Roffhausen

Roffhausen City of Schortens Coordinates: 53 ° 31 '32 " N , 8 ° 1' 59" E
Height :	1 m above sea level NN
Residents :	821 (Dec. 31, 2013)
Postal code :	26419
Area code :	04421

Former Olympic site, today Technologie Centrum Nordwest (TCN)

Roffhausen is a district of Schortens in the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony .

location

Roffhausen is located in the extreme south-east of the urban area on the border with the independent city of Wilhelmshaven and is only separated from the neighboring Schortenser district of Middelsfähr by federal highway 210 .

history

In the Middle Ages there were three crossings over the Maade , of which the one near Roffhausen was the most popular ferry . To secure the ferry connection, Edo Wiemken the Younger had the then existing Roffhausen Castle reinforced in 1495. Roffhausen Castle was on the north bank of the Maade and was the seat of Chief Amesen. At the time of Edo Wiemken the Younger there were three sons, of whom Ricklef and Memme Amesen were confidants of Edo Wiemken and were on the side of the Jever rule against the East Frisians. After the death of Edo Wiemken the Younger in 1511, Ricklef changed sides and in 1515 handed over Roffhausen Castle to the East Frisians under Edzard I of East Frisia without resistance . His brother Memme, who continued to fight for the rule of Jever, tried to recapture, but was unsuccessful. Only after the siege by Dukes Erich and Heinrich von Braunschweig was the castle recaptured on May 9, 1516 and came back under the rule of Jever, who let the castle razed .

Edzard I of East Friesland soon gained control of the Jever rulership, and the chief Ricklef von Roffhausen received not only the destroyed castle for reconstruction, but also parts of Rüstringen for administration. However, when Maria von Jever regained unrestricted rule in 1531, the lands were confiscated and the castle was finally destroyed.

In the 1930s, the Wilhelmshaven naval site administration had numerous buildings erected in the Roffhausen area to store equipment for the navy . For camouflage reasons, the buildings were laid out in a farmhouse style. In 1940 there were 30 residential barracks for around 2,000 soldiers. After the Second World War , refugees from the former eastern regions were housed in these barracks . In 1946 Orbis Typewriter Works took over the former naval building and produced typewriters there.

In 1950 the company traded as Olympia Werke West GmbH and from June 1954 the company received its well-known company name Olympia Werke AG .

In 1950 the foundation stone for the so-called Olympic settlement in Roffhausen was laid. Initially, the client was the non-profit housing association Friesland . The school was completed in November 1952, the Evangelical Lutheran Gustav Adolf Church in August 1953. The church, named after the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf , was the first church building in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg after the Second World War and cost including a parsonage around 90,000 DM. The new building of the Catholic St. Josephs Church was built in December 1953. The parish church is a simple brick building with around 200 seats. In 1955 another 150 apartments were completed in the settlement by the Wilhelmshavener-Rüstringer housing company A. Haertle KG. In December 1957 the Protestant kindergarten was inaugurated. In 1960 the streets in the settlement were named after major German cities and East German cities. In 1977 the citizens' meeting place was completed.

In the course of the municipality reform in Lower Saxony , the consideration existed to annex Roffhausen with the Schortenser district of Middelsfähr to Wilhelmshaven. In the case of the reorganization, the business tax of the Olympiawerke (around 4 million DM annually) would have gone to the city of Wilhelmshaven in future. For this reason too, the city council of Schortens rejected the separation of the two districts in 1970, although Wilhelmshaven had offered compensation payments.

From the mid-1980s, the bad economic news about AEG Olympia AG increased. After years of losses, the corporate headquarters of the parent companies AEG and Daimler-Benz decided in October 1991 to withdraw from office communication and to close the location with its workforce of around 3,600. Under the motto “Olympia - the heart of the region must live on”, a labor dispute of the Olympic employees that was noticed nationwide followed over the next few months to keep their jobs. Campaigns in Wilhelmshaven , Frankfurt and Stuttgart reminded of the responsibility of the Daimler-Benz group and increased public pressure to create replacement jobs in the Wilhelmshaven / Friesland region. Nevertheless, the closure of the location in Roffhausen at the end of 1992 could not be prevented. As a positive result of the labor dispute, the development of the concept for a TCN (Technologie Centrum Nordwest) took place, which provided for the outsourcing and continuation of operational parts of the Olympia as independent companies as well as the settlement of new companies on the grounds of the TCN. The concept received support from the state government of Lower Saxony, the parent company Daimler-Benz, the district of Friesland , the city of Schortens and the employee representatives. At the beginning of 1993 the TCN was able to show again 14 companies with around 750 employees. This positive development continued, so that by the end of 2015, with more than 3,000 employees in a total of 60 companies, the number of employees of the Olympia-Werke who previously worked on the site was almost reached again.

Exhibitions

The Olympia exhibition of the Heimatverein Schortens on the grounds of the Technologie Centrum Nordwest (TCN) shows exhibits on the history of Olympia Werke AG on 30 square meters . The exhibition is housed in building 7, the former customer service.

Sports

The Roffhausen-based sports club Grün-Gelb Roffhausen von 1919 eV has around 500 members. The SV GG Roffhausen committed to the grassroots and offers the divisions badminton , handball, recreational sports, volleyball, table tennis, gymnastics, basketball and Health Sport.

literature

Werner Brune (Ed.): Wilhelmshavener Heimatlexikon . 3 volumes. Brune Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Wilhelmshaven 1986
Heimatverein Schortens (Ed.): 75 years Heimatverein Schortens - Heimatbuch and Festschrift . 1st edition. Heiber Druck & Verlag, Schortens 2004, ISBN 3-936691-22-3
Ingeborg Nöldeke, Almut Salomon, Antje Sander: Schortens. Local history from the Middle Ages to modern times . NORA Verlagsgemeinschaft Dyck & Westerheide OHG, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86557-097-6