Twistringen
Encyclopedia
Twistringen is a town in the district of Diepholz
, Lower Saxony
, Germany
. It is situated approx. 30 km northeast of Diepholz
, and 30 km southwest of Bremen
. The source of the Delme
river is located in the city. The most important attraction in Twistringen is the museum of straw
processing.
. There was a parish
in the city since approximately 825. After the Reformation
in 1525, the parish Twistring was re-Catholicized
in 1618. Located in a predominantly Protestant area, Twistringen was a Catholic enclave of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster. It has been a part of the Diocese Osnabrück since 1824. Today, Twistringen is still mainly Catholic.
Under French
rule from 1811 to 1813, a modern road connection, the Napoleon Road (now called B 51
) was built in Twistringen. In 1817, it became part of the Kingdom of Hanover
.
Only after the construction of the rail connection between Bremen and Osnabrück in 1873, did Lutherans settle in the town again. These founded a Protestant-Lutheran congregation in 1891 and inaugurated their own church in 1894.
There was also a small Jewish community in Twistringen. Until 1938, there was a synagogue
, which is still commemorated by a plaque. Somewhat outside of the center of Twistringen, there is still a Jewish cemetery.
In 1964, Twistringen gained town privileges
. In 1974, the Municipality Twistringen was created with the incorporation of the localities of Abbenhausen, Altenmarhorst, Heiligenloh, Mörsen, Natenstedt, Rüssen, Scharrendorf, Stelle and Twistringen.
, a well-known television host, who hails from Twistringen. Now the hat can be found in the museum.
was exhausted in the mine of the brickyard in the outskirts of town. These are sediment
s of the North Sea
, which were deposed in the region during the Miocene
period.
In the mudstones a fauna
very rich in both species and organisms was found. They contained a lot of snail
s, clam
s, scaphopods, and coral
s, but also more rarely sea urchin
s, vertebrate
skeleton
s and teeth, and rests of cephalopod
s. The fauna was generally small and unspectacular. However, because of the diversity of species - at least 250 species of snails from the strata of Twistringen are known and described -, thus a picture of the animal world of this time period so exact is gained, that Twistringen has become one of the "classical place of discovery of paleontology
". Finds from Twistringen are in numerous museums and private collections.
F-104 Starfighter
crashed into a home in the borough of Mörsen. The pilot, a fireman, the father, the mother, and two girls died. A young boy was able to escape out of a hatch before the fire spread to the home. The disaster left three young orphans.
municipality Bonnétable
, which is situated in the department of Sarthe
. In Bonnétable, there is a street called "Rue de Twistringen".
has 30 seats plus that of the mayor
. Since the communal elections of September 9, 2001, the seat distribution is as follows:
Twistringen is 36 km away from Bremen Airport
.
, a Realschule
, a Gymnasium
, and a municipal library are located. There are also several kindergartens.
Diepholz (district)
Diepholz is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Verden, Nienburg, Minden-Lübbecke , Osnabrück, Vechta and Oldenburg, and by the cities of Delmenhorst and Bremen. The biggest city is Stuhr.- History :From the 12th century to 1585 Diepholz was a county within the...
, 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
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It is situated approx. 30 km northeast of Diepholz
Diepholz
Diepholz is a town and capital of the district of Diepholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Hunte, approximately 45 km northeast of Osnabrück, and 60 km southwest of Bremen....
, and 30 km southwest 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...
. The source of the Delme
Delme
Delme is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.It had a population of 728 in 1999....
river is located in the city. The most important attraction in Twistringen is the museum of straw
Straw
Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and...
processing.
History
Twistringen was first mentioned in a document in 1250 as "Thuisteringe". In this writing all towns, which had to pay early contributions for the maintenance of the bridge over the Weser in BremenBremen
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...
. There was a parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
in the city since approximately 825. After the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
in 1525, the parish Twistring was re-Catholicized
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...
in 1618. Located in a predominantly Protestant area, Twistringen was a Catholic enclave of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster. It has been a part of the Diocese Osnabrück since 1824. Today, Twistringen is still mainly Catholic.
Under French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
rule from 1811 to 1813, a modern road connection, the Napoleon Road (now called B 51
Bundesstraße 51
The Bundesstraße 51 runs from Bremen in south-west direction though Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, and ends at the French border in the town Kleinblittersdorf.See also:*Transport in Germany...
) was built in Twistringen. In 1817, it became part 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...
.
Only after the construction of the rail connection between Bremen and Osnabrück in 1873, did Lutherans settle in the town again. These founded a Protestant-Lutheran congregation in 1891 and inaugurated their own church in 1894.
There was also a small Jewish community in Twistringen. Until 1938, there was a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, which is still commemorated by a plaque. Somewhat outside of the center of Twistringen, there is still a Jewish cemetery.
In 1964, Twistringen gained town privileges
Town privileges
Town privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws. Common privileges were related to trading...
. In 1974, the Municipality Twistringen was created with the incorporation of the localities of Abbenhausen, Altenmarhorst, Heiligenloh, Mörsen, Natenstedt, Rüssen, Scharrendorf, Stelle and Twistringen.
Importance of straw processing
Hay processing has played an important role in Twistringen for centuries. At times, one third of all inhabitants were somehow employed in this industry. Straw hats, drinking straws, etc were produced in Twistringen and exported into many countries. The museum of straw processing documents the history and development of this industry from its beginning to the present.Largest straw hat in the world
To celebrate the 750th anniversary of the town in 2000, a giant straw hat, which made it into the Guinness Book of World Records was constructed in front of the town hall. It had a diameter of 5.50 meters. The celebration was also visited by Reinhold BeckmannReinhold Beckmann
Reinhold Beckmann is a German journalist and presenter.- Life :Afer school in Syke, Beckmann studied the German language, film and theatre in Cologne....
, a well-known television host, who hails from Twistringen. Now the hat can be found in the museum.
Early medieval ring wall
A castle called Hünenburg is situated in the borough Stöttinghausen. Only a ring wall with a diameter of 80 meters is still visible. It is the remains of a fortress, from the 5th to 9th century. An examination of the interior of the wall in 1932 turned out that several buildings had once existed here. In 2005, the wooden entrance gate was reconstructed to give the structure a look, reminding visitors of a castle.Geological finds
As far as geology, Twistringen has gained supra-regional relevance. Until the 1990s, mudstoneMudstone
Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.0625 mm with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time the platey clay minerals may become aligned, with the...
was exhausted in the mine of the brickyard in the outskirts of town. These are sediment
Sediment
Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....
s of 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...
, which were deposed in the region during the Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
period.
In the mudstones a fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
very rich in both species and organisms was found. They contained a lot of snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s, clam
Clam
The word "clam" can be applied to freshwater mussels, and other freshwater bivalves, as well as marine bivalves.In the United States, "clam" can be used in several different ways: one, as a general term covering all bivalve molluscs...
s, scaphopods, and coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
s, but also more rarely sea urchin
Sea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...
s, vertebrate
Vertebrate
Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...
skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
s and teeth, and rests of cephalopod
Cephalopod
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda . These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot...
s. The fauna was generally small and unspectacular. However, because of the diversity of species - at least 250 species of snails from the strata of Twistringen are known and described -, thus a picture of the animal world of this time period so exact is gained, that Twistringen has become one of the "classical place of discovery of paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
". Finds from Twistringen are in numerous museums and private collections.
Airplane disaster of 1973
On November 13, 1973 a BelgianBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
F-104 Starfighter
F-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units...
crashed into a home in the borough of Mörsen. The pilot, a fireman, the father, the mother, and two girls died. A young boy was able to escape out of a hatch before the fire spread to the home. The disaster left three young orphans.
International relations
Since 1977, Twistringen has been partnered with the FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
municipality Bonnétable
Bonnétable
Bonnétable is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays-de-la-Loire in north-western France.Bonnétable is twinned with Horncastle in rural Lincolnshire. The towns' relationship is commemorated by a Rue Horncastle in Bonnétable, and a Bonnetable Road in Horncastle.-References:*...
, which is situated in the department of Sarthe
Sarthe
Sarthe is a French department, named after the Sarthe River.- History :The department was created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790, pursuant to the law of December 22, 1789, starting from a part of the province of Maine which was divided into two departments, Sarthe to the east and...
. In Bonnétable, there is a street called "Rue de Twistringen".
Politics
The city councilCity council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
has 30 seats plus that of the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
. Since the communal elections of September 9, 2001, the seat distribution is as follows:
- 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...
22 seats - SPDSocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
6 seats - GreensAlliance '90/The GreensAlliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...
2 seats
Transportation
Twistringen is on the railway line Bremen-Osnabrück. There is a train to Bremen every half hour and to Osnabrück every hour. The B51, a federal road which runs from Bremen to Osnabrück, runs through the center of Twistringen. Driving to Bremen takes about 45 minutes, to Osnabrück 70 minutes.Twistringen is 36 km away from Bremen Airport
Bremen Airport
Bremen Airport or Flughafen Bremen serves the German city of Bremen and is located south of the city. There were 2.4 million passengers in 2008.-History:The beginnings of the airport date back to the early 20th century...
.
Schools and educational institutions
In Twistringen, there are 3 elementary schools and a school center, where a HauptschuleHauptschule
A Hauptschule is a secondary school in Germany and Austria, starting after 4 years of elementary schooling, which offers Lower Secondary Education according to the International Standard Classification of Education...
, a Realschule
Realschule
The Realschule is a type of secondary school in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia , Denmark , Sweden , Hungary and in the Russian Empire .-History:The Realschule was an outgrowth of the rationalism and empiricism of the seventeenth and...
, a Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, and a municipal library are located. There are also several kindergartens.
People from Twistringen
- Hartwig SteenkenHartwig SteenkenHartwig Steenken was a West German show jumper. He was born in Twistringen, and raised on his father's farm in Bowrede near Hoya in Lower Saxony....
(1941–1978), jumper riderShow jumpingShow jumping, also known as "stadium jumping," "open jumping," or "jumpers," is a member of a family of English riding equestrian events that also includes dressage, eventing, hunters, and equitation. Jumping classes commonly are seen at horse shows throughout the world, including the Olympics... - May Spils (1941 - ), film director
- Brigitte Seebacher-Brandt (1946 - ), historian
- Reinhold BeckmannReinhold BeckmannReinhold Beckmann is a German journalist and presenter.- Life :Afer school in Syke, Beckmann studied the German language, film and theatre in Cologne....
(1956 - ), television host - Karl-Thomas Neumann, CEO Continental AG