Edewecht ( Low German: ''Erwech'') is a municipality in the

Ammerland Ammerland is a districts of Germany, district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the east and clockwise) the city of Oldenburg (city), Oldenburg and the districts of Oldenburg (district), Oldenburg, Cloppenburg (district), Cloppen ...

district, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is situated approximately west of

Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...

Villages in the municipality and their population

*Friedrichsfehn Nord 1,747 *Friedrichsfehn Süd 3,185 *Husbäke 1,005 (known for the

bog bodies A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between and the Second World War. Fischer ...

found there; see:

List of bog bodies This is a list of bog bodies in order of country in which they were first discovered. Bog bodies, or bog people, are the naturally preserved corpses of humans and some animals recovered from peat bogs. The bodies have been most commonly found in ...

) *Jeddeloh I 1,101 *Jeddeloh II 1,333 *Kleefeld 439 *Klein Scharrel 1,229 *Nord Edewecht I 2,246 *Nord Edewecht II 2,548 *Osterscheps 1,604 *Portsloge 1,962 *Süddorf 608 *Süd Edewecht 2,256 *Westerscheps 554 *Wildenloh 805 *Wittenberge 386 total: 23,008 *Edewecht only 7,050 *Friedrichsfehn only 4,932 Source: website of the Edewecht Municipality. Date: June 30, 2020. The population figures include people, who have a second home in Edewecht besides to a dwelling elsewhere, and legally residing foreigners.

History

Edewecht was the scene of severe fights during the last weeks of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. Coming from

Friesoythe Friesoythe, in Saterland Frisian language Ait or Äit, is a town in the district of Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, on the river Soeste, northwest of Cloppenburg, and southwest of Oldenburg. History In 1227, Count Otto von Tecklenburg ...

in the south, on April 17,

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

, Canadian troops had to conquer Edewecht in fierce house-by-house fighting against fanatic German paratroopers and other soldiers. The famous German artist

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

, who was a young man in these days, was one of the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

paratroopers A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during World ...

defending Edewecht, and got injured on April, 27 during battle. This battle was the fifth time that Edewecht was destroyed in a war. The first four times were in the 15th and 16th centuries. Edewecht had been a border watch location between Eastern Frisia and the County of Oldenburg for many centuries.

Twin towns

Edewecht is twinned with * POL Krosno COA

Krosno Krosno (in full ''The Royal Free City of Krosno'', pl, Królewskie Wolne Miasto Krosno) is a historical town and county in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in southeastern Poland. The estimated population of the town is 47,140 inhabitants as of ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

''(since 1996)'' ' * Wappen Wusterhausen

Wusterhausen/Dosse in

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

Germany

Sons and daughters

Hein ten Hoff Hein ten Hoff (19 November 1919 – 13 June 2003) was a German boxer and ''Präsident des Bundes Deutscher Berufsboxer'' (BDB). He was the son of a Dutch peasant, who left The Netherlands for Germany (Oldenburg Land) in the end of the 1930s, ...

(1919-2003), German boxer

References

;Notes Ammerland {{Ammerland-geo-stub