Hagen im Bremischen is a municipality in the district 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 :...

, in 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...

, Germany. It is situated approx. 20 km south 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...

, and 35 km northwest of Bremen. Hagen is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde ("collective municipality") Hagen

Hagen (Samtgemeinde)

Hagen is a Samtgemeinde in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Its seat is in Hagen im Bremischen.The Samtgemeinde Hagen consists of the following municipalities:# Bramstedt# Driftsethe...

.

History

Hagen im Bremischen belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, established as a territory of imperial immediacy in 1180. The prince-archiepiscopal fortress dates back to the 12th century, probably Prince-Archbishop Hartwig II

Hartwig of Uthlede

Hartwig of Uthlede was - as Hartwig II - Prince-Archbishop of Bremen and one of the originators of the Livonian Crusade. Coming from a family of the Bremian Ministerialis at Uthlede, he was a canon of Bremen Cathedral and a clerk of Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony, House of Guelph, before becoming...

 initiated its construction. Since the 14th century the fortress became also used as a residential castle by the Bremian prince-archbishops. The present structure was formed between 1502 until latest 1507 by Prince-Archbishop Johann Rode

Johann Rode von Wale

Johann Rode von Wale was a Catholic cleric, a Doctor of Canon and Civil Law, a chronicler, a long-serving government official and as John III Prince-archbishop of Bremen between 1497 and...

. In the mid-16th century the inhabitants adopted Lutheranism. During the Leaguist

Catholic League (German)

The German Catholic League was initially a loose confederation of Roman Catholic German states formed on July 10, 1609 to counteract the Protestant Union , whereby the participating states concluded an alliance "for the defence of the Catholic religion and peace within the Empire." Modeled...

 occupation under Tilly (1628–1630), they suffered from attempts of reCatholicisation.

In 1648 the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the Duchy of Bremen, which was first 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 Swedish crown – interrupted by a Danish occupation (1712–1715) – and from 1715 on by the House of Hanover

House of Hanover

The House of Hanover is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

. In 1807 the ephemeric Kingdom of Westphalia

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...

 annexed the Duchy, before France

First French Empire

The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...

 annexed it in 1810. In 1813 the duchy was restored to the Electorate of Hanover

Electorate of Hanover

The Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the ninth Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation...

, which – after its upgrade 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...

 in 1814 – incorporated the duchy in a 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...

 and the ducal territory, including Hagen, became part of the new Stade Region

Stade (region)

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...

, established in 1823.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms shows an oak, which refers to the place's name Hagen, an antiquated word for forest. The oak bears the coat of arms of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen

Archbishopric of Bremen

The Archdiocese of Bremen was a historical Roman Catholic diocese and formed from 1180 to 1648 an ecclesiastical state , named Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen within the Holy Roman Empire...

, which refers to the second name element im Bremischen, meaning literally in the Bremian (country). The Bremian coat of arms displays two argent (silver)

Argent

In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it...

 crisscrossed keys on a gules (red)

Gules

In heraldry, gules is the tincture with the colour red, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of vertical lines or else marked with gu. as an abbreviation....

 background. The key is the epithet symbol of Simon Petrus

Saint Peter

Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

, the saint patron of the Bremen Cathedral

Bremen Cathedral

Bremen Cathedral , dedicated to St. Peter, is a church situated in the market square in the center of Bremen, in northern Germany. The cathedral belongs to the Bremian Evangelical Church, a member of the Protestant umbrella organisation named Evangelical Church in Germany...

. A single key is also the main element in the coat of arms of the city state 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...

 (see Coat of arms of Bremen

Coat of arms of Bremen

This article is about the coat of arms of the German state and city of Bremen.-Description:From the Bremen Official Website:-History:Officially, the coat of arms was confirmed by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1811...

) and of the formerly Bremian city of 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...

.