Lemgo (; nds, Lemge, Lemje) is a small university town in the
Lippe
Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe.
The d ...
district of
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
,
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 between the
Teutoburg Forest
The Teutoburg Forest ( ; german: Teutoburger Wald ) is a range of low, forested hills in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Until the 17th century, the official name of the hill ridge was Osning. It was first renamed th ...
and the
Weser Uplands
The Weser Uplands (German: ''Weserbergland'', ) is a hill region in Germany, between Hannoversch Münden and Porta Westfalica, along the river Weser. The area reaches into three states, Lower Saxony, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia. Important ...
, 25 km east of
Bielefeld
Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...
and 70 km west of
Hannover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...
.
The old
Hanseatic
The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=German language, Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Norther ...
town Lemgo has a population of c. 41,000 (2017) and belongs to the
OWL
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
region, which is one of the most important cluster regions for
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...
and industrial
electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
in Germany. In 2017 the German Internet portal reisereporter.de placed Lemgo among the most beautiful ten
half-timbered
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
towns in Germany.
History
It was founded in the 12th century by
Bernard II, Lord of Lippe at the crossroad of two merchant routes.
Lemgo was a member of the
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...
, a medieval trading association of free or autonomous cities in several northern European countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and Poland. During the
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
the city of Lemgo adopted
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
in 1522, whereas otherwise in
Lippe
Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe.
The d ...
, its spread was hampered until 1533 by the opposition of the then Catholic ruling Counts of Lippe.
In 1605
Simon VI, Count of Lippe
Count Simon VI of Lippe (15 April 1554 in Detmold – 7 December 1613 in Brake (now part of Lemgo)) was an imperial count and ruler of the County of Lippe from 1563 until his death.
Life
Simon was the son of Count Bernhard VIII, Count of Lip ...
adopted Calvinism and demanded the conversion of Lemgo's citizens too using his monarchic privilege of
cuius regio, eius religio
() is a Latin phrase which literally means "whose realm, their religion" – meaning that the religion of the ruler was to dictate the religion of those ruled. This legal principle marked a major development in the collective (if not individual ...
. This led to a dispute with Lemgo. The city defied the edict to convert to Calvinism, leading to the ''Revolt of Lemgo''. This religious dispute was resolved by the Peace of Röhrentrup in 1617, granting Lemgo the right to determine its faith independently. During the 30 Years War, on 15 October 1638, it was put under siege by a combined army of Palatine and Swedish troops, but it was soon lifted upon the approach of a hostile army. 2 days later, the
Battle of Vlotho occurred, about 11 miles from Lemgo. Lippe's Lutheran minority, mostly domiciled in Lemgo, only joined the else
Reformed Church of Lippe
The Church of Lippe (german: link=no, Lippische Landeskirche) is a Reformed (Calvinist) member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany that covers what used to be the Principality of Lippe.
Seat of the church administration is Detmold. The ...
in 1882, however, retaining its
Confession of Augsburg
The Augsburg Confession, also known as the Augustan Confession or the Augustana from its Latin name, ''Confessio Augustana'', is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Protestant Ref ...
with the Lutheran congregations forming a separate
classis within the Lippe church since 1888.
British Army
From 1947 until 1993, Lemgo hosted successive infantry battalions of the British Army, the last one being the
Royal Irish Regiment.
The battalions were based in Stornoway Barracks, known to the locals as Spiegelberg Kaserne. The base was previously the location of a
Displaced persons camp
A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for interna ...
and before that a
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 previous ...
artillery unit.
At the end of World War II, Canadian Section GHQ, 2nd Echelon, HQ 21 Army Group, occupied Spiegelberg Kaserne. After this headquarters moved to Oldenburg the site was taken over by the British Army.
Research and education
![TH OWL - LE Panorama](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/TH_OWL_-_LE_Panorama.jpg)
Lemgo is the location of the
OWL University and the Fraunhofer Institute IOSB-INA. Together with the partners of the Centrum Industrial IT, a science-to-business center for Industrial Automation Technologies, and the Industry 4.0 Living Lab SmartFactoryOWL the campus site in Lemgo forms a cluster for Intelligent Systems Technologies in the OWL region.
![Ciit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Ciit.jpg)
The Innovation Campus Lemgo is a district for the digital economy, which connects existing and new actors throughout the innovation chain education – research – economy. The campus forms one of the three regional centers in the technology network Intelligent Technical Systems Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL). There are more than 8,500 people on the campus on weekdays, including around 3,600 students, 4,100 pupils, 500 academic and 250 other employees.
Digital transformation
Beginning of 2018,
Fraunhofer Institute
The Fraunhofer Society (german: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., lit=Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research) is a German research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany ...
in Lemgo and partners started the
IoT Living Lab Living labs are open innovation ecosystems in real-life environments using iterative feedback processes throughout a lifecycle approach of an innovation to create sustainable impact. They focus on co-creation, rapid prototyping & testing and scaling ...
LemGO Digital as a reference platform for the
digital transformation
Digital transformation is the adoption of digital technology by an organization to digitize non-digital products, services or operations. The goal for its implementation is to increase value through innovation, invention, customer experience or ef ...
of small and medium sized
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
s.
Transport
The next international airports are
Paderborn Lippstadt Airport
Paderborn Lippstadt Airport (German: ''Flughafen Paderborn Lippstadt'') is a minor international airport in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe area in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. While the name implies a location within the city of Paderborn ...
50 km to the south,
Hannover Airport
Hannover Airport is the international airport of Hanover, capital of the German state of Lower Saxony. The ninth largest airport in Germany, it is in Langenhagen, north of the centre of Hanover. The airport has flights to European metropo ...
70 km to the northeast, Münster/Osnabrück 85 km to the west and Dortmund Airport 105 km to the southwest. A railway connection is served every hour by the RB 73 The Lipperländer to
Bielefeld
Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...
main station. With
Lemgo-Lüttfeld railway station the Innovation Campus Lemgo has its own station. The next motor highway is the
Bundesautobahn 2 (A2), which runs only 9 kilometers west of Lemgo and can be used via the exit Ostwestfalen-Lippe/Lemgo.
Culture
Lemgo's historic centre survived the Second World War completely undestroyed. Thus, the overall urban character with the testimonies from the time of the Renaissance was preserved.
Museum
Until a few years ago, the Museum Hexenbürgermeisterhaus displayed replicas of some torture instruments from the time of the witch hunt. An exhibition about the life and work of the artist Karl Junker can be seen in the Museum Junkerhaus. The "Junkerhaus" is a work of the artist from the year 1891, provided with numerous ornate carvings. The Städtische Galerie Haus Eichenmüller exhibits temporary exhibitions of works by contemporary artists. The oil mill is a functioning watermill with an attached mill museum. The Weser Renaissance Museum Schloss Brake shows examples of art, culture and life at the time of the Weser Renaissance. The documentation and meeting place Frenkelhaus shows a permanent exhibition on the history of the Jews in Lemgo.
Lemgo - Schloss Brake 13. Jh. mit Steinbrücke.jpg, Brake Palace
Lemgo Brake Ölmühle.jpg, Oil Mill
Lemgo Museum Junkerhaus.jpg, Museum Junkerhaus
Historical buildings
Hexenbürgermeisterhaus
![Lemgo Hexenbuergermeisterhaus01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lemgo_Hexenbuergermeisterhaus01.jpg)
The most famous house in Lemgo is the so-called Hexenbürgermeisterhaus from 1571 with a facade in the style of
Weser Renaissance
Weser Renaissance is a form of Northern Renaissance architectural style that is found in the area around the River Weser in central Germany and which has been well preserved in the towns and cities of the region.
Background
Between the star ...
. Its unusual name comes from its mayor Cothmann, who officiated in the 17th century, who, out of lust for power, used witchcraft as an integral part of the Christian faith to clear his political opponents out of the field. To make this clear, he had several dozen other citizens killed, both women and men. On the façade below there is a wide, richly-perforated zone of stems called 'Utluchten', a term also rarely used in specialist literature. The most typical examples were Renaissance stone buildings and half-timbered building from the 17th and 18th centuries. On the right part of the facade is a bay window on consoles. The facade above is divided by half-columns and cornices.
Town hall
![LemgoRathaus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/LemgoRathaus.jpg)
The town hall in the style of the Weser Renaissance, which was included in the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
list of works of European renown, consists of parts built at different times. Such a genesis is not uncommon for large secular buildings such as town halls, because of the growing number of inhabitants and the increasing administrative activity of the cities, more and more premises were needed. Instead of new buildings, the neighboring houses were bought and extended the town hall.
The oldest part is an elongated hall building dating back to the 13th century. The middle part of the building is built in Gothic
othicstyle and dates from around 1480 to 1490. It houses the Council Chamber, including the Court Arbor. Such open ground floors belong mostly to medieval town halls, because there took place the public court hearings.
Such open ground floors belong mostly to medieval town halls, because there took place the public court hearings.
The most recent members of the Weser Renaissance are from the 15th and 16th centuries. The Apothecary's Corner is a showpiece with equally strict and playful language of form. Similarly in the execution is the council foliage with the Kornherrenstube upstairs on the north side of the town hall. The construction of the Neue Ratsstube is simpler and sums up the market façade of the building symmetrically with the Apothekererker.
Brake Castle
![Schloss Brake - Luftaufnahme](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Schloss_Brake_-_Luftaufnahme.JPG)
The Brake Castle is an important architectural monument, whose architectural history reaches from the 12th to the 19th century. The present state of the castle is the result of renovations and extensions. After 1190, Lord Bernhard II of Lippe had built a stone castle. Their dimensions were similar to those of today's castle. In 1306 "castrum brac" was first mentioned. It was the preferred seat of the noble lords (from 1528 counts) of Lippe.
In 1587 it was extended as a residence of the counts of Lippe in the style of the renaissance. It is surrounded by a moat and stands on the foundation walls of one of the largest medieval castles in Northern Germany. The striking tower makes it the widely visible landmark of the old Hanseatic town Lemgo. The buildings in the immediate vicinity of the castle still convey an impressive picture of an early-modern residence, which includes the domain, three historic mills and a wash house.
Other historical town houses
![Lemgo Giebel Altes Backhaus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Lemgo_Giebel_Altes_Backhaus.jpg)
In the historic city center a number of merchants' houses from late gothic and renaissance have survived. Here you will find half-timbered and stone houses with ornate gables, for example the "Neustädter Twins" and the former Adlerhof. Architectural research has shown that the houses Mittelstraße 54 and 56 (near the market square) have even more parts of the building from the 13th century on their back fronts and thus the rare case from the early Gothic period (Mittelstraße 54, dated to the second Half of the 13th century) or the late
Romanesque art
Romanesque art is the art of Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic Art, Gothic style in the 12th century, or later depending on region. The preceding period is known as the Pre-Romanesque period. The term was invented by 1 ...
(house Mittelstraße 56, based on the arched windows dated to the first half of the 13th century) originate from prof cultivation.
In Mittelstraße, which is the
pedestrian zone
Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...
designated shopping street in the historical city center, are the most important town houses of the city. In addition, there are hundreds of smaller half-timbered houses from the 15th to the 19th century, especially in the old town.
Sport
TBV Lemgo
TBV Lemgo is a handball club from Lemgo, Germany, and is competing in the Handball-Bundesliga.
History
The ascent to one of the best German handball clubs was slow but steady. In the year the Bundesliga was founded, the club was still in the ...
is one the country's best
handball
Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...
clubs, and multiple previous
league
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
Sports
* Sports league
* Rugby league, full contact footba ...
,
Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...
and
Supercup champions as well as winning the
European Cup Winner's Cup in 1996 and the
European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
in 2006.
Twin towns – sister cities
Lemgo is
twinned with:
*
Beverley
Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...
, England, United Kingdom
*
Stendal
The Hanseatic City of Stendal () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the capital of the Stendal District and the unofficial capital of the Altmark region.
Geography
Situated west of the Elbe valley, the Stendal town centre is located s ...
, Germany
*
Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy
Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy (, literally ''Vandœuvre near Nancy'') is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. Its inhabitants are called ''Vandopériens''.
Geography
With 29,942 inhabitants (2019), Vandœuvre is the ...
, France
Hörstmar County Primary School in Lemgo has a twin school in
Holme on Spalding Moor
Holme-on-Spalding-Moor (also known as Holme-upon-Spalding-Moor) is a large village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately north-east of Howden and south-west of Market Weighton. It lies on the ...
since 1989.
Notable people
*
Simon VII, Count of Lippe
Count Simon VII of Lippe (30 December 1587 at Brake Castle near Lemgo – 26 March 1627 in Detmold) was a ruler of the Reformed county of Lippe-Detmold.
Life
He was the second-eldest son of Count Simon VI of Lippe and his wife Elizabeth ...
(1587–1625), Count of Lippe
*
Johann Cothmann
Johann Cothmann (1588 in Lemgo - 1661, Güstrow) was a German jurist and diplomat. He was also a member of the Fruitbearing Society
The Fruitbearing Society (German Die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, lat. ''societas fructifera'') was a German lit ...
(1588–1661), diplomat and jurist
*
Philip I, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe (1601–1681), Count of Schaumburg-Lippe
*
Simon Peter Tilemann (1601–1668), painter
*
Engelbert Kaempfer
Engelbert Kaempfer (16 September 16512 November 1716) was a German naturalist, physician, explorer and writer known for his tour of Russia, Persia, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan between 1683 and 1693.
He wrote two books about his travels. ''A ...
(1651–1716), naturalist, physician and explorer
*
Christian Wilhelm von Dohm
Christian Wilhelm von Dohm (; 11 December 1751 – 29 May 1820) was a German historian and political writer.
Biography
Dohm was born in Lemgo on 11 December 1751. The son of a Lutheran pastor at , he was a radical advocate for Jewish emancipatio ...
(1751–1820), historian and writer
*
Wilhelm Engelmann Wilhelm EngelmannKarl Friedrich Pfau: Engelmann, Wilhelm. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 48(1904)378-9 was a German publisher and bookseller (August 1, 1808 in Lemgo – December 23, 1878 in Leipzig).
Engelmann was the son of a bookseller in L ...
(1808–1878), publisher and bookseller
*
Heinrich Schacht (1840–1912), pedagogue and
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
*
Fred
Fred may refer to:
People
* Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Mononym
* Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French
* Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Ro ...
(1876–1932) and
August Duesenberg
August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...
(1879–1955),
Duesenberg
Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company, Inc. was an American race car, racing and luxury car, luxury automobile manufacturer founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, by brothers Fred Duesenberg, Fred and August Duesenberg in 1920. The company is ...
car builders, born in Kirchheide district
*
Heinrich Drake
Heinrich Drake (December 20, 1881 – June 12, 1970) was a German politician ( SPD). He was President of the Free State of Lippe from 1925 to 1933 and again from 1945 to 1947, until Lippe was incorporated into the new state of North Rhine-Wes ...
(1881–1970), politician (SPD)
*
Axel Haverich (born 1953), surgeon
*
Pinar Atalay (born 1978), journalist
*
Dominic Klemme (born 1986), road bicycle racer
*
Matthias Blübaum
Matthias Blübaum (born 18 April 1997) is a German chess grandmaster. He won the European Individual Chess Championship in 2022.
Blübaum began playing chess at the age of six and emerged as part of the ''Prinzengruppe'' at age twelve. He earn ...
(born 1997), chess grandmaster
References
External links
Official city homepage
{{Authority control
Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia
Free imperial cities
Lippe
Principality of Lippe