Nordhorn
Encyclopedia
Nordhorn is the district seat of Grafschaft Bentheim in Lower Saxony
's southwesternmost corner near the border with the Netherlands and the boundary with North Rhine-Westphalia
.
) and its castle
, it is said that this yielded the name Nordhorn.
A horn, however, was also used by the boatmen on the river Vechte
to warn each other of ships’ movements in fog
. Indeed, since the 1970s, the Tuter ("Tooter"), a bronze
memorial
to the beginnings of inland shipping, has stood at the old harbour.
Since a settlement with a harbour arose between Schüttorf and Emlichheim in the Early Middle Ages
whose coat of arms
bore a horn as a charge
, it seems likely that Nordhorn could have arisen from this.
A more scientifically based variation on what the arms mean holds that "horn" is meant in the sense of "pointed end", making "Nordhorn" a northern point – the jutting northerly end of a field into the Vechte Valley. Heinrich Specht pointed this out in his 1941 town chronicle in reference to the spur, or "horn", of land on which the town's first centre was built. (Lit.: Nordhorn Geschichte einer Grenzstadt. Publisher: Heimatverein der Grafschaft Bentheim)
A more fanciful story holds that the locals once worshipped the god Nod, Node or Nothe, the beginning of whose festival was heralded by blows on ox and cow horns. To pay homage to him, holy fire, called Nodfyr, was lit either by striking flint
stones or by rubbing dry sticks together. From the god's name and the hornblowing, the town's name is said to have come.
The name, of course, actually has nothing to do with any emergency horn or any god named Nod. "No(r)dhorn" is perhaps similar to the "Maa(r)s", "Meu(r)s" or "Marsh" river. That is what has caused the confusion; a silent "r" or a difficulty in pronouncing the "r" due to the proximity to France.
Nordhorn is called Nothoorn or Notthöörntin in the local speech. In the compilation Werdener Heberigister, the town's name is recorded in 890 as Norhthornon (note the silent "r") and in 1050 as Northornon. In 1184 it is Northorne. On town seals between 1400 and 1715 also appears the form Northorne, and only from 1827 forth does it become Nordhorn. (Lit.: Specht, 1941/1979) Perhaps this is similar to "Surhdt", Libya. Hence the words Sur, Sud, and South.
, on the river Vechte
. The nearest major city is Hengelo
in the Netherlands, some 20 km southwest of Nordhorn. The nearest German cities are Münster
, about 75 km to the southeast, and Osnabrück
, about 85 km to the east.
The landscape in and around Nordhorn is marked by the Vechte, the Vechtesee (lake), through which the Vechte flows, and three canals: the Süd-Nord-Kanal, the Nordhorn-Almelo-Kanal and the Ems-Vechte-Kanal.
Nordhorn lies in the Mid-European Temperate Zone. The average yearly temperature is 8.5 °C (47 °F), the mean air pressure
is 761.5 hPa and the mean yearly precipitation
amounts to between 700 and 800 mm. The climate is Subatlantic with rather mild winters and fairly warm summers.
.
, while the communities of Engden
and Isterberg
lie to the south. The town's western limit is also part of Germany's border with the Netherlands.
("Stadtteile"), grouped here under "older" and "newer".
The settlement of Nordhorn originally had its centre here, but on strategic grounds it was later moved to the island in the river Vechte. Town rights were granted in 1379, and this older centre was given the name Oude Dorp – "Old Village".
Bakelde
The name comes from Bak (ridge) and Lo (grove). (according to H.Specht - Nordhorn - Geschichte einer Grenzstadt) ?Bach Alte?
Bimolten
Called Bimolt in 1252 and Bimolte in 1213, opinions are rather divided over the name's origin. Specht says it refers to heaps of earth, Reurik says it refers to a grove by the woods (bi'm holte, which in more modern German might be rendered bei dem Holze or beim Holz), and Abels holds that it refers to a settlement on the field. (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Bimolten - Jahrbuch des Heimatvereins 1973).
Bookholt
The name refers to a beech
(Buche) or birch
(Birke) grove. (according to H.Specht - Nordhorn - Geschichte einer Grenzstadt)
Brandlecht
Called Bramtelghet in 1313, the name comes from Bram (gorse
) and telge (twig). (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Brandlecht - Der Grafschafter, Folge 160, June 1966).
Frensdorf
Called Frenstrup in Low German
, the name might come from a personal name. It was also called Friethelstorpe or Frieldorp about 800, and Vrinsthorpe about 1000. (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Frensdorf - Jahrbuch des Heimatvereins 1971).
Frenswegen
Earlier also known as Vrendeswegen, the name's meaning could have been "lying on the way to Frensdorf".
Hesepe
The name Hesepe refers to the community's location on the river Vechte (epe means water). (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Hesepe - Jahrbuch, Heimatverein 1982)
Hestrup
Hestrup was first known in 1150 as Hersebruc and in 1212 as Hersedorp ("Steed Village"). The ending –dorf or –trup, which is cognate with the English word and placename ending "thorp
e", identifies it as a farming community that came into being as an enclosed settlement about 800 with Christianity
's arrival. (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Hestrup - Der Grafschafter, Folge 168, February 1967)
Hohenkörben
Hohenkörben arose about 600 as Hankorve in Bakelde's market on a dune
ridge with limited space. An exact interpretation of its name has not been achieved; however, the town of Neuenhaus
also has an outlying centre by the name of Hohenkörben-Veldhausen. (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Der Grafschafter, Folge 170, May 1967)
The Blanke (the article is used with the name in German – Die Blanke) was once a sunken heath
and bog
area, raised only at the edges, between which were water pools that glinted in the sunlight. Thus, they were also called Blänke. The two biggest were the "Große Blanke" and the "Kleine Blanke". By and by, this area dried up and before the Second World War there was building on the raised edges (Dorotheenstr., Klarastr.). After the war came more widespread settlement by refugees and textile workers. As a reference to the earlier heath ponds, the new neighbourhood was given the name Blanke, which is also so with some street names, such as Blankering and Innere Blanke. One can get an impression of what this area once looked like by visiting the Dutch nature protection area De Bergvennen west of Nordhorn.
Blumensiedlung
In the 1920s, a scheme was undertaken to build houses for jobless miners from the Ruhr area
hired for the textile industry, and for young Nordhorn families. Because the streets were named after flowers, the new neighbourhood was called Blumensiedlung ("Flower Settlement").
Bussmaate
Earlier a meadowland, the so-called Buss Maate was owned by the farmer Busch in Altendorf (Buss from the farmer's name). About 1910, the textile manufacturer Rawe bought the land and had a spinning works built there. In 1913 there followed workers’ dwellings.
Klausheide
This community was named for the son of the founder of the Klausheide Estate (Krupp
von Bohlen und Halbach), who was named Claus (Heide means "heath"). At first, the settlement was known as die Claus-Heide.
Neuberlin
In the early 20th century, southeast of Denekamper Straße near Frensdorf a housing coöperative was founded on an initiative by a Mr. Mäulen. It then tackled the job of building houses. To thank Mr. Mäulen for his efforts, the new neighbourhood was named Neuberlin – literally "New Berlin" – after the city where he was born.
Stadtflur
In earlier centuries, Nordhorn's townsfolk had so-called peat
cutting rights in this area, which at that time was moorland
belonging to the community of Bakelde. In 1864, this area was divided and Nordhorn received this plot as part of its municipal area. It was therefore called the Stadtsche Flur, or "town lea". By the turn of the century there was building here and the area came to be called Stadtflur. Stadtflur now has roughly 7,700 inhabitants, putting it among Nordhorn's bigger Stadtteile.
Streng
Although the modern German meaning of streng is "stern" or "strict", the name actually comes from the so-called Strang ("string" or "strand"), a row of dunes. The Strang stretches from Bogenstraße to Nyhoegen Bridge on Bentheimer Straße. In the early 19th century, the textile manufacturer Ludwig Povel built workers’ dwellings on the near part of the Strang in the Bogenstr.-Ludwigstr. area. On the farther part of the Strang, private houses were built in the 1930s and later.
s. The oldest sediment
s from a depth of about two thousand metres come from the Carboniferous
. With the onset of the Cretaceous
and Tertiary
, the Earth's crust here formed itself into drape folds
. In the mid-Tertiary, subtropical temperatures held sway on Nordhorn's plains. Thereafter began the gradual cooling, which reached its high point in the ice ages. After the last ice had melted, lowlands developed. Strong winds swept dune
s up in the lifeless surface. Even today, the remains of such dune complexes can be found at the nearby Tillenberge (mountains). Archaeological
finds from the Old Stone Age
and the Bronze Age
that followed bear witness to human settlement on Nordhorn's sand plains more than 6,000 years ago.
In the rainy and colder Ice Age, early people settled on the dry riverside heights along the river Vechte. Archaeologists come across traces of Iron Age
settlements, the foundations of later farming communities such as Frensdorf, Bookholt, Altendorf, Hesepe and Bakelde, in almost every field.
From 12 BC to AD 10, the Roman
commanders , Tiberius
, Germanicus
and Varus
undertook in all thirteen campaigns in what was then still free Germany. From their camp in Xanten
, these Roman troops would have undertaken forays into the lands of the Chamavi
and Tubanti
who then dwelt in the Nordhorn area. It is believed that the Romans used the prehistoric banks of the Vechte and sandy paths along the moors
as military roads. This east-west overland connection would later become an important trade road, joining cities such as Brussels
, Amsterdam
, Bremen
and Hamburg
.
In the late 4th century, with the onset of the Migration Period
(or Völkerwanderung), the Saxons
were pushing in from the north and towards the west. They forced the Tubanti farther westwards into Twente
. After Charlemagne
's conquest of the Saxon lands, the first border between the Frankish Empire and Saxony, albeit as an internal boundary, came into being. This line has largely survived history's changing fortunes and still forms the German-Dutch border today.
In 687, Bishop Wilfrid of York
sent missionaries
across the sea to Christianize the former Tubanti land. Willibrord
founded the Bishopric of Utrecht and Werenfried spread Christianity
into the Vechte Valley. About 800, the settlement at Nordhorn was assigned to the Bishopric of Münster. Bishop Ludger
built a wooden church on a spur of ground that thrust into the river's floodplain. About 900, the settlement's name was first mentioned in the Werden an der Ruhr Monastery's Heberegister as Northhornon.
About 1180, the Counts of Bentheim acquired the Nordhorn Gogericht (Regional Court). They built a castle in the middle of the river Vechte on an island. Until 1912, parts of this castle were still maintained. Nowadays, the Catholic St.-Augustinus-Kirche (church) stands there. After building a milldam and two mill
s, it became possible to regulate the river's water flow, thereby also making it possible to settle the island. Other waterways were built – it is supposed under Dutch builders’ influence – which, it is believed, divided the island into six smaller ones. Once two gateway bridges were built and the castle was protecting it, it became easier to defend the settlement against attackers than was so for the old settlement around the market church. Today's main street, which has now grown into an attractive buying and selling place, might have already passed over the island at that time. Merchants and shipowners put down roots here; a marketplace
arose. The name Nordhorn was henceforth used for the newer settlement, now standing on the threshold of becoming a town, whereas the old settlement around the market church came to be known as the "Old Village", and is indeed still known as Altendorf ("Old Village").
Nordhorn had taken a key place on the Flemish Road, the area of today's Bundesstraße
213 and 403 crossroads. Goods from Scandinavia
and the Hanseatic
towns found their way through Nordhorn into the trade centres to the west all the way to Paris. The Vechte was navigable as far up as Schüttorf
.
The Vechte is roughly 167 km long and in the Middle Ages
emptied directly into the sea: it flowed by Zwolle
into the Zuider Zee
, which at that time had not yet been cut off from the North Sea
and was the centre of Dutch sea trade. Since modern land reclamation
projects have been put in place, the river flows north of Zwolle into the Zwarte Water, which itself empties into the IJsselmeer
, the lake that arose from the old Zuider Zee once the Afsluitdijk
was completed.
Already by 1160, the first loads of Bentheim sandstone
were being shipped into the Netherlands. Up to 1,200 freight cranes, scow
s and barge
s lay each year at anchor and brought their goods to Holland. The Steinmaate (street) became a staple market. The like-named street still recalls today that Bentheim sandstone was shipped from here to many other countries. From it were built stately buildings such as the Royal Palace in Amsterdam
, but also many mills, churches, locks, town halls and other public buildings. The returning ships brought spice
s, textiles, paper
and foods as well as luxury articles such as coffee
, tea
, cacao and tobacco
. Trade
, crafts and agriculture
were the region's economic foundations until the mid 19th century. Shipping on the Vechte and the canals (the Ems-Vechte-Kanal, the Nordhorn-Almelo-Kanal, the Süd-Nord-Kanal and the Coevorden-Piccardie-Kanal) together with the transported goods formed an important source of earnings at this time, when the town was also home to wealthy merchants, shipowners and mariners.
On the ninth day after Whitsunday
in 1379, Count Bernhard I granted Nordhorn town rights, and in 1416 also gave it privilege. The small settlement between the arms of the Vechte had grown to be important to the Bentheim Counts as a goods handling centre. With the economic upswing, cultural life also reached a high point in these years. Augustinian canons established the Marienwolde Monastery
in Frenswegen in 1394. Through endowments and donations the monastery became well known as "Westphalia's Paradise" beyond borders. After secularization
in 1806, brought about by Napoleon, monastic properties passed to the Bentheim Counts’ ownership. The settlement spanning thousands of years and the town's thus far 628-year history have left behind very little in the way of buildings, besides the Marienwolde Monastery, as witness to earlier times.
In imitation of the Late Romanesque
churches in neighbouring Westphalia
, churches were built in the 13th century out of Bentheim sandstone. The only artwork preserved from this time is the baptismal font
in Brandlecht. Bearing witness to the 15th century is the Alte Kirche ("Old Church") at the market. It was built in the Late Gothic style under Dutch influence and to honour Saint Ludger, who founded the town's first church, and in whose name this newer church was consecrated. It is likely that three generations worked on this impressive three-naved hall church
. Originally, the tower was 102 m tall and fell under town council's stewardship as a watchtower and firetower. A violent storm toppled the steeple, which came down in the marketplace before the building. The new steeple was considerably shorter – about 70 m – and was designed to let wind pass through it. During restoration work inside the church in 1967, some paintings were uncovered in the sanctuary, the Nordhorner Apostelbilder ("Nordhorn Apostle Pictures"). They show the Twelve Apostles and various Biblical scenes. The paintings were preserved because it could not be agreed what should be done with them, since the Calvinist
Church order of the Reformed Creed introduced by Count Arnold II at Bentheim in 1588 forbade pictures and adornment in church rooms. During more restoration work in the late 1990s, these pictures were rediscovered, and the church council decided to cover the pictures over with rice paper
, as they seemed too valuable simply to paint over.
Sharply decimated by war and epidemics, the town had to deal with several occupations and troop movements in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the Eighty Years' War waged by the Dutch against the Spaniards
, Nordhorn was a way station for Spanish troops because the neighbouring county of Lingen was Spanish territory. It is said that once, the Duke of Parma camped around Nordhorn with 6,000 soldiers.
During the Thirty Years' War
, Swedes
, Hessians, Lüneburg
troops and Imperial forces passed through Nordhorn on the old Flemish army and trade road. They all wanted to feed on the scanty crop yields. The harried town, however, was left hardly any time to recover from the war's ravages. Only a few years later, the warlike Bishop Christoph Bernhard Count of Galen from Münster waged a war against the Dutch on the plains outside Nordhorn, which was brought to an end in 1666 by the Peace of Nordhorn.
In Napoleonic times there was once again much afoot in Nordhorn. In these years, the trading place on the Vechte grew and the two harbours defined the town's image. Napoleon's continental blockade against British trade made Nordhorn into a smuggling
centre by 1806. The broad moors and heaths
abetted this lucrative trade.
As a result of Europe's new political landscape in the wake of the Congress of Vienna
in 1814 and 1815, the hitherto flourishing transit trade in Nordhorn was once again disrupted. The border became a customs barrier, stripping Nordhorn of its trading, which had been oriented towards the west. In the years that followed, the town became poorer. Because the Vechte could not be upgraded and modernized, and because it silted up, shipping was disrupted. The townsfolk turned to farming small plots and traders and shippers left town. Only home weaving
still afforded some earnings. Whole families emigrated
to the New World
.
It is said that 1839 was the year when Nordhorn's textile industry was founded. The first mechanized weaving mill, established by Willem Stroink from Enschede
, sprang up on the trade road. Here, cotton
was processed and calico and watertwist were woven. Later mills were founded in 1864 by Jan van Delden and in 1851 by Josef Povel and Hermann Kistemaker. Textile manufacturing came to set the pace for the languishing economy. Progress came with gradual industrialization. The groundwork for the town's growth into one of Germany's biggest textile-producing towns had been laid.
The town's mayor between 1843 and 1872 was the apothecary and chemical manufacturer Ernst Firnhaber, whose house on the main street stood in the middle of what then was the town's business life. With its classicist building elements it is the last architectural example of a stately townsman's house from the 18th century. After the apothecary came Germany's first quinine
plant. In 1843, 32,403 Pfund – roughly 16 metric tons – of cinchona
was processed and exported. The manufacturers Ludwig Povel, Bernhard Rawe, Bernhard Niehues and Friedrich Dütting founded further textile businesses in the years from 1872 to 1897, some of which are still supplying domestic and international markets in the early 21st century.
In the 1890s, Nordhorn was incorporated into a network of man-made waterways. Through the river Ems, the Dortmund-Ems Canal and the Ems-Vechte Canal, coal
was transported from the Ruhr area
to the up-and-coming textile centre. The Nordhorn-Almelo Canal saw to it that the town was also connected to Dutch inland waterways, and the North-South Canal spurred the peat
trade. Even if today all these canals have no further use for shipping, they can still be prized for their worth as sources of leisure.
The Bentheim Railway brought a rail connection to the international network in 1896. Roughly 1,500 people were working in the various textile companies in these years. The Great Depression
in the 1920s led many jobseekers from all over Germany to Nordhorn. By 1939, the population had reached 23,457, and it is worth noting that just under a third of those people had actually been born in town. This unusual economic upswing earned Nordhorn the nickname Klein Amerika – "Little America".
Even the Third Reich left its mark on Nordhorn. The small Jewish
community was annihilated. The synagogue
was utterly destroyed, an event recalled by a memorial plaque on the street still called Synagogenstraße. The old Flemish Trade Road was used by German troops, who on 10 May 1940 marched into the Netherlands, as a military road. Some of the townsfolk lived through this time with very mixed feelings – were they not, they thought, bound to their Dutch neighbours by friendship and blood? These bonds were something upon which those seeking to fight persecution
and the Nazi régime itself could build. Adolf Pazdera and Ferdinand Kobitzki, Nordhorn KPD
functionaries and trade union
secretaries, were persecuted many times and in 1943 and 1944 respectively, they were murdered in concentration camps.
After the Second World War ended, nearly ten thousand people from Germany's lost eastern territories poured into Nordhorn, where they found a new home, soon bringing the town's population to more than 40,000. There arose a new community within the town housing 13,000 inhabitants, called die Blanke.
Non-commercial housing building companies and private initiatives made Nordhorn into "the town of the privately owned home". The enormous building accomplishments called for the municipal administration to be expanded and modernized. Thus, Nordhorn built itself a new town hall, and buildings for district administration, the employment office and the Amt court arose on the town's ring road. The court now stands on Seilerbahn.
Northwest Germany's first indoor swimming pool
after 1945 could be dedicated, new schools, sport halls and fields, the concert and theatre hall and the town park led to the townscape's revival.
.
In the municipal area's northwest, a monastery of Augustinian Canons (Chorherrenstift) was founded in Frenswegen, earlier known as Marienwolde, in 1394. Its church, consecrated in 1444, was destroyed in 1881 by a lightning
strike. The monastery was of great importance to Nordhorn and to places far beyond. Bit by bit the monastery building arose, and in the early 15th century, so did a church.
Also in Nordhorn, a bigger church was needed. On 6 July 1445, both churches were consecrated by an auxiliary bishop from Münster. The new Nordhorn church's patron was once again Saint Ludger. The three-naved Late Gothic market church was built out of Bentheim sandstone and with its 71-m-high steeple, it dominated the town's skyline.
After the Reformation
(1517), Count Arnold I – and along with him almost the whole county – adopted the Lutheran faith
in 1544. In 1588, the County of Bentheim (Grafschaft Bentheim) converted to the Reformed faith under Count Arnold II. Thereafter, the church at the market belonged to the Reformed parish. Count Arnold II, however, had come into contact with Calvin
's teachings while studying in Strasbourg
. A further link to the faith came with his marriage to Countess Magdalena of Neuenahr, who confessed the Reformed faith. The few Catholics left in Nordhorn had to go to services at the Frenswegen Monastery.
In 1578, the Augustinian Canons bought the castle on the Vechte Island in Nordhorn. In the manor house they established, among other things, a chapel
. Now the Catholics once more had a room for their services, albeit a small one. In 1712 a small church was built next to the castle. The Augustinian Canons chose – alongside Saint Ludger, their order's patron saint – Saint Augustine of Hippo
as the church's first patron.
At the time of Secularization
by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss
, the monastery at Frenswegen was abolished. The year 1824 was an important one for the Augustinian community: the county, which for centuries had belonged to either the Bishopric of Utrecht or the Bishopric of Münster
, was assigned to the Diocese of Osnabrück
, while the community itself was raised to parish. The first minister was the Augustinian Canon Johann B. Cordes, who had been overseeing the community since 1810.
In 1826, the castle was converted into a church. In the late 19th century, the community grew very quickly; so plans were made to build a new, big church on the castle square on the Vechte. The castle was torn down. Models for the new church were found in Italy by the architect Keith from Hamburg
, for instance the Pantheon
in Rome or the San Giorgio in Venice
. The church's footprint is octagonal. From 1911 to 1913, the building work was finished and the church's consecration was celebrated. The steeple was built together with the church. To offset any influence that the tower might have on the impression that the dome was meant to give, the tower stands somewhat to the side. A two-story arcade joins the steeple to the church. It is 45 m high and houses four bells. The church's dome – a peculiarity in northern Germany – shapes Nordhorn's skyline. Over the massive iron
-concrete
dome arches a wooden, copper
-covered outer dome, crowned with a lantern. Its total height is 35 m.
Nordhorn's Lutheran Christians were first served from Lingen
, and then from Bentheim. Once they had established their own parish, the Kreuzkirche ("Cross Church") was built in 1929 and 1930. Today roughly 20% of Nordhorners count themselves as Lutherans. There are three Lutheran churches.
All together, there are twelve Houses of God available in Nordhorn, seven of which have been built since the Second World War.
Nordhorn's synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht
(9 November 1938). The town's Jews either emigrated or were deported and murdered, an event now marked by a memorial.
Evangelical-Reformed Christians account for 28.14% of the population, while Lutherans account for 21.05% and Roman Catholics for 29.19%. Another 21.64% either are not members of any faith or adhere to other faiths.
>
Year
Inhabitants
1996
49,000
1997
51,500
1998
51,809
2000
51,855
2001
51,974
2002
52,479
2003
52,479
2004
53,105
2005
53,093
2006
53,608
The mayor, Meinhard Hüsemann, is also a voting member of town council.
(Stadtmuseum) in the Povelturm was opened in October 1996. Within, one can inform oneself about Nordhorn's history. On the upper floor of the Povelturm is the museum café, which offers a view over Nordhorn from a height of 26 m.
and copper.
A fine example of restored architecture formerly overgrown by plant life is the Frenswegen Monastery from the 14th century in the town's northwest. A lightning strike in 1881 destroyed the church consecrated in 1445. The monastery buildings, however, were mostly preserved, even the square, two-floored cloister
, the little wellhouse, the bridge over the moat
and the impressive cellar
vaulting. On the east wing's outer façade, a "Madonna and Child" made of Bentheim sandstone attracts the beholder's attention. After cautious renovations, the building now houses an ecumenical
educational and meeting place whose origin and basis the unusually broad mix of faiths in Nordhorn and its environs is.
Traces of Gothic mark the Reformed church, which stands defiantly in Brandlecht‘s old village centre. Among examples of Romanesque sculpture is this church's baptismal font, which is Nordhorn's oldest artwork, made out of Bentheim sandstone, and still holds its original importance today.
At present, two buildings characterize Nordhorn's skyline. The Alte Kirche on the marketplace, built out of Bentheim sandstone in the 15th century and the Augustinuskirche, built in 1913 on the former castle's lands, can both be seen from afar. The inner town, today as in days of yore an island around which flows the Vechte, is now a pedestrian precinct.
Painstakingly restored façades, modern arcades, shop
s, boutique
s and pleasant outdoor cafés invite one to tarry. The oldest building on the main street is the former mayor and chemical manufacturer Firnhaber's house, in which he both lived and worked. Behind the two-story classicist façade, the triangular gable with its hipped roof and a round-arched window with a plaster swag, the tradition of Nordhorn's first apothecary lives on.
When walking about town, one finds little oases untouched by hectic daily life. In big, parklike gardens, behind old trees and tall rhododendron
hedges, stately manor houses may be discovered. These villa
s built on Dutch models were textile manufacturers’ homes a hundred years ago. A walk through Nordhorn will in many places also still bring to light signs of the recent and more distant past, be it the town hall completed in 1952 with its little belltower or the old well at the park at the Völlinkhoff. Memories of a time when the heavy blocks of sandstone used in the oil mill's edgerunner still fulfilled their original function are brought forth at the town park.
When the grist mill and sawmill
on the milldam were shut down, an almost 600-year history of milling came to an end in Nordhorn. These buildings were renovated and now offer an appealing venue for cultural events.
Nordhorn's industrial history was written by, among others, the Povel textile plant, which shut its gates in 1979 after nearly a hundred years of production. As a last witness to the town's economic heyday early in the last century, the former spinning works tower has been maintained as an industrial memorial. It serves today as a museum. The upper floor can be hired for private celebrations.
In the Bussmaate, a former boggy area, another textile plant with an adjoining residential area for textile workers was built a hundred years ago. In the early 1950s, Professor Emanuel Lindner, lecturer at Bauhaus
and student of Mies van der Rohe
, together with architect Eberhard Heinrich Zeidler, who now lives in Canada, designed expansion building works for this business. With a clearly structured glass façade, the timeless industrial building fits seamlessly into the industrial complex dating from the Gründerzeit
. This building today stands empty and is to be converted for urban development.
Fields and meadows frame farmlands on the town's outskirts. Wetlands and heathlands with birches, junipers and orchids growing wild are marks of this rustic landscape. In the Tillenberge a small protected area with heather, gnarled oaks and junipers.
A fine legacy from the Gründerzeit is the Town Park (Stadtpark), a villa park of one of the earliest manufacturers. At the concert bowl in the Town Park, concerts regularly take place.
. The name comes from the Euregio
. The HSG team plays in the first handball Bundesliga. The Euregium is also used for other cultural events. It lies right near the vocational school and the district sport hall. The three halls’ proximity to each other makes it possible to stage great tournaments. The Euregium has for a few years now been the venue for the Grafschafter Sportgala.
gave a concert there.
The ice sport club in Nordhorn changed its name several times. Until 1999 there was the GEC Nordhorn, which, among other things, played in the hockey Bundesliga, in what was then the second highest class. Thereafter the club called itself EC Euregio Nordhorn 1999 e. V. and will play in the coming season (2007–2008) in the Verbandsliga NRW. In 2002, the Eissporthalle was renovated from the ground up. It is also open to the public for skating.
Today, Nordhorn has roughly 53,500 inhabitants, and the trend is upward.
Once Nordhorn's biggest textile firms with up to 6,000 employees, NINO (corporation) was until the 1980s one of Europe's leading textile producers. This stands out not least of all in coöperative efforts with renowned fashion photographers like Karl Lagerfeld
and Helmut Newton
. The only clothing manufacturer still in business in Nordhorn is Erfo Bekleidungswerk GmbH & Co. KG. The three formerly biggest companies, NINO, Povel and Rawe, are all gone.
Since the textile industry waned, mostly midsize businesses from various service and production areas have settled in town, albeit without quite managing to offset job losses due to the textile industry's virtual death. Even though Citibank's temporary presence, with 550 jobs, eventually folded – despite massive local subsidies – the location is still quite attractive for service businesses. This can be seen in the latest firm to locate in town, Bertelsmann, which will soon have 250 jobs.
Taken together, however, the shift in structure to the tertiary sector in and around Nordhorn, unlike in other regions, is very far advanced. The greater Nordhorn area is well off when compared with the country as a whole, with the Nordhorn employment agency area (Agenturbezirk) reporting the lowest jobless rate in Lower Saxony. The neighbouring region of Rheine in North Rhine-Westphalia, too, is experiencing a peak in employment. This is further substantiated in the 2005 land use planning report from the Federal Office for the Building Industry and Land Use Planning (Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung) in which is discussed a forecast, based on current indicators, that sees in northwestern North Rhine-Westphalia and in Nordhorn and its environs an area with great economic dynamism in the coming years.
What should be highlit is the great number of food markets in Nordhorn, with Nordhorn having roughly twice the sales area proportionally by population as the national average. Because of the often misguided evictions, however, of newer locations outside the integrated sites, there are many empty premises in the inner town.
In March 2007, the Rawe-Ring-Center with roughly 22 000 m² of new sales area was opened on a plot that was once part of the Rawe textile factory. This project met with considerable opposition, mainly among local retailers and professionals. The retailers feared that the glut of new premises would bring about further vacancies, especially in the southern inner town, while professionals criticized the consequences for urban development, the lack of cleanup operations and above all the demolition of factory buildings that were protected as monuments. Despite 12,000 Nordhorners’ protest signatures gathered by the Pro Grafschaft initiative, the project was endorsed by a majority of the local politicians and in the end put into action.
Under the slogan "Nordhorn - Die Wasserstadt" ("Nordhorn – the Water Town"), the town fathers are now seeking to put the emphasis on new aspects of the town's development, bringing forth plans to open canals for pleasure boats and to further development by building a town harbour. Whether these plans will indeed be implemented, and to what extent, remains to be seen in the coming years,
Also found at Nordhorn is the controversial bombing range, the Nordhorn Range. After the Second World War, this was first run by the Royal Air Force
, but then later by the German Bundeswehr.
n, 10.8 km is state highways (Landstraßen), 30.6 km is district roads (Kreisstraßen) and 517.1 km is town streets and roads.
All together, Nordhorn has 2,807 parking spaces.
The town lies near two Autobahnen, the A 30
and the A 31
. It is furthermore connected to the highway network through two Bundesstraße
n, the B 403 and the B 213.
However, Nordhorn's well developed road network cannot hide the fact that the most popular means of transport in town is what is locally known as the Fietse – the bicycle. The Nordhorners’ fondness for the Fietse and their morning rides led to the building of a special cycling path network that runs throughout the district of Grafschaft Bentheim. Signposts, known locally as Paddestolen, show cyclists the way on these Fietsenpads (also a local term, the standard German
word for them being Radwege). The opening of Europe's borders is in full force here: cyclists can reach the neighbouring Netherlands unhindered through these pathways.
With its 53,000 inhabitants, Nordhorn is Germany's second largest town, after Herten
, without passenger rail service. The nearest passenger railway stations are found in Lingen (Ems)
and Bad Bentheim
, each about 20 km away.
Nordhorn has at its disposal a small airport in the outlying centre of Klausheide, called Nordhorn-Lingen (EDWN).
Through an initiative by the club Graf-SHIP, founded in 2003, state councillor Friedrich Kethorn approved on 14 November 2005 the reopening of the Ems-Vechte-Kanal to shipping, now allowing captains to bring ships of up to 12 m in length through the canal. Approval for the other two canals continues. The Klukkert-Hafen (harbour) was opened once again in 2006.
Concerts were held in the barn, and still are, with such acts as Cochise
, Geier Sturzflug
, Helge Schneider
, Killerpilze
, Wir sind Helden
and In Extremo
. Early in 2007, the barn's ceiling lining was destroyed by a storm, but with help from unpaid workers, the youth centre had a complete, new paint job inside by the summer.
Now, the institution's organs assist, attend and take care of well over 600 people with handicaps. These organs include kindergarten for early assistance, various homes and also various workplaces (such as carpentry workshops), where clients can go with the proper guidance and according to each one's interests and talents. As well, there is the musical band Tabuwta, made up wholly of people with handicaps and supported by Lebenshilfe educational employees and celebrities such as Guildo Horn
. In 2005 they recorded their third CD and presented it at the old weaving mill.
(instead of military service), would-be teachers and trainees. Levels currently run at the school are Primary, Secondary I and Secondary II.
with:
Coevorden
, Netherlands
since 1963 Montivilliers
, France
since 1963 Reichenbach im Vogtland, Germany
since 1987 Malbork
in Poland
since 1995 Rieti
, Italy
since 2010
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
's southwesternmost corner near the border with the Netherlands and the boundary with North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
.
Name's origin
One story holds that the town's name – which means "North Horn" – came about when the town was under attack, in which case a horn – the so-called Nothorn or emergency horn – was blown by the watchmen to warn the Vechteinsel (Vechte Island) inhabitants and also to call for help. Since the town lay north of Bentheim (now Bad BentheimBad Bentheim
Bad Bentheim is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany lying in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim on the borders with North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands roughly 15 km south of Nordhorn and 20 km northeast of Enschede. It is also a state-recognized thermal brine and sulphur spa town,...
) and its castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
, it is said that this yielded the name Nordhorn.
A horn, however, was also used by the boatmen on the river Vechte
Vechte
The Vechte or Vecht , often called Overijsselse Vecht in the Netherlands to avoid confusion with its Utrecht counterpart, is a river in Germany and the Netherlands...
to warn each other of ships’ movements in fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
. Indeed, since the 1970s, the Tuter ("Tooter"), a bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
memorial
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
to the beginnings of inland shipping, has stood at the old harbour.
Since a settlement with a harbour arose between Schüttorf and Emlichheim in the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
whose coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
bore a horn as a charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
, it seems likely that Nordhorn could have arisen from this.
A more scientifically based variation on what the arms mean holds that "horn" is meant in the sense of "pointed end", making "Nordhorn" a northern point – the jutting northerly end of a field into the Vechte Valley. Heinrich Specht pointed this out in his 1941 town chronicle in reference to the spur, or "horn", of land on which the town's first centre was built. (Lit.: Nordhorn Geschichte einer Grenzstadt. Publisher: Heimatverein der Grafschaft Bentheim)
A more fanciful story holds that the locals once worshipped the god Nod, Node or Nothe, the beginning of whose festival was heralded by blows on ox and cow horns. To pay homage to him, holy fire, called Nodfyr, was lit either by striking flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
stones or by rubbing dry sticks together. From the god's name and the hornblowing, the town's name is said to have come.
The name, of course, actually has nothing to do with any emergency horn or any god named Nod. "No(r)dhorn" is perhaps similar to the "Maa(r)s", "Meu(r)s" or "Marsh" river. That is what has caused the confusion; a silent "r" or a difficulty in pronouncing the "r" due to the proximity to France.
Nordhorn is called Nothoorn or Notthöörntin in the local speech. In the compilation Werdener Heberigister, the town's name is recorded in 890 as Norhthornon (note the silent "r") and in 1050 as Northornon. In 1184 it is Northorne. On town seals between 1400 and 1715 also appears the form Northorne, and only from 1827 forth does it become Nordhorn. (Lit.: Specht, 1941/1979) Perhaps this is similar to "Surhdt", Libya. Hence the words Sur, Sud, and South.
Location
The town lies in southwesternmost Lower Saxony, near the border with the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the boundary with North Rhine-WestphaliaNorth Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
, on the river Vechte
Vechte
The Vechte or Vecht , often called Overijsselse Vecht in the Netherlands to avoid confusion with its Utrecht counterpart, is a river in Germany and the Netherlands...
. The nearest major city is Hengelo
Hengelo
Hengelo is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the International Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service.-Traffic and transport:...
in the Netherlands, some 20 km southwest of Nordhorn. The nearest German cities are Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
, about 75 km to the southeast, and Osnabrück
Osnabrück
Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
, about 85 km to the east.
The landscape in and around Nordhorn is marked by the Vechte, the Vechtesee (lake), through which the Vechte flows, and three canals: the Süd-Nord-Kanal, the Nordhorn-Almelo-Kanal and the Ems-Vechte-Kanal.
Climate
Atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure is the force per unit area exerted into a surface by the weight of air above that surface in the atmosphere of Earth . In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point...
is 761.5 hPa and the mean yearly precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
amounts to between 700 and 800 mm. The climate is Subatlantic with rather mild winters and fairly warm summers.
Extent of the municipal area
Through various amalgamations the town's area has grown to 14 959 ha, only slightly smaller than the Principality of LiechtensteinLiechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
.
Neighbouring communities
North of Nordhorn lie the town and joint community (Samtgemeinde) both called NeuenhausNeuenhaus
Neuenhaus is a town in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim in Lower Saxony, and is the seat of a like-named Joint Community . Neuenhaus lies on the river Vechte near the border with the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is roughly 10 km northwest of Nordhorn, and 30 km north of...
, while the communities of Engden
Engden
-Location:Engden lies between Nordhorn and Schüttorf. It belongs to the Joint Community of Schüttorf, whose administrative seat is in the like-named town.-Politics:...
and Isterberg
Isterberg
The community of Isterberg in Lower Saxony’s district of Grafschaft Bentheim came into being in the 1970s through the amalgamation of the two former communities of Wengsel and Neerlage. It lies between Bad Bentheim and Nordhorn and belongs to the Joint Community of Schüttorf, whose administrative...
lie to the south. The town's western limit is also part of Germany's border with the Netherlands.
Constituent communities
Nordhorn is subdivided into 17 quartersQuarter (country subdivision)
A quarter is a section of an urban settlement.Its borders can be administratively chosen , and it may have its own administrative structure...
("Stadtteile"), grouped here under "older" and "newer".
Older quarters
AltendorfThe settlement of Nordhorn originally had its centre here, but on strategic grounds it was later moved to the island in the river Vechte. Town rights were granted in 1379, and this older centre was given the name Oude Dorp – "Old Village".
Bakelde
The name comes from Bak (ridge) and Lo (grove). (according to H.Specht - Nordhorn - Geschichte einer Grenzstadt) ?Bach Alte?
Bimolten
Called Bimolt in 1252 and Bimolte in 1213, opinions are rather divided over the name's origin. Specht says it refers to heaps of earth, Reurik says it refers to a grove by the woods (bi'm holte, which in more modern German might be rendered bei dem Holze or beim Holz), and Abels holds that it refers to a settlement on the field. (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Bimolten - Jahrbuch des Heimatvereins 1973).
Bookholt
The name refers to a beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
(Buche) or birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...
(Birke) grove. (according to H.Specht - Nordhorn - Geschichte einer Grenzstadt)
Brandlecht
Called Bramtelghet in 1313, the name comes from Bram (gorse
Gorse
Gorse, furze, furse or whin is a genus of about 20 plant species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia.Gorse is closely related to the brooms, and like them, has green...
) and telge (twig). (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Brandlecht - Der Grafschafter, Folge 160, June 1966).
Frensdorf
Called Frenstrup in Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
, the name might come from a personal name. It was also called Friethelstorpe or Frieldorp about 800, and Vrinsthorpe about 1000. (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Frensdorf - Jahrbuch des Heimatvereins 1971).
Frenswegen
Earlier also known as Vrendeswegen, the name's meaning could have been "lying on the way to Frensdorf".
Hesepe
The name Hesepe refers to the community's location on the river Vechte (epe means water). (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Hesepe - Jahrbuch, Heimatverein 1982)
Hestrup
Hestrup was first known in 1150 as Hersebruc and in 1212 as Hersedorp ("Steed Village"). The ending –dorf or –trup, which is cognate with the English word and placename ending "thorp
Thorp
Thorp is a Middle English word for a hamlet or small village, from Old English /Old Norse þorp . There are many place names in England with the suffix "-thorp" or "-thorpe". Most are in East Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk but some are in Surrey.Old English þorp is cognate...
e", identifies it as a farming community that came into being as an enclosed settlement about 800 with Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
's arrival. (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Hestrup - Der Grafschafter, Folge 168, February 1967)
Hohenkörben
Hohenkörben arose about 600 as Hankorve in Bakelde's market on a dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
ridge with limited space. An exact interpretation of its name has not been achieved; however, the town of Neuenhaus
Neuenhaus
Neuenhaus is a town in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim in Lower Saxony, and is the seat of a like-named Joint Community . Neuenhaus lies on the river Vechte near the border with the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is roughly 10 km northwest of Nordhorn, and 30 km north of...
also has an outlying centre by the name of Hohenkörben-Veldhausen. (according to Dr. Ernst Kühle - Der Grafschafter, Folge 170, May 1967)
Newer quarters
BlankeThe Blanke (the article is used with the name in German – Die Blanke) was once a sunken heath
Heath (habitat)
A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland...
and bog
Bog
A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....
area, raised only at the edges, between which were water pools that glinted in the sunlight. Thus, they were also called Blänke. The two biggest were the "Große Blanke" and the "Kleine Blanke". By and by, this area dried up and before the Second World War there was building on the raised edges (Dorotheenstr., Klarastr.). After the war came more widespread settlement by refugees and textile workers. As a reference to the earlier heath ponds, the new neighbourhood was given the name Blanke, which is also so with some street names, such as Blankering and Innere Blanke. One can get an impression of what this area once looked like by visiting the Dutch nature protection area De Bergvennen west of Nordhorn.
Blumensiedlung
In the 1920s, a scheme was undertaken to build houses for jobless miners from the Ruhr area
Ruhr Area
The Ruhr, by German-speaking geographers and historians more accurately called Ruhr district or Ruhr region , is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With 4435 km² and a population of some 5.2 million , it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany...
hired for the textile industry, and for young Nordhorn families. Because the streets were named after flowers, the new neighbourhood was called Blumensiedlung ("Flower Settlement").
Bussmaate
Earlier a meadowland, the so-called Buss Maate was owned by the farmer Busch in Altendorf (Buss from the farmer's name). About 1910, the textile manufacturer Rawe bought the land and had a spinning works built there. In 1913 there followed workers’ dwellings.
Klausheide
This community was named for the son of the founder of the Klausheide Estate (Krupp
Krupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...
von Bohlen und Halbach), who was named Claus (Heide means "heath"). At first, the settlement was known as die Claus-Heide.
Neuberlin
In the early 20th century, southeast of Denekamper Straße near Frensdorf a housing coöperative was founded on an initiative by a Mr. Mäulen. It then tackled the job of building houses. To thank Mr. Mäulen for his efforts, the new neighbourhood was named Neuberlin – literally "New Berlin" – after the city where he was born.
Stadtflur
In earlier centuries, Nordhorn's townsfolk had so-called peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
cutting rights in this area, which at that time was moorland
Moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
belonging to the community of Bakelde. In 1864, this area was divided and Nordhorn received this plot as part of its municipal area. It was therefore called the Stadtsche Flur, or "town lea". By the turn of the century there was building here and the area came to be called Stadtflur. Stadtflur now has roughly 7,700 inhabitants, putting it among Nordhorn's bigger Stadtteile.
Streng
Although the modern German meaning of streng is "stern" or "strict", the name actually comes from the so-called Strang ("string" or "strand"), a row of dunes. The Strang stretches from Bogenstraße to Nyhoegen Bridge on Bentheimer Straße. In the early 19th century, the textile manufacturer Ludwig Povel built workers’ dwellings on the near part of the Strang in the Bogenstr.-Ludwigstr. area. On the farther part of the Strang, private houses were built in the 1930s and later.
Amalgamations
- 25 June 1921 Frensdorf
- 1 April 1929 Frenswegen
- 1 July 1929 Altendorf, Bakelde, as well as parts of the communities of Bookholt, Hesepe and Brandlecht
- 1 March 1974 Bimolten, Bookholt, Brandlecht, Hesepe, Hestrup, Hohenkörben – Nordhorn and Klausheide
History
Nordhorn's landscape was shaped millions of years ago by climate changes, especially the ice ageIce age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
s. The oldest sediment
Sediment
Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....
s from a depth of about two thousand metres come from the Carboniferous
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...
. With the onset of the Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
and Tertiary
Tertiary
The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...
, the Earth's crust here formed itself into drape folds
Fold (geology)
The term fold is used in geology when one or a stack of originally flat and planar surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of permanent deformation. Synsedimentary folds are those due to slumping of sedimentary material before it is lithified. Folds in rocks vary in...
. In the mid-Tertiary, subtropical temperatures held sway on Nordhorn's plains. Thereafter began the gradual cooling, which reached its high point in the ice ages. After the last ice had melted, lowlands developed. Strong winds swept dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
s up in the lifeless surface. Even today, the remains of such dune complexes can be found at the nearby Tillenberge (mountains). Archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
finds from the Old Stone Age
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
and the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
that followed bear witness to human settlement on Nordhorn's sand plains more than 6,000 years ago.
In the rainy and colder Ice Age, early people settled on the dry riverside heights along the river Vechte. Archaeologists come across traces of Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
settlements, the foundations of later farming communities such as Frensdorf, Bookholt, Altendorf, Hesepe and Bakelde, in almost every field.
From 12 BC to AD 10, the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
commanders , Tiberius
Tiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
, Germanicus
Germanicus
Germanicus Julius Caesar , commonly known as Germanicus, was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and a prominent general of the early Roman Empire. He was born in Rome, Italia, and was named either Nero Claudius Drusus after his father or Tiberius Claudius Nero after his uncle...
and Varus
Publius Quinctilius Varus
Publius Quinctilius Varus was a Roman politician and general under Emperor Augustus, mainly remembered for having lost three Roman legions and his own life when attacked by Germanic leader Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.-Life:His paternal grandfather was senator Sextus Quinctilius...
undertook in all thirteen campaigns in what was then still free Germany. From their camp in Xanten
Xanten
Xanten is a historic town in the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany, located in the district of Wesel.Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park or archaeological open air museum , its medieval picturesque city centre with Xanten Cathedral and many museums, its large man-made lake for...
, these Roman troops would have undertaken forays into the lands of the Chamavi
Chamavi
The Chamavi were a Germanic tribe of Late Antiquity and the European Dark Age. They first appear under that name in the 1st century AD Germania of Tacitus as a Germanic tribe that, for most of their history, existed along the North bank of the Lower Rhine in the region today called Hamaland after...
and Tubanti
Tubanti
The Tubantes were a Germanic tribe, living in the eastern part of The Netherlands. They are often equated to the Tuihanti, whom we know from two inscriptions found near the wall of Hadrian. The modern name Twente possibly derives from the word Tuihanti, the name mentioned on two sacral inscriptions...
who then dwelt in the Nordhorn area. It is believed that the Romans used the prehistoric banks of the Vechte and sandy paths along the moors
Moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
as military roads. This east-west overland connection would later become an important trade road, joining cities such as Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
.
In the late 4th century, with the onset of the Migration Period
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
(or Völkerwanderung), the Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
were pushing in from the north and towards the west. They forced the Tubanti farther westwards into Twente
Twente
Twente is a non-administrative region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel...
. After Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
's conquest of the Saxon lands, the first border between the Frankish Empire and Saxony, albeit as an internal boundary, came into being. This line has largely survived history's changing fortunes and still forms the German-Dutch border today.
In 687, Bishop Wilfrid of York
Wilfrid
Wilfrid was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Gaul, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon...
sent missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
across the sea to Christianize the former Tubanti land. Willibrord
Willibrord
__notoc__Willibrord was a Northumbrian missionary saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands...
founded the Bishopric of Utrecht and Werenfried spread Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
into the Vechte Valley. About 800, the settlement at Nordhorn was assigned to the Bishopric of Münster. Bishop Ludger
Ludger
Saint Ludger was a missionary among the Frisians and Saxons, founder of Werden Abbey and first Bishop of Münster in Westphalia....
built a wooden church on a spur of ground that thrust into the river's floodplain. About 900, the settlement's name was first mentioned in the Werden an der Ruhr Monastery's Heberegister as Northhornon.
About 1180, the Counts of Bentheim acquired the Nordhorn Gogericht (Regional Court). They built a castle in the middle of the river Vechte on an island. Until 1912, parts of this castle were still maintained. Nowadays, the Catholic St.-Augustinus-Kirche (church) stands there. After building a milldam and two mill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
s, it became possible to regulate the river's water flow, thereby also making it possible to settle the island. Other waterways were built – it is supposed under Dutch builders’ influence – which, it is believed, divided the island into six smaller ones. Once two gateway bridges were built and the castle was protecting it, it became easier to defend the settlement against attackers than was so for the old settlement around the market church. Today's main street, which has now grown into an attractive buying and selling place, might have already passed over the island at that time. Merchants and shipowners put down roots here; a marketplace
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...
arose. The name Nordhorn was henceforth used for the newer settlement, now standing on the threshold of becoming a town, whereas the old settlement around the market church came to be known as the "Old Village", and is indeed still known as Altendorf ("Old Village").
Nordhorn had taken a key place on the Flemish Road, the area of today's Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
213 and 403 crossroads. Goods from Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
and the Hanseatic
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
towns found their way through Nordhorn into the trade centres to the west all the way to Paris. The Vechte was navigable as far up as Schüttorf
Schüttorf
Schüttorf is a town in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim in southwesternmost Lower Saxony near the Dutch border and the boundary with Westphalia . The town of Schüttorf forms with the surrounding communities the Joint Community of Schüttorf. It is the district’s oldest town...
.
The Vechte is roughly 167 km long and in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
emptied directly into the sea: it flowed by Zwolle
Zwolle
Zwolle is a municipality and the capital city of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, 120 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam. Zwolle has about 120,000 citizens.-History:...
into the Zuider Zee
Zuider Zee
The Zuiderzee was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km inland and at most 50 km wide, with an overall depth of about 4 to 5 metres and a coastline of about 300 km . It covered...
, which at that time had not yet been cut off from the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
and was the centre of Dutch sea trade. Since modern land reclamation
Polder
A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices...
projects have been put in place, the river flows north of Zwolle into the Zwarte Water, which itself empties into the IJsselmeer
IJsselmeer
IJsselmeer is a shallow artificial lake of 1100 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. The IJsselmeer is the largest lake in Western Europe....
, the lake that arose from the old Zuider Zee once the Afsluitdijk
Afsluitdijk
The Afsluitdijk is a major causeway in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and 1933 and running from Den Oever on Wieringen in North Holland province, to the village of Zurich in Friesland province, over a length of and a width of 90 m, at an initial height of 7.25 m above sea-level.It is...
was completed.
Already by 1160, the first loads of Bentheim sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
were being shipped into the Netherlands. Up to 1,200 freight cranes, scow
Scow
A scow, in the original sense, is a flat-bottomed boat with a blunt bow, often used to haul bulk freight; cf. barge. The etymology of the word is from the Dutch schouwe, meaning such a boat.-Sailing scows:...
s and barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
s lay each year at anchor and brought their goods to Holland. The Steinmaate (street) became a staple market. The like-named street still recalls today that Bentheim sandstone was shipped from here to many other countries. From it were built stately buildings such as the Royal Palace in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, but also many mills, churches, locks, town halls and other public buildings. The returning ships brought spice
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
s, textiles, paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
and foods as well as luxury articles such as coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, cacao and tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
. Trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
, crafts and agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
were the region's economic foundations until the mid 19th century. Shipping on the Vechte and the canals (the Ems-Vechte-Kanal, the Nordhorn-Almelo-Kanal, the Süd-Nord-Kanal and the Coevorden-Piccardie-Kanal) together with the transported goods formed an important source of earnings at this time, when the town was also home to wealthy merchants, shipowners and mariners.
On the ninth day after Whitsunday
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
in 1379, Count Bernhard I granted Nordhorn town rights, and in 1416 also gave it privilege. The small settlement between the arms of the Vechte had grown to be important to the Bentheim Counts as a goods handling centre. With the economic upswing, cultural life also reached a high point in these years. Augustinian canons established the Marienwolde Monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
in Frenswegen in 1394. Through endowments and donations the monastery became well known as "Westphalia's Paradise" beyond borders. After secularization
Secularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
in 1806, brought about by Napoleon, monastic properties passed to the Bentheim Counts’ ownership. The settlement spanning thousands of years and the town's thus far 628-year history have left behind very little in the way of buildings, besides the Marienwolde Monastery, as witness to earlier times.
In imitation of the Late Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
churches in neighbouring Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
, churches were built in the 13th century out of Bentheim sandstone. The only artwork preserved from this time is the baptismal font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
in Brandlecht. Bearing witness to the 15th century is the Alte Kirche ("Old Church") at the market. It was built in the Late Gothic style under Dutch influence and to honour Saint Ludger, who founded the town's first church, and in whose name this newer church was consecrated. It is likely that three generations worked on this impressive three-naved hall church
Hall church
A hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke....
. Originally, the tower was 102 m tall and fell under town council's stewardship as a watchtower and firetower. A violent storm toppled the steeple, which came down in the marketplace before the building. The new steeple was considerably shorter – about 70 m – and was designed to let wind pass through it. During restoration work inside the church in 1967, some paintings were uncovered in the sanctuary, the Nordhorner Apostelbilder ("Nordhorn Apostle Pictures"). They show the Twelve Apostles and various Biblical scenes. The paintings were preserved because it could not be agreed what should be done with them, since the Calvinist
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
Church order of the Reformed Creed introduced by Count Arnold II at Bentheim in 1588 forbade pictures and adornment in church rooms. During more restoration work in the late 1990s, these pictures were rediscovered, and the church council decided to cover the pictures over with rice paper
Rice paper
Rice paper usually refers to paper made from parts of the rice plant, like rice straw or rice flour. The term is also used for paper made from or containing other plants, such as hemp, bamboo or mulberry...
, as they seemed too valuable simply to paint over.
Sharply decimated by war and epidemics, the town had to deal with several occupations and troop movements in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the Eighty Years' War waged by the Dutch against the Spaniards
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Nordhorn was a way station for Spanish troops because the neighbouring county of Lingen was Spanish territory. It is said that once, the Duke of Parma camped around Nordhorn with 6,000 soldiers.
During the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
, Swedes
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Hessians, Lüneburg
Lüneburg
Lüneburg is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of fellow Hanseatic city Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and one of Hamburg's inner suburbs...
troops and Imperial forces passed through Nordhorn on the old Flemish army and trade road. They all wanted to feed on the scanty crop yields. The harried town, however, was left hardly any time to recover from the war's ravages. Only a few years later, the warlike Bishop Christoph Bernhard Count of Galen from Münster waged a war against the Dutch on the plains outside Nordhorn, which was brought to an end in 1666 by the Peace of Nordhorn.
In Napoleonic times there was once again much afoot in Nordhorn. In these years, the trading place on the Vechte grew and the two harbours defined the town's image. Napoleon's continental blockade against British trade made Nordhorn into a smuggling
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
centre by 1806. The broad moors and heaths
Heath (habitat)
A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland...
abetted this lucrative trade.
As a result of Europe's new political landscape in the wake of the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
in 1814 and 1815, the hitherto flourishing transit trade in Nordhorn was once again disrupted. The border became a customs barrier, stripping Nordhorn of its trading, which had been oriented towards the west. In the years that followed, the town became poorer. Because the Vechte could not be upgraded and modernized, and because it silted up, shipping was disrupted. The townsfolk turned to farming small plots and traders and shippers left town. Only home weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
still afforded some earnings. Whole families emigrated
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
to the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
.
It is said that 1839 was the year when Nordhorn's textile industry was founded. The first mechanized weaving mill, established by Willem Stroink from Enschede
Enschede
Enschede , also known as Eanske in the local dialect of Twents, is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region...
, sprang up on the trade road. Here, cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
was processed and calico and watertwist were woven. Later mills were founded in 1864 by Jan van Delden and in 1851 by Josef Povel and Hermann Kistemaker. Textile manufacturing came to set the pace for the languishing economy. Progress came with gradual industrialization. The groundwork for the town's growth into one of Germany's biggest textile-producing towns had been laid.
The town's mayor between 1843 and 1872 was the apothecary and chemical manufacturer Ernst Firnhaber, whose house on the main street stood in the middle of what then was the town's business life. With its classicist building elements it is the last architectural example of a stately townsman's house from the 18th century. After the apothecary came Germany's first quinine
Quinine
Quinine is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic , antimalarial, analgesic , anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. It is a stereoisomer of quinidine which, unlike quinine, is an anti-arrhythmic...
plant. In 1843, 32,403 Pfund – roughly 16 metric tons – of cinchona
Cinchona
Cinchona or Quina is a genus of about 38 species in the family Rubiaceae, native to tropical South America. They are large shrubs or small trees growing 5–15 metres in height with evergreen foliage. The leaves are opposite, rounded to lanceolate and 10–40 cm long. The flowers are white, pink...
was processed and exported. The manufacturers Ludwig Povel, Bernhard Rawe, Bernhard Niehues and Friedrich Dütting founded further textile businesses in the years from 1872 to 1897, some of which are still supplying domestic and international markets in the early 21st century.
In the 1890s, Nordhorn was incorporated into a network of man-made waterways. Through the river Ems, the Dortmund-Ems Canal and the Ems-Vechte Canal, coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
was transported from the Ruhr area
Ruhr Area
The Ruhr, by German-speaking geographers and historians more accurately called Ruhr district or Ruhr region , is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With 4435 km² and a population of some 5.2 million , it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany...
to the up-and-coming textile centre. The Nordhorn-Almelo Canal saw to it that the town was also connected to Dutch inland waterways, and the North-South Canal spurred the peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
trade. Even if today all these canals have no further use for shipping, they can still be prized for their worth as sources of leisure.
The Bentheim Railway brought a rail connection to the international network in 1896. Roughly 1,500 people were working in the various textile companies in these years. The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
in the 1920s led many jobseekers from all over Germany to Nordhorn. By 1939, the population had reached 23,457, and it is worth noting that just under a third of those people had actually been born in town. This unusual economic upswing earned Nordhorn the nickname Klein Amerika – "Little America".
Even the Third Reich left its mark on Nordhorn. The small Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
community was annihilated. The synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
was utterly destroyed, an event recalled by a memorial plaque on the street still called Synagogenstraße. The old Flemish Trade Road was used by German troops, who on 10 May 1940 marched into the Netherlands, as a military road. Some of the townsfolk lived through this time with very mixed feelings – were they not, they thought, bound to their Dutch neighbours by friendship and blood? These bonds were something upon which those seeking to fight persecution
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
and the Nazi régime itself could build. Adolf Pazdera and Ferdinand Kobitzki, Nordhorn KPD
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
functionaries and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
secretaries, were persecuted many times and in 1943 and 1944 respectively, they were murdered in concentration camps.
After the Second World War ended, nearly ten thousand people from Germany's lost eastern territories poured into Nordhorn, where they found a new home, soon bringing the town's population to more than 40,000. There arose a new community within the town housing 13,000 inhabitants, called die Blanke.
Non-commercial housing building companies and private initiatives made Nordhorn into "the town of the privately owned home". The enormous building accomplishments called for the municipal administration to be expanded and modernized. Thus, Nordhorn built itself a new town hall, and buildings for district administration, the employment office and the Amt court arose on the town's ring road. The court now stands on Seilerbahn.
Northwest Germany's first indoor swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
after 1945 could be dedicated, new schools, sport halls and fields, the concert and theatre hall and the town park led to the townscape's revival.
Religion
When the first church was built in Nordhorn is unknown. The story goes, however, that it stood at the guildfield and was named after Saint Ludger. Ludger was one of the first Christian missionaries in the area, and in 804 he became the first Bishop of Münster. In 809 he died near BillerbeckBillerbeck
Billerbeck is a municipality in the district of Coesfeld in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.-Neighbor towns/cities:Billerbeck has boundaries to Rosendahl, Laer, Altenberge, Havixbeck, Nottuln and Coesfeld.-City Districts:* Stadt Billerbeck,...
.
In the municipal area's northwest, a monastery of Augustinian Canons (Chorherrenstift) was founded in Frenswegen, earlier known as Marienwolde, in 1394. Its church, consecrated in 1444, was destroyed in 1881 by a lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
strike. The monastery was of great importance to Nordhorn and to places far beyond. Bit by bit the monastery building arose, and in the early 15th century, so did a church.
Also in Nordhorn, a bigger church was needed. On 6 July 1445, both churches were consecrated by an auxiliary bishop from Münster. The new Nordhorn church's patron was once again Saint Ludger. The three-naved Late Gothic market church was built out of Bentheim sandstone and with its 71-m-high steeple, it dominated the town's skyline.
After the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
(1517), Count Arnold I – and along with him almost the whole county – adopted the Lutheran faith
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
in 1544. In 1588, the County of Bentheim (Grafschaft Bentheim) converted to the Reformed faith under Count Arnold II. Thereafter, the church at the market belonged to the Reformed parish. Count Arnold II, however, had come into contact with Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
's teachings while studying in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
. A further link to the faith came with his marriage to Countess Magdalena of Neuenahr, who confessed the Reformed faith. The few Catholics left in Nordhorn had to go to services at the Frenswegen Monastery.
In 1578, the Augustinian Canons bought the castle on the Vechte Island in Nordhorn. In the manor house they established, among other things, a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
. Now the Catholics once more had a room for their services, albeit a small one. In 1712 a small church was built next to the castle. The Augustinian Canons chose – alongside Saint Ludger, their order's patron saint – Saint Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
as the church's first patron.
At the time of Secularization
Secularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss
German Mediatisation
The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....
, the monastery at Frenswegen was abolished. The year 1824 was an important one for the Augustinian community: the county, which for centuries had belonged to either the Bishopric of Utrecht or the Bishopric of Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
, was assigned to the Diocese of Osnabrück
Osnabrück
Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
, while the community itself was raised to parish. The first minister was the Augustinian Canon Johann B. Cordes, who had been overseeing the community since 1810.
In 1826, the castle was converted into a church. In the late 19th century, the community grew very quickly; so plans were made to build a new, big church on the castle square on the Vechte. The castle was torn down. Models for the new church were found in Italy by the architect Keith from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, for instance the Pantheon
Pantheon, Rome
The Pantheon ,Rarely Pantheum. This appears in Pliny's Natural History in describing this edifice: Agrippae Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis; in columnis templi eius Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum, sicut in fastigio posita signa, sed propter altitudinem loci minus celebrata.from ,...
in Rome or the San Giorgio in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. The church's footprint is octagonal. From 1911 to 1913, the building work was finished and the church's consecration was celebrated. The steeple was built together with the church. To offset any influence that the tower might have on the impression that the dome was meant to give, the tower stands somewhat to the side. A two-story arcade joins the steeple to the church. It is 45 m high and houses four bells. The church's dome – a peculiarity in northern Germany – shapes Nordhorn's skyline. Over the massive iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
-concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
dome arches a wooden, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
-covered outer dome, crowned with a lantern. Its total height is 35 m.
Nordhorn's Lutheran Christians were first served from Lingen
Lingen
Lingen is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. In 2008 the population was 52,353, and in addition there are about 5,000 people who have registered the city as their secondary residence...
, and then from Bentheim. Once they had established their own parish, the Kreuzkirche ("Cross Church") was built in 1929 and 1930. Today roughly 20% of Nordhorners count themselves as Lutherans. There are three Lutheran churches.
All together, there are twelve Houses of God available in Nordhorn, seven of which have been built since the Second World War.
Nordhorn's synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
(9 November 1938). The town's Jews either emigrated or were deported and murdered, an event now marked by a memorial.
Population
Nordhorn has 53,608 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2006) in an area of 149.64 km², making the population density 358 to a square kilometre.Evangelical-Reformed Christians account for 28.14% of the population, while Lutherans account for 21.05% and Roman Catholics for 29.19%. Another 21.64% either are not members of any faith or adhere to other faiths.
Population development
(each time for 31 December)| > | |
| Year | Inhabitants |
|---|---|
| 1815 | 980 |
| 1851 | 1,356 |
| 1864 | 1,500 |
| 1895 | 2,041 |
| 1900 | 3,000 |
| 1929 | 18,000 |
| 1933 | 20,000 |
| 1961 | 39,449 |
| 1980 | 48,500 |
| 1990 | 49,000 |
Town council
After the municipal election on 10 September 2006, the 43 council seats were apportioned thus:| Party | Seats | Gains/losses from 2001 |
|---|---|---|
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
17 seats | -2 seats |
| CDU | 16 seats | -2 seats |
| Initiative Pro Grafschaft | 3 seats | +3 seats |
| GRÜNE Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir... |
2 seats | no change |
| FDP | 2 seats | no change |
| DKP German Communist Party The German Communist Party is a Marxist-Leninist party in Germany.-History:The DKP was formed in West Germany in 1968, in order to fill the place of the Communist Party of Germany , which had been banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956... |
2 seats | +1 seat |
The mayor, Meinhard Hüsemann, is also a voting member of town council.
Museums
The Town MuseumMuseum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
(Stadtmuseum) in the Povelturm was opened in October 1996. Within, one can inform oneself about Nordhorn's history. On the upper floor of the Povelturm is the museum café, which offers a view over Nordhorn from a height of 26 m.
Buildings
Nordhorn has mostly kept itself from being spoilt by the few individual building styles of the postwar years. The town's appearance has kept the appealing red brickwork that has long been a tradition in northern Germany and in the neighbouring Netherlands. It is even seen in modern buildings. The new district building, for instance, combines the local building materials of brick and sandstone with glass, concreteConcrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
and copper.
A fine example of restored architecture formerly overgrown by plant life is the Frenswegen Monastery from the 14th century in the town's northwest. A lightning strike in 1881 destroyed the church consecrated in 1445. The monastery buildings, however, were mostly preserved, even the square, two-floored cloister
Cloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
, the little wellhouse, the bridge over the moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
and the impressive cellar
Wine cellar
A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae or plastic containers. In an active wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system. In contrast, passive wine cellars are not...
vaulting. On the east wing's outer façade, a "Madonna and Child" made of Bentheim sandstone attracts the beholder's attention. After cautious renovations, the building now houses an ecumenical
Ecumenism
Ecumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...
educational and meeting place whose origin and basis the unusually broad mix of faiths in Nordhorn and its environs is.
Traces of Gothic mark the Reformed church, which stands defiantly in Brandlecht‘s old village centre. Among examples of Romanesque sculpture is this church's baptismal font, which is Nordhorn's oldest artwork, made out of Bentheim sandstone, and still holds its original importance today.
At present, two buildings characterize Nordhorn's skyline. The Alte Kirche on the marketplace, built out of Bentheim sandstone in the 15th century and the Augustinuskirche, built in 1913 on the former castle's lands, can both be seen from afar. The inner town, today as in days of yore an island around which flows the Vechte, is now a pedestrian precinct.
Painstakingly restored façades, modern arcades, shop
Retailing
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
s, boutique
Boutique
A boutique is a small shopping outlet, especially one that specializes in elite and fashionable items such as clothing and jewelry. The word is French for "shop", via Latin from Greek ἀποθήκη , "storehouse"....
s and pleasant outdoor cafés invite one to tarry. The oldest building on the main street is the former mayor and chemical manufacturer Firnhaber's house, in which he both lived and worked. Behind the two-story classicist façade, the triangular gable with its hipped roof and a round-arched window with a plaster swag, the tradition of Nordhorn's first apothecary lives on.
When walking about town, one finds little oases untouched by hectic daily life. In big, parklike gardens, behind old trees and tall rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
hedges, stately manor houses may be discovered. These villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
s built on Dutch models were textile manufacturers’ homes a hundred years ago. A walk through Nordhorn will in many places also still bring to light signs of the recent and more distant past, be it the town hall completed in 1952 with its little belltower or the old well at the park at the Völlinkhoff. Memories of a time when the heavy blocks of sandstone used in the oil mill's edgerunner still fulfilled their original function are brought forth at the town park.
When the grist mill and sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
on the milldam were shut down, an almost 600-year history of milling came to an end in Nordhorn. These buildings were renovated and now offer an appealing venue for cultural events.
Nordhorn's industrial history was written by, among others, the Povel textile plant, which shut its gates in 1979 after nearly a hundred years of production. As a last witness to the town's economic heyday early in the last century, the former spinning works tower has been maintained as an industrial memorial. It serves today as a museum. The upper floor can be hired for private celebrations.
In the Bussmaate, a former boggy area, another textile plant with an adjoining residential area for textile workers was built a hundred years ago. In the early 1950s, Professor Emanuel Lindner, lecturer at Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
and student of Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....
, together with architect Eberhard Heinrich Zeidler, who now lives in Canada, designed expansion building works for this business. With a clearly structured glass façade, the timeless industrial building fits seamlessly into the industrial complex dating from the Gründerzeit
Gründerzeit
' refers to the economic phase in 19th century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. At this time in Central Europe the age of industrialisation was taking place, whose beginnings were found in the 1840s...
. This building today stands empty and is to be converted for urban development.
Landscape
The Vechte's riverine landscape and the canals with their rows of trees are a popular place for a walk, and to enjoy the idyll. The canals, built more than 100 years ago for transport and draining the moorlands, now form part of a faunal habitat with many species and are now used for leisure and recreation. Sluices made out of sandstone and clinker, some still worked by hand, separate different water levels and are popular destinations for nature lovers.Fields and meadows frame farmlands on the town's outskirts. Wetlands and heathlands with birches, junipers and orchids growing wild are marks of this rustic landscape. In the Tillenberge a small protected area with heather, gnarled oaks and junipers.
A fine legacy from the Gründerzeit is the Town Park (Stadtpark), a villa park of one of the earliest manufacturers. At the concert bowl in the Town Park, concerts regularly take place.
Euregium
The Euregium was actually built for the HSG NordhornHSG Nordhorn
HSG Nordhorn-Lingen is a team handball club from Nordhorn, Germany. Currently, HSG Nordhorn-Lingen competes in the Second Division of the German Bundesliga, following a mandatory relegation from the First Division in 2009 owing to insolvency.In 2008 Nordhorn won the EHF Cup.-2008/09 Team:...
. The name comes from the Euregio
EUREGIO
EUREGIO is a cross-border region between the Netherlands and Germany. It was founded in 1958 and is organized as an Eingetragener Verein. Participating communities are in Niedersachsen and Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany and parts of the Dutch provinces Gelderland, Overijssel and Drenthe...
. The HSG team plays in the first handball Bundesliga. The Euregium is also used for other cultural events. It lies right near the vocational school and the district sport hall. The three halls’ proximity to each other makes it possible to stage great tournaments. The Euregium has for a few years now been the venue for the Grafschafter Sportgala.
Eissporthalle
The Eissporthalle – "Ice Sport Hall" – has wed ice hockey and figure skating into one ice sport club. It was built in the mid-1970s. In 1984, the band BAPBAP (German band)
Bap is a German rock group. With ten albums reaching the number one in the German record charts, Bap is one of the most successful rock acts in their home country....
gave a concert there.
The ice sport club in Nordhorn changed its name several times. Until 1999 there was the GEC Nordhorn, which, among other things, played in the hockey Bundesliga, in what was then the second highest class. Thereafter the club called itself EC Euregio Nordhorn 1999 e. V. and will play in the coming season (2007–2008) in the Verbandsliga NRW. In 2002, the Eissporthalle was renovated from the ground up. It is also open to the public for skating.
Regular events
Yearly, over Whitsun weekend, a great table tennis tournament, the Euregioturnier is held. At the outdoor swimming pool there is also an international swimming tournament at Whitsun. The VfL Weiße Elf Nordhorn stages every year, also over Whitsun weekend, the Pfingstturnier ("Whitsun Tournament"), a traditional C-youth soccer tournament. In 2007 they held their 25th yearly tournament. The teams that take part come from all over Germany as well as from other European countries such as the Netherlands, Poland and Hungary.German record
The football team Heseper SV, whose home field is in Nordhorn's south end, is a German record holder. Between 1996 and October 1999, the team managed to play a streak of 98 championship matches without being beaten, managing at the same time to rise from the fifth to the second district class. TSV Buchbach had held the old record with an unbeaten streak of only 75 matches.Industry
Industrialization brought about a rise in population from 2,540 in 1903 to 18,104 in 1930, rising to 50,000 in the textile industry's heyday from the 1950s to 1970s.Today, Nordhorn has roughly 53,500 inhabitants, and the trend is upward.
Once Nordhorn's biggest textile firms with up to 6,000 employees, NINO (corporation) was until the 1980s one of Europe's leading textile producers. This stands out not least of all in coöperative efforts with renowned fashion photographers like Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld is a German fashion designer, artist and photographer based in Paris. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel...
and Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton, born Helmut Neustädter was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."-Early life:Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara...
. The only clothing manufacturer still in business in Nordhorn is Erfo Bekleidungswerk GmbH & Co. KG. The three formerly biggest companies, NINO, Povel and Rawe, are all gone.
Since the textile industry waned, mostly midsize businesses from various service and production areas have settled in town, albeit without quite managing to offset job losses due to the textile industry's virtual death. Even though Citibank's temporary presence, with 550 jobs, eventually folded – despite massive local subsidies – the location is still quite attractive for service businesses. This can be seen in the latest firm to locate in town, Bertelsmann, which will soon have 250 jobs.
Taken together, however, the shift in structure to the tertiary sector in and around Nordhorn, unlike in other regions, is very far advanced. The greater Nordhorn area is well off when compared with the country as a whole, with the Nordhorn employment agency area (Agenturbezirk) reporting the lowest jobless rate in Lower Saxony. The neighbouring region of Rheine in North Rhine-Westphalia, too, is experiencing a peak in employment. This is further substantiated in the 2005 land use planning report from the Federal Office for the Building Industry and Land Use Planning (Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung) in which is discussed a forecast, based on current indicators, that sees in northwestern North Rhine-Westphalia and in Nordhorn and its environs an area with great economic dynamism in the coming years.
What should be highlit is the great number of food markets in Nordhorn, with Nordhorn having roughly twice the sales area proportionally by population as the national average. Because of the often misguided evictions, however, of newer locations outside the integrated sites, there are many empty premises in the inner town.
In March 2007, the Rawe-Ring-Center with roughly 22 000 m² of new sales area was opened on a plot that was once part of the Rawe textile factory. This project met with considerable opposition, mainly among local retailers and professionals. The retailers feared that the glut of new premises would bring about further vacancies, especially in the southern inner town, while professionals criticized the consequences for urban development, the lack of cleanup operations and above all the demolition of factory buildings that were protected as monuments. Despite 12,000 Nordhorners’ protest signatures gathered by the Pro Grafschaft initiative, the project was endorsed by a majority of the local politicians and in the end put into action.
Under the slogan "Nordhorn - Die Wasserstadt" ("Nordhorn – the Water Town"), the town fathers are now seeking to put the emphasis on new aspects of the town's development, bringing forth plans to open canals for pleasure boats and to further development by building a town harbour. Whether these plans will indeed be implemented, and to what extent, remains to be seen in the coming years,
Also found at Nordhorn is the controversial bombing range, the Nordhorn Range. After the Second World War, this was first run by the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
, but then later by the German Bundeswehr.
Transport
The combined length of the road network in Nordhorn is 586.5 km, of which 28 km is BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
n, 10.8 km is state highways (Landstraßen), 30.6 km is district roads (Kreisstraßen) and 517.1 km is town streets and roads.
All together, Nordhorn has 2,807 parking spaces.
The town lies near two Autobahnen, the A 30
Bundesautobahn 30
is a highway in northwestern Germany. It runs from west to east, starting at the Dutch border. On the border it connects with the Dutch A1 motorway, hence, the A 30 is part of the important European connection Berlin - Amsterdam...
and the A 31
Bundesautobahn 31
is a German Autobahn that connects the coast of the North Sea near Emden to the Ruhr area. It is also known as Emsland-Autobahn or East Frisian Skewer....
. It is furthermore connected to the highway network through two Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
n, the B 403 and the B 213.
However, Nordhorn's well developed road network cannot hide the fact that the most popular means of transport in town is what is locally known as the Fietse – the bicycle. The Nordhorners’ fondness for the Fietse and their morning rides led to the building of a special cycling path network that runs throughout the district of Grafschaft Bentheim. Signposts, known locally as Paddestolen, show cyclists the way on these Fietsenpads (also a local term, the standard German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
word for them being Radwege). The opening of Europe's borders is in full force here: cyclists can reach the neighbouring Netherlands unhindered through these pathways.
With its 53,000 inhabitants, Nordhorn is Germany's second largest town, after Herten
Herten
Herten is a town and a municipality in the district of Recklinghausen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated in the industrial Ruhr Area, approx...
, without passenger rail service. The nearest passenger railway stations are found in Lingen (Ems)
Lingen (Ems) railway station
Lingen is a railway station located in Lingen, Germany.-History:The station was opened in 1856 and is located on the Emsland line . The train services are operated by Deutsche Bahn.-Train services:...
and Bad Bentheim
Bad Bentheim railway station
Bad Bentheim is a railway station located in Bad Bentheim, Germany. The station was opened on 18 October 1865 and is located on the Almelo - Salzbergen railway. The train services are operated by Deutsche Bahn with NS Hispeed, Syntus and the Westfalenbahn....
, each about 20 km away.
Nordhorn has at its disposal a small airport in the outlying centre of Klausheide, called Nordhorn-Lingen (EDWN).
Through an initiative by the club Graf-SHIP, founded in 2003, state councillor Friedrich Kethorn approved on 14 November 2005 the reopening of the Ems-Vechte-Kanal to shipping, now allowing captains to bring ships of up to 12 m in length through the canal. Approval for the other two canals continues. The Klukkert-Hafen (harbour) was opened once again in 2006.
Old weaving mill
The old weaving mill once belonged to the Povel factory. Nowadays, the old weaving mill is a cultural centre for exhibitions, tourism and concerts. In the mill's building are found, alongside the county brewhouse, a musical pub for live acts and also Ems-Vechte-Welle, a regional radio station for Grafschaft Bentheim and the Emsland.Jugendzentrum Nordhorn
The Jugendzentrum Nordhorn – Nordhorn Youth Centre – has existed since the early 1970s. It was Germany's first youth centre and is therefore also its oldest. It was once a farm. At first, only the "threshing floor" was used, but in the 1980s, the "barn" also came into use. In the 1980s, the barn was also the scene of the punk movement in Nordhorn.Concerts were held in the barn, and still are, with such acts as Cochise
Cochise (band)
Cochise was an English country rock band that performed in the 1970s.This band is more significant for who they included than what they produced. Singer Stewart Brown had grown up with Reggie Dwight, later Elton John, and co-founded the band Bluesology with him. After the demise of Cochise, Mick...
, Geier Sturzflug
Geier Sturzflug
Geier Sturzflug is a German musical group of the Neue Deutsche Welle genre, created in 1979, and probably best known for their hits "Bruttosozialprodukt", "Pure Lust Am Leben," "Einsamkeit," and "Besuchen Sie Europa." They combine rock, pop, ska, and a little jazz to create their unique "feel...
, Helge Schneider
Helge Schneider
Helge Schneider is a German comedian, jazz musician and multi-instrumentalist, author, film and theatre director, and actor....
, Killerpilze
Killerpilze
The Killerpilze is a German Pop-rock / pop-punk band from Dillingen a.d. Donau, Germany. With their self-written rock songs, the band secured a faithful fan base in their homeland. From their first success in the German charts, Killerpilze have played in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland,...
, Wir sind Helden
Wir sind Helden
Wir sind Helden is a German Alternative Rock band from Berlin, established in 2001 in Hamburg. The quartet is composed of lead singer Judith Holofernes and musicians Pola Roy, Mark Tavassol, and Jean-Michel Tourette. The group's style has often been considered similar to that of the Neue Deutsche...
and In Extremo
In Extremo
In Extremo is a German medieval metal band originating from Berlin. The band's musical style combines metal with medieval traditional songs, blending the sound of the standard rock/metal instruments with historical instruments...
. Early in 2007, the barn's ceiling lining was destroyed by a storm, but with help from unpaid workers, the youth centre had a complete, new paint job inside by the summer.
Lebenshilfe Nordhorn
The Lebenshilfe – an institution dedicated to helping those with handicaps live full lives – was founded as early as 1963.Now, the institution's organs assist, attend and take care of well over 600 people with handicaps. These organs include kindergarten for early assistance, various homes and also various workplaces (such as carpentry workshops), where clients can go with the proper guidance and according to each one's interests and talents. As well, there is the musical band Tabuwta, made up wholly of people with handicaps and supported by Lebenshilfe educational employees and celebrities such as Guildo Horn
Guildo Horn
Guildo Horn He is mainly famous for his eccentric stage persona, which includes outrageous clothes and very extroverted antics.At the Eurovision Song Contest 1998, he came in 7th with the title "Guildo hat euch lieb!" ....
. In 2005 they recorded their third CD and presented it at the old weaving mill.
Vechtetalschule
The Vechtetalschule – Vechte Valley School – has existed as a school for those with a very broad array of handicaps since 1989. In 1992 it moved to a new building. It was given its name in 1997. Now, the school has 210 pupils, divided into 27 classes, ten of which are in outlying locations. Employed at the school are roughly 90 employees along with those doing community serviceZivildienst
Zivildienst is the civilian branch of the national service systems in Austria and Switzerland. In Germany as well Zivildienst was the alternative service to military service until suspension of conscription in 2011...
(instead of military service), would-be teachers and trainees. Levels currently run at the school are Primary, Secondary I and Secondary II.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Ernst Fuhry, founder of the "Spartaner" and co-founder of SV Eintracht Nordhorn (sport club). Fuhry designed not only Eintracht's emblem but also the German Football AssociationGerman Football AssociationThe German Football Association is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB organises the German football leagues, including the national league, the Bundesliga, and the men's and women's national teams. The DFB is based in Frankfurt and is...
's. - 1904, Ernst KüppersErnst KüppersErnst Küppers was a German backstroke swimmer who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics and in the 1932 Summer Olympics. He was born in Viersen and died in Nordhorn. He was the husband of Reni Erkens and the father of Ernst-Joachim Küppers.In 1928 he finished fifth in the 100 metre backstroke...
, Nordhorn water sport club (Waspo) trainer (1953–1965), Olympian in 1928 and 1932 - 1942, 24 August, Ernst-Joachim Küppers, German swimmer
- 1942, Bernd Horstmann, several times German swimming champion, 100 m backstroke
- 1952, 17 May, Bernhard BrinkBernhard Brink- Life :After school Brink studied in Berlin German law, but didn't finish university studies. Brink is a German singer of Schlager songs. Since 1970s he became in Germany famous for his songs.- External links :...
, entertainer and musician - 1953, 10 August, Michael SchneiderMichael Schneider (conductor)Michael Schneider is a German flautist, recorder player, conductor and academic teacher. He is especially connected with later baroque repertoire such as the works of Telemann, and founded the orchestra La Stagione to perform that repertoire.-Professional career:Schneider studied flute and...
, recorder player and conductor - 1955, Silke Pielen, German swimmer, bronze medallist at the Munich Olympics
- 1957, 1 August, Beate Merk, politician (CSUChristian Social Union of BavariaThe Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...
), Bavarian State Justice Minister - 1963, 16 May, Johnny de Brest, born as Olaf Enkrodt, German Artist and Photogrpaher
- 1964, 19 April, Karina Kim, German hit singer
- 1977, 2 May, Jan FitschenJan FitschenJan Fitschen is a German long-distance runner, competing for TV Wattenscheid 01.At the 1999 Under 23 European Championships he finished fifth over the 5 000 m...
, German long-distance runner - 1985, 4 June, Anna-Lena GrönefeldAnna-Lena GrönefeldAnna-Lena Grönefeld is a professional tennis player from Germany. She turned professional in April 2003.As of September 2011, Grönefeld is the No. 12 tennis player from Germany. She was coached and trained by Rafael Font de Mora in Scottsdale, Arizona until 2006...
, German tennis player
International relations
Nordhorn is twinnedTown twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with:
Coevorden
Coevorden
Coevorden is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands. During the municipal reorganisation in the province in 1998, Coevorden merged with Dalen, Sleen, Oosterhesselen and Zweeloo.- Population centers :...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
since 1963 Montivilliers
Montivilliers
Montivilliers is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A large light industrial and farming town by the banks of the river Lézarde in the Pays de Caux, situated just north of Le Havre, at the junction of the D489, D52, D926 and D31...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
since 1963 Reichenbach im Vogtland, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
since 1987 Malbork
Malbork
Malbork is a town in northern Poland in the Żuławy region , with 38,478 inhabitants . Situated in the Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, it was previously assigned to Elbląg Voivodeship...
in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
since 1995 Rieti
Rieti
Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of c. 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti.The town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding a wide plain at the southern edge of an ancient lake. The area is now the fertile basin of the Velino River...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
since 2010
Further reading
- Heinrich Specht, Bürgerbücher der Stadt Nordhorn von 1396-1913, Nordhorn 1939
- Heinrich Specht, Wappen und Siegel der Stadt Nordhorn, aus Nordhorner Nachrichten Nr. 213, 194 (1941): Ältere Nordhorner Wappenzeichen,
- Alfred Dietrich, Nordhorn - Textilstadt im Grünen, Oldenburg 1966
- Bernd-Andreas Knoop + Jörg-Uwe Seifert, Nordhorn - Gesichter einer Stadt, 1976
- VHS Grafschaft Bentheim (publisher), Nordhorn nach 1945, Nordhorn, 1977
- Heinrich Specht, Nordhorn - Geschichte einer Grenzstadt, Nordhorn 1941; 1979. publisher: Heimatverein der Grafschaft Bentheim.
- Clemens v. Looz-Corswarem + Michael Schmitt (publisher), Nordhorn - Beiträge zur 600 jährigen Stadtgeschichte, 1979
- Bernd-Andreas Knoop + Fritz Schöbel, Das war die Festwoche - 600 Jahre Stadt Nordhorn, 1979
- VHS Grafschaft Bentheim (publisher), 35 Jahre Volkshochschule der Stadt Nordhorn, Bad Bentheim, 1983
- Gerhard Plasger, Nordhorn in alten Ansichten, 1983
- Gerhard Plasger, Nordhorn - Bilder der Vergangenheit, 1986
- VHS Grafschaft Bentheim (publisher), Mühlen und Müller, Nordhorn, 1987
- Wilfried P. Delissen et al., Nordhorn - Spuren und Notizen, Nordhorn 1988
- Herbert Wagner: Militär in der Region, Dokumentation über den Artillerieschieß- und Bombenabwurfplatz Engdener Wüste / Nordhorn - Range, Bad Bentheim, 1989
- neomdedia GmbH (publisher), Nordhorn - Grenzstadt ohne Grenzen, 1989
- VHS Grafschaft Bentheim (publisher), Nordhorn im 3. Reich, Nordhorn, 1991
- Bernd-Andreas Knoop, Das große Buch der Grafschaft, Lage 1994
- VHS Grafschaft Bentheim (publisher), Nordhorn - eine Zeitreise, Nordhorn, 1998
- Schwester M. Willibaldis, St. Augustinus Nordhorn, Nordhorn 2003
- Herbert Wagner: Die Gestapo war nicht allein... Politische Sozialkontrolle und Staatsterror im deutsch - niederländischen Grenzgebiet 1929 - 1945, Münster 2004