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Stade (region)
Encyclopedia
The Stade Region emerged in 1823 by an administrative reorganisation of the dominions of the Kingdom of Hanover
, a sovereign
state, whose then territory is almost completely part of today's German federal state of Lower Saxony
. Until 1837 the Kingdom of Hanover was ruled in personal union
by the Kings of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
.
The official title of the Region was High-Bailiwick of Stade (1823–1885; ) and then Governorate of Stade (1885–1978; ). The High-Bailiwick of Stade, being a mere administrative unit of the integrated Kingdom of Hanover, was named after and seated in Stade
, Bremen-Verden
's former capital, taking over its staff, installations and buildings. The territory of the Stade Region was combined by the territories of the Land of Hadeln, the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (ˈfɛːɐ̯dən), all Hanoverian dominions, which were collectively administered. The territory belonging to the Stade Region covered about the triangular area between the mouths of the rivers Elbe
and Weser to the North Sea
and today's German federal states of Hamburg
and Bremen
. This area included about today's Lower Saxon counties of Cuxhaven
(southernly), Osterholz
, Rotenburg upon Wümme
, Stade
and Verden
as well as of the Bremian exclave of the city of Bremerhaven
.
or simply Bremen-Verden. The latter two emerged in 1648 by the transformation of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, then Duchy of Bremen, and the Prince-Bishopric of Verden, then Duchy of Verden.
The Kingdom of Hanover's predecessor the Prince-Electorate of Brunswick and Lunenburg (or, colloquially called after its capital Electorate of Hanover; ) purchased Bremen-Verden from its Danish occupants de facto in 1715 (and again from its legitimate owner Sweden
in 1719 (Treaty of Stockholm
) for 1 million rixdollar
s). De jure this acquisition had to be legitimised by imperial feoffment. It took Elector George II Augustus
until 1733 to get Charles VI to enfeoff him with the Duchy of Bremen and Verden.
In 1728 Emperor Charles VI enfeoffed Elector George II Augustus, who in 1727 had succeeded his father George I Louis
, with the reverted fief of Saxe-Lauenburg. By a redeployment of Hanoverian territories in 1731 Bremen-Verden was conveyed the administration of the neighboured Land of Hadeln (at the Northern tip of Bremen-Verden), since 1180 an exclave, first of the younger Duchy of Saxony, from 1296 on of the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, one of the former's successors.
At both feoffments George II Augustus swore that he would respect the existing privileges and constitutions of the Estates of Bremen-Verden and of Hadeln, thus confirming 400-year-old traditions of Estate participation in government. The small Land of Hadeln maintained until 1885 as to its legislation a certain level of internal autonomy (Estates
of Hadeln) but as to the executive power Hadeln was administered by neighboured Bremen-Verden's provincial government.
Being a Prince-Elector
of the Holy Roman Empire
and represented in its Diet
by virtue of his Electorate of Hanover, George II Augustus didn't bother about Bremen-Verden's status of Imperial immediacy. Since Bremen-Verden had turned Hanoverian it never again sent its own representatives to a Diet .
, which brought changing occupations and annexations of the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (for more details see Bremen-Verden
), Bremen-Verden was restored in 1813 to the Electorate of Hanover, which transformed into the Kingdom of Hanover
in 1814. Even though Bremen-Verden's status as a territory of imperial immediacy had become void with the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Duchies were not right away incorporated in real union
into the Hanoverian state. Since the Hanoverian monarchs had moved to London, Hanover had become a state of very conservative and backwarded rule, with a local government recruited from local aristocrats adding up much to the preservation of outdated structures.
The real union
with Hanover only followed in 1823, when an administrative reform united Bremen-Verden and Hadeln to form the High-Bailiwick of Stade, administered according to unitarian modern standards, thereby doing away with various traditional Bremian government forms. Hadeln kept part of its traditional autonomy until 1852, its Estates continued to function with restricted authority until 1884. In 1823 the high-bailiwick consisted of 7,025 square kilometres with 208,251 inhabitants.
On 1 May 1827 a small section of the lower Weser shore in the West of the High-Bailiwick of Stade, forming the nucleus of the future city of Bremerhaven
, was transferred to the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
, as agreed upon earlier that year in a contract by the Hanoveran minister Friedrich Franz Dieterich von Bremer and Bremen's Burgomaster
Johann Smidt
. Bremerhaven (literally English: Bremian Harbour) was founded to be a haven for Bremen's merchant marine, with that city located upstream the Weser being more and more disconnected from the sea, due to that river's silting up. Bremerhaven also became the home port of the German Confederation
's Navy
under Karl Rudolf Brommy
.
(founded by Hadeln's Estates
in 1535, integrated into Stade's consistory in 1885) and one in Stade (founded by Swedish Bremen-Verden
's government in 1650) for the rest of the High-Bailiwick supervised the Lutheran cult and clergy. A general superintendent
chaired each consistory. Lutherans made up by far the majority of the population. Among Lutherans revivalism played a major role in the 1850s. In 1848 the Lutheran parishes were democratised by the introduction of presbyteries (parish councils), elected by all major male parishioners and chairing each parish in co-operation with the pastor, being before the sole chairman. This introduction of presbyteries was somewhat revolutionary in the rather hierarchically structured Lutheran church.
The Lutheran church was the state church
of the Kingdom of Hanover
with the king being summus episcopus (Supreme Governor of the Lutheran Church). In 1864 Carl Lichtenberg, Hanoverian minister of education, cultural and religious affairs (1862–1865), persuaded the Hanoverian parliament to pass a new law as to the constitution of the Lutheran church. The constitution provided a state synod
(parishioners' parliament). But its first session only materialised in 1869, when after the Prussian annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover
(1866) the Hanoverian Lutherans desired a representative body separate from Prussian rule, though it was restricted to Lutheran matters only.
After the Prussian conquest in 1866, on 19 September 1866, the day before the official Prussian annexation took place and with the last king, George V of Hanover
, in exile, the Kingdom's six consistories joined to form the still existing Lutheran State Church of Hanover. An all-Hanoverian consistory, the Landeskonsistorium (state consistory), was formed with representatives from the regional consistories. The Lutheran state church became a stronghold of Hanoverian separatism and therefore somewhat politicised. It opposed the Evangelical State Church in Prussia, comprising the Protestant parishes in the Prussian territory prior the 1866 annexations, not only for its being a stronghold of Prussian patriotism, but for being a united church
of formerly Lutheran and Calvinist parishes, with a preponderance of Calvinism because the Calvinist Hohenzollern dynasty wielded its influence in the unification of Lutherans and Calvinists in then Prussia in 1817. The Hanoverian Lutherans managed to maintain their independence and the Evangelical State Church in Prussia stayed abreast of the changes and renamed in 1875 into Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces.
The Calvinist communities were in a somewhat sorry state. They emerged in the 1590s, when the Calvinist city of Bremen
actually possessed some area around Bederkesa
and Lehe (a part of today's Bremerhaven
) at the lower Weser stream. In 1654, after the First Bremian War, the city ceded the area to Swedish Bremen-Verden, which subjected the Calvinists there to supervision by the Lutheran consistory. Under Lutheran pressure only six congregations stood fast to Calvinism. In the municipalities, where they were located, Calvinists made up the majority of the population, later Lutheran migration outweighed the Calvinist preponderance. The rest of the Stade Region was and is a Calvinist diaspora
.
In 1848 Hanoverian law also provided for presbyteries in the Calvinist parishes in the Stade Region, which exactly fit the presbyterian structure of Calvinism. But only in 1882 — long after the Prussian annexation of Hanover — the inappropriate supervision by Lutheran consistorials ended, when King William I of Prussia decreed the creation of the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover
comprising all the Calvinist communities in the prevailingly Lutheran Province of Hanover
. The simultaneously Lutheran and Calvinist consistory in Aurich was made the consistory of that church body, becoming an exclusively Calvinist body only in 1922, following the constitutional reorganisation of the church bodies after the Weimar Constitution
had decreed the separation of church and state in 1919.
After the forcefully wielded attempts of reCatholicisation in 1628–1632, which ended with the reconquest by the legitimate Lutheran Administrator of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, John Frederick
, no Catholic communities existed and missionary and pastoral activities were supervised by the Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of the Nordic Missions
, but widely hindered by Bremen-Verden's government. By annexations after the Napoléonic Wars
, the Kingdom of Hanover
had become a state of three Christian denominations. In 1824 Hanover and the Holy See
thus agreed upon to integrate the territory comprising the Stade Region into the neighboured Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim, with the Vicariate Apostolic's competence ending there. In 1859 (in Blumenthal, 170 Catholics) and in 1872 (in Verden upon Aller) the first Catholic parishes were founded (after 1632), with all the Stade Region being a Catholic diaspora.
Jews left scarce archival traces in the mediaeval Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. In 1611 the city of Stade signed a contract with Sephardic Jews, allowing the foundation of a community. In 1613 Administrator John Frederick followed by settling Ashkenazzi Jews in the city, but during the turmoil of Catholic conquest and Lutheran reconquest the last archival traces of Jews date from 1630. Only by the end of the 17th century Jews reappear in Bremen-Verden
. At the beginning of the 19th century some 30 Jewish families lived dispersedly over the region, under precarious legal status, and without Jewish institutions. By the Westphalian
and French annexations in 1807 and 1810 the Jews in the Stade Region had been emancipated
and thus naturalised, only to lose their French citizenship again by France's defeat in 1813, falling back into a status of toleration or mere indigenousness without political rights in restituted Bremen-Verden
.
In 1842 the Kingdom of Hanover
granted equal rights to Jews and promoted to build up Jewish communities and a regional superstructure (rabbinate
) within a nationwide scope. The Jews in the Stade Region regarded this a progress and a burden alike, because prior they hadn't employed any rabbi and religion teacher, opened hardly a synagogue or school
due to the implied financial burden. In 1845 — according to the new law — a land-rabbinate for the whole Stade Region, under land-rabbi Joseph Heilbut, was established, serving 16 Jewish communities, which were founded over the years, with altogether 1,250 Jews in 1864 (highest number ever reached). The local authorities now requested, that the Jewish communities establish synagogues and Jewish education for the pupils. Synagogues existed in Neuhaus upon Oste
and in Osten
(both early 19th century), in Horneburg
(opened 1831) and in Stade
(opened 1849, closed due to financial restrictions in 1908). And a teacher for Jewish religion
and Hebrew was employed (after 1890 Stade's community couldn't afford a teacher any more). From 1903 on the Jewish community of Stade was granted public subsidies to continue functioning. The land-rabbins simultaneously fulfilled religious and state functions, like supervising Jewish elementary schools and the teaching of Jewish religion in all schools. The Kingdom of Hanover was thus one of the few states within the German Confederation
, where rabbis held a similar semi-state authoritative position as to Jews as did, e.g., Lutheran clergy towards Lutherans.
After the Prussian annexation the constitution of Hanover's four land-rabbinates came under threat to be abolished, because in Prussia proper the government hindered as much as possible the establishment of nationwide Jewish organisations, let alone such which it would grant official recognition. In the end Prussia respected the existing Hanoverian land-rabbinate constitution, which continued to exist — modified according to the separation of state and religion in 1919 by the Weimar constitution
— until the Nazi Reich's government de facto abolished the constitution in 1938. The communities in urban Lehe (28 families, after 1924 part of Wesermünde
: 300 community members in 1928), Scharmbeck
(20 families) and Verden upon Aller were the biggest by membership, while rural communities vanished. The Stade Region stayed a Jewish diaspora
, and from 1860 on Stade's land-rabbinate was never staffed again, but served alternately by one of the other three Hanoverian land-rabbinates. Labour migration and emigration to urban centres outside the Stade Region and Jewish demography rather lead to a reduction of the number of Jews in the Stade Region (786 in 1913, 716 in 1928).
After the Prussia
n annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover
in 1866, the kingdom was transformed into the Prussian Province of Hanover
. The adaptation to other Prussian administrative structures took only place in 1885, when the high-bailiwick was redesigned according to Prussian law as the Governorate of Stade . The Hanoverian subsections of a high-bailiwick , were redeployed into 14 bigger Prussian style counties . At the time of its redeployment the high-bailiwick's population amounted to 300,000. In 1905 the population amounted to 403,302 with an area of 6,786 square kilometres, which made up a density of 59 persons per square kilometre. The Governorate of Stade weathered the following wars and constitutional changes.
Bremerhaven was several times enlarged at the expense of the Governorate of Stades territory. But on the latter's territory several suburbs grew and in 1924 were united to form the urban county
of Wesermünde
. In 1932 by an administrative reform the number of the governorate's 13 rural counties was reduced to a mere seven. In 1932 in the Great Depression
the Lutheran Church of the State of Hanover opened a camp for formerly workless singles, employed in public works (roadworks, amelioration) in Sandbostel
.
In 1933 the Nazis seized the power in Germany (Machtergreifung
). On the Reich's and the level of the states gradually all resistance was decapitated. Anti-Semitic discriminations were imposed onto Jewish Germans and Germans of Jewish descent. In 1932 Franz von Papen
's Reich's government had overthrown the last democratic Prussian government under Otto Braun
(Prussian Coup
). So the Governorate of Stade, being a part of the Free State of Prussia, one of the most stable and democratised German states, came fast under Nazi influence. The governor Hermann Rose resigned under pressure of Gauleiter Otto Telschow
. The Nazis' rule enforcement was characterised by installing Nazi-loyal parallel structures, which would interfere with existing public administration and bring it to dictatorial lines. The Governorate of Stade came under ever increasing interference of the Nazi party's regional subsection Gau Eastern Hanover
under Gauleiter Otto Telschow
, especially after 1935, when the Nazi-party Gaue replaced the functions of the streamlined German states
.
The new Nazi Reich's government — "provisionally" ruling Prussia — had direct rule over the Prussian police, with police being an institution of the respective German states. The ordinary police had to guard together with S.A.
men, the Prussian Criminal Police Department in charge for the Governorate of Stade was seated in its biggest city Wesermünde
. In March/April 1933 the Criminal Police was transformed into the new State Police Department Wesermünde, directly subordinated to the new Geheime Staatspolizei
(GeStapo, secret state police), circumventing all prior existing Prussian administrative structures, to which the former Criminal Police had been subjected and reporting before. At first Wesermünde's Stapo Department persecuted all political enemies of Nazism and later persons involved in all kinds of disobediences, such as strikes, absenteeism, black marketing, circumventions of ordered dues to be delivered, which all became an ever growing phenomenon with the increasing weariness in the long duration of the war. The Stapo had its special eye on forced labourers in the governorate, abducted from all over German occupied Europe.
In 1939 the Sandbostel camp, meanwhile usurped by the Nazi trade union Reichsarbeitsdienst
, was converted into the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag X-B
and a camp of internment for civilian enemy aliens. Until 1945 about a million inmates passed through the camp, with about 46,000 perished.
As to territorial changes the Reich's Nazi government decreed by the Greater Hamburg Act (1937) to incorporate the Hamburgian exclave of Cuxhaven into the Governorate of Stade, forming then an urban county. While at the most eastern end of the governorate some municipalities were integrated into the state of Hamburg. Two years later the Reich's Nazi government decreed to incorporate some municipalities of the counties of Osterholz and Verden into the city of Bremen and in return to disentangle Bremerhaven from the Hanseatic City of Bremen
and to incorporate it into Wesermünde. But that redeployment didn't last long.
the Control Commission for Germany - British Element and the Office of Military Government for Germany, U.S. (OMGUS)
agreed in 1947 to constitute the cities of Bremen and Wesermünde as a German state
named Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
, becoming at that occasion an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation
within the British zone. Radio AFN (American Forces Network
), based in rechristened Bremerhaven, became popular for its transmissions of jazz and rock music.
After this territorial toing and froing the Governorate of Stade belonged to Lower Saxony
, the state newly founded in 1946 by the Control Commission for Germany — British Element, even before in 1947 the Allies
officially dissolved the Free State of Prussia
.
From 1973 to 1977 the number of Lower Saxon
counties has been reduced by uniting counties. The urban county of Cuxhaven and the neighboured counties of the Land of Hadeln and Wesermünde were united to form the new County of Cuxhaven
. The county of Bremervörde was integrated into the County of Rotenburg upon Wümme
. Thus the governorate consisted only of a mere five counties: Cuxhaven, Osterholz
, Rotenburg (Wümme), Stade
and Verden
. In 1977 the governorate's population amounted to almost 700,000.
The Governorate of Stade continued to exist until 31 January 1978. The next day it was incorporated into the neighbouring Governorate of Lunenburg
, with the complete dissolution of all Lower Saxon governorates following in 2004.
Today no single administrative entity covers the territory of the former Bremen-Verden
. Today’s efforts and activities in the field of culture in the region are covered by the Landschaftsverband der ehemaligen Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden (Engl. about: landscape union of the former duchies of Bremen and Verden, or short Landschaftsverband Stade).
Bearing the title: Governor
Source
Source
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
, a sovereign
Sovereign
A sovereign is the supreme lawmaking authority within its jurisdiction.Sovereign may also refer to:*Monarch, the sovereign of a monarchy*Sovereign Bank, banking institution in the United States*Sovereign...
state, whose then territory is almost completely part of today's German federal state of Lower Saxony
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...
. Until 1837 the Kingdom of Hanover was ruled in personal union
Personal union
A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
by the Kings of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
.
The official title of the Region was High-Bailiwick of Stade (1823–1885; ) and then Governorate of Stade (1885–1978; ). The High-Bailiwick of Stade, being a mere administrative unit of the integrated Kingdom of Hanover, was named after and seated in Stade
Stade
Stade is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region . It is the seat of the district named after it...
, Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden , were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained Imperial immediacy in 1180...
's former capital, taking over its staff, installations and buildings. The territory of the Stade Region was combined by the territories of the Land of Hadeln, the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (ˈfɛːɐ̯dən), all Hanoverian dominions, which were collectively administered. The territory belonging to the Stade Region covered about the triangular area between the mouths of the rivers Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
and Weser to 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 today's German federal states of 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...
and Bremen
Bremen (state)
The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...
. This area included about today's Lower Saxon counties of Cuxhaven
Cuxhaven (district)
Cuxhaven is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Stade, Rotenburg, Osterholz and Wesermarsch, the city of Bremerhaven and the North Sea.- History :...
(southernly), Osterholz
Osterholz
Osterholz is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Wesermarsch, Cuxhaven, Rotenburg and Verden, and by the city of Bremen.-History:...
, Rotenburg upon Wümme
Rotenburg (district)
Rotenburg is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Stade, Harburg, Heidekreis, Verden, Osterholz and Cuxhaven.-History:...
, Stade
Stade (district)
Stade is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Harburg, Rotenburg and Cuxhaven, the Elbe River, and the city state of Hamburg.-History:...
and Verden
Verden (district)
Verden is a Kreis in the centre of Lower Saxony, Germany. Adjoining it are the districts of Osterholz, Rotenburg, Heidekreis, Nienburg and Diepholz, as well as the city of Bremen.-Geography:...
as well as of the Bremian exclave of the city of Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
.
Before the establishment of the High-Bailiwick of Stade
The collectively administered Land of Hadeln, the Duchy of Bremen and the Duchy of Verden were therefore colloquially referred to as the Duchies of Bremen-VerdenBremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden , were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained Imperial immediacy in 1180...
or simply Bremen-Verden. The latter two emerged in 1648 by the transformation of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, then Duchy of Bremen, and the Prince-Bishopric of Verden, then Duchy of Verden.
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....
in 1719 (Treaty of Stockholm
Treaty of Stockholm (Great Northern War)
With the death of Charles XII of Sweden in 1718 it was obvious that the Great Northern War was coming to a close. His successor Frederick I began negotiating the Treaty of Stockholm, which refers to the two treaties signed in 1719 and 1720 that ended the war between Sweden on one side and Hanover...
) for 1 million rixdollar
Rixdollar
Rixdollar is the English term for silver coinage used throughout the European continent .The same term was also used of currency in Cape Colony and Ceylon. However, the Rixdollar only existed as a coin in Ceylon. Unissued remainder banknotes for the Cape of Good Hope denominated in Rixdollars...
s). De jure this acquisition had to be legitimised by imperial feoffment. It took Elector George II Augustus
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
until 1733 to get Charles VI to enfeoff him with the Duchy of Bremen and Verden.
In 1728 Emperor Charles VI enfeoffed Elector George II Augustus, who in 1727 had succeeded his father George I Louis
George I of Great Britain
George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....
, with the reverted fief of Saxe-Lauenburg. By a redeployment of Hanoverian territories in 1731 Bremen-Verden was conveyed the administration of the neighboured Land of Hadeln (at the Northern tip of Bremen-Verden), since 1180 an exclave, first of the younger Duchy of Saxony, from 1296 on of the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, one of the former's successors.
At both feoffments George II Augustus swore that he would respect the existing privileges and constitutions of the Estates of Bremen-Verden and of Hadeln, thus confirming 400-year-old traditions of Estate participation in government. The small Land of Hadeln maintained until 1885 as to its legislation a certain level of internal autonomy (Estates
Estates of the realm
The Estates of the realm were the broad social orders of the hierarchically conceived society, recognized in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Christian Europe; they are sometimes distinguished as the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and commoners, and are often referred to by...
of Hadeln) but as to the executive power Hadeln was administered by neighboured Bremen-Verden's provincial government.
Being a Prince-Elector
Prince-elector
The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...
of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
and represented in its Diet
Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)
The Imperial Diet was the Diet, or general assembly, of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.During the period of the Empire, which lasted formally until 1806, the Diet was not a parliament in today's sense; instead, it was an assembly of the various estates of the realm...
by virtue of his Electorate of Hanover, George II Augustus didn't bother about Bremen-Verden's status of Imperial immediacy. Since Bremen-Verden had turned Hanoverian it never again sent its own representatives to a Diet .
The Stade Region as part of the state of Hanover in the years from 1813 to 1866
After the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, which brought changing occupations and annexations of the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (for more details see Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden , were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained Imperial immediacy in 1180...
), Bremen-Verden was restored in 1813 to the Electorate of Hanover, which transformed into the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
in 1814. Even though Bremen-Verden's status as a territory of imperial immediacy had become void with the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Duchies were not right away incorporated in real union
Real union
Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions as in contrast to personal unions; however they are not as unified as states in a political union...
into the Hanoverian state. Since the Hanoverian monarchs had moved to London, Hanover had become a state of very conservative and backwarded rule, with a local government recruited from local aristocrats adding up much to the preservation of outdated structures.
The real union
Real union
Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions as in contrast to personal unions; however they are not as unified as states in a political union...
with Hanover only followed in 1823, when an administrative reform united Bremen-Verden and Hadeln to form the High-Bailiwick of Stade, administered according to unitarian modern standards, thereby doing away with various traditional Bremian government forms. Hadeln kept part of its traditional autonomy until 1852, its Estates continued to function with restricted authority until 1884. In 1823 the high-bailiwick consisted of 7,025 square kilometres with 208,251 inhabitants.
On 1 May 1827 a small section of the lower Weser shore in the West of the High-Bailiwick of Stade, forming the nucleus of the future city of Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
, was transferred to the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
Bremen (state)
The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...
, as agreed upon earlier that year in a contract by the Hanoveran minister Friedrich Franz Dieterich von Bremer and Bremen's Burgomaster
Burgomaster
Burgomaster is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or chairman of the executive council of a sub-national level of administration...
Johann Smidt
Johann Smidt
Johann Smidt was an important Bremen politician, theologian, and founder of Bremerhaven.Smidt was a son of the Reformed preacher Johann Smidt sen., pastor at St. Stephen Church in Bremen. Smidt jun. studied theology in Jena, and was one of the founders of the Gesellschaft der freien Männer...
. Bremerhaven (literally English: Bremian Harbour) was founded to be a haven for Bremen's merchant marine, with that city located upstream the Weser being more and more disconnected from the sea, due to that river's silting up. Bremerhaven also became the home port of the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
's Navy
Reichsflotte
The Reichsflotte was the first all-German Navy. It was founded on 14 June 1848 during the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states by the Frankfurt Parliament to provide a naval force in the First Schleswig War against Denmark.-History:...
under Karl Rudolf Brommy
Karl Rudolf Brommy
Rear Admiral Karl Rudolf Brommy was a German naval officer who helped establish the first unified German fleet, the Reichsflotte, during the First Schleswig War which broke out just before the Revolutions of 1848 in the German...
.
Reorganisation of Religious Bodies in the Stade Region
Two Lutheran consistories, one for the Land of Hadeln in OtterndorfOtterndorf
Otterndorf is a town on the coast of the North Sea in the region of Lower Saxony, Germany, and is part of the Samtgemeinde Land Hadeln . The town is at the mouth of the river Medem on part of the Elbe delta in the district Cuxhaven...
(founded by Hadeln's Estates
Estates of the realm
The Estates of the realm were the broad social orders of the hierarchically conceived society, recognized in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Christian Europe; they are sometimes distinguished as the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and commoners, and are often referred to by...
in 1535, integrated into Stade's consistory in 1885) and one in Stade (founded by Swedish Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden , were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained Imperial immediacy in 1180...
's government in 1650) for the rest of the High-Bailiwick supervised the Lutheran cult and clergy. A general superintendent
Superintendent (ecclesiastical)
Superintendent is the head of an administrative division of a Protestant church, largely historical but still in use in Germany.- Superintendents in Sweden :...
chaired each consistory. Lutherans made up by far the majority of the population. Among Lutherans revivalism played a major role in the 1850s. In 1848 the Lutheran parishes were democratised by the introduction of presbyteries (parish councils), elected by all major male parishioners and chairing each parish in co-operation with the pastor, being before the sole chairman. This introduction of presbyteries was somewhat revolutionary in the rather hierarchically structured Lutheran church.
The Lutheran church was the state church
State church
State churches are organizational bodies within a Christian denomination which are given official status or operated by a state.State churches are not necessarily national churches in the ethnic sense of the term, but the two concepts may overlap in the case of a nation state where the state...
of the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
with the king being summus episcopus (Supreme Governor of the Lutheran Church). In 1864 Carl Lichtenberg, Hanoverian minister of education, cultural and religious affairs (1862–1865), persuaded the Hanoverian parliament to pass a new law as to the constitution of the Lutheran church. The constitution provided a state synod
Synod
A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...
(parishioners' parliament). But its first session only materialised in 1869, when after the Prussian annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
(1866) the Hanoverian Lutherans desired a representative body separate from Prussian rule, though it was restricted to Lutheran matters only.
After the Prussian conquest in 1866, on 19 September 1866, the day before the official Prussian annexation took place and with the last king, George V of Hanover
George V of Hanover
George V was King of Hanover, the only child of Ernest Augustus I, and a grandchild of King George III of the United Kingdom. In the peerage of Great Britain, he was 2nd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, 2nd Earl of Armagh...
, in exile, the Kingdom's six consistories joined to form the still existing Lutheran State Church of Hanover. An all-Hanoverian consistory, the Landeskonsistorium (state consistory), was formed with representatives from the regional consistories. The Lutheran state church became a stronghold of Hanoverian separatism and therefore somewhat politicised. It opposed the Evangelical State Church in Prussia, comprising the Protestant parishes in the Prussian territory prior the 1866 annexations, not only for its being a stronghold of Prussian patriotism, but for being a united church
United and uniting churches
United and uniting churches are churches formed from the merger or other form of union of two or more different Protestant denominations.Perhaps the oldest example of a united church is found in Germany, where the Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of Lutheran, United and Reformed...
of formerly Lutheran and Calvinist parishes, with a preponderance of Calvinism because the Calvinist Hohenzollern dynasty wielded its influence in the unification of Lutherans and Calvinists in then Prussia in 1817. The Hanoverian Lutherans managed to maintain their independence and the Evangelical State Church in Prussia stayed abreast of the changes and renamed in 1875 into Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces.
The Calvinist communities were in a somewhat sorry state. They emerged in the 1590s, when the Calvinist city of 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...
actually possessed some area around Bederkesa
Bederkesa
Bad Bederkesa is a municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 20 km northeast of Bremerhaven, and 30 km southeast of Cuxhaven...
and Lehe (a part of today's Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
) at the lower Weser stream. In 1654, after the First Bremian War, the city ceded the area to Swedish Bremen-Verden, which subjected the Calvinists there to supervision by the Lutheran consistory. Under Lutheran pressure only six congregations stood fast to Calvinism. In the municipalities, where they were located, Calvinists made up the majority of the population, later Lutheran migration outweighed the Calvinist preponderance. The rest of the Stade Region was and is a Calvinist diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
.
In 1848 Hanoverian law also provided for presbyteries in the Calvinist parishes in the Stade Region, which exactly fit the presbyterian structure of Calvinism. But only in 1882 — long after the Prussian annexation of Hanover — the inappropriate supervision by Lutheran consistorials ended, when King William I of Prussia decreed the creation of the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover
Evangelical Reformed Church – Synod of Reformed Churches in Bavaria and Northwestern Germany
The Evangelical Reformed Church – Synod of Reformed Churches in Bavaria and Northwestern Germany is one of 23 member churches of the Evangelical Church in Germany . It has its seat in Leer...
comprising all the Calvinist communities in the prevailingly Lutheran Province of Hanover
Province of Hanover
The Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation...
. The simultaneously Lutheran and Calvinist consistory in Aurich was made the consistory of that church body, becoming an exclusively Calvinist body only in 1922, following the constitutional reorganisation of the church bodies after the Weimar Constitution
Weimar constitution
The Constitution of the German Reich , usually known as the Weimar Constitution was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic...
had decreed the separation of church and state in 1919.
After the forcefully wielded attempts of reCatholicisation in 1628–1632, which ended with the reconquest by the legitimate Lutheran Administrator of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, John Frederick
John Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp
John Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp was the Lutheran Administrator of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, the Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck and the Prince-Bishopric of Verden.His parents were Adolf I, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp and Christine,...
, no Catholic communities existed and missionary and pastoral activities were supervised by the Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of the Nordic Missions
Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Germany
The Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Germany was known for most of its existence as the Vicariate Apostolic of the Northern Missions , established on 28 April 1667. It was a Roman Catholic missionary jurisdiction of a Vicar Apostolic in predominantly Protestant Northern Europe...
, but widely hindered by Bremen-Verden's government. By annexations after the Napoléonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
had become a state of three Christian denominations. In 1824 Hanover and the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
thus agreed upon to integrate the territory comprising the Stade Region into the neighboured Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim, with the Vicariate Apostolic's competence ending there. In 1859 (in Blumenthal, 170 Catholics) and in 1872 (in Verden upon Aller) the first Catholic parishes were founded (after 1632), with all the Stade Region being a Catholic diaspora.
Jews left scarce archival traces in the mediaeval Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. In 1611 the city of Stade signed a contract with Sephardic Jews, allowing the foundation of a community. In 1613 Administrator John Frederick followed by settling Ashkenazzi Jews in the city, but during the turmoil of Catholic conquest and Lutheran reconquest the last archival traces of Jews date from 1630. Only by the end of the 17th century Jews reappear in Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden , were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained Imperial immediacy in 1180...
. At the beginning of the 19th century some 30 Jewish families lived dispersedly over the region, under precarious legal status, and without Jewish institutions. By the Westphalian
Kingdom of Westphalia
The Kingdom of Westphalia was a new country of 2.6 million Germans that existed from 1807-1813. It included of territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire, ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte...
and French annexations in 1807 and 1810 the Jews in the Stade Region had been emancipated
Jewish Emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the external and internal process of freeing the Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century...
and thus naturalised, only to lose their French citizenship again by France's defeat in 1813, falling back into a status of toleration or mere indigenousness without political rights in restituted Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden , were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained Imperial immediacy in 1180...
.
In 1842 the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
granted equal rights to Jews and promoted to build up Jewish communities and a regional superstructure (rabbinate
Rabbinate
The term rabbinate may refer to the office of a rabbi or rabbis as a group:*Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the supreme Jewish religious governing body in the state of Israel...
) within a nationwide scope. The Jews in the Stade Region regarded this a progress and a burden alike, because prior they hadn't employed any rabbi and religion teacher, opened hardly a synagogue or school
Cheder
A Cheder is a traditional elementary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language.-History:...
due to the implied financial burden. In 1845 — according to the new law — a land-rabbinate for the whole Stade Region, under land-rabbi Joseph Heilbut, was established, serving 16 Jewish communities, which were founded over the years, with altogether 1,250 Jews in 1864 (highest number ever reached). The local authorities now requested, that the Jewish communities establish synagogues and Jewish education for the pupils. Synagogues existed in Neuhaus upon Oste
Neuhaus (Oste)
Neuhaus an der Oste is a municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany.-History:The area of today's Neuhaus belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, established in 1180...
and in Osten
Osten
Osten is a municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Oste. Osten also means "East" in German.Osten belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, established in 1180...
(both early 19th century), in Horneburg
Horneburg
Horneburg is a municipality southwest of Hamburg in the district of Stade in Lower Saxony.Horneburg is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Horneburg.-History:Horneburg belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen...
(opened 1831) and in Stade
Stade
Stade is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region . It is the seat of the district named after it...
(opened 1849, closed due to financial restrictions in 1908). And a teacher for Jewish religion
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Hebrew was employed (after 1890 Stade's community couldn't afford a teacher any more). From 1903 on the Jewish community of Stade was granted public subsidies to continue functioning. The land-rabbins simultaneously fulfilled religious and state functions, like supervising Jewish elementary schools and the teaching of Jewish religion in all schools. The Kingdom of Hanover was thus one of the few states within the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
, where rabbis held a similar semi-state authoritative position as to Jews as did, e.g., Lutheran clergy towards Lutherans.
After the Prussian annexation the constitution of Hanover's four land-rabbinates came under threat to be abolished, because in Prussia proper the government hindered as much as possible the establishment of nationwide Jewish organisations, let alone such which it would grant official recognition. In the end Prussia respected the existing Hanoverian land-rabbinate constitution, which continued to exist — modified according to the separation of state and religion in 1919 by the Weimar constitution
Weimar constitution
The Constitution of the German Reich , usually known as the Weimar Constitution was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic...
— until the Nazi Reich's government de facto abolished the constitution in 1938. The communities in urban Lehe (28 families, after 1924 part of Wesermünde
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
: 300 community members in 1928), Scharmbeck
Osterholz-Scharmbeck
Osterholz-Scharmbeck is a town and the capital of the district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Osterholz-Scharmbeck is situated in between the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven.-Neighbouring places:* Bremen * Delmenhorst...
(20 families) and Verden upon Aller were the biggest by membership, while rural communities vanished. The Stade Region stayed a Jewish diaspora
Jewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora is the English term used to describe the Galut גלות , or 'exile', of the Jews from the region of the Kingdom of Judah and Roman Iudaea and later emigration from wider Eretz Israel....
, and from 1860 on Stade's land-rabbinate was never staffed again, but served alternately by one of the other three Hanoverian land-rabbinates. Labour migration and emigration to urban centres outside the Stade Region and Jewish demography rather lead to a reduction of the number of Jews in the Stade Region (786 in 1913, 716 in 1928).
The Stade Region as an administrative unit of Prussia (1866-1945/1947)
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
n annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
in 1866, the kingdom was transformed into the Prussian Province of Hanover
Province of Hanover
The Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation...
. The adaptation to other Prussian administrative structures took only place in 1885, when the high-bailiwick was redesigned according to Prussian law as the Governorate of Stade . The Hanoverian subsections of a high-bailiwick , were redeployed into 14 bigger Prussian style counties . At the time of its redeployment the high-bailiwick's population amounted to 300,000. In 1905 the population amounted to 403,302 with an area of 6,786 square kilometres, which made up a density of 59 persons per square kilometre. The Governorate of Stade weathered the following wars and constitutional changes.
Bremerhaven was several times enlarged at the expense of the Governorate of Stades territory. But on the latter's territory several suburbs grew and in 1924 were united to form the urban county
Independent city
An independent city is a city that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity. These type of cities should not be confused with city-states , which are fully sovereign cities that are not part of any other sovereign state.-Historical precursors:In the Holy Roman Empire,...
of Wesermünde
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
. In 1932 by an administrative reform the number of the governorate's 13 rural counties was reduced to a mere seven. In 1932 in 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...
the Lutheran Church of the State of Hanover opened a camp for formerly workless singles, employed in public works (roadworks, amelioration) in Sandbostel
Sandbostel
Sandbostel is a municipality in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, 43 km north-east of Bremen, 60 km west of Hamburg. Coordinates: 53° 25′ N, 9° 8′ E. Population: 816...
.
In 1933 the Nazis seized the power in Germany (Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
). On the Reich's and the level of the states gradually all resistance was decapitated. Anti-Semitic discriminations were imposed onto Jewish Germans and Germans of Jewish descent. In 1932 Franz von Papen
Franz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...
's Reich's government had overthrown the last democratic Prussian government under Otto Braun
Otto Braun
This article is about the Prime Minister of Prussia. For the German Communist and once the Comintern military adviser to the Chinese Communist revolution see Otto Braun ....
(Prussian Coup
Preußenschlag
In 1932, the Preußenschlag, or "Prussian coup", was one of the major steps towards the end of the German inter-war democracy, which would later greatly facilitate the "Gleichschaltung" of Germany after Adolf Hitler's rise to power...
). So the Governorate of Stade, being a part of the Free State of Prussia, one of the most stable and democratised German states, came fast under Nazi influence. The governor Hermann Rose resigned under pressure of Gauleiter Otto Telschow
Otto Telschow
Otto Telschow , German Nazi Party official, was born in Wittenberge and became a police official in Hamburg. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925, and was the founder of the regional Nazi newspaper, the Niedersachsen-Stürmer...
. The Nazis' rule enforcement was characterised by installing Nazi-loyal parallel structures, which would interfere with existing public administration and bring it to dictatorial lines. The Governorate of Stade came under ever increasing interference of the Nazi party's regional subsection Gau Eastern Hanover
Gau Eastern Hanover
Gau Eastern Hanover was a regional district of the NSDAP established in 1925 in the north eastern part of the Prussian Province of Hanover, comprising the governorates of Stade and Lunenburg in their then boundaries...
under Gauleiter Otto Telschow
Otto Telschow
Otto Telschow , German Nazi Party official, was born in Wittenberge and became a police official in Hamburg. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925, and was the founder of the regional Nazi newspaper, the Niedersachsen-Stürmer...
, especially after 1935, when the Nazi-party Gaue replaced the functions of the streamlined German states
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
.
The new Nazi Reich's government — "provisionally" ruling Prussia — had direct rule over the Prussian police, with police being an institution of the respective German states. The ordinary police had to guard together with S.A.
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
men, the Prussian Criminal Police Department in charge for the Governorate of Stade was seated in its biggest city Wesermünde
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
. In March/April 1933 the Criminal Police was transformed into the new State Police Department Wesermünde, directly subordinated to the new Geheime Staatspolizei
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
(GeStapo, secret state police), circumventing all prior existing Prussian administrative structures, to which the former Criminal Police had been subjected and reporting before. At first Wesermünde's Stapo Department persecuted all political enemies of Nazism and later persons involved in all kinds of disobediences, such as strikes, absenteeism, black marketing, circumventions of ordered dues to be delivered, which all became an ever growing phenomenon with the increasing weariness in the long duration of the war. The Stapo had its special eye on forced labourers in the governorate, abducted from all over German occupied Europe.
In 1939 the Sandbostel camp, meanwhile usurped by the Nazi trade union Reichsarbeitsdienst
Reichsarbeitsdienst
The Reichsarbeitsdienst was an institution established by Nazi Germany as an agency to reduce unemployment, similar to the relief programs in other countries. During the Second World War it was an auxiliary formation which provided support for the Wehrmacht.The RAD was formed during July 1934 as...
, was converted into the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag X-B
Stalag X-B
Stalag X-B was a World War II German Prisoner-of-war camp located near Sandbostel in north-western Germany. Sandbostel lies 9 km south of Bremervörde, 43 km northeast of Bremen. Placed on swampy ground,with a damp, cold climate, it is one of the most notorious prisoner-of-war camps. Between...
and a camp of internment for civilian enemy aliens. Until 1945 about a million inmates passed through the camp, with about 46,000 perished.
As to territorial changes the Reich's Nazi government decreed by the Greater Hamburg Act (1937) to incorporate the Hamburgian exclave of Cuxhaven into the Governorate of Stade, forming then an urban county. While at the most eastern end of the governorate some municipalities were integrated into the state of Hamburg. Two years later the Reich's Nazi government decreed to incorporate some municipalities of the counties of Osterholz and Verden into the city of Bremen and in return to disentangle Bremerhaven from the Hanseatic City of Bremen
Bremen (state)
The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...
and to incorporate it into Wesermünde. But that redeployment didn't last long.
The Governorate of Stade as part of the British and U.S. Zone of Occupation (1945–1949)
From 1945 on the occupational U.S. forces in defeated Germany used the harbours of Bremen and Wesermünde as their Port of Embarkation. Being actually located in the British Zone of OccupationAllied Occupation Zones in Germany
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...
the Control Commission for Germany - British Element and the Office of Military Government for Germany, U.S. (OMGUS)
Office of Military Government, United States
The Office of Military Government, United States was the United States military-established government created shortly after the end of hostilities in occupied Germany in World War II. Under General Lucius D...
agreed in 1947 to constitute the cities of Bremen and Wesermünde as a German state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
named Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
Bremen (state)
The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...
, becoming at that occasion an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation
Allied Occupation Zones in Germany
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...
within the British zone. Radio AFN (American Forces Network
American Forces Network
The American Forces Network is the brand name used by the United States Armed Forces American Forces Radio and Television Service for its entertainment and command internal information networks worldwide...
), based in rechristened Bremerhaven, became popular for its transmissions of jazz and rock music.
After this territorial toing and froing the Governorate of Stade belonged to Lower Saxony
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...
, the state newly founded in 1946 by the Control Commission for Germany — British Element, even before in 1947 the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
officially dissolved the Free State of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
.
The Governorate of Stade as an administrative unit of the state of Lower Saxony (1946–1978)
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...
counties has been reduced by uniting counties. The urban county of Cuxhaven and the neighboured counties of the Land of Hadeln and Wesermünde were united to form the new County of Cuxhaven
Cuxhaven (district)
Cuxhaven is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Stade, Rotenburg, Osterholz and Wesermarsch, the city of Bremerhaven and the North Sea.- History :...
. The county of Bremervörde was integrated into the County of Rotenburg upon Wümme
Rotenburg (district)
Rotenburg is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Stade, Harburg, Heidekreis, Verden, Osterholz and Cuxhaven.-History:...
. Thus the governorate consisted only of a mere five counties: Cuxhaven, Osterholz
Osterholz
Osterholz is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Wesermarsch, Cuxhaven, Rotenburg and Verden, and by the city of Bremen.-History:...
, Rotenburg (Wümme), Stade
Stade (district)
Stade is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Harburg, Rotenburg and Cuxhaven, the Elbe River, and the city state of Hamburg.-History:...
and Verden
Verden (district)
Verden is a Kreis in the centre of Lower Saxony, Germany. Adjoining it are the districts of Osterholz, Rotenburg, Heidekreis, Nienburg and Diepholz, as well as the city of Bremen.-Geography:...
. In 1977 the governorate's population amounted to almost 700,000.
The Governorate of Stade continued to exist until 31 January 1978. The next day it was incorporated into the neighbouring Governorate of Lunenburg
Lüneburg (region)
Lüneburg was one of the four Regierungsbezirke of Lower Saxony, Germany, located in the north of the federal state between the three cities Bremen, Hamburg and Hanover....
, with the complete dissolution of all Lower Saxon governorates following in 2004.
Today no single administrative entity covers the territory of the former Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden
Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden , were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained Imperial immediacy in 1180...
. Today’s efforts and activities in the field of culture in the region are covered by the Landschaftsverband der ehemaligen Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden (Engl. about: landscape union of the former duchies of Bremen and Verden, or short Landschaftsverband Stade).
List of High-Bailiffs and Governors
Bearing the title: High-Bailiff- 1823–41 Engelbert Johann von Marschalck (1766–1845), Bremen-VerdenBremen-VerdenBremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden , were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained Imperial immediacy in 1180...
's Estates elected him the last president of the provisional government (1813–1823) after the French retreat. In 1823 he became the first High-Bailiff of the Stade Region, the merely administrative entity succeeding Bremen-Verden's dissolution in 1823. - 1841–55 Ernst Freiherr von Bülow (1801–1861), father of the later Prussian general Ernst von Bülow
- 1856–58 Otto Alexander Freiherr von Marschalck (1798–1858), also Royal Hanoverian High-Bailiff in Osnabrück
- 1858–62 Friedrich Wilhelm Heise (died 23 November 1862), Geheimer Rat (privy councillor)
- 1863–72 August Theodor Braun (1802–1887), 1848–1850 minister for education, cultural and religious affairs of the Kingdom of HanoverKingdom of HanoverThe Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
- 1872–85 Heinrich Küster
Bearing the title: Governor
- 1885–88 Ludwig Eberhardt Franzius
- 1888–95 Dr. Gustav Bernhard von Heyer
- 1895–99 Dr. Edgar Himly
- 1899–1909 Freiherr Rudolf von Reiswitz und Kaderzin
- 1909–11 Graf Kurd von Berg-Schönfeldt
- 1911–22 Hans Grashoff
- 1922–33 Dr. Hermann Rose (1879–1943), member of the Prussian House of CommonsPreußischer LandtagPreußischer Landtag or Prussian Landtag was the Landtag of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was implemented in 1849 after the dissolution of the Prussian National Assembly, building on the tradition of the Prussian estates that had existed from the 14th century in various forms and states in Teutonic...
(1921–1932) for the DVPGerman People's PartyThe German People's Party was a national liberal party in Weimar Germany and a successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire.-Ideology:...
, forced to resign as governor by Gauleiter Otto TelschowOtto TelschowOtto Telschow , German Nazi Party official, was born in Wittenberge and became a police official in Hamburg. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925, and was the founder of the regional Nazi newspaper, the Niedersachsen-Stürmer... - 1933–36 Albert Leister (1890–1968), member of the ReichstagReichstag (Weimar Republic)The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
(1930–1933) for the NSDAP - 1936–44 Arthur Schmidt-Kügler
- 1944–45 Hermann Fiebing
- 1945 Dr. Oskar Brenken provisional
- November 1945–49 Johann Thies (1898–1969), member of the BundestagBundestagThe Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
(1956–57) for the CDUChristian Democratic Union (Germany)The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum... - 1949–50 Dr. Werner Pollack (1886–1979), only per pro as Regierungsvizepräsident
- 1950 Dr. Friedrich Knost (1899–1982), provisional
- 1950–54 Dr. Walter Harm (1897–1964), member of the BundestagBundestagThe Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
(1957–1964) for the SPDSocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... - 1954–58 Dr. Otto Wendt, member or the Lower Saxon Parliament (1959) for the GB/BHEAll-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of RightsThe All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights was a right-wing political party in West Germany, which acted as an advocacy group of the Germans fled and expelled in and after World War II.-History:...
- 1958–59 Dr. Curt Miehe (1903–1965), provisional, Lower SaxonLower SaxonyLower 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...
Minister for Federal Affairs, Expellees and Refugees (1964–1965) in the second and third cabinet of Minister-President Georg DiederichsGeorg DiederichsGeorg Diederichs was a German politician, a member of the SPD, who served as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.He was born at Northeim and died in Hanover....
(SPDSocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
) - 1959–73 Helmut-Ernst Miericke (1914–1973)
- 1973–77 Joachim Passow (1925–1983), only per pro as Regierungsvizepräsident
Vital Statistics 1890–1980
| County | Population 1890 |
Population 1900 |
Population 1910 |
Population 1925 |
Population 1933 |
Population 1939 |
Population 1969 |
Population 1980 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blumenthal | 22,547 | 30,353 | 39,535 | 43,104 | ||||
| Osterholz Osterholz Osterholz is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Wesermarsch, Cuxhaven, Rotenburg and Verden, and by the city of Bremen.-History:... |
28,232 | 29,205 | 31,284 | 32,545 | 80,216 | 41,529 | 80,600 | 93,700 |
| Achim | 20,981 | 24,051 | 28,555 | 33,717 | ||||
| Verden Verden (district) Verden is a Kreis in the centre of Lower Saxony, Germany. Adjoining it are the districts of Osterholz, Rotenburg, Heidekreis, Nienburg and Diepholz, as well as the city of Bremen.-Geography:... |
25,125 | 26,392 | 27,638 | 28,177 | 63,441 | 51,643 | 88,900 | 110,300 |
| Zeven | 14,060 | 15,318 | 15,825 | 20,569 | ||||
| Bremervörde | 17,040 | 18,159 | 19,858 | 22,305 | 44,021 | 45,455 | 72,700 | |
| Rotenburg (Wümme) Rotenburg (district) Rotenburg is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Stade, Harburg, Heidekreis, Verden, Osterholz and Cuxhaven.-History:... |
19,642 | 21,128 | 25,425 | 29,171 | 30,947 | 33,821 | 57,100 | 138,400 |
| Geestemünde | 35,398 | 41,906 | 51,002 | 23,355 | ||||
| Lehe | 32,165 | 43,040 | 58,685 | 23,736 | ||||
| Wesermünde, rural county | 47,695 | 49,632 | 78,900 | |||||
| Wesermünde Bremerhaven Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham... , urban county |
72,065 | 77,461 | 86,043 | |||||
| Neuhaus (Oste) | 29,111 | 29,684 | 29,383 | 27,020 | ||||
| Hadeln Hadeln Hadeln is a former Samtgemeinde in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was situated in the Land of Hadeln near the mouth of the river Elbe, approximately 15 km east of Cuxhaven. Its seat was in the town Otterndorf... |
16,652 | 15,959 | 16,662 | 16,921 | ||||
| Land Hadeln Land Hadeln Land Hadeln is a historic landscape and former administrative district in North Germany with its seat in Otterndorf on the lower reaches of the River Elbe, in the Elbe-Weser Triangle between the estuaries of the Elbe and Weser... |
42,281 | 43,827 | 64,200 | |||||
| Cuxhaven, urban county | 22,094 | 45,200 | ||||||
| Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (district) Cuxhaven is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Stade, Rotenburg, Osterholz and Wesermarsch, the city of Bremerhaven and the North Sea.- History :... , rural county |
191,700 | |||||||
| Kehdingen Kehdingen Kehdingen is the name of a landscape in the north German district of Stade on the lower reaches of the River Elbe. It extends roughly from the mouth of the Oste in the north to the town of Stade in the south... |
21,014 | 19,993 | 19,741 | 19,146 | ||||
| Jork (Altes Land Altes Land Altes Land is an area of reclaimed marshland straddling parts of Lower Saxony and Hamburg. The region is situated downstream from Hamburg on the southwestern riverside of the Elbe around the towns of Stade, Buxtehude, Jork and the Samtgemeinde of Lühe... ) |
20,899 | 21,028 | 21,050 | 21,064 | ||||
| Stade Stade (district) Stade is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Harburg, Rotenburg and Cuxhaven, the Elbe River, and the city state of Hamburg.-History:... |
35,359 | 38,804 | 42,712 | 44,652 | 88,253 | 88,548 | 139,400 | 163,400 |
| Stade Region | 338,225 | 375,020 | 427,355 | 457,547 | 474,315 | 462,592 | 627,000 | 697,500 |
Source
Notable people from the Stade Region as from 1823 on
A list of interesting people whose birth, death, residence or activity took place in the Stade Region.- Ludwig Alpers (1866–1959), teacher, politician, after Prussian annexation of the Kingdom of HanoverKingdom of HanoverThe Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
in 1866 member of the separatist German-Hanoverian Party - Anita Johanna Theodora Sophie Augspurg (born in Verden upon Aller; 1857–1943), suffragette, women’s rights fighter
- Johann(es) Gerhard Behrens (1889–1979), Lutheran pastor in Stade, in 1935 beaten up by a Nazi squad, scolding him 'serf of the Jews' (Judenknecht), astronomer (name-giver of the asteroid Behrens1651 Behrens1651 Behrens is a main-belt asteroid discovered on April 23, 1936 by Marguerite Laugier at Nice.According to a proposal by Otto Kippes, who verified the discovery, it was named after German astronomer Johann Gerhard Behrens ....
), member of the anti-Nazi Protestant Confessing ChurchConfessing ChurchThe Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:... - Cato Bontjes van BeekCato Bontjes van BeekCato Bontjes van Beek was a German member of the resistance against the Nazi regime.- Early years :...
(1920–1943), grew up in Fischerhude, ceramist, resistant fighter against Nazism, beheaded in Berlin-PlötzenseePlötzensee PrisonPlötzensee Prison was a Prussian institution built in Berlin between 1869 and 1879 near the lake Plötzensee, but in the neighbouring borough of Charlottenburg, on Hüttigpfad off Saatwinkler Damm. During Adolf Hitler's time in power from 1933 to 1945, more than 2,500 people were executed at... - Heinrich Böse (1783–1867), Bremian, Danish and West Indian sugar manufacturer, politician, anti-Napoléonic freedom fighter
- Hans Heinrich Brockmann, (born in AltklosterBuxtehudeBuxtehude is a town on the Este River in Northern Germany in the district of Stade and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region . Buxtehude is a steadily growing medium-sized town and the second largest in the district of Stade. It lies on the southern borders of the Altes Land within easy reach of...
, 1903–1988), chemist - Karl Rudolf BrommyKarl Rudolf BrommyRear Admiral Karl Rudolf Brommy was a German naval officer who helped establish the first unified German fleet, the Reichsflotte, during the First Schleswig War which broke out just before the Revolutions of 1848 in the German...
(born Bromme; 1804–1864), counter-admiral, navy-warrior in the independence wars of BrazilBrazilian Declaration of IndependenceThe Brazilian Independence comprised a series of political events occurred in 1821–1823, most of which involved disputes between Brazil and Portugal regarding the call for independence presented by the Brazilian Kingdom...
, Chile and GreeceGreek War of IndependenceThe Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...
, founding organiser of the Greek NavyHellenic NavyThe Hellenic Navy is the naval force of Greece, part of the Greek Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy has its roots in the naval forces of various Aegean Islands, which fought in the Greek War of Independence...
, supreme commander of the German ConfederationGerman ConfederationThe German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
's Reich's NavyReichsflotteThe Reichsflotte was the first all-German Navy. It was founded on 14 June 1848 during the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states by the Frankfurt Parliament to provide a naval force in the First Schleswig War against Denmark.-History:...
in BremerhavenBremerhavenBremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
(1849–1853) - Adolf Friedrich Johann ButenandtAdolf ButenandtAdolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt was a German biochemist and member of the Nazi party. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939 for his "work on sex hormones." He initially rejected the award in accordance with government policy, but accepted it in 1949 after World War...
(born and grown up in Lehe, since 1947 part of BremerhavenBremerhavenBremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
; 1903–1995), biochemist, Nobel prize-winner of chemistry in 1939 - Luise Adolphine Cooper (1849–1931), missionary, founder and leader of blind mission in Hildesheim
- Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Diercke (1842–1913), geographer, cartographer, pedagogue, school councilor, founder of Diercke atlas series
- Wilhelm Heinrich Evers (1884–1960), aeronautical engineer and aircraft designer in the U.S. and Germany
- Jürgen Christian Findorff (1720–1792), carpenter, Moor Commissioner in charge of draining, reclaiming and settling moor lands in the Stade Region
- Carl Friedrich GaußCarl Friedrich GaussJohann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...
(1777–1855), mathematician and astronomer, carried out triangulation in the Stade Region - August Karl Christian Friedrich von GoebenAugust Karl von GoebenAugust Karl von Göben was a Prussian infantry general. He was awarded the Iron Cross for his service in the Franco-Prussian War.-Early career:...
, (1815–1880), general, sometimes disputed as Hanoverian treator, who served as commander in the Prussian army while the Prussian conquest of the Kingdom of HanoverKingdom of HanoverThe Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
in 1866 - Diederich Christian Hahn (1859–1918), farmer, anti-Semitic and agricultural politician, member of Prussian House of CommonsPreußischer LandtagPreußischer Landtag or Prussian Landtag was the Landtag of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was implemented in 1849 after the dissolution of the Prussian National Assembly, building on the tradition of the Prussian estates that had existed from the 14th century in various forms and states in Teutonic...
(1893–1912), member of the ReichstagReichstag (German Empire)The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....
(1903–1918) - Baron Karl Iwan Bodo von Hodenberg (1826–1907), Hanoverian diplomat, minister for education, cultural and religious affairs of the Kingdom of HanoverKingdom of HanoverThe Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
(1865–1866), after Prussian annexation in 1866 leader of the separatist German-Hanoverian Party - Bernhard Hoetger (1874–1949), sculpturist, architect, among others active in WorpswedeWorpswedeWorpswede is a municipality in the district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teufelsmoor, northeast of Bremen. The small town itself is located near the Weyerberg hill. It has been the home to a lively artistic community since the end of the 19th century, with over 130...
- August Heinrich Hoffmann von FallerslebenAugust Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben' , who used Hoffmann von Fallersleben as his pen name, was a German poet. He is best known for writing "Das Lied der Deutschen", its third stanza now being the national anthem of Germany, and a number of popular children's songs.- Biography :Hoffmann was born in Fallersleben , Brunswick-Lüneburg,...
(1798–1874), poet (e.g., of today’s German anthem), Germanist, as exilee illegally in the Stade Region - Hinrich Wilhelm KopfHinrich Wilhelm Kopfthumb|right|Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf 1948Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf was a German politician, who served as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony from 1946 to 1955 and from 1959 to 1961...
(born in Neuenkirchen {HadelnHadelnHadeln is a former Samtgemeinde in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was situated in the Land of Hadeln near the mouth of the river Elbe, approximately 15 km east of Cuxhaven. Its seat was in the town Otterndorf...
}; 1893–1961), lawyer, businessman, last county commissioner (Landrat) of the county of Hadeln (1928–1932), politician, last Upper President of the Prussian Province of HanoverProvince of HanoverThe Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation...
(1945–1947), co-founder and first Prime Minister of the state of Lower SaxonyLower SaxonyLower 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...
(1947–1955, 1959–1961), Vice Prime Minister (1957–1959) - Fritz MackensenFritz MackensenFritz Mackensen was a German painter of Art Nouveau. He was a friend of Otto Modersohn and Hans am Ende, and they were the founders of the artists' colony Worpswede. From 1933 to 1935 he was head of the Nordischen Kunsthochschule in Bremen...
(1866–1953), painter, graphicker, sculpturist, novelist - Otto Modersohn (1865–1943), painter
- Hermann Molkenbuhr (1851–1927), politician, member of the ReichstagReichstag (German Empire)The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....
(1890–1924), speaker of the SPD faction the Reichstag (1911–1918) - Joachim RingelnatzJoachim RingelnatzJoachim Ringelnatz is the pen name of the German author and painter Hans Bötticher. His pen name Ringelnatz is usually explained as a dialect expression for an animal, possibly a variant of Ringelnatter, German for Grass Snake...
(1883–1934), marine in Cuxhaven, participating in September 1918 in the rebellion of 1918–1919, clerk, novelist, cabarettist - Heinrich Rudolf Hermann Rose (1879–1943), lawyer, member of Prussian House of CommonsPreußischer LandtagPreußischer Landtag or Prussian Landtag was the Landtag of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was implemented in 1849 after the dissolution of the Prussian National Assembly, building on the tradition of the Prussian estates that had existed from the 14th century in various forms and states in Teutonic...
(1921–1932), Regierungspräsident of Stade (1922–1933, forced to resign by Gauleiter Otto TelschowOtto TelschowOtto Telschow , German Nazi Party official, was born in Wittenberge and became a police official in Hamburg. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925, and was the founder of the regional Nazi newspaper, the Niedersachsen-Stürmer...
), author - Walther von Seydlitz-KurzbachWalther von Seydlitz-KurzbachWalther Kurt von Seydlitz-Kurzbach was a German general. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, into the noble Prussian Seydlitz family. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...
(1888–1976), general, president of the anti-Hitlerist Federation of German Officers in Soviet prisonship-of-war (then integrated into the National Committee for a Free GermanyNational Committee for a Free GermanyThe National Committee for a Free Germany was a German anti-Nazi organization that operated in the Soviet Union during World War II.- History :...
), returned from Soviet prisonship-of-war in 1955 to Verden upon Aller - Otto TelschowOtto TelschowOtto Telschow , German Nazi Party official, was born in Wittenberge and became a police official in Hamburg. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925, and was the founder of the regional Nazi newspaper, the Niedersachsen-Stürmer...
(1876–1945), member of the ReichstagReichstag (Weimar Republic)The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
(1930–1945), Nazi Gauleiter of East Hanover district of the Nazi party (1928–1945) - Anton Christian Wedekind (1763–1845), administrator, jurist, historian
- August Rudolf Welskopf (1902–1979), carpenter, resistance fighter against Nazism
Source