History of Verden (Aller)

by Dora Asch

Index

· A few facts about Verden

· Historical timetable

· Massacre of Verden

· The cathedral

· Located at the river 'Aller'

· A town in Lower Saxony, north Germany

· Verden is famous for the massacre of Saxons in 782, for its cathedral, and for its horse breeding

· Population: 26.729 habitants

· It's called Verden (Aller) because the French town Verdun is also called Verden in German

· 8000 – 4000 before Christ: Supposedly, people already livedin Verden in the Middle Stone Age

· 450: In the Migration Period, the Saxons colonized Verden

· 782: The massacre of Verden, where 4500 Saxons were killed

· about 800: The Bishopric of Verden was founded and was calledFerdi in Saxonia

· 1034: The first time the name “Verden“ appeared in papers

· 1210: The bishop Yso built a town wall as protection of the northpart of Verden

· 1350: Another wall was built for the south part of Verden and thecity was split in two parts

· 1220: first bridge across the Aller was built

Historical timetable

· 1667: the town wall between the north and south part of Verden wasdestroyed

· 1891: first horse race ever in Verden

· 1973: dedication of the “Niedersachsenhalle“

· 1997: first European championship of the dressage rider in Verden

· 2002-present: annual world championship for dressage rider

· 1402: The buccaneer Klaus Störtebeker was executed in Hamburgand he donated seven windows for the cathedral in Verden becauseof the seven deadly sins

The Massacre of Verden

· also called Bloodbath of Verden or Bloody Verdict of Verden

· The Saxons rebelled against Charles the Great, didn't want tobow down to Karl, the king of the Franconians, and didn't wantto adopt the Christian faith

· Between 1934 and 1935, the German nationalists built a memorialknown as the Sachsenhain ('Saxon Grove')

· 4500 stones were put along a 2 km long path

· the leader of the Saxons, called „Widukind“, started a revolutionagainst the Franconians and Charles the Great

· Charles the Great wanted revenge and in 782, during the SaxonWars, 4500 Saxons were killed under his orders

· „Widukind“ excaped to Denmark before the massacre

· the Sachsenhain was used as a training area for the Hitler Youth,and later fugitives were hidden there

· since 1950, there's a hostel called „Evangelischer Jugendhof Sachsenhain“ (Evangelical youth hostel Sachsenhain)

The cathedral in Verden

· „Dom St. Maria und Cäcilia“

· was the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Bisphoric of Verden

· an Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral

· was built in two construction phases, from 1290 until 1323,finished in 1473 until 1490, and renovated 1830

· the town's landmark and one of the main attractions in Verden

· before this building, there were another two wooden churchesthat were burned down, first in 850, second in 950

· part of the cathedral used to be a school in 1002, but over timemore and more people went to school and they built anotherbuilding for the school in 1872, now called the „Domgymnasium“

· the part of the cathedral which used to be a school is now a small religious shop

· first gothic cathedral in Lower Saxony

· the cathedral was used as an example for many other churches in Germany

· since 1973, the cathedral has its own cemetry

Sources

http://www.wikipedia.de

http://www.verden.de

http://www.dom-verden.de

http://www.bonnensia.de

http://www.ehj.de/sachsenhain