County (Friesland)

county City of Schortens Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 6 ″ N , 7 ° 59 ′ 24 ″ E
Height :	3 m above sea level NN
Residents :	1621 (December 31, 2017)
Postal code :	26419
Area code :	04423

Memorial to the county's namesake

Grafschaft is a district of the city of Schortens in the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony . It has about 1,700 inhabitants. Until 1972 Grafschaft belonged to the municipality of Sillenstede . As a result of the regional reform at the time , the communities of Schortens and Sillenstede were merged to form the community of Schortens. Schortens received city rights in 2005.

history

The present village of Grafschaft used to be an estate called Barkel . People settled here and later a man named Peter Hinrichs called Grave also lived here , who owned a farm on what is now Gerrit-Taddiken-Straße. Peter Hinrichs was also called Grave , from the word Graf , because he apparently lived very elegantly and nobly. Both Grafschaft and Peter-Grave-Strasse in the village were named after him. A memorial plaque was erected for him at the fountain on Sillensteder Strasse. The fountain is considered by many to be the symbol of Grafschaft, as Grafschaft does not have its own church, unlike the surrounding villages of Sillenstede and Accum.

“The village of Grafschaft is now 1000 years old. The once high hill on the eastern edge of our village could tell of this. He would surely tell of February 24th, 1148, St. Matthias Day, when the Rüstringers invaded the country and cruelly slaughtered and burned everything that opposed them. The Östringer resident here knew about it. In a terrible defensive battle, the Rüstringers were finally defeated and chased to hell. "

- Grafschaft 300th anniversary brochure

With the beginning of the economic upswing at the end of the 1950s , more and more Wilhelmshaven residents turned to Grafschaft. In the course of time, a settlement emerged with primarily homes and bungalows , which were usually built on large plots. The expansionary development lasted until the late 1980s . Many Marines and their families felt and still are very comfortable in the county to this day. But many “Olympians”, i.e. employees of Olympia-Werke AG in Roffhausen , which went bankrupt in 1991 , have also built their homes in Grafschaft.

Forest

Grafschaft is surrounded by two larger forest areas in the direction of Sillenstede and in the direction of Barkel. There are several lakes in the forest areas towards Sillenstede; some that are owned by the water company and others that are privately owned. There are former military bunkers in the woods.

Names of the streets

The Peter-Grave-Straße plays on the namesake of the village, the Dettmar-Coldewey-Straße on the homeland researcher who u. a. Books about Tom Brok wrote, the Rüstringer- and the Östringer-Strasse, which are named after the residents of the Gaus Östringen (to which the county once belonged) and Rüstringen (which is neighboring). There is also Focko-Ukena-Strasse, named after the East Frisian chief, Moorsumer-Strasse after the local farms, Edo-Wiemken-Strasse after the chief, Kniphauser-Strasse, named after the union of the neighboring communities that Störtebeker-Strasse after Klaus Störtebeker, Butjadinger-Strasse to the North Sea peninsula Butjadingen, Ammerländer-Strasse to the district and street Am Brunnen got their name from the fountain that was located there and serves as the village's "landmark".

education

In Glarum , a small settlement right next to the town of Grafschaft, there is the Glarum elementary school , a kindergarten and a small gym that is used by the school for school sports, the kindergarten and the local sports club TuS Glarum . It is also used for numerous events and celebrations at the school. The Glarum primary school also has a small sports field in the schoolyard.

Events

Well festival

In Grafschaft there is a fountain on Sillensteder Strasse with a stone replica of a millstone on which the names of the so-called fountain masters are written. The well master is symbolically chosen in order to continue the tradition of the well master , who in earlier times controlled the purity of the water from the well. The well masters are elected every year by the local well association. The fountain association "Verein der Grafschafter Brunnengemeinschaft" organizes a "fountain festival" every year on the occasion of the election, at which the new fountain master and the fountain queen are announced. The fountain master himself is elected by the fountain association, who in turn selects a woman who becomes the fountain queen.

As part of the fountain festival there is a fair with some rides, such as B. bumper cars or chain carousel instead.

Sports

There is a gymnastics club in Grafschaft, TuS Glarum, which trains in the primary school's sports hall and is also based there. TuS Glarum merged with the Sillensteder football club TuS Sillenstede in the handball club SG Moorsum.

Personalities

Dettmar Coldewey, local history researcher
Peter Hinrichs, called Grave (d. 1692), namesake of the village, mentioned in 1676

literature

Dettmar Coldewey: Local history data. Signpost and timetable for the historical picture map of the Jade area. Lohse-Eissing, Wilhelmshaven 1960
Dettmar Coldewey: Frisia Orientalis - data on the history of the country between Ems and Jade. Signpost and time table of the "Picture map of the history of Oslfriesland" . Lohse-Eissing, Wilhelmshaven 1967

Web links

History of the county on the website of the city of Schortens

Individual evidence

↑ Population figures of the city of Schortens 2017
↑ See Janßen, Georg: Vom Jeverländer und seine Scholle, contributions to family and home history, self-rel. d. Ed., 1921, p. 12. Woebcken, Carl: Wanderfahrten through Friesenland, Friesen-Verlag Ad. Heine, Wilhelmshaven 1921, p. 13. Janßen, Georg: What place and field names tell us - an example from a mixed-soil area, pressure u. Publishing house of Ad. Littmann, Oldenburg i. O. 1925, p. 10. After the owner Peter Hinrichs, known as "Grave", the estate and the village that was later created there were given the name "Gravscup" (spelling like "gravescup to Lastrup").

[1] Population figures of the city of Schortens 2017

[2] See Janßen, Georg: Vom Jeverländer und seine Scholle, contributions to family and home history, self-rel. d. Ed., 1921, p. 12. Woebcken, Carl: Wanderfahrten through Friesenland, Friesen-Verlag Ad. Heine, Wilhelmshaven 1921, p. 13. Janßen, Georg: What place and field names tell us - an example from a mixed-soil area, pressure u. Publishing house of Ad. Littmann, Oldenburg i. O. 1925, p. 10. After the owner Peter Hinrichs, known as "Grave", the estate and the village that was later created there were given the name "Gravscup" (spelling like "gravescup to Lastrup").