Zeven
Encyclopedia
Zeven is a town in the district of Rotenburg
, in Lower Saxony
, Germany
. It has a population of around 14,000. The nearest large towns are Bremerhaven
, Bremen and Hamburg
. It is situated approximately 22 km northwest of Rotenburg
, and 40 km northeast of Bremen. Zeven is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde ("collective municipality") Zeven
.
, then giving its name as kivinan à Heeslingen (Kivinan near Heeslingen). In 1141 the monastery was relocated to Zeven. The monastery played a determining role in Zeven's history. Zeven belonged to the old Duchy of Saxony
and at its dissolution in 1180 Zeven became a part of the newly founded Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, the princely territory of imperial immediacy ruled by the respective holder of the archiepiscopal see
of Bremen. During the Protestant Reformation
the majority of the nun clung to Catholicism
, while most laymen adopted Lutheranism
.
In the course of the Thirty Years' War
troops of the Catholic League
under Johan 't Serclaes, Count of Tilly conquered the Prince-Archbishopric in 1627/1628. The Leaguist takeover enabled Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
, to implement the Edict of Restitution
, decreed March 6, 1629, within the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen and the Prince-Bishopric of Verden. The monastery of Zeven - still maintaining Roman Catholic rite - became the local stronghold for a reCatholicisation within the scope of Counter-Reformation
. The nuns, who had converted to Lutheranism, were then expelled from the monastery.
In 1632 troops of the legitimate ruler of the Prince-Archbishopric, Administrator John Frederick
, helped by troops from Sweden and the city of Bremen, reconquered the Prince-Archbishopric. The monastery was dissolved. By the Peace of Westphalia
the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the Duchy of Bremen in 1648, which - together with the Principality of Verden - was first given as a prey for its participation in the Thirty Years' War to be ruled in personal union
by the Swedish Crown. These two imperial fiefs to the Swedes are thus colloquially called Bremen-Verden
. The queen regnant Christina of Sweden, in personal union Duchess of Bremen and Princess of Verden
installed in the two latter functions her residence in today's Queen Christina House in Zeven, the oldest remaining profane building in town.
Like in Sweden
proper the constitutional and administrative bodies in the Swedish dominions gradually lost de facto importance due to ever growing centralisation. Bremen-Verden's Estates
lost more and more influence, they less and less often convened. After 1692 the Estates' say had almost vanished. This led to considerable unease among the Estates, so that in May 1694 reprensentatives of Swedish Bremen-Verden's general government and the Estates met at the former monastery of Zeven to confer on the status of the Duchies.
After a Danish occupation (1712-1715) the Duchy of Bremen was sold to the House of Hanover
, and thus became ruled in personal union with the Electorate of Hanover
and the Kingdom of Great Britain
. In the course of the Anglo-French and Indian War
(1754–63) on North American colonies Britain feared a French invasion in Hanover. Thus George II Augustus formed an alliance with his Brandenburg-Prussian
cousin Frederick II,the Great
combining the North American conflict with the Austro–Brandenburg-Prussian Third Silesian or Seven Years’ War (1756–63). In summer 1757 the French invaders defeated George II Augustus son William Duke of Cumberland, leading the Anglo-Hanoveran army, and drove him and his army into remote Bremen-Verden, where in the former cloister of Zeven he had to capitulate on September 18 (Convention of Klosterzeven
). But George II Augustus denied his recognition of the convention.
With British Hanover's defeat in the Napoléonic Wars
the ephemeric Kingdom of Westphalia
annexed the Duchy of Bremen in 1807, including Zeven, before France
annexed it in 1810. In 1813 the Duchy was restored to the Electorate of Hanover
, which - after its upgrade to the Kingdom of Hanover
in 1814 (and still ruled in personal union with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
) - incorporated the Duchy in a real union
and the ducal territory, including Zeven, became part of the Stade Region
, established in 1823. In 1824/1825 Carl Friedrich Gauß carried out the trigonometric geodetic surveying of the Stade Region, as commissioned by King George IV of Hanover and the United Kingdom
. Gauß used the tower of the Lutheran Church of St. Viti as a benchmark
for his triangulation
s.
Zeven was the site of a DECCA transmitter
. Close to its masts, there is also an FM
-broadcasting station, using a 100 metre tall guyed mast.
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:...
, 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
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 has a population of around 14,000. The nearest large towns are 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...
, Bremen and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. It is situated approximately 22 km northwest of Rotenburg
Rotenburg
Rotenburg is the name of the following three towns in Germany:*Rotenburg an der Wümme, near Verden in Lower Saxony*Rotenburg an der Fulda, near Kassel in Hesse*Rothenburg ob der Tauber, in the Franconia region of Bavaria...
, and 40 km northeast of Bremen. Zeven is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde ("collective municipality") Zeven
Zeven (Samtgemeinde)
Zeven is a Samtgemeinde in the district of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Its seat is in the town Zeven.The Samtgemeinde Zeven consists of the following municipalities:# Elsdorf# Gyhum# Heeslingen# Zeven...
.
History
In 986 Zeven was first mentioned in a document of the monastery in HeeslingenHeeslingen
Heeslingen is a municipality in the district of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It has 4788 inhabitants.Heeslingen belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. In 1648 the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the Duchy of Bremen, which was first ruled in personal union by the Swedish...
, then giving its name as kivinan à Heeslingen (Kivinan near Heeslingen). In 1141 the monastery was relocated to Zeven. The monastery played a determining role in Zeven's history. Zeven belonged to the old Duchy of Saxony
Duchy of Saxony
The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...
and at its dissolution in 1180 Zeven became a part of the newly founded Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, the princely territory of imperial immediacy ruled by the respective holder of the archiepiscopal see
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
of Bremen. During the Protestant 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...
the majority of the nun clung to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, while most laymen adopted Lutheranism
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
.
In the course of the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
troops of the Catholic League
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...
under Johan 't Serclaes, Count of Tilly conquered the Prince-Archbishopric in 1627/1628. The Leaguist takeover enabled Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand II , a member of the House of Habsburg, was Holy Roman Emperor , King of Bohemia , and King of Hungary . His rule coincided with the Thirty Years' War.- Life :...
, to implement the Edict of Restitution
Edict of Restitution
The Edict of Restitution, passed eleven years into the Thirty Years' Wars on March 6, 1629 following Catholic successes at arms, was a belated attempt by Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor to impose and restore the religious and territorial situations reached in the Peace of Augsburg...
, decreed March 6, 1629, within the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen and the Prince-Bishopric of Verden. The monastery of Zeven - still maintaining Roman Catholic rite - became the local stronghold for a reCatholicisation within the scope of Counter-Reformation
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...
. The nuns, who had converted to Lutheranism, were then expelled from the monastery.
In 1632 troops of the legitimate ruler of the Prince-Archbishopric, Administrator 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,...
, helped by troops from Sweden and the city of Bremen, reconquered the Prince-Archbishopric. The monastery was dissolved. By the Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...
the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the Duchy of Bremen in 1648, which - together with the Principality of Verden - was first given as a prey for its participation in the Thirty Years' War to be 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. These two imperial fiefs to the Swedes are thus colloquially called 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...
. The queen regnant Christina of Sweden, in personal union Duchess of Bremen and Princess of Verden
Christina of Sweden
Christina , later adopted the name Christina Alexandra, was Queen regnant of Swedes, Goths and Vandals, Grand Princess of Finland, and Duchess of Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and Karelia, from 1633 to 1654. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph and his wife Maria Eleonora...
installed in the two latter functions her residence in today's Queen Christina House in Zeven, the oldest remaining profane building in town.
Like in Sweden
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....
proper the constitutional and administrative bodies in the Swedish dominions gradually lost de facto importance due to ever growing centralisation. Bremen-Verden'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...
lost more and more influence, they less and less often convened. After 1692 the Estates' say had almost vanished. This led to considerable unease among the Estates, so that in May 1694 reprensentatives of Swedish Bremen-Verden's general government and the Estates met at the former monastery of Zeven to confer on the status of the Duchies.
After a Danish occupation (1712-1715) the Duchy of Bremen was sold to 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...
, and thus became ruled in personal union with 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...
and the Kingdom of Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
. In the course of the Anglo-French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
(1754–63) on North American colonies Britain feared a French invasion in Hanover. Thus George II Augustus formed an alliance with his Brandenburg-Prussian
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...
cousin Frederick II,the Great
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
combining the North American conflict with the Austro–Brandenburg-Prussian Third Silesian or Seven Years’ War (1756–63). In summer 1757 the French invaders defeated George II Augustus son William Duke of Cumberland, leading the Anglo-Hanoveran army, and drove him and his army into remote Bremen-Verden, where in the former cloister of Zeven he had to capitulate on September 18 (Convention of Klosterzeven
Convention of Klosterzeven
The Convention of Klosterzeven was a 1757 convention signed at Klosterzeven between France and the Electorate of Hanover during the Seven Years' War that led to Hanover's withdrawal from the war and partial occupation by French forces. It came in the wake of the Battle of Hastenbeck in which...
). But George II Augustus denied his recognition of the convention.
With British Hanover's defeat in 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 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 of Bremen in 1807, including Zeven, 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 (and still ruled in personal union with 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....
) - 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 Zeven, became part of the 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. In 1824/1825 Carl Friedrich Gauß carried out the trigonometric geodetic surveying of the Stade Region, as commissioned by King George IV of Hanover and the United Kingdom
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
. Gauß used the tower of the Lutheran Church of St. Viti as a benchmark
Benchmark (surveying)
The term bench mark, or benchmark, originates from the chiseled horizontal marks that surveyors made in stone structures, into which an angle-iron could be placed to form a "bench" for a leveling rod, thus ensuring that a leveling rod could be accurately repositioned in the same place in the future...
for his triangulation
Triangulation
In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring distances to the point directly...
s.
Sights
- Christina of SwedenChristina of SwedenChristina , later adopted the name Christina Alexandra, was Queen regnant of Swedes, Goths and Vandals, Grand Princess of Finland, and Duchess of Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and Karelia, from 1633 to 1654. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph and his wife Maria Eleonora...
Monument - Fire Brigade Museum
- Gauß Memorial Room
- Museum Kloster Zeven in the former monastery
- Queen Christina House ( or Christinenhaus)
- Saint Viti Lutheran Church
- Vitus-Brunnen, fountain named after Saint Vitus
Zeven was the site of a DECCA transmitter
Zeven DECCA-transmitter
Zeven DECCA-transmitter was a transmitting facility for DECCA transmission at Zeven, in Germany. It used as antenna a 93 metre tall guyed mast, which is insulated against ground...
. Close to its masts, there is also an FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
-broadcasting station, using a 100 metre tall guyed mast.