of Mark and with it Stockum had already become Protestant in 1570, but the area was largely surrounded by Catholic countries. In addition, Stockum was still on an important military road at the time. So the place was taken along in the Thirty Years War .
Thirty Years' War
In 1627/28 imperial troops plundered here, in 1629 they withdrew, in 1631 mercenaries from Pappenheim resided here, who in turn were driven out by the Swedes. Dutch troops were here in 1635 and imperial troops again in 1636. In addition, the plague raged . The peace of 1648 brought little relief. The farms were looted, the fields burned and the population decimated by murder and plague. The Brandenburg ruler decided that a bride and groom had to plant six fruit trees and six oaks before the wedding. This should help the devastated country recover.
18th century
In 1701 Brandenburg became the Kingdom of Prussia , Stockum was now Prussian.
The Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 brought war misery again. On April 25, 1755, 1,400 French soldiers passed through Stockum on their way to Dortmund. From the time immediately after the Seven Years' War there is reliable information about a school in Stockum in 1667: the teacher was Henricus Ebelius, then Mathias Dörhof. It is also reported that the farmers at that time did not see the necessity of going to school and preferred the children to help on the farm. It is assumed that the school already existed at the school visit ordered by Kleve in 1533, but the documents relating to this in the Münster State Archives have not yet been evaluated.
In 1768 the division of the Stockumer Mark to those entitled to the mark began. This affair, which was accompanied by multiple quarrels, was not brought to a conclusion until 1842.
At the end of the 18th century, plundering and marauding bands of robbers moved through this area, which could not be stopped until 1801. Many a single courtyard was ruined by them.
From 1752 on, coal was mined in Stockum according to plan, in 1913 the last mine in Stockum was closed with the Düren mine of the United Hamburg and Franziska mine (formerly Ver. Wallfisch ). After the Second World War , there were a few small mines for a few years due to the prevailing coal shortage.
In 1790, today's Hörder Straße was expanded as a road , the work was carried out by the residents. 16 years later, Napoleon then moved east. Jerome, called "King Lustig", ruled the Kingdom of Westphalia until 1813 . At that time, Stockum and Düren had a population of around 410.
19th century
Between 1803 and 1905 stagecoaches drove regularly from Crengeldanz via Stockum to Hörde . At the economy, which is now called "Zum Fuhrmann", a stop was made. There was also a barrier here and tolls had to be paid. The oldest cadastral plan of the village also dates from 1823 , which for the first time clearly shows the location and size of the land, courtyards and cottages. Due to the advancing industrialization of the surrounding cities and the increasing coal mining on the site itself, the population of Stockum-Düren grew noticeably:
| year | 1843 | 1858 | 1871 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of inhabitants | 512 | 793 | 1308 |
From 1840 the village began to expand along Hörder Straße. The Harkort School, which still exists today, was built here in 1866 and then expanded several times. In 1850 the Langendreer office with the villages of Langendreer, Stockum, Düren, Somborn and Werne became independent.
In 1857 the Stockum landowner Schulze-Vellinghausen was appointed bailiff of this office; He moved the "Office Langendreer zu Stockum" to the Gerdeshof in Stockum by 1900.
In 1868 there was a mine accident at the Neu-Iserlohn colliery due to bad weather ; 81 miners were killed, including seven from Stockum.
The village was spared direct armed conflicts for several years, but in the war against France in 1870/71, men from Stockum also fought on the Prussian side; four fell in France.
In 1877 Stockum train station was built in the Düren area. Passenger traffic on the route was stopped in 1971, the station had been demolished a few years earlier.
In 1883 the first post office was set up in the Gröpper house. In 1899 a volunteer fire brigade was founded , and Stockum and Düren form an extinguishing association. In 1900 the Langendreer office was relocated to Langendreer and housed in the Middeldorp house before the new office building was completed in 1901. In Stockum, the municipal administration for Stockum / Düren, Krone, Kaltehardt and Somborn remained in a small house on the corner of Hörder Strasse and Pferdebachstrasse. The registry office , the public order office , a tax office, the arbitrator and a prison cell were also housed there .
20th century
1900 until the end of the Second World War
On March 4, 1901, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Protestant church took place. On September 22, 1902, the foundation stone for the Catholic Church was laid. In 1905 the Protestant community of Stockum became independent from Lütgendortmund.
In a fire on the Borussia colliery in Oespel-Kley on July 11, 1902, eight miners from Stockum were killed.
The village of Stockum / Düren now had 3736 inhabitants. On November 28, 1906, the Roburitwerk in Annen exploded, killing 40 people. The people who had become homeless were also housed in the schools and the halls of restaurants in Stockum.
In 1909 a water tower with a capacity of 10,000 cubic meters was built. In the First World War 1914–1918 around 500 soldiers fought from Stockum / Düren, 168 of whom were killed.
In November 1918 returning troops marched through the village for days. The Kapp Putsch took place in March 1920, and the Red Ruhr Army was formed in the Ruhr area against the rebellious Freikorps and Reichswehr . Socialist-communist workers from Stockum also armed themselves. At the Steffen restaurant on the corner of Pferdebach and Hörder Strasse, a barrier was set up and guarded by armed workers with a bayonet attached. Two stockumers were later killed in fighting with the Reichswehr in the Schwerte area.
The administrative office was moved to the Harkort School on June 15, 1925. In the Dorney, The Hermannschlacht by Heinrich von Kleist was performed on the open-air stage by the Naturfreunde theater group .
A gym was built in 1928. In 1929 it was incorporated into Witten. Therefore some streets were renamed first because the same street names already existed in Witten. The municipal council was dissolved, but an administrative office with a registry office remained in the Harkort school.
The time of National Socialism also left its mark on Stockum, although neither the events of the pogrom night in 1938 nor the bombing raids in World War II reached the same extent as in the larger cities in the area.
In Stockum there was a shop run by Jewish citizens that was looted and destroyed by a bunch of SA men on the night of November 9, 1938. Apparently the heap had not had enough with one shop: the SA men decided to use their torches to burn the workers' settlement on Pferdebachstrasse, where many communists lived, to ashes. In front of the houses, however, the local group leader of the NSDAP stood up to them with his pistol drawn and threatened to shoot anyone who dared to pillage. So the SA men withdrew again.
After 1933, the church struggle within the village created a large gap between the citizens. While the established pastor was behind the National Socialist policy, many parishioners went to the free Christians of the Confessing Church ; two congregations with all church offices arose next to each other. It took over forty years for the scars from this split to fade.
The first bombs fell in Stockum in May and November 1943, but they were not targeted. It was probably about emergency drops on the flak positions around the place assigned to the bomber pilots as alternative targets .
In July 1943, 37 Stockum children were sent to Lauda in Baden. Exact numbers are not known, but around 500 Stockum-Düren residents took part in the war as soldiers, flak helpers, etc. The number of those killed and missing was about the same as in the First World War.
During the great air raid on Witten on December 12, 1944, a bomb also hit the house at Am Katteloh 90 and killed the mountain invalid Schöpp. Two other houses were completely destroyed by bombs, Haus Schrumpf on Dorneystrasse and Haus Möhle on Pferdebachstrasse. On March 8, 1945, eight women and one child were killed in a bomb attack on the Siebenplaneten colliery , and on March 18, 1945, eleven people died.
After March 18, 1945, the bombing ceased, but low-level planes hunted anything that moved. The place was now in the Ruhr basin , and General Walter Model had his headquarters in Bommern . On April 9, 1945, the US Army had worked its way from the north to Somborn , and on April 10, an artillery duel around Stockum began. At 6 o'clock in the morning it was quiet again after half an hour, but seven stockumers and a French prisoner of war had to lose their lives, a girl was seriously wounded and taken to the tunnel in Siepen and was later treated there by US doctors.
After the artillery stopped shelling, things remained calm at first. Men from the city administration came from Witten with trucks and hurriedly cleared a textile warehouse that was set up in the hall of Blanke (now Schlecker).
In the further course of the day the US Army, coming from Somborn and Oespel, advanced through the village, on to Witten and the snow. The NSDAP local group leader from Stockum had initially fled to Bommern and shot himself there.
1945 to 1970
On April 11, 1945 the village was liberated. In the houses in Himmelohstrasse 3 and Hörder Strasse 289, 290, 293, 297 and 377, 55 rooms had to be made available for the occupying forces immediately .
Due to the many foreign workers, prisoners of war, but also by Germans, there was looting everywhere. The Allies tried to return the foreigners to their home countries as quickly as possible. On June 7, 1945 the Americans withdrew and the British took over the occupation.
On June 26, 1945 the Düren farm was attacked by Wilhelm and the farmer, the housekeeper, a 17-year-old assistant, a 15-year-old girl and a bricklayer who happened to be present were shot as well as a former soldier. The slain pig master lay in front of the house. The administrator survived after a long hospital stay. The perpetrators were never identified. At that time there was no police, only so-called "stick brigades". On July 10th there were new billets by the British.
The next time was marked by hunger. The farmers leased a number of "sixties" (approx. 250 m²) to the citizens for little money so that they could be supplied with home-grown garden crops. Every living space was overcrowded with refugees and bombed out. From 22:00 there was a curfew . The water pipes were destroyed, but luckily there were still wells in Stockum so that the water supply was guaranteed. The fuel shortage was alleviated by reopening the former air shaft of the Wallfisch colliery in Stockumer Siepen . Gradually there were still several small mines in the local area, but most of them were closed again in the early 1960s.
Hardly anything changed in the village until the early 1960s, the population sank to 3200 in 1965. Then a new era began for Stockum. Over the next 25 years, new development areas were repeatedly designated; many people moved to Stockum. 50 hectares of arable land were built over with houses and roads. Stockum changed from a clustered village through a street village to a diversified residential village. Industrial companies have not relocated to Stockum until now, the companies Geissler (bright steel), Handtke-Wiros (stainless steel sheets) and Wellershoff (flat glass) are long-established. For this purpose, larger craft and service companies came to Stockum in the 1970s.
1970 to the present
In the 1960s, the mines in the Stockum catchment area gradually disappeared. In the early 1970s, however, the Stockum residents also began to take a critical view of the development plans for the city of Witten. In 1972 an initiative was formed against a planned new “Stockumer Mitte” with high-rise buildings. During construction work on Hörder Strasse on April 10, 1972, a prehistoric billet dam made of oak trunks was uncovered. On October 19, 1972, the last shift was driven in the Ringeltaube colliery in Düren ; the active mining period in Stockum / Düren ended after 400 years.
In the same year a waste transfer station was built in the Düren area. Since then, the city's residual waste has been compacted there and transported in containers to the Emscher landfill .
In 1980/81 the old Catholic church was demolished and a new church with a community center was built. Also in 1980 the gymnasium built in 1928 was demolished. The old shaft building of the Wallfisch colliery was threatened with demolition, but it could be preserved and is now one of the oldest colliery buildings of this type.
See also
literature
- Paul Brandenburg, Karl-Heinz Hildebrand: Witten. Streets, paths, squares. Märkische printing and publishing house, Witten 1989.
- Rüdiger Jordan: Of capitals, pulpits and baptismal fonts. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2006.
- Michael Schenk (Ed.): Witten . Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2004.
- Wolfgang Zemter: Witten from old times . Meinerzhagen 1981.