Wiesmoor

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 53 ° 25 '  N , 7 ° 44'  E
Basic data
State :	Lower Saxony
County :	Aurich
Height :	11 m above sea level NHN
Area :	82.96 km 2
Residents:	13,236 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	160 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	26639
Area code :	04944
License plate :	AUR, NOR
Community key :	03 4 52 025
City structure:	Core city and ten other districts
City administration address :	Hauptstrasse 193 26639 Wiesmoor
Website :	www.wiesmoor.de
Mayor :	Friedrich Völler ( SPD )
Location of the city of Wiesmoor in the Aurich district

Entrance to Wiesmoor

Wiesmoor is a city in East Frisia in Lower Saxony and is located in the outer northwest of Germany . The city forms the southeasternmost tip of the Aurich district . With 13,236 inhabitants who live on 82.99 square kilometers, Wiesmoor is sparsely populated compared to other East Frisian cities. It is the second smallest among the cities on the East Frisian mainland in terms of population.

Until the late 18th century, today's urban area was completely uninhabited, as it formed part of the East Frisian central high moor and thus was more of a barrier between the historic districts of Auricherland and Östringen for centuries . So far, only a few traces have been found that even prove the previous presence of people. It was not until 1780 that parts of today's urban area were permanently settled. The development took place from the outside in, which means that the villages on the outskirts are significantly older than the current city center itself.

Wiesmoor is the youngest city in East Frisia and one of the youngest cities in Lower Saxony. Wiesmoor is the only one of the East Frisian cities to owe its emergence to industrialization , specifically to the industrial peeling of the moor that began in 1906 . In the city, the three main phases of peat colonization in East Friesland were passed through one after the other : first the unplanned peat colonization in scattered settlements , the colonization through fen canals and finally the industrial peat colonization. The municipality received city rights on March 16, 2006.

Over a period of around 60 years, electricity was generated in Wiesmoor from burning peat . The city calls itself the city of flowers , as the burning of the peat in the former power station and the use of the resulting waste heat for growing plants, especially flowers, is inextricably linked to the economic history of the municipality. The city has been recognized as a climatic health resort since 1977 ; tourism is a key economic factor alongside horticulture and dairy farming. There are also a certain number of industrial companies.

Due to the young age of the city, in contrast to other East Frisian municipalities, only a few historical buildings can be found. The city's oldest church dates back to 1907. Only a few buildings from the industrialization era are listed buildings , and there are also a number of historic Gulf courtyards in the older outer areas of the city.

geography

Position and extent

Wiesmoor is located in northwest Germany in the center of the historic East Friesland landscape . The distance to the North Sea is around 30 kilometers. Nearby larger cities are Wilhelmshaven (a good 30 kilometers northeast), Oldenburg (a good 45 kilometers southeast), Bremen (a good 80 kilometers southeast) and Groningen (a good 80 kilometers southwest).

The regional planning of Lower Saxony shows Wiesmoor as a sub-center . For a long time, the aim has been for Wiesmoor to be recognized as a medium-sized center . The estimated catchment area of ​​the city is 35,000 to 40,000 people.

The entire urban area of ​​Wiesmoor extends over an area of ​​82.99 square kilometers. In 1919 the Friedeburger Wiesmoor estate had an area of ​​27.5 square kilometers. In 1922, the Wiesmoor community was founded after the local area was ceded to the Aurich district , which by 1924 had grown to an area of ​​34.7 square kilometers. By 1951, through incorporation in several trains, it had grown to 52.74 square kilometers. This made the place the largest rural community in East Friesland at the time, but with 95 inhabitants per square kilometer it was only sparsely populated. As a result of the municipal area reform of 1972, the city achieved its current size with an area increase of around 60 percent. This puts it in 17th place within the East Frisian municipalities . The largest expansion of the urban area in north-south direction is around 11 kilometers, in west-east direction around 7 kilometers.

With 161 inhabitants per square kilometer, Wiesmoor is only sparsely populated in comparison to many other cities, which also applies to the inner-East Frisian comparison: the comparative values ​​for Leer are 488, for Emden 460 inhabitants per square kilometer, for north 241 and for Aurich 206 inhabitants per square kilometer. The population density also remains just below the general population density of Lower Saxony of 168 inhabitants / square kilometer, but very clearly below the national average (230 inhabitants / square kilometer)

geology

The Nordgeorgsfehnkanal

The entire urban area of ​​Wiesmoors is located in the middle part of the East Frisian Central Hochmoor . This moor lies on a ridge, the Oldenburg-East Frisian Geest ridge, which runs from northwest to southeast. It used to run roughly from the east of today's Aurich and the northwest of the municipality of Friedeburg via Großefehn and Wiesmoor to the municipality of Uplengen in the district of Leer and the town of Westerstede in the district of Ammerland . It connected the Collrunger Moor in the northwest with the Stapeler - and Spolsener Moor in the southeast.

In the course of the last millennia, the moor was formed above the ground moraine after the Saale Ice Age and around 1900 had layers of peat up to eight meters. Under the sand cover of the Geest, after a short digging, a calcareous clay layer can be found, at least in some places. At the beginning of the 20th century, the moor here extended over an area of ​​100 square kilometers. Most of it is now covered by the city of Wiesmoor. In the outskirts of the city there are still a few small raised bog areas that have hardly been affected by the expansion of the city.

In individual places in today's urban area, creeks and other rivulets flowed abeam from the ridge of the Geest, which left behind river deposits on the lower terrace , which consist of sand and gravel. Only at one point in the urban area are sands and drifting sands from the Vistula glacial period , which form the subsoil of the oldest layers. This is the narrow strip on which in earlier centuries a narrow path ran in the otherwise difficult to pass moor and on which the federal road 436 is now.

The place was created at a height of 10.6 to 14 meters above sea ​​level . After drainage through the Nordgeorgsfehn Canal , it is now an average of 11 meters above sea level.

Neighboring communities

Wiesmoor is centrally located on the East Frisian peninsula . Wiesmoor is the municipality in the extreme south-east of the Aurich district. Along with Ihlow, the city ​​is one of two municipalities in the Aurich district that border on two neighboring districts or another district and an independent city. In the east the city borders on the municipality Friedeburg ( district Wittmund ), in the south on the municipality Uplengen ( district Leer ). To the west of Wiesmoor lies the community of Großefehn , north of the Aurich district of Brockzetel (both districts of Aurich). Because of its location in the extreme southeast of the district, Wiesmoor is the municipality with the fewest neighboring communities within the Aurich district.

City structure and incorporations

Wiesmoor consists of the core city (Wiesmoor Mitte) and ten other districts. These are (starting clockwise in the north): Marcardsmoor , Wiesederfehn (both incorporated in 1972), Mullberg , Rammsfehn , Hinrichsfehn (all 1951), Zwischenbergen , Voßbarg (both 1972), Auricher Wiesmoor II , Wilhelmsfehn II and Wilhelmsfehn I ( all 1951).

climate

Wiesmoor is located in the temperate climate zone. The urban area is generally influenced by the North Sea . In summer the daytime temperatures are lower, in winter they are often higher than in the rest of Germany. The climate is generally characterized by the Central European west wind zone.

In contrast, special climatic conditions prevail in the raised bog areas, which make up large parts of the urban area. Because of the subsurface conditions in a rain bog , the temperature differences between day and night are extreme. During the day in summer, temperatures on the ground can be very high, so that spontaneous combustion can result in moor fires. In addition, bog areas are much more fog-intensive than the surrounding area.

After the effective climate classification of Köppen is Wiesmoor is in the classification Cfb .

• Climate zone C : warm-temperate climate
• Climate type Cf : humid-temperate climate
• Climate subtype b : warm summers

The closest weather station is in the town of Aurich, which is almost 18 kilometers away (distance from town center to town center), which has very similar climatic conditions. The values ​​in the climate table for the station there refer to the long-term mean for the years 1961 to 1990:

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Aurich Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Temperature ( ° C ) 1.0 1.3 3.7 6.9 11.5 14.6 16.0 15.9 13.2 9.6 5.2 2.2 O 8.5 Precipitation ( mm ) 66.6 43.1 57.9 48.2 57.8 83.8 82.1 78.6 76.6 76.2 84.4 74.3 Σ 829.6 Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 1.19 2.29 3.32 5.33 6.83 6.63 6.06 6.25 4.4 2.96 1.56 0.93 O 4th Source: German Weather Service

history

The majority of the area of ​​today's city of Wiesmoor as well as adjacent parts of neighboring communities were impassable high moor areas up to the beginning of the 20th century, which expanded as the East Frisian central high moor to an area of ​​241 square kilometers. For a long time, today's urban area remained completely uninhabited, even paths in prehistoric times are only suspected so far. A special feature is that the first permanent settlements did not emerge until the second half of the 18th century. Another peculiarity is that the districts on the periphery were the first to be settled, while today's town center is one of the youngest settlements in the moorland.

Isolated finds

The earliest evidence of the presence of humans is a stone ax from the Neolithic Age and a clay vessel from the pre-Roman Iron Age , which were discovered in Marcardsmoor. They are not taken as evidence of permanent settlement. Possibly they are to be interpreted as bog victims . A neck ring was found in the moor near Wilhelmsfehn, which dates back to around 700 BC. Is dated. The circumstances of the find that led to the discovery of a bronze ax are unclear, as it was discovered in 1999 in the bulky waste in Ostgroßefehn. It is dated to the Middle Bronze Age. Research into the East Frisian landscape revealed that the ax was probably discovered by the first finder in the 1950s when it was thrown off on a cooperative property in Wiesmoor. The hatchet is counted among the north-western European heel axes with hanging arch and Y decorations and as such is a unique find in East Frisia. The result of further investigations showed that the ax was probably a faulty casting that was disposed of in the bog.

Moor colonization from 1633 to 1878

In 1633 the fen colonization began in Westgroßefehn (today the municipality of Großefehn ) in the west of the East Frisian Central High Moors . This fen colony does not affect today's urban area, but is important insofar as the current districts of Wilhelmsfehn I and II are the eastern continuations of the Großefehntjer colonies.

Reclamation edict

After 1744, East Frisia came to Prussia through an expedition . Frederick the Great showed great interest in the cultivation of previously unused areas, with a focus on fiscal interests. In East Frisia, for example, new polders were diked and new colonies were created in the moor. The basis was the reclamation edict of 1765, which transferred all peatland areas not yet belonging to local farmers into the possession of the state.

In the following decades around 80 new bog colonies emerged in East Friesland, three of them in what is now the city. These are Vossbarg (1780), Wiesederfehn (1796) and Zwischenbergen (1810), the latter being laid out at a time when East Frisia was no longer Prussian, but belonged to the Kingdom of Holland as a result of the Napoleonic Wars . Vossbarg and Zwischenbergen were settled from the (south) west, Wiesederfehn from the (north) east. The Wiesmoors were settled from the areas of the offices of Aurich (west) and Friedeburg (east).

Vossbarg (Low German: Fuchsberg) was settled from 1780 by the first colonist named Rencke Janßen, who came from Strackholt , the nearest farming village. He submitted an application for the allocation of a colony two years earlier, but first had to come to an agreement with the Strackholter farmers about the exact boundaries of the allocated land. A surveyor named von Northeim finally measured the first colony and used the name Wiesmoor for the first time in a document for the adjacent high moor area: “[…] I gave Rencke Janßen zu Strackholt a piece of heather field on the Wiesmoor field, it borders eastwards the Wies-mohr [...] ". In the following years other colonists followed the pioneer Rencke Janßen; mostly they came from the surrounding villages or nearby fen colonies.

Wiesederfehn was founded by a group of settlers who had tried in vain to get a colony in Vossbarg. They were successful with the bailiff in Friedeburg. The assessment of a plot of land, also by the geodesist of Northeim, took place in 1797. More settlers joined in 1800. The first settlers of Wiesederfehn benefited from the fact that they not only farmed, but also had a source of sale for peat, which they mined on a large scale. The fuel found its buyers in Wittmund and Jever.

Around 1800 a path from Voßbarg to Wiesederfehn through the Wiesmoor was planned, which was finally created. It was a sandy path that was laid out in suitable places on the moor and is roughly the forerunner of today's federal highway 436 . For the use of the path, which considerably shortened the distance between the southern Aurich office and the Friedeburg office, road money was levied from 1804 . The not inconsiderable maintenance costs for a path across the moor were paid with the road money. For the year 1805 a Vossbarg resident named Heere Heeren is named, who was responsible for paying the toll at the customs barrier. At times, the task of collecting customs was also associated with a liquor license.

The third bog colony in what is now the urban area was Zwischenbergen, so named due to the fact that it was located between the Vossbarg and Windbarg elevations, both of which rose about four to five meters above the otherwise flat landscape. The Zwischenberg settlers had little land (the first colonies measured four to six diematos ), so that in the following decades Zwischenbergen was more affected by poverty than Vossbarg and Wiesederfehn, because the food base was insufficient.

Food source of the first bog settlers: buckwheat ( Fagopyrum esculentum )

The agricultural basis of the bog colonies was the bog fire culture. Small trenches were dug in the summer to drain a piece of bog. In autumn, the Moor was chopped into flakes, which by freezing in winter and the following spring harrowed were. In late spring, the colonists set fire to the marshes that had been worked in this way and placed seeds of (mostly) buckwheat in the ashes. Buckwheat grows very quickly and could therefore be harvested after a few weeks. The buckwheat, a knotweed plant , was then processed. Potatoes, rye and oats were also grown.

However, the bog soil was depleted after a few years by this form of cultivation, so that the yields fell. The cultivation of the soil in Wiesederfehn was an exception, as the colonists there first dug up peat and only worked the soil afterwards. In the moor colonies there was great poverty in the decades after the start of colonization. Many colonists, especially in Vossbarg and Zwischenbergen, looked for work in the up-and-coming fen colonies such as Großefehn. For others, emigration, especially to America, remained the alternative. Accordingly, the population stagnated or even decreased. The population of Vossbarg, for example, decreased from 394 (1848) to 314 (1871).

After two consecutive crop failures in 1867 and 1868, the Prussian government set up a commission "to improve the situation in the peatland colonies of East Frisia and to make the fiscal peatlands better usable". She made suggestions on how to make colonization more sustainable, at least some of which were implemented. This mainly concerned a ban on further immigration to bog colonies and, on the other hand, the enlargement of the colonies so that the colonists could work on a broader economic basis.

The commission also suggested building new canals to better drain the bog. This was implemented in the following years, and so in 1878 not only the Vossbarg Canal was created, which connected the place to the regional waterway network. At the eastern end of the already existing feudal settlements Ostgroßefehn and Spetzerfehn , further colonies were opened up by driving the canals forward: Wilhelmsfehn I and II and Auricher Wiesmoor II.

Fehnsiedlung and German raised bog culture (1878 to 1906)

Wilhelmsfehn I and Wilhelmsfehn II were applied from the Grossefehn company or Spetzerfehngesellschaft and after Kaiser I. Wilhelm named. The Aurich Wiesmoor II, on the other hand, was created as a state feudal settlement by Prussia. In 1890 it became an independent political municipality.

Fehn Canal in Wilhelmsfehn

Wilhelmsfehn I is the last extension of the area that the Großefehn society cultivated. In 1878 she was awarded the contract to peat and then use 400 Moordiemat land for agriculture, which corresponded to exactly 400 hectares. The main Fehn Canal was driven eastward into the moor. For the first time, the Großefehn-Kompagnie created so-called Inwieken , i.e. side canals on which colonists could settle. In addition to the drainage of their piece of moor, the interested parties undertook to build paths on the Wieken. They also had to pay a contribution to the maintenance of the drainage systems such as locks. If you wanted to move to Wilhelmsfehn I, you had to be able to invest some money. The settlement took place years after the construction of the Fehn canals, the first of the settlers was a man named Gerhard Schoone, who in 1888 took possession of a piece of land for sub-lease. Four years later the settlement had four houses, and only then did a more rapid expansion begin. In 1904 104 people lived in 27 houses. They lived only partly from agriculture, but mostly shipped the excavated peat to the city of Emden and the Krummhörn .

Wilhelmsfehn II was the last settlement project of the Spetzerfehn Society, which leased 300 hectares of moor there from the state and leased it to sub-tenants. In order to expand the settlement quickly, the colonies were deliberately kept small, making purely agricultural use more difficult. In Wilhelmsfehn II, too, peat was extracted and shipped. However, the boatmen of these two Fehne suffered from the relatively greater distance to the main sales areas compared to the older Großefehntjer settlements. They could not make up for this economic disadvantage, so that they had to look for work elsewhere in the following decades.

The 1800 hectare Aurich Wiesmoor II, as a state foundation, had the advantage that the fen canals were created quickly. Many colonies were acquired by long-time residents from Großefehn and Spetzerfehn for their children. As early as 1885 Auricher Wiesmoor II had 53 inhabitants, 15 years later there were 118. The livestock also increased quickly, which was due to the larger colony area compared to the Wilhelmsfehnen.

Kreuzkirche Marcardsmoor from 1907, the oldest church building in the city

The next stage of bog colonization took place in today's Marcardsmoor district in the form of the German raised bog culture . The moor experimental station established in Bremen in 1876 ​​was in charge . The German raised bog culture renounced bog fire on the one hand and the removal of the peat on the other hand, but took over the thorough drainage of the bog area in question from the fen culture. After the access road, the areas were plowed and harrowed and then fertilized with the artificial fertilizer that had meanwhile been discovered. The invention of the artificial fertilizer was an essential prerequisite for the first East Frisian settlement, which was created after the German raised bog culture. The construction of the Ems-Jade Canal from Emden to Wilhelmshaven in the years 1880 to 1888 was the other. South of the canal, an area of ​​2100 hectares was reclaimed after 1890. It was fertilized with Kainit as well as with Chile nitrate and Thomas flour . The settlers had previously been subjected to a thorough examination and had to sign declarations that included work as well as taxes. The state remained the owner of the land, but this meant that the colonists had less ties to their clods than if they had been the owners. The colony was named in 1892 after the State Secretary in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, von Marcard, who had campaigned for peatland colonization. The population increased from 32 (1890) to 266 (1900) to 391 (1910). After 1900 the infrastructure was gradually expanded, with a parish hall, infirmary and pharmacy and finally also a church (1907), which is the oldest in the city. After initially using the soil for arable farming, the settlers later switched more and more to grassland farming , as they recognized that the soil was better suited for this despite intensive fertilization. In addition, the settler sites were sufficiently large to be able to cultivate arable land, but the labor force of one family was not sufficient to cultivate the entire land, which is why prisoners of war were also used to work before and during the First World War.

The beginnings of Wiesmoor

At the beginning of the 20th century, plans arose to industrially remove the remainder of the area, which was spread over the districts of Aurich and Wittmund . In contrast to the fen areas, which were created almost without exception with hoes and spades and through human muscle power, heavy machines were to be used in Wiesmoor. Right from the start, this included new technical achievements such as locomobiles , which had sufficient stability even on the boggy ground, and bucket chain excavators and other excavators.

The driving force behind this plan was the Prussian Secret Council and later State Secretary Dr. Eberhard Ramm from the Ministry of Agriculture, Domains and Forests, after which the Rammsfehn district was later named. He convinced the industrialist Carl Friedrich von Siemens of the project to clear the area and build a peat power station. After test drilling, a location in today's city center of Wiesmoor, on the then inadequately developed sandy path from Strackholt to Wiesede, was selected as the location. For economic reasons, pure peat mining and burning elsewhere were out of the question.

Wiesmoor peat power plant around 1910

As with all bog colonization projects, the technical obstacle was the drainage of the area. The Nordgeorgsfehn Canal , which was driven as far as Neudorf (municipality of Uplengen), today located immediately south of the Wiesmoor city limits, was to be extended to the Ems-Jade Canal and form the backbone of the drainage. Only later was the creation of a waterway connection added as a further function. In 1906, construction of the canal began in what is now the city area, but it took until 1922 to close the gap.

While only experts and prisoners were used at the beginning, in 1907 the first other residents settled in the undeveloped Wiesmoor. In 1909, the overland control center - the Wiesmoor peat power station - went into operation after a two-year construction period. It was opened by Siemens Elektrische Betriebe and taken over by Nordwestdeutsche Kraftwerke AG (NWK) in 1921 . The power plant supplied large areas between the Ems and the Lower Elbe with electricity after the corresponding power lines had been built. The first operations director was Knud Nielsen, after whom the Nielsen Park in the city area was later named.

New settlers moved to Wiesmoor from the surrounding villages, including those from the new fen areas that were only created after 1878. The construction and operation of the power plant and the necessary peat extraction promised permanent jobs. A visible sign of growth was the construction of the first school, which was completed in 1913. The population of Wiesmoor rose from 151 in 1914 to 383 (1919) to 686 (1923).

During the First World War , prisoners of war were used for various jobs, including laying out a cemetery. The reason was a lack of peat workers who had been drafted into the military. At the same time, the demand for electricity increased, especially in the Wilhelmshaven naval port, which is why coal was temporarily delivered via the Ems-Jade Canal and co-fired in the power plant.

Weimar Republic and National Socialism

Peace Church Wiesmoor , built 1929/30

The domain treasury stopped pitting in 1921, which was also taken over by the NWK under its director Jan Hinrichs, after whom a district is also named today: Hinrichsfehn. Vegetables and garden plants were initially grown on the pitted areas under the government. The waste heat generated in the peat power station was used from 1925 to warm greenhouses . The driving force behind this plan was Director Hinrichs. With an underglass area of ​​30 acres (around 75,000 square meters), the largest greenhouse facilities in Europe at that time were built. The number of NWK employees (including peat cutting) was 608. By 1937 it had risen to 745, 125 of them in the nursery. The first tree nurseries were founded in 1926 and 1928 in what is now Hinrichsfehn, but in contrast to vegetable growing, they did not belong directly to the NWK.

The community Wiesmoor was founded after the dissolution of the manor district Friedeburger Wiesmoor on June 1, 1922, as was the community Mullberg, which was also separated from the manor district. In the 1920s, the twelve-hectare Nielsen Park was created, making it one of the largest parks in East Friesland. A (Lutheran) church on the Nordgeorgsfehnkanal was built in 1929/1930, it was the first church to be built in the city center. While the first post office already existed in 1908, the first bank (Sparkasse) did not settle until 1924. The further influx of workers in the early 1930s led to the creation of another settlement in the south of today's urban area, Rammsfehn.

Local social democratic associations are documented for May 1, 1919 in Wiesmoor and Voßbarg, and a local group of the KPD in the Kernort since 1919. The Social Democrats played an important role, especially in the core town of Wiesmoor, until the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In the elections for the Prussian state assembly in 1919, they had one of their few strongholds in Wiesmoor in the Wittmund district and achieved an absolute majority of the votes cast, in the 1920 Reichstag elections they received 41.1 percent. In the first Reichstag election in 1924 (May), the SPD was able to win 50 percent of the votes in the core town, while the Völkisch Bloc got 23.7 percent. In the then still independent Marcardsmoor, however, the Völkische won around 90 percent of the vote, similar to the neighboring communities that belong to Friedeburg today.

During the time of the Weimar Republic, political life in the area of ​​today's city of Wiesmoor was very different. While the core town itself was a stronghold of the SPD and partly also a KPD due to the high proportion of workers, the National Socialists were able to achieve outstanding results in some older bog colonies as was the case in the neighboring communities of Großefehn and Friedeburg at the time . The first local group of the NSDAP in today's urban area was formed in 1930 in Wiesederfehn, and in February 1932 such a local group followed in the social-democratically oriented core town.

This continued in the elections up to 1933. In the 1928 Reichstag elections in Wiesmoor, for example, the Social Democrats received 97 votes against 52 for the right-wing extremist parties, at a time when the Wittmund district as a whole was already the stronghold of the NSDAP in East Frisia and achieved results that were well above the national average. In the Reichstag elections in September 1930, the Social Democrats won 50.2 percent in the center of town; in neighboring Mullberg, which was still independent at the time, the KPD received 14.8 percent, one of the highest shares in the Wittmund district. The Reichstag elections in July 1932 resulted in renewed votes for the National Socialists. In addition to Marcarsmoor, where they have already achieved high results for a long time, they were also extremely successful in the constituency of Friedeburg Wiesmoor: They achieved 100 percent there. Even in the core town of Wiesmoor, the peat workers and power plant community, the SPD only won one vote more than the NSDAP.

During the Nazi regime, forced laborers and conscripts were used to cultivate the peatlands, in one case also volunteers. In the summer of 1935, for example, there was a barrack camp in Wiesmoor that housed around 50 unemployed young people from Berlin. The young people had to work ten weeks in the moor and were then given three days off, the daily wage was four Reichsmarks. The sports field in Wilhelmsfehn had already been laid out by the unemployed. From 1940 young women were conscripted into the Reich Labor Service , and there was a barrack camp in Marcardsmoor. During the war, a labor camp for foreign forced laborers was set up in Wiesmoor. The camp was guarded by German security forces, but three French prisoners of war escaped on June 30, 1942, but nothing is known about their fate.

Wiesmoor was hardly affected by the effects of combat during the Second World War . Apart from a few "stray" bomb hits or emergency drops, no further ones were recorded. At the end of the war in East Frisia at the beginning of May 1945, today's urban area was occupied by Canadian and Polish troops without a fight.

Post-war period - the large community emerges

After the Second World War, not only refugees from the areas of the German Reich ceded to Poland and the Soviet Union were accepted into today's urban area. People also moved to Wiesmoor from the “Soviet Occupation Zone”, later the GDR, including the Erfurt flower growing company Ernst Benary . She set up a seed breeding business with 20 greenhouses and 40 hectares of open land. This can be seen as the beginning of Wiesmoor as a flower community . Between 1946 and 1949 another peat workers' settlement was built, which was named Hinrichsfehn in 1951 , in honor of the NWK operations director who initiated the construction. 63 uniform looking houses were built.

In 1952 the first flower festival took place. At that time around 40,000 people visited the community annually, and plans arose to build a mud bath, an open-air theater and to expand the park into a spa facility - concerns that began in 1954 with the construction of the open-air theater, but some of them only after decades Found completion. A flower hall was only built in 1969.

In 1951, the Wiesmoor community was formed. The communities Wiesmoor and Mullberg as well as the manor districts Friedeburger Wiesmoor / northern part and Friedeburger Wiesmoor Ost (all from the Wittmund district) as well as the communities Auricher Wiesmoor II and Wilhelmsfehn, the Wilhelmsfehn II manor district and a small part of the community Voßbarg (all from the Aurich district ) were summarized for this purpose. The large community was completely integrated into the Aurich district after sometimes heated political discussions. With 51.64 square kilometers, it was the largest municipality in East Friesland and had 5,166 inhabitants. Against its will, the Wittmund district had to give up the Wiesmoor community and the adjacent areas to the Aurich district against its will, which was in line with the wishes of the residents there. However, the core town of Wiesmoor alone with its industrial companies had recently raised 14.7 percent of the total district levy of the Wittmund district, which the latter now lost without compensation.

In the course of the unification of the communities, road construction was also significantly strengthened. In 1952 the important road connection along the Nordgeorgsfehn Canal (today Landesstraße 12 ) to Remels was created , through which the B 75 still ran at the time - with a connection to Leer on the one hand, but above all Oldenburg on the other. The main road from Strackholt to Wiesede was expanded to today's federal road 436 until 1961.

Bunk machine in peat cutting

In 1952, the power plant employed around 1,200 people, making it by far the largest industrial employer in the then otherwise industrial-poor district of Aurich. Around 120,000 tons of peat were extracted annually, generating 100 million kilowatt hours of electricity in the power plant. 60 hectares of land were peeled off annually and then used for agriculture. Another 200 people found employment in the affiliated nurseries of the NWK, whose products such as tomatoes and cucumbers were exported to neighboring European countries.

The importance of Wiesmoor for the district of Aurich, which at that time still consisted of the area of ​​today's municipalities of Aurich, Wiesmoor, Ihlow, Großefehn and Südbrookmerland, is evident from the fact that the mayor of Wiesmoors was an advisory member of the Aurich district council and that the district gave the approval " To use a considerable part of the district levy raised by Wiesmoor annually for the economic and cultural development of this area".

The production of electricity from peat had become increasingly unprofitable, which is why the Northwest German power plants stopped peat production in 1964. In order to secure both electricity generation and jobs, plans by the North German Power Plants began in 1962 to build a nuclear power plant with an output of 40 MW in Wiesmoor to replace the peat power plant. The output should have been increased to 300 MW by 1970. In mid-1964, however, these plans were discontinued. The main cause is the poor profitability of such a small nuclear power plant. The supply of cooling water would also have been problematic because of the insufficient capacity of the Nordgeorgfehn Canal. Nevertheless, VEBA had plans for a larger nuclear power plant with an output of 600 MW. At the end of 1965, however, VEBA announced that it wanted to build this nuclear power plant with an even larger capacity at a different location. Instead, the peat power plant demolished in 1964 was replaced by a gas turbine power plant with 25 MW. However, the municipality had economic success on the one hand through the expansion of tourism, making Wiesmoor one of the first inland communities in East Frisia to explicitly focus on this industry. In the 1960s, on the other hand, other industrial companies also settled here, but they had to stop their production again in later decades. These included smaller textile factories, including a branch of the manufacturer Klaus Steilmann , as well as one of three East Frisian branches (next to Leer and Norden) of the office machine manufacturer Olympia-Werke . The haulage company Bohlen und Doyen , founded in 1950 by Heinrich Bohlen and Heinrich Doyen, expanded on its own by building up new business areas and over the years has developed into Wiesmoor's largest private employer today.

The permanent presence of the military in Wiesmoor was unknown until 1964 . In that year the anti-aircraft missile battalion moved into the newly built Fehnkaserne in the south of Wiesmoor. The battalion was part of the NATO anti-aircraft belt during the Cold War . In addition to members of the Air Force, American soldiers were stationed in the barracks, as nuclear weapons were also stored in the seclusion of Wiesmoor.

From 1972 until today

During the regional reform of Lower Saxony in 1972, the Wiesmoor area was again (and so far for the last time) administratively reorganized. The aim of the regional reform was to reduce the number of small communities and to create larger and more efficient communities. There were still four communities around Wiesmoor that were connected to Wiesmoor with effect from July 1, 1972. These were the communities Voßbarg and Zwischenbergen in the district of Aurich and the communities of Marcardsmoor and Wiesederfehn in the district of Wittmund. This meant that the Wittmund district had to cede two municipalities again to the Aurich district. However, all municipalities were already in close contact with the previous municipality of Wiesmoor before the municipal reform, which was particularly true of commuter relationships, and here again to a particularly high degree with Vossbarg and Wiesederfehn.

The municipality countered the temporary closure of industrial companies, especially in the textile sector, with the further expansion of tourism as an economic mainstay. In 1977 the community was raised to the status of a "state-approved climatic health resort". The expansion of the tourist infrastructure went hand in hand with this. This is how a campsite and a boat harbor were built on the Ems-Jade Canal in Marcardsmoor. The cycle path network was expanded. In 1977, the 15-hectare spa and landscape park, which had already been planned in the early 1950s, was created; the Peat and Settlement Museum was built in the immediate vicinity three years later. In 1987 a golf course was added in Hinrichsfehn, which is now the largest in East Frisia with 27 holes.

On Friday, January 13, 1989, several military jets collided at low altitude over the Wiesmoor district of Hinrichsfehn . A tornado of the Royal Air Force came across in 150 meters with a squadron German Alpha Jets from Jagdbombergeschwader 43 together in Oldenburg. One of the Alpha Jets was hit hard by the British aircraft, another was slightly damaged by debris and was still able to make an emergency landing. The wreckage of the tornado and the Alpha Jet fell not far from the Wiesmoor-Süd primary school without injuries on the ground. The occupants of the British machine were killed in the accident. The pilot of the German Alpha Jet was able to save himself seriously injured with the ejection seat .

In the 1990s, Wiesmoor had to cope with two economic setbacks. With the end of the Cold War, the Fehnkaserne was closed in 1993 , power generation in Wiesmoor ended in 1995 and the gas turbine power plant was also demolished in the same year. After 88 years, the phase to which today's Wiesmoor owes its creation ended: the generation of electrical energy. The horticulture that emerged from this, on the other hand, is still an economic mainstay today. An office building was erected on the power plant site.

On March 16, 2006 Wiesmoor was granted town charter. Lower Saxony's Minister of the Interior, Uwe Schünemann , personally delivered the certificate and emphasized that it was a tribute to the rapid development of Wiesmoor within just 100 years. In contrast, an application for upgrading from a basic center to a medium-sized center was not complied with as early as 1994, and in the course of the granting of town charter, the corresponding desires of the council were not considered by the state. In 2008 the city administration moved to the office building that was built on the former power plant site. Since then, the city has been ruled and administered from the place to which it owes its creation.

Development of the place name

The place is named after a moor area that first appeared on a map under this name in 1778 and that denotes the middle part of the East Frisian Central High Moor . There are various hypotheses about the origin of the city name. Presumably the area was associated with the neighboring communities of Wiesede and Wiesedermeer .

The name itself is interpreted tautologically , since Wies could have the meaning of moor. Other possible meanings are the meadow moor or wet moor .

Population development

Population development of Wiesmoor from 1914 to 2017

Founded in 1906, only 151 people lived in Wiesmoor eight years later. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, the population had not yet broken the 1000 mark; this only happened after the war when refugees were taken in. The leaps in population development in 1951 and 1972 can be explained by the formation of the large community of Wiesmoor and the incorporation of the surrounding small communities in the Lower Saxony municipal reform. Since the 1990s, Wiesmoor has grown through immigration from the new federal states and ethnic repatriates, but also through the influx of pensioners from other parts of Germany. On December 31, 2008, Wiesmoor had 13,261 inhabitants, who were spread over around 4,000 households . This corresponds to a population density of 160 people per square kilometer.

year population 1914 151 1919 383 1923 686 1939 905 1949 1,474 1951 4,927

year population 1961 5,738 1963 6.276 1970 7.177 1972 9,724 1985 10,505 1991 10,922

year population 1996 11,874 2001 12,875 2003 13,039 2007 13,128 2017 13.110

politics

East Frisia in its entirety is a traditional stronghold of the SPD. However, there are clear differences between western and eastern East Frisia. In the larger western part of East Frisia, the SPD is mostly well ahead of the CDU. In the eastern part - the Wittmund district, the eastern part of the Leer district and parts of the Aurich district including Wiesmoor - on the other hand, the CDU has a strong position and is generally somewhat ahead of the SPD in elections.

Within this eastern part of East Friesland, however, Wiesmoor has been an industrial settlement for decades and has been a stronghold of the SPD. This was already evident in the years of the Weimar Republic and did not change after the Second World War. The SPD has long been in the majority at the community level, the mayor is a social democrat and the member of the Bundestag also belongs to the SPD. The member of the state parliament is also a member of the SPD: Wiesmoor, together with some other municipalities in the Aurich district, belongs to the state electoral district of 87 Wittmund / Insel.

There are, however, some differences within the community. In an investigation of voting behavior in federal elections between 1949 and 1972, Theodor Schmidt used detailed statistics to show that the main town and the districts that were incorporated in 1951 always gave the SPD at least a relative, but mostly an absolute majority of votes. On the other hand, the less populous, somewhat rural-peasant-structured districts (Zwischenbergen, Marcardsmoor, Wiesederfehn, Voßbarg) that were not incorporated until 1972 often voted for relative to absolute CDU majorities. This can still be seen today, with some reservations.

City council

Town hall in Wiesmoor

The council of the city of Wiesmoor consists of 30 councilors. This is the specified number for a city with a population between 12,001 and 15,000. The 30 council members are elected for five years each by local elections. The current term of office began on November 1, 2016 and ends on October 31, 2021.

The full-time mayor Friedrich Völler (SPD) is also entitled to vote in the city council.

The official final result of the Lower Saxony local elections on September 11, 2016 was as follows:

Political party	Voting share	change	Seats	change
SPD	52.4%	- 1.2	16	0
CDU	26.9%	- 1.8	8th	- 1
Wiesmoor Alliance (WB)	8.1%	+ 8.1	2	+ 2
FDP	4.2%	- 4.5	1	- 2nd
Alliance 90 / The Greens	3.7%	- 2.5	1	- 1
The left	3.1%	+ 3.1	1	+ 1
ÖDP	1.6%	- 0.4	1	+ 1

Despite losses, the SPD defended its absolute majority in the council, which it has held for some time. The CDU remained the second strongest party despite losses. The winner of the election was the Wiesmoor Alliance, which split off from the SPD in October 2015. The Left made it into the city council for the first time in the local elections in 2016, the Greens lost one seat, the FDP two seats. For local elections in East Friesland, the performance of the ÖDP, which made it to the council despite slight losses, is rather unusual.

mayor

The full-time mayor of the city of Wiesmoor is Friedrich Völler (SPD). In the last mayoral elections on May 25, 2014, he received 78.9 percent of the vote and prevailed against his competitor Klaus-Dieter Reder from the CDU. Völler took up his position on November 1, 2014, replacing the previous incumbent Alfred Meyer, who was no longer running. Meyer had held the office since 1998.

Representatives in the Landtag and Bundestag

The city of Wiesmoor belongs to the state electoral district 87 Wittmund / Insel , which includes the entire district of Wittmund and the cities of Norderney and Wiesmoor, the municipality of Dornum and the island communities of Juist and Baltrum in the Aurich district . 15 parties ran for the state elections in Lower Saxony in 2017 . Six of these parties have put up direct candidates. The directly elected MP is Jochen Beekhuis from the SPD .

In federal elections, Wiesmoor belongs to constituency 24 Aurich - Emden . This includes the city of Emden and the district of Aurich. In the 2017 federal election , the social democrat Johann Saathoff was directly elected. No party candidate from the constituency entered the Bundestag via the parties' list.

coat of arms

Blazon : "Under the black head of the shield with a golden lightning bolt in gold breaking out of the left edge of the shield, a black black grouse armored in red."

Reasons for the coat of arms: The coat of arms reflects the history of the city. The lightning bolt stands for the electrical energy that was generated in the power plant by potting away the raised bog. This was inextricably linked to the urbanization of the inaccessible natural area, where the black grouse previously lived in large numbers. The colors of the city of Wiesmoor are green and yellow and were taken over by Nordwestdeutsche Kraftwerke AG. The city's flag is in these colors, with horizontal stripes and in equal parts. It is used either with or without a coat of arms, but officially with.

Town twinning

Wiesmoor has had a partnership with the Polish Turek in the Greater Poland Voivodeship since 1991 . This is mainly maintained by the schools and various associations in both cities. There are regular student exchanges and the clubs are in a lively exchange, which is expressed primarily in visits to official events such as celebrations and anniversaries.

In addition, a friendly relationship is maintained with the community -free community of Budenheim in the Mainz-Bingen district .

religion

Wiesmoor is part of the Aurich parish, which, with around 73,000 parishioners, is the second largest parish of the Hanover regional church . The districts of Aurich and Wittmund have the highest percentage of Lutherans (of the total population) in all of Germany. Today around 90 percent of Wiesmoor's residents belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. About 4 percent of the population are Catholic. The rest is distributed among other religious communities and the non-denominational group.

In Wiesmoor there are the Lutheran congregations Wiesmoor, Marcardsmoor and Hinrichsfehn. Until the founding of their own parish in 1928, the Lutherans in Wiesmoor were part of the Marcardsmoor parish , which is the oldest in the city. In 1930 the Peace Church Wiesmoor was built in the center . In 1965, the Reconciliation Church in the Hinrichsfehn district was consecrated as a subsidiary church of the Peace Church. The parish has been independent since 1987, making it the youngest in the Aurich parish. Parts of the city area also belong to the Lutheran communities of Spetzerfehn, Strackholt and Ostgroßefehn.

The Roman Catholic parish owes its establishment to Polish guest workers. A church was built for them in 1913 in what is now the Hinrichsfehn district, which also served as a camp church for prisoners of the Catholic faith. During the First World War, Catholic prisoners of war were also looked after here. This church was used until the mid-1930s. After the end of the Second World War and the resulting influx of Catholic refugees and displaced persons from Silesia, the Church of Mary Help of Christians was built in 1953 and was run independently until 1990. This year, a shortage of priests meant that the parish was also provided for by the St. Ludgerus Church in Aurich. Since 2007 the Catholic Church Wiesmoor has been part of a parish community to which the Catholic parishes of Wittmund, Neustadtgödens and Aurich also belong.

The Evangelical Methodist parish has existed since 1923. Today it has about thirty members.

A New Apostolic parish in Wiesmoor existed in Wiesmoor from 1966 to 2013. Until 1982, the congregation met in various places for divine services, including in the auditorium of the Cooperative Comprehensive School (KGS) Wiesmoor. In 1982 she started building a church, which was completed the following year and which was the youngest church in the city for over 30 years. In May 2013 the church was divorced.

The spa and landscape park

Culture and sights

Museums and buildings

Bog track

Peat and Settlement Museum

The peat and settlement museum, located between the landscape park and the "flower kingdom", was founded in 1980. It consists of several original, rebuilt buildings. This also includes a historic village school, a forge and the colonist house. The history of the bog colonization from 1780 to the reclamation of the meadow bog from 1906 is shown. The museum is connected to the flower hall via a bog railway. The historic building ensemble of the Wiesmoor nursery was placed under monument protection. Guided tours are offered from March to October.

The former administration building of Nordwestdeutsche Kraftwerke AG was built in 1936 as a gatehouse to ensure quick passage to the greenhouses behind. Parts of the city administration and the trade association have been housed in the two-storey, elongated raw brick building since 1987.

180 ° interior view of the Church of Reconciliation 2014

From 1963 to 1965, a Protestant church was built in Hinrichsfehn according to plans by the Oldenburg architect Rainer Herrmann, which is considered an example of the classic modern style . The glass concrete façades on the south and north sides were designed by the informal artist Max Herrmann , who also came from Oldenburg and was a student of Otto Dix and Max Beckmann . In 1987 she was given the title of Reconciliation Church .

Theater, art and music

In Wiesmoor there are nine choirs, several ecclesiastical and secular wind orchestras as well as guitar choirs. The Niederdeutsche Bühne Wiesmoor performed their pieces on the open-air stage until the 1970s. Since then, the KGS Wiesmoor forum has been the venue for the ensemble, which is a member of the Lower Saxony / Bremen stage association, twice a year. The Wiesmoor Culture and Art Circle , which has existed since 1995, supports the visual arts, concerts and literary events in Wiesmoor. The open-air stage is used for open-air concerts . Since December 2009, the artists' association Nordbrücke eV has settled in the Kunsthaus in Wiesmoor. The artists' association now consists of around a dozen visual artists and presents six to eight exhibitions a year.

Parks, flower display and natural monuments

The wildlife and community park was laid out in 1952 and has an area of ​​14 hectares. In 1954, an open-air stage with 3,000 seats was built in the center of the park. The spa and landscape park extends over an area of ​​15 ha. It was opened in 1977 and is located between the flower hall and the peat and settlement museum. These two sights are connected by a moor railway that crosses the park. The complex of the Nielsenpark from 1927 is listed in its entirety.

The flower hall of the "flower kingdom"

The garden park of the "flower kingdom"

The flower hall is the landmark of the place. It was built in 1969 for changing garden exhibitions. On an area of ​​around 1,500 square meters, more than 10,000 flowers are presented in annually changing exhibitions from March to October. The hall is also used for art exhibitions. The water organ is the only permanently installed in East Frisia. In 2007 the flower hall was expanded to include a 5  hectare outdoor area, the garden park . Flower hall and garden park together form the "flower kingdom".

An “adventure golf course” was built to the west of the “flower kingdom”.

Otter Sea

The Ottermeer was created in 1977 as an artificial high moor lake. Its name goes back to a silted up high moor lake that was a little further north. The lake is located in the middle of a moor landscape and is mainly used as a recreational area. It is surrounded by a hiking trail. The north bank has a sandy beach and is used for tourism. The camping and bungalow park is located here. The Ottermeer and its surroundings are part of a 104-hectare nature reserve that has been under protection since 1991.

In 2006 the Wiesmoor-Klinge raised bog complex was designated as a nature reserve. The natural monument covers 351 hectares and extends partly to the area of ​​the neighboring municipality of Großefehn. A boulder at Hinrichsfehn is added as a natural monument with a size of less than one hectare.

language

Distribution area of ​​the East Frisian Platt and its dialect Harlinger Platt

In Wiesmoor, East Frisian Platt is spoken in addition to Standard German . The city itself forms a language dividing line between the western and central parts of East Friesland and the eastern Harlingerland , where the local dialect Harlinger Platt is spoken. It differs not only in details of the vocabulary, but also in certain grammatical peculiarities from the rest of the East Frisian plateau. In Harlingerland, as in most of Northern Germany, "talked / spoken" is used when speaking of "talking / speaking", while in the western part of East Frisia the corresponding verb is "proten", which goes back to the influence of its western neighbor, the Netherlands: There the corresponding word is “praten”. In addition, in Harlingerland the unit plural is formed on "(e) t" and not on "(e) n" as in western East Frisia. “We speak” means “Wi s (ch) naked” in Harlingerland, while closer to the Ems it means “Wi proten”.

Sports

The Wiesmoor gymnastics community, founded in 1930, is the largest sports club in the city with around 3,600 members and the second largest in the Aurich district after MTV Aurich. Basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, athletics, tennis, cycling, gymnastics and dancing are all on offer. The district fishing association of Ostfriesland has been represented with a fishing home in the Marcardsmoor district since 1926. There is also a local branch of the association in Wiesmoor itself. At the beginning of 2007 these two local groups were merged. The local group that was created in this way bears the name of the local group Wiesmoor because it now completely covers the area of ​​the city of Wiesmoor.

There has been a swimming club in Wiesmoor since 1952. On the initiative of the swimming club, the planning of an indoor swimming pool in Wiesmoor began in 1958 and was completed in 1964. After the number of members was only ten when the club was founded, the Wiesmoorer swimming club had more than 500 members in 2010. The Marcardsmoor water sports club was founded in 1994. There are sports clubs in several parts of the city that offer the Frisian sports Boßeln and Klootschießen . Wiesmoor is home to one of the oldest DLRG structures in the East Frisia district. The DLRG's group of operational divers works closely with the city's fire services and is integrated into regional and national disaster control.

Wiesmoor has an indoor and an outdoor pool. The city also has six sports halls, eight sports fields, a tennis hall and two tennis courts. There is also a mini golf and a 27-hole golf course . KGS Wiesmoor also maintains a public leisure and exercise park with various sports fields.

Regular events

The largest annual event is the flower festival , which is organized by the tourist and local community. It takes place on the first weekend in September for five consecutive days. The festival, founded in 1952, attracts thousands of tourists to the health resort every year. A highlight of the five-day event is the flower parade, which is dedicated to a different motto every year and consists of several cars with thousands of flowers and slowly drives a circuit through the community. During the twilight pint on Saturday evening, the old flower queen and her court ladies jump with the parachute over the football stadium. Then there is a celebration there, which culminates with a large fireworks display. On Sunday afternoon, a new flower queen will be chosen by the audience on the open-air stage. The second and third place winners will be their ladies-in-waiting. The royal family represents Wiesmoor for a year at many regional and national events. The festival is accompanied by a flea market and a hype on the market square. On Monday evening, the flower festival will end with “Canal in Flames”. This is a fireworks display that is set off directly on and above the Nordgeorgsfehnkanal.

The city's trade association organizes several regular events. These include the Wiesmoor Spring Festival (annually in March), the flower and plant market (annually in spring), Oktoberfest, the city festival and the Christmas market that takes place on the four Sundays of Advent. The summer festival is organized jointly by the city and the trade association.

Economy and Infrastructure

Separate labor market data for the city of Wiesmoor are not collected. Together with the city of Aurich and the communities of Großefehn, Ihlow and Südbrookmerland, Wiesmoor forms the Aurich branch within the Emden-Leer district of the employment agency. In the area of ​​the Aurich branch, the unemployment rate was 7.4 percent in September 2012, which is around one percentage point above the Lower Saxony average. Wiesmoor has a slight excess of commuters . Wiesmoor is one of the three (out of ten) East Frisian cities, along with Wittmund and Weener , whose number of out-commuters exceeds the number of in-commuters. In the city there are (as of 2007) 3550 employees subject to social security contributions, but only 3417 jobs subject to social security contributions. 2151 outbound commuters compared to inbound commuters in 2018.

Agriculture and horticulture

Wiesmoor nursery and tourist information

Agriculture - and especially horticulture - have always played an important economic role in the city. The Wiesmoor nursery was established in 1925 when the Nordwestdeutsche Kraftwerke AG (NWK) began to use excess heat from the power plant to heat greenhouses for vegetables. The Wiesmoor-Gärtnerei GmbH was founded in 1965/66, of which the NWK remained the sole shareholder. In 2001, the shares were transferred to five senior employees as part of a management buy-out process. Several nurseries have also joined forces with nurseries from other locations to form the Nordwest-Blumen cooperative. The nurseries together have the largest contiguous area under glass in Europe, which extends to 80,000 m² in the city.

Agriculture in the city is also largely influenced by the dairy industry. In addition to grassland, there are also cultivation areas for forage crops such as maize. The district of Aurich is the eleventh largest milk producer district in Germany, to which Wiesmoor contributes to a certain extent, albeit less than municipalities with a larger area.

Tourism and other services

As a state-approved climatic health resort with a number of sights and leisure opportunities, Wiesmoor is a destination for vacationers. In 2007, 41,000 overnight stays in hostels with more than seven beds were recorded in Wiesmoor, and another 65,000 to 70,000 in smaller accommodations. There are more than 40 accommodation establishments in the city, including four hotels and guest houses. The majority are holiday apartments and houses. There is also a campsite and mobile home sites on the Ottermeer, and another campsite is located in Marcardsmoor on the Ems-Jade Canal. The tourists stayed in the city for an average of 2.9 days. In 2007, the flower hall had 59,000 visitors. The added value of tourism in the city was given as around 21 million euros. The city lies on the German fen route , the Tour de Fries and the Rad up Pad cycle route . The most important shopping street is Hauptstraße (B 436), on both sides of which there are specialty shops and supermarkets. There are further retail outlets in an industrial area in the Wiesederfehn district, and a larger furniture store in the Vossbarg district.

Industry and raw materials

Peat extraction in Mullberg

The city is considered the only municipality in East Friesland that owes its origins to industrialization: through mechanical peat extraction and the use of the peat for a power station. Even today, peat is extracted on an industrial scale in Wiesmoor. This is used as fertilizer (sometimes with the addition of cattle manure). The peat farms are located on the outskirts of the city, near the raw material deposits. The dismantling is currently being carried out by Aurich-Wiesmoorer Torfvertriebs GmbH. The largest industrial company is the Bohlen & Doyen company , which is active in the energy industry, construction business and plant engineering and is based in Wiesmoor. It employs more than 500 people nationwide and operates at five locations. It emerged from a two-man haulage company that was founded in 1950 by Heinrich Bohlen and Heinrich Doyen. The Bohlen und Doyen company is located in the south-west of the city center on federal highway 436.

In addition, there are industrial companies in the fields of vehicle construction and metal construction as well as construction chemistry. Most of the other manufacturing companies are concentrated in two industrial areas on Oldenburger Strasse, which leads south, at the outskirts of Wiesmoors and in the Hinrichsfehn district. They are closest to the junction of the A 28.

media

Wiesmoor is in the circulation area of ​​three daily newspapers. On the one hand, there is the Ostfriesen-Zeitung , which has an office with an editorial office in Wiesmoor. The Anzeiger für Harlingerland is also represented with an office . This is traditionally distributed in the Wittmund district. However, since large parts of today's Wiesmoor city area still belonged to the district of Wittmund until the formation of the greater Wiesmoor community, the indicator is still anchored in the city. The third of the daily newspapers is the Ostfriesische Nachrichten , the newspaper that appears in Aurich and is mainly read in the historic Aurich region ( Altkreis Aurich , until 1977). The editorial support is carried out at ON from Aurich. The citizen broadcaster Radio Ostfriesland also reports from Wiesmoor .

education

Cooperative comprehensive school (KGS) Wiesmoor

Education is primarily guaranteed by the Cooperative Comprehensive School (KGS) in the center of Wiesmoor with more than 1450 students (as of 2010). In addition to the main, secondary and grammar school branches, it also has a primary school and a grammar school upper level, which passed its first Abitur class in 1999. The KGS Wiesmoor is also visited by students from the neighboring communities in the districts of Leer and Wittmund. There are no separate secondary and secondary schools or grammar schools in Wiesmoor. The closest grammar school is in Aurich, also vocational schools.

There are primary schools in Wilhelmsfehn II (primary school Am Ottermeer) , in Hinrichsfehn (primary school on the Fehnkanal) and in the Wiesmoorer Zentrum (primary school Wiesmoor-Mitte) . There are no schools for learning assistance (special schools) in Wiesmoor, the closest one is in the neighboring community of Großefehn. The Aurich District Adult Education Center has a branch in Wiesmoor.

Public facilities

The city library

After the closure of the Fehnkaserne there are no more public facilities of national importance in Wiesmoor. The authorities responsible for Wiesmoor such as the tax office and land registry office as well as the responsible district court are located in the district town of Aurich, as is the district administration. In addition to the city administration and its subordinate companies such as the building yard, there is also the tourist information office, which is owned by the city. The city library is in the immediate vicinity of KGS Wiesmoor.

The Wiesmoor volunteer fire brigade was founded in 1930 and has been part of the Aurich district fire brigade association since 1951 . Today the city fire brigade has 70 to 90 missions a year. Their area of ​​application is not limited to Wiesmoor, but also includes neighboring communities up to Bundesstraße 72 . The Wiesmoor volunteer fire brigade today has 75 active members in Wiesmoor and 30 in the Marcardsmoor district. In addition to the two operational fire brigades, there is also a youth fire brigade with 31 and an age department with 17 members (as of 2013). The city fire brigade's inventory consists of nine operational vehicles, including the Marcardsmoor fire brigade vehicle.

traffic

Location Wiesmoors (center) on the traffic arteries in East Friesland

Wiesmoor is located in the middle of the East Frisian peninsula and thus away from the motorways 28 , 29 and 31 that run through the region . A federal road and a state road open up the city and connect it to the national traffic. It is the federal highway 436 , which leads from Weener to Sande in a south-west-north-east direction across the East Frisian peninsula. The length of the Wiesmoor city area is eleven kilometers. In the city center of Wiesmoor, it crosses state road 12, which leads from Wittmund in a southerly direction to Remels . The L 12, which is 14 kilometers long in the city, represents the shortest connection to the A 28 ( Leer - Oldenburg ) for Wiesmoor .

In addition, district roads lead from Wiesmoor to the neighboring communities, and the district town of Aurich can also be reached by the shortest route via district roads. The length of the district roads in Wiesmoor is 15 kilometers. In addition, there are other urban roads about 200 kilometers long, so that the road network in the city is about 240 kilometers long.

Overland bus routes connect Wiesmoor with Aurich and Leer. Buses run once an hour from around 6 a.m. to around 7 p.m. Bus routes in the direction of Wittmund and Wilhelmshaven are associated with significantly poorer timing and longer travel times. Wiesmoor never had a connection to the national railway network. The closest passenger stations are in Wittmund, Leer, Sande and Augustfehn , with Leer and Augustfehn being an intercity stop. NordWestBahn trains run from Wittmund and Sande to Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven, but Oldenburg can also be reached from the train stations in Leer and Augustfehn. Since only the one in Leer can be reached by express bus from these stations , it is the preferred station for rail travelers.

The closest airfields are in Leer and Mariensiel near Wilhelmshaven . The closest international airport is in Bremen .

The canals are of great importance for boat tourism, but they have long since lost their former function in freight traffic. In the north, the Ems-Jade Canal crosses the city in a west-east direction. In the Marcardsmoor district, the Nordgeorgsfehn Canal, which runs south through Wiesmoor, branches off from it and leads in the direction of Leda and Jümme .

Personalities

The former director of the peat power plant and the Wiesmoor nursery, Johann Gerhard (called: Jan) Hinrichs (1887–1974), who has made a contribution to the development of the place, is so far the only honorary citizen of the city (1954). The writer and linguist Johann Loet Schoon (1894–1968), who was awarded the Freudenthal Prize in 1966 , found a job as an office worker in Wiesmoor after the First World War. The Low German poet Greta Schoon (1909–1991) worked from the mid-1930s to 1945 as a community nurse in Wiesmoor. For her literary work, she was awarded the Freudenthal Prize in 1980, the Klaus Groth Prize in 1981 and the Roswitha Prize in 1984. The children's book author and illustrator Andrea Reitmeyer was born in 1979 in Wiesmoor.

literature

• Karl-Heinz Frees (Ed.): The great Wiesmoor. The flower community of East Frisia. Soltau-Kurier, Norden 1987, ISBN 3-922365-74-4 .
• Karl-Heinz Frees: Wiesmoor. The long way from the moor to the flower city. Rautenberg, Leer 2005.
• Jan Hinrichs: Wiesmoor. Origin and future. Hinck, Hanover 1961.
• Helmut Sanders: Großefehn-Wiesmoor. Sutton, Erfurt 1999, ISBN 3-89702-162-5 .
• Helmut Sanders: Wiesmoor. Its cultivation and settlement from the outskirts. Mettcker, Jever 1990, ISBN 3-87542-006-3 .
• Helmut Sanders: Wiesmoor 1906–1996. From the intercity center to the central location. Rautenberg, Leer 1997, ISBN 3-7921-0587-X .
• Horst Wöbbeking, Hermann Gutmann, Friedrich Schröder: River landscapes Wiesmoor. Christians, Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-7672-1026-6 .

Web links

Commons : Wiesmoor  - Collection of Images

• Official homepage of the city of Wiesmoor
• Chronicle Wiesmoor
• Peat and Settlement Museum
• Link catalog on Wiesmoor at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )

Individual evidence

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on October 31, 2011 in this version .

1. ↑ State Office for Statistics Lower Saxony, LSN-Online regional database, Table 12411: Update of the population, as of December 31, 2019  ( help ).
2. ↑ Ordinance on the regional spatial planning program at www.nds-voris.de, accessed on March 22, 2010.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} yumpu.com: Numbers • Data • Facts • Interesting facts ( memento of December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on December 1, 2015.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} Karl-Heinz Frees (Ortschronisten der Ostfriesischen Landschaft): Wiesmoor, Stadt Wiesmoor, Landkreis Aurich , p. 5, (PDF file; 91.1 kB), accessed on May 12, 2012.
5. ^ Karl-Heinz Frees (local chronicle of the East Frisian landscape): Wiesmoor, Stadt Wiesmoor, district Aurich , p. 1 (PDF file; 91.1 kB), accessed on May 12, 2012.
6. ↑ However, if one counts only at the unitary and integrated community level, Dornum also only has two neighboring communities in the district, specifically Hage and Großheide.
7. ↑ City and districts. In: City of Wiesmoor - data and facts. City of Wiesmoor, accessed on August 2, 2020 . 
8. ↑ German Weather Service
9. ↑ Harm Wiemann / Johannes Engelmann: Old ways and streets in Ostfriesland (Ostfriesland im Schutz des Deiches, Vol. 8), Verlag Rautenberg, Leer 2002, without ISBN, p. 96 ff. And cartographic appendix.
10. ↑ Helmut Sanders (local chronicle of the East Frisian landscape): Marcardsmoor, community Wiesmoor, district Aurich (PDF file; 33 kB), accessed on March 5, 2010.
11. ^ W. Schwarz (Archaeological Service of the East Frisian Landscape): A bronze ax from the moor , accessed on March 5, 2010.
12. ↑ Quoted in: Helmut Sanders: Wiesmoor - His cultivation and settlement from the outlying communities. Verlag Mettcker & Söhne, Jever 1990, ISBN 3-87542-006-3 , p. 25.
13. ↑ Helmut Sanders: Wiesmoor - His cultivation and settlement from the peripheral communities . Verlag Mettcker & Söhne, Jever 1990, ISBN 3-87542-006-3 , p. 36.
14. ^ Harm Wiemann, Johannes Engelmann: Old ways and roads in East Frisia . Self-published, Pewsum 1974, ISBN 3-925365-07-9 , pp. 46 (East Frisia under the protection of the dike; 8).
15. ↑ Helmut Sanders: Wiesmoor - His cultivation and settlement from the peripheral communities . Verlag Mettcker & Söhne, Jever 1990, ISBN 3-87542-006-3 , p. 40.
16. ↑ Helmut Sanders: Wiesmoor - His cultivation and settlement from the peripheral communities . Verlag Mettcker & Söhne, Jever 1990, ISBN 3-87542-006-3 , p. 22 ff.
17. ↑ Quoted in: Helmut Sanders: Wiesmoor - His cultivation and settlement from the outlying communities. Verlag Mettcker & Söhne, Jever 1990, ISBN 3-87542-006-3 , p. 45.
18. ↑ Eberhard Rack: Settlement and settlement of the old district north . Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1967, p. 73.
19. ↑ Information in this section, unless otherwise referenced, in: Karl-Heinz Frees: Wiesmoor - The long way from the moor to the city of flowers . Rautenberg-Verlag, Leer 2006, without ISBN, p. 95 ff.
20. ^ Aurich district: Activity report 1948 to 1952 . Verlag AHF Dunkmann, Aurich 1952, without ISBN, p. 29.
21. ^ ^{A b} Inge Lüpke-Müller: The Wittmund district between monarchy and dictatorship. Political structures and election results from 1918 to 1933. In: Herbert Reyer (Hrsg.): Ostfriesland between republic and dictatorship . Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1998, ISBN 3-932206-10-X , p. 15 ff.
22. ↑ Inge Lüpke-Müller: The district of Wittmund between monarchy and dictatorship. Political structures and election results from 1918 to 1933. In: Herbert Reyer (Ed.): Ostfriesland between republic and dictatorship , Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1998, ISBN 3-932206-10-X , p. 66 ff.
23. ↑ Manfred Staschen: The labor and prison camps around Aurich and the Engerhafe satellite camp . In: Herbert Reyer (Ed.): Aurich in National Socialism . Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1993, ISBN 3-925365-49-4 , p. 421 f.
24. ↑ Manfred Staschen: The labor and prison camps around Aurich and the Engerhafe satellite camp . In: Herbert Reyer (Ed.): Aurich in National Socialism . Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1993, ISBN 3-925365-49-4 , p. 430, 437.
25. ↑ ^{a b} Aurich district: Activity report 1948 to 1952 . Verlag AHF Dunkmann, Aurich 1952, without ISBN, p. 30.
26. ↑ Unfair struggle for community Wiesmoor - District Administrator Onken protects himself against defamation in words and pictures , in: Anzeiger für Harlingerland of March 30, 1951, printed in: Helmut Sanders: Wiesmoor - His cultivation and settlement from the outlying communities . Verlag Mettcker & Söhne, Jever 1990, ISBN 3-87542-006-3 , p. 142.
27. ^ Aurich district: Activity report 1948 to 1952 . Verlag AHF Dunkmann, Aurich 1952, without ISBN, p. 33.
28. ^ Nieuwsblad van het Noorden of December 20, 1962
29. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt of December 18, 1962
30. ^ Nieuwsblad van het Noorden from June 25, 1964 with reference to the Ostfriesen-Zeitung
31. ↑ Nuclear reactor should replace peat power station Ostfriesen-Zeitung of July 19, 2012
32. ↑ Limburgsch Dagblad of December 3, 1965
33. ↑ Company history of Bohlen & Doyen , accessed on December 1, 2015.
34. ^ Karl-Heinz Frees: Wiesmoor - The long way from the moor to the flower city . Rautenberg-Verlag, Leer 2006, without ISBN, pp. 292/293.
35. ↑ ^{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 and Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 261 .
36. ↑ 20 years ago Wiesmoor narrowly escaped an inferno , Ostfriesen-Zeitung, January 13, 2009, accessed on December 1, 2015 .
37. ↑ StBA: Changes in the municipalities in Germany, see 2006
38. ↑ Chronicle Wiesmoor: Moving ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 3, 2011.
39. ↑ Wiesmoor-Info : Stadt Wiesmoor , accessed on February 6, 2010.
40. ↑ Klaus von Beyme : The political system of the Federal Republic of Germany: An introduction , VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-531-33426-3 , p. 100, limited preview in the Google book search, May 22, 2011
41. ^ Theodor Schmidt: Analysis of the statistics and relevant sources on the federal elections in East Frisia 1949-1972 . Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1978, pp. 66–69 and cartographic supplements.
42. ^ Lower Saxony Municipal Constitutional Law (NKomVG) in the version of December 17, 2010; Section 46 - Number of MPs , accessed on December 28, 2016.
43. ↑ www.wiesmoor.de: Local elections 2016 , accessed on December 28, 2016.
44. ^ Nordwest-Zeitung: Bundestag election: These members represent our region . In: NWZonline . ( nwzonline.de [accessed September 29, 2017]).
45. ↑ www.wiesmoor.de: Wappen der Stadt Wiesmoor , accessed on December 1, 2015.
46. ^ Sprengel Ostfriesland: Church districts , accessed on February 2, 2010.
47. ^ Sprengel Ostfriesland ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ): Statistical , accessed on February 2, 2010.
48. ^ NAK Northern Germany: Wiesmoor ; accessed on May 16, 2015
49. ↑ torf-und-siedlungsmuseum.de : Peat and Settlement Museum , accessed on March 1, 2010.
50. ^ Church district Aurich: Versöhnungskirchengemeinde Hinrichsfehn , accessed on March 4, 2010.
51. ^ Artists' Association North Bridge - exhibition program , accessed on October 27, 2011
52. ↑ Luftkurort Wiesmoor Touristik GmbH: "Blumenreich" Blumenhalle & Gartenpark http://www.tourismus-wiesmoor.de/index.php?sid=1034&ses=f13bd591c6072ab4ed548a45b7804e87 ( Memento from September 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed on March 1 2010.
53. ^ Luftkurort Wiesmoor Touristik GmbH: Map of the leisure facilities in Wiesmoor
54. ↑ The information can be viewed on an interactive map at www.meine-umweltkarte-niedersachsen.de ( Memento from January 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
55. ^ Homepage of the Wiesmoor gymnastics club , accessed on March 6, 2014.
56. ^ Swimming club Wiesmoor ( Memento from August 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ): history of the club , accessed on February 2, 2010.
57. ↑ www.wiesmoor.de: Sportstätten , accessed on December 1, 2015.
58. ↑ Figures from the Emden-Leer Employment Agency , accessed on March 22, 2010.
59. ↑ Statistics from the Federal Employment Agency, Excel file, line 2079
60. ^ Wiesmoor-Gärtnerei.de: History , accessed on March 1, 2010.
61. ↑ Lower Saxony State Office for Statistics , quoted in: Ostfriesischer Kurier , August 14, 2008, p. 12.
62. ↑ Wiesmoor Tourismus GmbH, quoted in: Ostfriesischer Kurier , March 17, 2008, p. 23.
63. ↑ Bohlen & Doyen construction company |. Accessed on November 13, 2019 (German). 
64. ↑ www.wiesmoor.de: Figures, data, facts , accessed on December 1, 2015.