Melle

Basic data
State :	Lower Saxony
County :	Osnabrück
Height :	76 m above sea level NHN
Area :	253.99 km 2
Residents:	46,588 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	183 inhabitants per km 2
Postcodes :	49324, 49326, 49328
Primaries :	05422, 05427, 05428, 05429, 05226
License plate :	OS , BSB, MEL, WTL
Community key :	03 4 59 024
LOCODE :	DE MEE
City structure:	8 districts
; City administration address :	Schürenkamp 16 ; 49324 Melle
Website :	www.melle.info
Mayor :	Reinhard Scholz ( CDU )
Location of the city of Melle in the Osnabrück district

Melle in Grönegau

Night panorama of Mell city center

Melle (historical name: Menele ) is the largest city in the district of Osnabrück with around 46,000 inhabitants and an independent municipality in Lower Saxony roughly halfway between Osnabrück (27 km west), Herford (30 km east) and Bielefeld (28 km south) in a valley location of the Wiehengebirge in the north and the Teutoburg Forest in the south. The districts of Buer , Bruchmühlen , Riemsloh , Neuenkirchen and Wellingholzhausen border the state of North Rhine-Westphalia . Melle is in 40th place among Germany's largest municipalities in terms of area .

Early evidence of its founding date back to the year 800, when the early church and the Meyerhof were built. The first written reference dates back to 1169. The former castle's - and Hanseatic City served since the 12th century to the castle Gesmold and Groenefeld castle the Bishopric of Osnabrück as a backup.

In 2019 the city celebrated its 850th anniversary. Even when it was founded, the surrounding landscape was known as Grönegau or Graingau . "Grain" is old Saxon and means grain. Even today, Melle, with its park and forest areas, is a city in the countryside and, with its fertile soils, is characterized by agriculture.

Since the dissolution of the district of Melle and the incorporation of all municipalities in the district on July 1, 1972, Melle has been the third largest city in Lower Saxony in terms of area.

geography

Geographical location

Melle lies in a valley 76 m above sea level. NN, between the Wiehengebirge in the north and the Teutoburg Forest in the south about 25 km from the two cities Osnabrück (Lower Saxony) and Bielefeld (East Westphalia) on the A 30 (Amsterdam – Berlin). The Münster-Osnabrück airport is about 60 km away.

The hare rises in the Wellingholzhausen district of Melle . Fed it is next to the Hare source from the Alma source and Rehquelle . In one of only two bifurcations in Germany, the Else branches off from the Hase in the Gesmold district. The Else flows further through the Gesmold districts in an easterly direction through Melle-Mitte and Bruchmühlen for a total of 35 kilometers into the Werre, which in turn flows into the Weser . The hare leaves the city of Melle northwest towards Osnabrück. It flows into the Ems at Meppen . With a length of 189 kilometers, the Hunte is the second longest tributary of the Weser after the Aller . The headwaters lie between the Oldendorf and Buer districts of Melle and belong to the TERRA.vita nature park . In a small breakthrough valley in the Wiehen Mountains, it reaches the North German Plain after ten kilometers . In a northerly direction it flows through the Dümmer See .

In the Oldendorf district of Oberholsten, the Hesterbrink ( Moselerberg ; 232.5 m) in the Wiehen Mountains is the highest point in the urban area of Melle. The Diedrichsberg (220 m) with the Diedrichsburg is the highest elevation of the Meller Mountains , a side ridge of the Wiehen Mountains , and a good vantage point near Oldendorf. In Wellingholzhausen, in the area of the city of Melle, lies the 220 m high Beutling , whose area of 42.8 hectares has been under nature protection since 1937. On the top there is a 30 m high observation tower. The lowest point of Melle is in Im Ascherbruch with 63.3 m above N.N.

Expansion and use of the urban area

The city covers an area of 254 km². As of January 1, 2011, the vast majority consists of agricultural land and forest area, together around 83.2%, followed by buildings, open spaces and traffic areas with around 14.7%. The greatest extent in north-south direction is around 20.4 km, in east-west direction it is around 21.6 km.

Area according to type of use	Agricultural schafts- area	Forest area	Building and open space	Traffic area	Operating space	Surface of water	Recreation area	other use
Area in km²	163.97	47.35	23.10	14.11	0.65	2.86	1.58	0.37
Share of total area in%	64.56	18.64	9.09	5.56	0.26	1.13	0.62	0.15

Neighboring communities

The city of Melle borders ten cities and municipalities. Starting in the northeast these are: Preußisch Oldendorf in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Minden-Lübbecke , Rödinghausen , Bünde and Spenge in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Herford , Werther (Westphalia) , and Borgholzhausen in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Gütersloh as well as Dissen , Hilter , Bissendorf and Bad Essen in the district of Osnabrück .

Bissendorf 16 km	Bad Essen 18 km	Rödinghausen 18 km
Georgsmarienhütte 27 km		Bünde 18 km
Dissen 19 km	Borgholzhausen 12 km	Spenge 17 km

City structure

In its current form, the city of Melle emerged on July 1, 1972 from the Melle district through the incorporation of several independent municipalities and joint municipalities. Since then, with an area of 254 km², the city has been the third largest in Lower Saxony after Neustadt am Rübenberge and Walsrode . Melle is made up of eight districts. They are divided into districts, the boundaries of which correspond to those of the communities in the former district.

district	Area (in km²) Status: January 1, 2011	Population as of December 31, 2018
Melle center	46.48 (as of December 31, 1984)	19,276
Buer	24.0; 47.51 (as of December 31, 1984)	4,876
Curd mills	10.54 (as of December 31, 1984)	2,860
Molded	28.7; 19.98 (as of December 31, 1984)	3,235
Neuenkirchen	33.96 (as of December 31, 1984)	4,926
Oldendorf	24.0; 25.38 (as of December 31, 1984)	4,750
Riemsloh	28.7	3,470
Wellingholzhausen	41.12	4,898
total	254.00 ; 254.02 (as of December 31, 1984)	48.211

¹ Due to different counting methods, the figures differ from the figures from the Lower Saxony State Office for Statistics and Communication Technology.

The municipal reform in Melle took place in two stages. The first took place in 1970. Until then there were 56 independent communities in the Melle district. These communities belonged to seven integrated communities. In the first step, three integrated communities (Melle, Riemsloh-Hoyel, Wellingholzhausen) were converted into three large communities (Melle, Riemsloh, Wellingholzhausen); the remaining four integrated communities with their total of 29 small communities remained. In 1972 the remaining four integrated municipalities and the three existing large municipalities were combined to form the city of Melle. With one exception, the former municipalities have become districts of Melles. Only the Bruchmühlen district had no forerunner of a joint municipality. It is made up of the Bennien community, which was previously part of the Riemsloh-Hoyel community and the Düingdorf community, which was previously part of the Buer community. In total, the city of Melle now has eight districts.

climate

Melle lies in the warm, temperate climate zone. The subatlantic maritime climate is predominant . Westerly and northwest winds are decisive, which can bring cool weather in summer and mild rainy weather in winter. The weather situation is therefore inconsistent.

The annual average temperature is 8.9 ° C as a long-term mean, with January being the coldest month at 1.0 ° C and July being the warmest with an average of 17.0 ° C. This means that the winters are milder than in eastern or southern Germany and the summers are moderately warm, with not only summer thunderstorms but also periods of rain occurring.

At 776 mm, Melle has a higher amount of precipitation per year than the German average (700 mm), while winter and summer rain are roughly in balance. However, the border by the Wiehengebirge (north) and the Osning (south) lead to a climate with less precipitation than Osnabrück. The difference is about 70 millimeters per year. There is a humid climate all year round .

The following table provides an overview of the long-term average climate data:

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Melle (1961–1990)

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Temperature ( ° C )	1.0	1.5	4.2	7.8	12.6	15.5	17.0	16.6	13.4	9.5	5.1	2.1	O	8.9

Precipitation ( mm )	69	51	61	53	67	72	68	67	66	58	68	76	Σ	776

Source: DWD

history

First documented mention in 1169

City history

Around 800, a baptismal church was built on the Frankish royal estate, the Meyerhof, on an elevation in the Else river valley, the Kohlbrink, as part of the Saxony mission. South of the present town center was an old Saxon peasantry (now part Old Melle) with a court Linde . The Meyerhof belonged to the episcopal table good . A document that has been preserved mentions Melle ( Menele ) for the first time in 1169. Around 1200, the place had a rampart with walls one meter wide and protruding towers. In 1250 the moated castle ( Motte ) Grönenberg, occupied by 65 armed knights , was built by the Osnabrück bishop Engelbert to protect against the Counts of Ravensberg .

Coat of arms of the Meller castle people

In 1359 Melle is referred to as an oppidum (small town) and in 1363 the first urban constitution was drawn up. In the same year, the occupation of the judge's office is also attested for the first time. In 1443, the Osnabrück bishop Heinrich von Moers granted the place the rights of a wigbold (Halbstadt). Melle belonged to the Westphalian Hanseatic League via the suburb of Osnabrück . Various trades subsequently merged to form guilds in Melle : as the oldest in 1480, the shoemakers; 1545 the forge; 1547 the Kramer, Höcker, bonecutters and cloth makers; 1558 the tailors; 1573 the bakers and 1577 the glaziers, saddlers, painters and dyers. When the administrative order of 1553 brought a new regulation of responsibilities, the Grönenburg became the administrative center. Melle joined the Hanseatic League in the 16th century. Until the fall of the Hanseatic League, Melle was a member here. In 1557, a regional Hanseatic day was even held in Melle. During the Thirty Years' War the Swedes ruled Melle for ten years (between 1633 and 1644). Two major fire disasters in 1649 and 1720 overtook the city, sometimes with considerable damage.

After the abolition of self -Bishopric of Osnabrück by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 Melle was in the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg incorporated and 1806 in the Kingdom of Westphalia . After the Congress of Vienna , the city became part of the Kingdom of Hanover until 1866 . With the award of town charter in 1853, the rights of a wigbold ended. In 1855 the railway line was built, which marked the beginning of an economic boom ( founding years ). After the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1866, the Grönenberg office and with it the city of Melle fell to the Kingdom of Prussia . In 1885 the former Hanoverian offices were dissolved. The Prussian district of Melle was formed from the Grönenberg office and the city of Melle.

During the global economic crisis at the beginning of the 1930s, National Socialism quickly gained ground in the structurally weak, predominantly Protestant district of Melle. The proportion of NSDAP voters in the Reichstag elections rose from 1928 (0.9%), November 1930 (18.4%) in March 1933 to 41.5% in March 1933. Measured by the proportion of NSDAP votes in the Reichstag election From 1933, however, the district of Melle can hardly be described as a haven of 'brown' convictions. At 41.5%, the share of the vote was even below the share of NSDAP voters in the German Reich (43.9%) as well as the share of the NSDAP in the neighboring district of Wittlage (56.9%). In 1945 English troops occupied the city and Bernard Montgomery , Field Marshal and Chief of the Empire General Staff , set up his headquarters in Melle for a while. The city constitution was changed based on the English model. In 1966, Federal President Heinrich Lübke awarded Melle the gold plaque.

In 2006, Melle organized the Lower Saxony Day (TdN). The TdN is a three-day national festival in which the participants present the cultural diversity of the country. It has been carried out since 1981.

religion

Catholic St. Matthew Church (1213)

Ev. St. Peter's Church (1721)

With the establishment of the Osnabrück diocese around 780, ten district or chaplain churches were created in the region between Friesland and the Teutoburg Forest , which were subordinate to the Osnabrück bishop . For the Graingau ("green Gau") this was the church in Melle, initially with the patronage of St. Petrus . It was created on the Meyerhof, which was owned by the bishop. The oldest written mention of the church in Melle, which has been preserved to this day, dates back to 1169. In it it is referred to as Parochia Menele ( Parish Church of Melle). Presumably in the 12th century the church was placed under the patronage of the Apostle Matthew . For protection, a square fortified church made of residential buildings with high storehouses, which can still be seen today, surrounded the church.

After the Reformation , introduced in Melle on August 1, 1545, the St. Matthew Church was used as a simultaneous church by both denominations until the Evangelical Petrikirche was built in 1651. At that time, Jesuits exercised pastoral care in the Catholic parish. With the Recessus Mellensis 1651 the church property was divided. The church with all its valuables as well as the houses of the vicar and the sexton remained with the Catholics. The Protestant St. Petri Church was completely destroyed in the great fire of Mell in 1720 and rebuilt from 1721 to 1724. The then Osnabrück Prince-Bishop Ernst August II of Braunschweig - Lüneburg particularly supported the construction . The master mason and mason Hermann Schmidinger from Herford played a key role in the new building.

Due to the steady growth of the Catholic community, St. Matthew's Church became too small in the 20th century. After a ten-year planning phase, an extension began in the spring of 1973, adjacent to the old south wall. The foundation stone was laid on October 4th of the same year. The result was a modern church in the shape of a tent roof, which met the requirements of the Second Vatican Council .

The Protestant Church has been the largest religious community in Melle since the Reformation.

The Protestant and Catholic communities have maintained an intensive ecumenical dialogue since the 1960s and invite you to joint events.

Denomination statistics

According to the 2011 census , 46.2% of the population in 2011 were predominantly Protestant , 31.1% Roman Catholic and 22.7% were non-denominational , belonged to another religious community or did not provide any information. The number of Protestants and Catholics has fallen since then.

Currently (as of December 31, 2019) of the 48,276 residents, 19,387 (40.2%) are Evangelical Lutheran, 238 (0.5%) Evangelical Reformed, 14,086 (29.2%) Catholic and 14,565 (30.2%) ) have no or any other denomination. A year earlier, 40.9% of the 48,211 inhabitants were Protestant Lutheran, 0.5% Protestant Reformed, 29.6% Catholic and 29.0% had no or any other denomination.

Incorporations

Today's town of Melle emerged from the former district of Melle in two steps :

In 1970 were

the communities of Altenmelle, Bakum, Dielingdorf, Drantum, Eicken-Bruche, Eickholt, Gerden, Laer, Niederschlochtern and Sondermühlen in the city of Melle,
the communities Bennien, Döhren, Groß-Aschen, Hoyel, Krukum, Westendorf and Westhoyel in the community Riemsloh and
the communities Handarpe, Himmern, Kerßenbrock, Oberschlochtern, Nüven, Peingdorf, Uhlenberg and Vessendorf in the community Wellingholzhausen

incorporated.

The municipalities of Riemsloh and Wellingholzhausen and the municipalities of Barkhausen, Buer, Bulsten, Dratum-Ausbergen, Düingdorf, Föckinghausen, Gesmold, Holterdorf, Holzhausen, Hustädte, Insingdorf, Küingdorf, Markendorf, Meesdorf, Neuenkirchen, Niederholsten, which were spared from restructuring in 1970 Oberholsten, Oldendorf, Ostenfelde, Redecke, Schiplage, Sehlingdorf, Suttorf, Tittingdorf, Üdinghausen-Warringhof, Wehringdorf, Wennigsen, Westerhausen and Wetter came to the city of Melle on July 1, 1972.

Population development

The following overview shows the population of the city of Melle since the regional reform on July 1, 1972 in the respective territories and on December 31.

The figures from 1987 onwards are updates by the Lower Saxony State Office for Statistics and Communication Technology on the basis of the census of May 25, 1987 .

The data from 1961 (June 6) and 1970 (May 27) are the census results including the places that were incorporated on July 1, 1972.

Population development in Melle from 1961 to 2017

year	Residents
1961	39,218
1970	40,851
1979	40,757
1987	40,316
1990	41,579
1995	43,818

year	Residents
2000	45,390
2005	46,556
2010	46.141
2015	46,039
2018	46,493

politics

City council

The city council currently has 40 members from four parties or groups. The full-time mayor is also entitled to vote in the city council. In the constituent council meeting on November 9, 2011, SPD council member Siegfried Göhner was elected council chairman. Günter Oberschmidt from the CDU became his deputy. For the legislative period from 2016 to 2021, the council elected its youngest member Malte Stakowski (CDU) as chairman, with Gerhard Bossmann (SPD) acting as deputy.

The following table shows the local election results since 1996:

City Council of Melle: election results and city councils
	CDU		SPD		GREEN		FDP		UWG		LEFT		total		electoral participation
Electoral term	%		%		%		%		%		%		%		%
1996-2001	46.5	19th	35.7	15th	8.9	3	9.0	3					100	40	69.5
2001-2006	46.2	19th	35.8	15th	8.9	3	9.0	3					100	40	61.5
2006-2011	44.9	18th	37.3	15th	9.3	4th	8.6	3					100	40	57.9
2011-2016	40.0	16	37.5	15th	18.30	7th	4.2	2					100	40	55.3
2016-2021	42.7	17th	28.8	12	13.65	5	6.0	2	7.6	3	1.4	1	100	40	58.3
Percentages rounded. Sources: State Office for Statistics and Communication Technology Lower Saxony, District Osnabrück. In the case of different information in the sources mentioned, the data from the State Office for Statistics and Communication Technology were used, as they are generally more plausible.

Further election results

Further election results for the city of Melle: Share of voters since 2003
						Others	electoral participation
Electoral term	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
State election 2003	52.7%	29.7%	07.6%	08.1%	0.3%	1.6%	71.6%
2004 European elections	51.2%	25.8%	11.3%	05.6%	1.2%	4.9%	46.5%
Bundestag election 2005	36.8%	39.0%	08.5%	10.4%	3.5%	1.9%	82.7%
State election 2008	47.3%	28.2%	08.6%	08.2%	5.0%	2.6%	62.6%
European elections 2009	44.8%	24.7%	12.3%	10.3%	3.1%	3.6%	46.6%
Bundestag election 2009	35.3%	28.1%	11.8%	14.0%	6.9%	3.8%	77.1%
Percentages rounded. Sources: Documents from the district of Osnabrück Results of the Bundestag elections are results of second votes.

mayor

Reinhard Scholz (CDU) has been mayor since 2014, succeeding André Berghegger (CDU).

Coat of arms, flag and banner

Banner, coat of arms and flag

Blazon : "The coat of arms of the city of Melle shows a four-spoke red wheel with an inclined spoke position on a silver shield." The oldest known seal from 1532 served as the basis for the design of today's coat of arms. The wheel is interpreted as “God's chariot” (currus dei), a sign of the Church and the Gospel. The flag of the city of Melle shows as a hoisted flag from top to bottom and as a banner from left to right the colors of the flag "white-blue-red" and the city coat of arms. The colors and the coat of arms of the previous joint municipalities can also be shown in the respective districts on suitable occasions.

Seal with Meller coat of arms (1532)

The Melle four-spoke wheel can be found in the vaulted capstone of the first yoke in the main nave of St. Matthew's Church. When it was first used is not documented. It is believed to have originated around 200 years after the Osnabrück bishop's coat of arms, the standing six-spoke wheel from 1321. It was initially a sign of the connection between the Meller Church and the Cathedral Church in Osnabrück and subsequently passed on to the city. During the city fire of 1649, the official seal of Melle was also burned. During the new production, a shield was added as a frame to the previously simple wheel. In 1720 the town hall seal burned again along with the town hall. Mayor Friedrich Joachim von Varendorff had the number 1720 inserted in the renovation. Later, the seal was framed with magnificent acanthus leaves . A standing four-spoke wheel can be seen on a stone tablet that was originally attached to the town hall wall. To commemorate both of the destroyed town halls, it was walled in in 1733 above the entrance to the third town hall. The current official form of the coat of arms was determined by a ministerial decree in 1939. In order to avoid a cross shape, the spoke position from 1532 was reused.

City partnerships and sponsorships

By continuously cultivating the relationships between the twin cities, Melle would like to make a contribution to peace in the world and a stronger integration of Europe. Numerous cultural and personal contacts have been made since the 1960s. Political support was expressed until 1996 through the “Partnership” working group. Since then, the relations have been accompanied by the Culture-Tourism Committee.

Bad Durrenberg

On the occasion of the fountain festival in Bad Dürrenberg , a partnership certificate was signed on June 29, 1991. In this way, both cities want to make a contribution to German unity. The partner cities maintain contacts between clubs and institutions on a sporting, cultural, musical and church level.

Berlin-Reinickendorf

The initial event of the connection to the Berlin district of Reinickendorf is based on a quiz program. At the beginning of the 1960s, Melle was a guest on Hans Rosenthal's program “One against all”. The proceeds were used to enable Berlin seniors to stay in Grönegau. The visits subsequently led to a friendly relationship. Today the contacts are mainly based on the areas of school, sport, culture and tourism. A partnership charter was signed on May 7, 1988.

Cires-lès-Mello

Melle- Bruchmühlen has a partnership with Cires-lès-Mello in the Oise department in France. The partnership charter was signed on May 27, 1990. Schoolchildren, numerous associations and the settler community are now participating in this connection, which focuses on the interpersonal area.

Jekabpils

In 1993, a resident of the Melle-Wetter district brought the request of the mayor of the city of Jēkabpils (Jacobstadt) in Latvia to form partnerships with the city of Melle in the fields of sport, culture and war grave care. A German-Baltic Circle of Friends (DBF) was founded on December 17, 1994 with the main aim of reviving the historical relationships with the Baltic countries that were rooted in the Hanseatic era. A first trip to Lithuania and Latvia took place in June 1996. After a counterpart to the DBF in Melle had also been founded in Jekabpils, the friendship certificate between the two cities was signed on September 5, 1998, on the occasion of the Blossom and Costume Festival in Melle.

Rainforest

After the regional reform in 1972, the city of Melle took over the existing sponsorship of the Melle district for the Regenwalde district in Poland . The traditional "Regenwald Meeting" takes place in Melle every two years. The events are also attended by residents of the former Pomeranian district of Regenwalde, who come to Melle from all parts of the Federal Republic of Germany and neighboring countries to bring back memories of their homeland. A Regenwald Heimatstube was set up in the old post office in Melle.

Melle in France

The partnership with Melle (Deux-Sèvres) in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region , which has existed since 1969, is supported in particular by the high schools in both cities. A school exchange takes place every year, with the school groups from Melle in France being officially welcomed in the town hall. Numerous contacts are retained even after attending school.

New Melle (USA)

In the 19th century, emigrants from the Melle area found a new home in the state of Missouri in the USA , to which they named New Melle . Some family connections were retained and a German-American circle of friends was founded to maintain contact. A friendship certificate was signed on June 16, 1988.

Niğde (Turkey)

The German-Turkish working group is decisive for the friendly contacts with Niğde in Turkey . During the autumn break of 1991, a Meller tour group visited Niğde. The trip was carried out by the DTAK as a study trip to get to know everyday life in a Turkish provincial capital. The city of Melle's advisory council for foreigners then recommended the establishment of a town twinning, which was sealed with a friendship certificate on August 31, 1996. The Turkish Consulate General in Hanover officially confirmed a school partnership between the grammar schools in both cities on May 30, 1994.

St. Denijs-Westrem (Ghent)

The partnership with Sint-Denijs-Westrem , now part of Ghent in Belgium , is primarily characterized by personal contacts between the citizens of both cities. In addition to the official encounters, various music groups, schools, sports clubs, the Melle City Youth Association, the workers' welfare and home and beautification associations contribute to a regular exchange. The partnership charter was signed on January 10, 1969. Since St. Denijs-Westrem became part of the city of Ghent, it has supported and ultimately taken over the partnership.

Torzhok (Russia)

On the occasion of the flower and costume festival on September 6, 1994, the partnership document on the town twinning with the town of Torzhok in central Russia was signed . In the certificate, both of them declare their willingness to come to an understanding and to deepen Eastern European relations. Since March 1991, regular food transports have been carried out to Torzhok. The contacts between the hospitals in both cities enabled Torzhok to be supplied with medicines and medical equipment. Melle donated an ambulance financed by donations for his twin town.

Four villages partnership

The Melle district of Eicken-Bruche has been connected to the "oak villages" of Eke (municipality of Nazareth) in Belgium, Eecke ( arrondissement Dunkerque ) in France and Eiken ( canton Aargau ) in Switzerland since 1965 . These villages meet every two years for the four-village meeting alternately in the respective partner communities. A partnership charter was signed in June 1993.

Röckwitz

Melle- Wellingholzhausen maintains a partnership with Röckwitz in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

Melle in Belgium

The city has had a partnership with Melle near Ghent in Belgium since October 2014 .

Culture and sights

theatre

The Waldbühne Melle is an open-air stage in an old quarry on the Meller Berg (Wiehengebirge), founded in 1950. On the night of May 6th, 2007, a large part of the stage and the set was destroyed by an arson attack. After the renovation work that was then carried out, the Waldbühne is again open to a large audience.

The Kulturring Melle organizes regular theater performances in the “Städtisches Festsaal” on Schürenkamp. The Kulturwerkstatt Melle Buer organizes performances with various actors and amateur theater associations take place in the districts of Gesmold, Sondermühlen (Low German in January) and Wellingholzhausen as well as Westerhausen (by the amateur actors of the choral society).

In 2007 the Phoenix theater gang was founded as a touring theater with venues mainly in the Osnabrück region. The theater group is based in Melle.

Museums

Melle car museum

The Melle car museum is not far from the Melle train station. In the listed halls, almost 3000 m² of space is available on three floors, of which two floors are used as exhibition space and one floor as a fundus. It shows visitors around 300 vehicles from various eras as loans that change constantly. The car museum was founded in Ibbenbüren in 1984 . In 1997 it moved to the premises of the former Melchersmann furniture factory on Pestelstrasse in Melle. More than 2000 different historical vehicles have been presented so far.

Grönegau Museum

The Grönegau Museum is a local history museum. It extends over four historical buildings, a sizable ensemble of half-timbered houses typical of the region. The oldest of these is the warehouse built in 1527. On June 18, 1914, the then newly elected mayor Meyer zum Gottesberge suggested collecting historical objects for the purpose of founding a museum. Due to the First World War , the concern was only implemented by the Heimatverein in 1919. The collected exhibits were initially stored in the town hall cellar. In 1936, the first museum was built in the house of Bailiff Stork on Haferstrasse, which was acquired by the city. In 1940 the city council decided to found a museum courtyard in Grönenbergpark. To this end, a building from 1777 was acquired. The re-establishment in 1960 goes back to the work of the cultural historian Maria Heilmann. The museum deals with the rural and craft tradition of Grönegau and the old district of Melle . You can see exhibits such as: crockery, furniture, farm equipment, clothing as well as a fully equipped blacksmith shop and a carpentry workshop . The museum is centrally located in Grönenbergpark in Melle.

Tractor and agricultural machinery museum

The tractor and agricultural machinery museum in Buer-Meesdorf shows historical tractors and other old agricultural machines. It is open to visitors on the first Sunday of each month.

Buildings

Secular buildings

The town hall in Melle-Mitte

Meller Town Hall

The seat of administration is the town hall on the market square near the Catholic and Protestant Church. The jewel of the house is the conference room with large lead-glazed stained glass windows on which, in addition to coats of arms and rich ornaments, a saying was incorporated: The well-being of the community - the highest law . Erected in 1910 as a representative building, individual sections were relocated to new buildings on Gesmolder Straße, Grönenberger Straße and Schürenkamp in the 1960s and 70s. The oldest town hall was destroyed by fire in 1649. In the year of the great Mell town fire in 1720, the second town hall also fell victim to the flames. The third town hall, built in a simple, functional construction in 1733, was demolished in 1908 to make room for the present day.

The town hall tower looks graceful next to the towers of the two churches. For the citizens, however, it is important. It houses a carillon that plays a chorale every morning at 8:00 a.m., a folk song at noon at 12:00 p.m. and an evening song at 6:00 p.m. The carillon was donated by John Kruse, a citizen of Melle who emigrated to America. It rang for the first time on the fourth Advent in 1924. During the Second World War the bells had to be turned off. They were melted down for war purposes. In 1951, a fundraising campaign enabled new bells to be purchased.

The old post office on Haferstrasse

Old post office

The former Meller post office was built in 1644 as a community center. It was one of the few houses to survive the great fire of 1720. In the 18th and 19th centuries the building served as a post office and was owned by the Meyer family. From around 1750 on there was regular mail traffic for people and goods to Osnabrück and Bielefeld. About 20 to 25 horses were available for a change in the post office. Guests passing through could get quarters here for the night. The building was later used as a commercial building called Haus Prior . In 1987/88 it was restored by the city of Melle and renamed the Alte Posthalterei . Today public events such as vernissages take place here. The Regenwalder Heimatstube documents the bond with the twin town Regenwalde.

Gesmold Castle

Main building of Gesmold Castle

Around the year 1000 Franconians built a Meyerhof on the old west-eastern military road along the Wiehengebirge , which was used to supervise and protect the roads from Osnabrück via Gesmold and Melle to Herford. The settlement was named "Gesmelle", loosely translated as "Hof vor Melle". The oldest document dates from 1160. With it, Bernhard von Gesmel received the right to build a castle from the Osnabrück bishop to ward off dangers . In the swamp area on the Else, a residential and defense tower was built on oak trunks and secured with wide trenches. The castle was built in the 13th century and was expanded between 1544 and 1559. The palace complex had two outer castles and was surrounded by three moats. A drawbridge led over each of these to the main building. In the Baroque period , a French garden with a flight of stairs and an orangery was created . The garden and park were later redesigned in the English style . Below are the Droste or barons at Schloss Gesmold:

from about 1100 to 1400 the lords of Gesmel; from 1400 to 1540 the Lords of the Bussche ; from 1540 to 1608 the Droste von Amelunxen ; from 1608 to 1664 the bishops of Osnabrück, including Cardinal Franz Wilhelm Reichsgraf von Wartenberg ; since 1664 until today the barons of Hammerstein .

The Ostenwalde estate

Ostwalde estate

The Ostenwalde estate is a castle complex between the districts of Oldendorf and Buer. The first written mention comes from the year 1343. At that time, the owners were already the von Vincke family . The estate consists of a three-wing mansion. The construction phases date from 1698, 1780 and 1908. There is also an oil mill from 1681 on the site. At the entrance on the street there is a fountain with a ram's head spouting water. After the Second World War, Ostenwalde was the headquarters of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery for several years . Today, vernissages are held regularly on the grounds of the old orangery.

Diedrichsburg

The Diedrichsburg

The Diedrichsburg is a hilltop castle in the neo-Gothic / neo-Romanesque style as an imitation of a medieval defense tower . It was built on the ridge of the Meller Berg. The castle is located in the middle of the more than 200 hectare Diedrichsburg wildlife park with numerous wild boars and roe deer . It was created in the course of historicism and castle romanticism in the years 1844 to 1860 on behalf of General Ernst Freiherr von Vincke. The von Vincke family has a seat on the nearby Ostenwalde estate. The construction was completed under Ernst von Vincke's son-in-law, Count Werner von der Schulenburg-Wolfsburg. The builder was the royal Hanoverian building councilor Emanuel Quaet-Faslem .

More Attractions

Good special mills

Justus Möser's daughter Jenny von Voigts , a pen friend of Goethe from 1768 to 1796, lived in the house in front of Melle .
The Gut Bruche Palace complex is located east of the city center.
Gut Rabingen is a mansion near Grönenbergpark in downtown Mell.
The Sondermühlen estate , surrounded by a pond, is located east of the Sondermühlen district.
The Warmenau estate is a former manor in the Schiplage-St. Annen , right on the border between Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia .
The Koenigsbrueck Castle , in the district of New churches, is built as a three-storey former Wasserburg a four-winged building in the style of the Weser Renaissance , which was surrounded by a double grave system.
The Hoyeler Mühle is an old windmill in West Hoyel.
A historic lime kiln is located on the Westerhausen mountain. It was renovated in 1996.

Good fractions
Gatehouse of the Warmenau estate
Koenigsbrück Castle
Windmill in Westhoyel
Old lime kiln in Westerhausen

Church building

The St. Matthew Church (Roman Catholic) in Melle-Mitte is endowed with the martyrdom of St. Matthew . The painting, which the canon in Osnabrück and Minden and provost to St. Johann in Osnabrück, Theodor Heinrich von Nehem, donated in 1681, was probably painted on his behalf by Andrea Alovisii , who came from Italy and who worked as court painter for almost 20 years Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück, Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg , stood. The historically valuable baroque organ (1713) by Hinrich Klausing was restored in 2008/09 by the Ahrend organ building company .
The St. Petri Church (Evangelical Lutheran) in Melle-Mitte dates from 1721. The baroque altar by Ernst Dietrich Bartels was created in 1723. The historically valuable baroque organ by Christian Vater , built in 1724, was restored in 2000 by the Edskes organ builder . The gallery parapet bears the coat of arms of the Grönegau noble families.
The St. Petrus Church (Roman Catholic) in Gesmold was built in 1835 by Bruno Emanuel Quaet-Faslem . The Roman pantheon served as a model.
The Marienkirche (Evangelical-Lutheran) in Oldendorf has a winged altar from 1520 that is well worth seeing. The pulpit dates from 1644.
The St. Martini Church (Evangelical Lutheran) in Buer was built in 1855. The ceiling of the chancel is modeled on a canopy of stars. There is a romantic organ instrument on the gallery.
The St. John's Church (Roman Catholic) in Riemsloh was built in 1462. In addition to a baroque high altar, it has a late Gothic sacrament house from 1500 and a bronze bell cast in 1522. The two-manual organ dates from the Romantic era and was renovated in 1980.
The St. Antonius Church in Hoyel (Evangelical Lutheran) has a pulpit from 1583 and a late classicist altar from 1843.
The Groß-Aschen chapel (Evangelical-Lutheran) dates from 1697. There is a late Gothic altar shrine in the chancel.
The St. Anna Church (Roman Catholic) in Schiplage-St. Annen is with a pulpit and choir stalls from the late Renaissance. The walls and ceilings are decorated with rich paintings. The baptismal font was donated by the zu Nehem family to Gut Sondermühlen in 1666. In 1982 she received a new organ from Orgelbau Kreienbrink from Osnabrück. The organ prospectus was adapted to the historical church furnishings.
The Christophorus Church (Evangelical Lutheran) is located in the center of the Neuenkirchen district .
The St. Marien Church (Roman Catholic) in Sondermühlen dates from the 19th century. In addition to the original inventory, it has a romantic organ that was renovated by the organ builder Franz Breil in the mid-1980s . The upper part of the church tower and the roof were extensively renovated in 2012/13.
The St. Bartholomew Church (Roman Catholic), also popularly known as the Grönenberg Cathedral , is located in the Wellingholzhausen district.

St. Bartholomew Church, Wellingholzhausen
St. Martini Church, Buer
St. Antonius Church, Hoyel
Christophorus Church, Neuenkirchen
St. Petrus Church, Gesmold

Melle observatory

Observation towers

There are various observation towers in the area of the city of Melle: on the Ottoshöhe on the southern slope of the Meller Mountains, the 28.5 meter high, roofed, wooden observation tower Ottoshöhe ; on the summit of the Beutling in Wellingholzhausen a 30 meter high tower; on the Friedenshöhe in Buer a 28.6 meter high wooden tower and on the Meller Berg in the Diedrichsburg wildlife park the Diedrichsburg with a viewing platform on the 26 meter high castle tower.

Observatories

In the vicinity of Melle there are two observatories that regularly offer public tours. The EXPO observatory in Melle-Oberholsten operates the largest Newtonian telescope that is used for public observation.

Parks

Parks are the Grönenbergpark, the Kurpark and the Friedenspark in Melle, the Bürgerpark in Wellingholzhausen, the Park of the Generations in Neuenkirchen and the environmental education location Bifurkation in Gesmold.

Natural monuments

Natural monuments are:

"Hase spring area" near Melle-Wellingholzhausen with the Hase spring, Alma spring and the roe spring
“ Bifurcation of Hase and Else” at Melle-Gesmold with the environmental education location.
"Richtlinde Altenmelle" (also "Dicke Linde" or "Femelinde") on the outskirts of Altenmelle in the direction of Melle. The 400–500 year old court linden tree, designated as a local natural monument , represents a historical court place where court days were held in the open air from the Middle Ages to modern times .

"Upmeyers oak" near Wehringdorf with a chest height circumference of 7.50 m (2014).

Grönenbergpark (from the south)
Grönenbergpark (from the north)
Hasequelle in the Wellingholzhausen district
The bifurcations of the rabbit on the left and Else on the right
The Else in the Bruchmühlen district

Regular events

The shooting festival in Wellingholzhausen in June is the largest shooting festival in Grönegau and one of the largest in the Osnabrück district. It is connected with a big Ulk parade, similar to the Rose Monday parades in the Rhineland. The festival attracts several thousand visitors every year.

The barn parties of the local rural youth take place from April to September and every two years the kite festival is held at the Melle-Grönegau airfield with national and international kite masters.

Every year, three large trade shows are held in the city : The assets in Wellingholzhausen (industrial area and town center), as well as trade shows in the Gerden and Bakum industrial areas.

Every year on the second weekend in September in the Altenmelle district, the harvest festival and folk festival , which is well known beyond the borders of Grönegau, takes place. It is organized alternately by the Altenmelle volunteer fire brigade and the “Liedertafel” men's choir.

St. Petri Church with the logo “Fabelhaftes Melle” 2016

Illuminated spa park for the "Fabulous Melle" 2013

The Gesmold fair in September is the largest festival in Grönegau. It takes place on the 3rd weekend in September at the parish festival of St. Petrus Church and on the following Monday. In 2010 the fair celebrated its 500th anniversary. There was also a fourth day of the fair on Friday. The Wellingholzhausen fair is in July every year.

Other regular events are the Bifurcation Day , the Buer Markt, the Geranienmarkt in Melle, the Bürgerparkfest in Wellingholzhausen, the autumn festival in Bruchmühlen every year on October 3rd, always together with the Bruchmühlen district of the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Rödinghausen , and the "Burstien" in June as gatherings of the citizens, which have been preserved in the Gesmold district from the tradition of the farmers , as well as the 24-hour swimming in the outdoor pool of Wellingholzhausen.

Fabelhaftes Melle has been taking place in October / November since 2003 . Various buildings and the spa gardens are illuminated in color in the city center. The Christmas markets take place annually in Advent in Melle-Mitte (around St. Matthew's Church and the town hall) and in the districts of Gesmold, Wellingholzhausen, Neuenkirchen and Buer.

Culinary specialties

Gesmolder Pickert is a specialty of the local cuisine . It is prepared as a box pick . It is baked in a box cake pan similar to bread, cut into slices after cooling and fried in a pan with hot fat.

Economy and Infrastructure

Aerial view of Melle-Mitte

A major economic factor in the city of Melle is wood and metal processing. There are other branches in the food, rubber and plastic processing. In recent years, Melle has also increasingly developed into a logistics location along the A 30.

Resident companies (selection)

Starcke-Melle around 1900

One of the oldest Mell plants is the Carl Starcke-Melle company . The company had the match monopoly. Ink and shoe polish were also made. Today the company specializes in the manufacture of abrasives.

The company Spartherm Feuerungstechnik GmbH is one of the largest employers in the region and manufactures around 50,000 units of wood-burning stoves, fireplace cassettes and fireplace inserts in Melle. It was founded by Gerhard Manfred Rokossa in 1986 and, as a recognized brand manufacturer, is now one of the market leaders in its branch.

The Tetra GmbH is a subsidiary of Spectrum Brands Group and is one of the world's leading manufacturers of aquaristischem accessories. It was founded in 1949 by Ulrich Baensch in Melle.

In the Gesmold district you will find the A 30 DPD , formerly “Deutscher Paket Dienst”, with its largest transshipment warehouse in Europe.

The Schomäcker-Federnwerk plant has its headquarters in the Altenmelle district. On an area of 40,500 square meters, it produces 3,000 different spring models. Around 20,000 tons of high-quality steel are processed every year. The company was founded in 1880 as a wagon spring factory.

The company Burton GmbH Melle had its headquarters in the Buer district . It was founded in 1887 as a family company and was initially called "Schieltonwerke Buer" and became the global market leader in the field of fine and coarse ceramics for refractory systems for ceramic furnace construction. The company had to file for bankruptcy in July 2013 and was taken over by the Refratechnik Group from Ismaning near Munich in August 2013 .

Steam generator from the Kruse Melle furniture factory

The company Assmann office furniture located in the district Westerhausen. Heinrich Assmann founded the company in 1939 when he took over a joinery. The company now has 300 employees and has specialized in the manufacture of high-quality office furniture.

The Josef lever GmbH a company of divisions construction and civil engineering, civil engineering, road construction, structural engineering, sewer and water has its headquarters in Melle. There are branches in southern Germany and Hungary. A specialty of the company is the invention of the Hebel aerated concrete .

The company ProjectWizards GmbH has headquarters in Melle. The company creates and sells software (especially for Mac OS X and iOS) in the field of project management .

The company Melos-Gummiwerke was founded in the 1930s . The company's headquarters were in Melle with a branch in Osnabrück. In the 1970s the company premises were expanded to produce compounds for the cable industry and EPDM granules for floor coverings. In 2000 the plant merged with the MA Hanna and Geon group (Cleveland, Ohio) to form the PolyOne group Melos GmbH. Melos became independent again in 2004.

The Westland rubber plants were founded in 1920 by Ernst to Nedden. First of all, molded rubber items such as shoe heels were produced. In 1941 the production expanded to include articles for the two-wheeler industry and in 1959 for the sports industry. Today the company has numerous branches and license cooperations all over the world.

The company Neuero Industrie- und Fördertechnik is located near the train station . The company initially began manufacturing agricultural machinery.

In 1976 the Ruwac industrial vacuum cleaner company was founded. Today it has branches all over the world and is one of the market leaders in the planning, construction and construction of industrial vacuum cleaners and extraction systems.

The Heitling-Fahrzeugbau company is located on Wellingholzhauser Strasse . The company produces silo, tipping vehicles, semi-trailers and trailers on a factory area of 9,000 square meters. It is a partner to the mineral, animal feed and wood pellet industries.

The company Huning-Maschinenbau is active in the field of environmental technology / biogas and sheet metal processing.

The Solarlux GmbH is a world leader in the production of glass folding walls and work at headquarters in Melle around 700 people.

Meller Kreisblatt, formerly the house in front of Melle

media

Meller Kreisblatt , appears as the regional daily newspaper of the " Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung " (NOZ). For a long time, the editorial and printing works were located in Meller Haferstrasse opposite the Alte Posthalterei . Today the seat of the Kreisblatt is on the site of the so-called Haus vor Melle , which was north of the center in front of the former city gate. The house in front of Melle was used by local Protestants for church services after the town fire of 1720. Justus Möser's daughter Jenny von Voigts , a pen friend of Goethe, lived there from 1768 to 1796. The original building was rebuilt in the early 19th century.
melle.tv , is an online portal for locally relevant TV magazines as well as articles for Melle and the surrounding area. melle.tv is a product of the multimedia agency Melle.
Melle Stadt Journal , magazine for society, culture and life. It appears every other month and is available in print and online. Current, local, as well as informative and entertaining topics are edited editorially. Melle Stadt Journal is a product of the multimedia agency Melle.
Melle history , reports regionally from Melle on the Internet on historical topics, sights (with photos), opening times of various facilities, natural monuments etc.
QUARTAL , magazine for politics, society, culture, life & lifestyle in Grönegau. The editorial office is located in the historic Kirchhofsburg in Melle-Buer.
Grönegau Rundschau , the newspaper reports fortnightly on regional topics and events.

traffic

Road traffic

Motorway (A 30) at the Melle-West exit

Melle is connected to the trunk road network via the federal motorway A 30 , which crosses the city in a west-east direction. Coming from the west, the first exit is Gesmold, followed by the Melle West, Melle Ost and Riemsloh exits before the motorway leaves the city. The next exit Bruchmühlen does not refer to the Bruchmühlen district of Mell, but to the Rödinghausen district of the same name.

Rail transport

The station Melle is located on the Löhne-Rheine railway . It is served every two hours by the RE 60 "Ems-Leine-Express" Rheine - Osnabrück - Minden - Hanover - Braunschweig and every hour by the RB 61 "Wiehengebirgsbahn" Hengelo (NL) - Bad Bentheim - Osnabrück - Herford - Bielefeld , and every day used by around 1,300 passengers. Other stops on the RB 61 in the city are Bruchmühlen and Westerhausen .

The Lower Saxony tariff applies on regional trains , and the flat-rate offers of the NRW tariff can also be used. Providers of local rail passenger transport are the Westfalenbahn (Melle station only, Regional Express ) and, since December 2017, the Eurobahn, which stops at all three stations.

Bus transport

Melle ZOB bus station

The urban area is accessed by a star-shaped bus network. The operator of the lines in and around Melle is Conrad Schrage Reisen GmbH & Co. KG . A regional bus line connects Melle with Bissendorf and Osnabrück every hour . The bus meeting point is the ZOB near the city center, around 800 m from the train station. A bus line sometimes serves the train station directly, otherwise a bus stop around 200 m away. The city has a night bus network with six lines. The Osnabrück Transport Association (VOS) tariff applies to bus services in the Osnabrück district .

Buses continue to run from the Neuenkirchen district to the nearby city of Bielefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Air traffic

Melle-Grönegau airfield

The Meller Airfield is a former military airfield and now as a special airfield classified. It is located about 1.5 kilometers east of the city center. Gliders and single- and twin-engine powered aircraft take off and land here. The airfield has a 750 meter long asphalt runway and also has a 1.1 kilometer long grass runway, four halls, including two round halls, a tower and a clubhouse as well as a commercial aircraft yard (ATC), which deals with service and development employed by aviation equipment of general aviation . The Aero-Club Bünde e. V. and the SFC Melle e. V. with a total of over 400 members use the site together.

The British Air Force of Occupation used the area, which was designated by the Allies as Airfield B.115 , as a base after the end of World War II, in particular Field Marshal Montgomery's personal plane .

Münster / Osnabrück Airport

The Münster / Osnabrück Airport is an international passenger airport . It is located in North Rhine-Westphalia , about 60 km from Melle and 30 km from Osnabrück in the area of the city of Greven . It is from Melle via the A 30 to the Lotte / Osnabrück junction and further south via the federal motorway 1 , junction 74 ( Ladbergen ), junction 76 (Greven), the federal highway 475 and the direct motorway junction no.75, Münster Airport. Osnabrück can be reached from the motorway. It can also be reached with the X15 airport bus via Osnabrück.

Hiking trails

There are several kilometers of local and regional hiking trails in the Meller urban area, such as the approximately 90 km long Ahornweg.

The cycling network is also well developed. Larger long -distance cycle routes are the Hase-Ems-Radweg (265 km) and the Else-Werre-Radweg (54.5 km).

Public facilities

Encounters and leisure activities

Forum Melle (town hall)
Ballroom Melle (theater)
City library
House of the guest Wellingholzhausen
Heimathaus Gesmold
Youth and cultural center "Altes Stahlwerk"
Buer cultural center
Outdoor and indoor pools: Melle wave pool, Melle indoor pool, Wellingholzhausen heated outdoor pool, Riemsloh heated outdoor pool, Oldendorf outdoor pool, Neuenkirchen outdoor pool

Foundations

Sparkasse Melle

Foundation "Human Adventure" of the DRK Kreisverband Melle e. V.
Foundation “community foundation” of the Kreissparkasse Melle.

Emergency services and fire brigade

In the urban area of Melle there are 16 fire brigade bases (Altenmelle, Bakum, Buer, Hoyel, Riemsloh, Groß-Aschen, Bruchmühlen, St. Annen, Neuenkirchen, Wellingholzhausen, Gesmold, Oldendorf, Niederholsten, Markendorf, Tittingdorf and Melle-Mitte) and two plant fire departments of the Schomäcker Federnwerk (Altenmelle) and Westland Gummiwerke and Assmann Büromöbel (Westerhausen).

There are also five German Red Cross (DRK) locations, from which five more ambulances and one ambulance can be deployed by volunteers. There is also a local branch of the Technical Relief Organization (THW) in Melle.

In addition, in the rescue station of the "Rescue Service and Ambulance Transport in the District of Osnabrück e. V. “three ambulances and one ambulance vehicle .

Clinic

In 1894 the first hospital, the Evangelical Hospital Melle, was built in Melle under the sponsorship of the Evangelical Lutheran parish in Melle. The founder was Pastor Tiemann. In 1930 this house was expanded to include surgery and an operating room. In 1958 the isolation ward with 18 beds was built. In 1968 a six-story extension was inaugurated. Medical care was provided by general practitioners until 1945. After the Second World War, a chief physician for the surgical department and another chief physician for the internal department took over the management of the house. Three schools for training the next generation of nurses, the nursing preschool, the nursing school and the nursing assistant school were connected. In the old building that became vacant after the construction of the new house, a geriatric department was set up.

In 1896, the Dean of Transylvania founded the Catholic St. Matthew Foundation . It was sponsored by the Catholic parish. Sisters of the monastery of the Thuiner Franciscan Sisters took care of the sick . Up until the end of the Second World War, medical care was provided exclusively by general practitioners. After 1945 the purely private hospital became an institutional hospital with full-time specialist doctors. A dormitory with 42 places was built for sisters.

Both houses were independent until 1999. On October 1, 1999, as part of a restructuring process, both facilities were transferred to the legal entity Christliches Gesundheits- und Pflegezentrum GmbH , in which the foundations of the Protestant and Catholic parishes have an equal share. In a second step, the merger to form the Christian Clinic Melle took place on December 1st, 2003 . Since January 1st, 2009 the clinic has belonged to the Niels-Stensen-Kliniken .

education

In the urban area there are eleven primary schools, five secondary schools with two branch offices, three secondary schools with one branch, a grammar school, a vocational school, a free Waldorf school, a comprehensive school, a special school, a school for educational assistance, and the Melle Holztechnik vocational academy.

Sports

There were already several sports clubs in Melle before the 1930s: TV Melle , Meller TB , SV Melle . In 1935 they merged to form the VfL 1887 sports club . In January 1946, TuS Grönenberg Melle and TuS Einigkeit Melle were two new sports clubs in the city. TuS Melle renamed itself to TuRa Grönenberg Melle in the course of the year .

In 1956 TuRa Grönenberg Melle was one of the founding members of the Lower Saxony amateur league . In the second year of membership in the league, he was promoted to the Lower Saxony amateur league . In 1963 TuRa Grönenberg Melle qualified for the newly created association league and stayed in the league until the third-class Oberliga Nord was introduced in 1974. By 1973, the first team had a prominent coach with the ex-national player Horst Szymaniak .

Since TuRa Grönenberg Melle was mainly devoted to popular sports, the soccer team did not manage to return to the higher-class league area. In March 2003 the club merged with local rivals TuS Melle to form SC Melle 03 . The association offers next to the football department as badminton , ballet and modern dance , basketball , football , handball , martial arts / martial arts , athletics , orienteering and outdoor sports , cycling , rehabilitation sports , chess , swimming , sports badges , dance , table tennis , gymnastics , and volleyball on.

Personalities

A number of personalities are associated with the city of Melle. Melle is the birthplace or place of work of well-known journalists, musicians, writers, athletes and theologians. Melle is also the birthplace of politicians and economists. In addition to people who resisted National Socialism on the one hand, there are also supporters and beneficiaries of this epoch on the other.

Panoramas

and display information about the image

Panoramic view from the Meller Mountains to the south of Melle and the Teutoburg Forest, copper engraving around 1700 before the city fire

and display information about the image

Panoramic view from the Meller Mountains to the southwest of the Oldendorf district

and display information about the image

Panorama of the Grüner See nature park

literature

Maria Heilmann: History of the St. Matthew parish in Melle. Represented according to documents and registers . Phil. Diss., Münster 1938.
District of Melle (ed.): The Grönegau in the past and present. Home register of the district of Melle . Fromm, Osnabrück 1968.
Edgar Schroeder (Ed.): Melle in eight centuries . Ernst Knoth, Melle 1969.
William and Ulrike Sheldon: In the spirit of sensitivity. Friendship letters from Möser's daughter Jenny von Voigts. Heimatverein Melle and the Association for History and Regional Studies Osnabrück (ed.), Wenner, Osnabrück 1971.
Günter Wrede: Historical index of the former prince-bishopric of Osnabrück . Volume 1–2 and register, Osnabrück 2002, reprint from 1975, ISBN 3-87898-383-2 .
Paul Burhoff: St. Matthew Melle. From the life of a parish . Verlag Sutmöller / Scholten, Melle 1983.
Maria Otte, Fritz-Gerd Mittelstädt , Werner Nagel. Kreissparkasse Melle (ed.): Encounters in Grönegau . Melle 1985, p. 46.
Wilhelm Knigge: Meller history - retrospectives . Verlag Sutmöller / Scholten, Melle 2002, ISBN 978-3-9807651-4-5 .
City of Melle (ed.): Figures, data, facts, citizen information . Melle 2011.
Fritz-Gerd Mittelstädt: Building and Message (s). The St. Petri Church in Melle . Melle 2019.
Thomas Grove: National Socialism in Meller before 1933. Melle 2020

Font series

Heimatverein Melle (Hrsg.): Grönenberger Heimathefte . 27 issues since 1957.
Hartmut Wippermann (Ed.): Melle. Pictures from the past (6 volumes). Publishing house Fromm, Osnabrück 1983-2007.
Fritz-Gerd Mittelstädt (Ed.): Meller Yearbook . 38 issues continuously since 1983.

Case studies on Melle's Nazi past

Herbert F. Bäumer: A fateful relationship in 1941/42 and the dire consequences. Melle: The Grönegau. Meller Yearbook 2013. Vol. 31, Ed. Fritz-Gerd Mittelstädt.

Thomas Grove: Forced labor and prisoner of war camp in the district of Melle. Melle: The Grönegau. Meller Yearbook 2013. Vol. 31, Ed. Fritz-Gerd Mittelstädt.

Thomas Grove: National Socialism in Melle before 1933: Organization, personnel, practice and attractiveness of the NSDAP in a small town in Lower Saxony. Melle: Heimatverein Melle ev, 2020, 111 pp., ISBN 978-3-00-06564-5

Stadt-Melle: memories of a dark chapter in Melle's history . www.melle.info, November 24, 2012.

Uwe Plaß: A Mell district administrator with a dubious career . Meller Kreisblatt , May 3, 2018. Heimatverein-Melle, "From old newspaper volumes", Meller Kreisblatt dated February 24, 2011.

Uwe Plaß: Woman as owner at that time was atypical: The Aberbach fashion house - fate of a Jewish family. Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (noz), Osnabrück February 8, 2019.

Uwe Plaß: Numerous Mellers lined up his funeral procession - The Meller lawyer Avenarius: actor, rifleman, Nazi . Meller Kreisblatt, Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ) , Osnabrück June 5, 2020.

Web links

Commons : Melle - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikivoyage: Melle - travel guide

Wikisource: Melle in der Topographia Westphaliae (Matthäus Merian) - sources and full texts

Website of the city of Melle

Individual evidence

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

↑ State Office for Statistics and Communication Technology Lower Saxony: cadastral area in Melle (actual use)

↑ Data and facts about the city of Melle. In: melle.info. Retrieved July 13, 2020 .

^ Homepage of the city of Melle: History, current facts and figures of the city of Melle

^ Report: "What we are up to", Heimatbund Osnabrücker Land

^ Wilhelm Knigge: Melle was a capital . In: Meller history. Reviews from Wilhelm Knigge . S. 216-219 .

^ Hans Harms: 825 years of Melle - the central district. Edited by Fritz-Gerd Mittelstädt, Ernst-Heinrich Knoth. In: The Grönegau. Meller Jahrbuch 1995. Volume 13. Verlag Ernst Knoth, Melle 1994, p. 147, ISBN 3-88368-269-1

↑ Rademacher, Michael (2002): History - Lower Saxony: District Melle

↑ Wolfgang Huge: Der Landkreis Wittlage 1933 - 1972. National Socialism, Post-War Years and Economic Miracles, BooksOn Demand, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8482-1013-8 , p. 27

^ City of Melle Religion , 2011 census

↑ City of Melle records increase in population , accessed on May 19, 2020

↑ City of Melle facts and figures , accessed on January 5, 2020

↑ City of Melle recorded an increase in population

↑ ^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 GmbH, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 256 f .

↑ LSN-Online, the largest regional statistical database in Germany. Retrieved July 11, 2019 .

↑ LSN-Online, the largest regional statistical database in Germany. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 30, 2018 ; accessed on July 11, 2019 . 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.