Slochteren
 flag |
 coat of arms |
| province |
 Groningen
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| local community |
 Midden-Groningen
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Area - land - water |
141.15 km 2 134.02 km 2 7.13 km 2 |
| Residents | 14,784 (Dec. 31, 2017) |
| Coordinates | 53 ° 13 ' N , 6 ° 48' E |
| Important traffic route |
     
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| prefix | 050, 0596, 0598 |
| Postcodes | 9615-9619, 9621-9629, 9939 |
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Slochteren ( ) ( Gronings Slochter ) is a place and a former municipality in the province of Groningen in the north of the Netherlands .
The community consisted of the following villages: Froombosch , Harkstede , Hellum , Kolham , Lageland , Luddeweer , Overschild , Scharmer , Schildwolde , Siddeburen , Slochteren , Steendam , Tjuchem , Woudbloem .
The eponymous part of the municipality Slochteren lies on a ridge of sand on which Kohlham, Schildwolde, Hellum and Siddeburen also lie. Despite its strategically good location on the way from Groningen (city) to Appingedam to the North Sea and via Winschoten to Germany , Slochteren has always remained an agricultural village.
history
The name Slochteren is first mentioned in 1169 as Slochtra and probably meant 'low-lying area'. Many village names still indicate the appearance of the area in earlier times. Wold , Woud , Bosch suggests that it must have been a forested area, but more with shrubs and softwood species, willow , common hazel , ash and rowan . In between, there are giant trees such as oaks and beeches .
The early inhabitants of the area were certainly of Frisian origin. However, it can be assumed that today's population is only partly descended from these people. It is believed that around the year 400 Saxons invaded the area and chased away or subjugated a large part of the Frisians. Although Dutch is the official language, the long-time residents almost exclusively speak Grunnings or Gronings , an Old Saxon dialect. The Frisian language died out with the increasing influence of the Saxon city of Groningen in the Middle Ages. It can therefore be assumed that today's residents are a mixture of Saxons and Frisians.
When the Netherlands was Christianized in the 8th century and divided into dioceses around the year 800 , the Ommelanden , "the surrounding areas" of the city of Groningen, to which Slochteren also belongs, came to the diocese of Münster . Throughout the Middle Ages, the area remained free of noble lords. That meant for the villages that they could administer themselves in many areas and were not as dependent on "their" bishops as other areas were on the ruling count.
Each of the small units had its own, but not very different, jurisdiction. The oldest surviving codes of law are the Fivelinger Codex and the Hunsinger Codex , both written in Old Frisian . All these small units were later united in the Ommelander Landrecht . In each area there was a "court chair" where anyone who owned a certain amount of land had a percentage of the vote. Every year one of the farmers spoke right. The sequence changed every year and was determined by the location of the farms. Farms that had this right were called "noble stone herds " ( edele heerd ). Through inheritance, marriage and purchase, the rights slowly came into the hands of a small layer that later called itself Jonkers . These Junkers sometimes owned so many shares in a legal chair that they could permanently judge.
With the increasing wealth of this class, its members wanted to have their goods secured more and more securely. So they built stone houses. As early as the 13th century , so-called borrows were increasingly being built. After 1500 these castles lost their defensive function, took on the character of country houses and became the residences of the landed gentry. These lords increasingly rose to rulers over "their" villages and often meant a lot of misery for the common population due to the often escalating disputes between the lords in their "borrowings".
The monasteries that existed in almost all villages organized water management early on. Since they had large estates, they also had the necessary influence. In 1595 it was calculated that the monasteries owned 36,000 hectares of land .
Under Philip II , the successor to Charles V , Protestantism was able to prevail in the middle of the 16th century. The occupation of the city of Groningen by the Spaniards meant heavy looting and violent attacks on the population for the Ommelanden, who were forced to pay high taxes.
In 1594 the city of Groningen and Ommeland had to merge to form a province and join the United Netherlands as the 7th province. In the Ommelanden, the land nobility can establish itself more and more. In Slochteren this is the Thomassen à Theussink van der Hoop thoe Slochteren family who live in Fraeylamaborg.
During the French occupation in 1811, the area was divided into three communities: Siddeburen, Slochteren and Harkstede. As early as 1821 and 1826, Harkstede and Siddeburen were also incorporated into Slochteren. It is therefore understandable that the further history of Slochteren is closely linked to the history of the individual villages.
Attractions
- Fraeylemaborg in Slochteren, a typical manor house in the middle of a country estate of 25 hectares. The manor house can be visited, the attached English-style park is open to the public.
- The " Westerpolder " with open water areas and some other smaller nature reserves show the typical flora and fauna of the area.
- The church of Harkstede with the organ built by Arp Schnitger .
- International Police Cap Collection
Industry
The province of Groningen is an agrarian province. The two factories that once existed in Slochteren were both involved in agriculture: a potato flour factory in Woudbloem, which was built in 1904, and a milk factory which was founded in 1893. Both have now disappeared again.
Slochteren only became famous in 1959 when Europe's largest natural gas bubble was found here. The exploitation by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) (Dutch Petroleum Company) and the Nederlandse Gasunie (Dutch Gas Union) had and is having a major impact on the whole region. The German government had it checked whether the gas field could also expand into German territory - but this is not the case. An exploitation period of at least another 45 years is expected, which would secure a natural gas supply until 2050. The NAM examines the subsidence of the area annually. Since the start of drilling, this has been 21 cm in the sinking funnel and 11 cm at the edge. The maximum subsidence of the floor is predicted to be 45 cm. Houses in the funnel have little to suffer from this subsidence, while owners of houses “on the edge” are often already struggling with enormous damage.
Agriculture is another source of income . Dairy farming has also developed into a high-performance industry in Slochteren. According to statistics from the CBS (Central Bureau voor Statistiek, Dutch Office for Statistics), around 180,000 cows were kept in Groningen in 2002 , a few of which can be found in Slochteren. ( Poultry : 5,900,000 units)
politics
Distribution of seats in the municipal council
| Political party | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 2006 | 2010 | 2014 | |
| Community affairs Slochteren | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4th |
| ChristenUnie | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| GroenLinks | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| D66 | 1 | |||
| PvdA | 3 | 5 | 4th | 3 |
| CDA | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| VVD | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| General concern | - | - | - | |
| total | 15th | 15th | 17th | 17th |
literature
- Art. Slochteren . In: Wiebe Jannes Formsma, Riektje Annie Luitjens-Dijkveld Stol, Adolf Pathuis: De Ommelander borgen en steenhuizen . Van Gorcum, Assen 1973, ISBN 90-232-1047-6 , pp. 363-371.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bevolkingsontwikkeling; regio per maand Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek , accessed on June 28, 2018 (Dutch)
- ↑ Allocation of seats in the municipal council: 2002 2006 2010 2014 , accessed on June 28, 2018 (Dutch)