Kranenburg is a municipality in the district

Stade Stade (), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (german: Hansestadt Stade, nds, Hansestadt Stood) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the district () which bears its name. It is l ...

, Lower Saxony, Germany, lying on the river

Oste Oste () is a river in northern Lower Saxony, Germany with a length of . It is a left tributary of the Elbe. The Oste flows through the districts of Harburg, Rotenburg, Stade and Cuxhaven and empties into the Elbe river near Otterndorf. Its dra ...

. It consists of the villages Kranenburg and Brobergen and is part of the

Samtgemeinde A ''Samtgemeinde'' (; plural: ''Samtgemeinden'') is a type of administrative division in Lower Saxony, Germany. ''Samtgemeinden'' are local government associations of municipality, municipalities, equivalent to the ''Amt (administrative division ...

Oldendorf-Himmelpforten Oldendorf-Himmelpforten is a ''Samtgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the district of Stade, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was formed on 1 January 2014 by the merger of the former ''Samtgemeinden'' Oldendorf and Himmelpforten. Its seat is in ...

. It has a population of 772 as at December 31, 2003, of which 546 in Kranenburg and 226 in

Brobergen Brobergen (Low Saxon: ''Brobargen'') is a village in the German municipality of Kranenburg in the district of Stade, Lower Saxony. The village of 6.06 km² has 220 inhabitants (July 1, 2011).gentry family "von Brobergen". There is a ferry in Brobergen crossing the Oste, connecting the "Hollander Höfe" with the village of Brobergen. It is a station of the "

Deutsche Fährstraße The Deutsche Fährstraße (''German Ferry Street''), established in May 2004, is a theme route similar to the American National Scenic Byways. It connects various places between Bremervörde and Kiel with relation to the history of ferries and cr ...

". The place lies on the border of the

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

land near the Oste. The river

Mehe The Mehe is a river in Lower Saxony, Germany. It flows into the Oste near Kranenburg. See also *List of rivers of Lower Saxony All rivers in the German state of Lower Saxony flow directly or indirectly into the North Sea. A–Z A B D E ...

, a tributary of the Oste, has its estuary near Brobergen. The village Brobergen was an own municipality, but then got part of Kranenburg in the course of a reformation of municipality borders in Lower Saxony in 1972.

History

Kranenburg, first mentioned in 1375 as ''Kronesborg'' (literally ''cranes castle''), belonged to the

Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (german: Fürsterzbistum Bremen) — not to be confused with the modern Archdiocese of Hamburg, founded in 1994 — was an ecclesiastical principality (787–1566/1648) of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic ...

, established in 1180. While Brobergen was first the name of the landscape, which referred to a larger area along the Oste between Gräpel and Burweg. In a charter from 1141 it is said, that the Rudolf of Freckleben, as Rudolf II Count of Stade (from 1135 to his death in 1144), gave Brobergen as a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

to one of the three brothers Dudo, Adiko and Ricbert, after they founded the Benedictine in

. In 1286 it was first mentioned, that there was a village by the castle, which was the seat of the ''von Brobergen'' family. In 1380 the family ''von Mandelsloh'' and other Bremian and Verdian creditors tried to gain by violence the estates, which the bankrupt Prince-Archbishop Albert II pledged in return for credits. The creditors ravaged the city of Bremen and the entire

. The city of Bremen concluded a pact with the other cities, the Chapter, the

Landsgemeinde The ''Landsgemeinde'' ("cantonal assembly"; , plural ''Landsgemeinden'') is a public, non-secret ballot voting system operating by majority rule, which constitutes one of the oldest forms of direct democracy. Still at use – in a few places � ...

n of the free peasants of the marshlands, and indigenous families of nobility and

ministerialis The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minis ...

to fight the exfrediation by the ''von Mandelslohs''. In 1381 the troops of the city of Bremen captured the castle in Kranenburg. The family of ''von Brobergen'', owning the castle, lasted until 1618, when it became extinct. At this time the manor was sold to merchants from

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. In 1648 the Prince-Archbishopric, including Kranenburg, was transformed into the

Duchy of Bremen ), which is a public-law corporation established in 1865 succeeding the estates of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (established in 1397), now providing the local fire insurance in the shown area and supporting with its surplusses cultural effor ...

, which was first ruled in

personal union A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interlink ...

by the Swedish Crown – interrupted by a Danish occupation (1712–1715) – and from 1715 on by the Hanoverian Crown. In 1807 the ephemeric

Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a kingdom in Germany, with a population of 2.6 million, that existed from 1807 to 1813. It included territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the ...

annexed the Duchy, before

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

annexed it in 1810. In 1813 the Duchy was restored to the

Electorate of Hanover The Electorate of Hanover (german: Kurfürstentum Hannover or simply ''Kurhannover'') was an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, located in northwestern Germany and taking its name from the capital city of Hanover. It was formally known as ...

, which – after its upgrade to the

Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) 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 Han ...

in 1814 – incorporated the Duchy in a

real union Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions in contrast to personal unions; however, they are not as unified as states in a political union. It is a development from personal union and has historically bee ...

and the Ducal territory, including Kranenburg, became part of the new Stade Region, established in 1823. In 1837, after many changes of owner, the castle and the pertaining domain were purchased by the farmers of Brobergen, who pooled together to become free of the ownership of their land by other persons.

References

External links

Website of the municipality Kranenburg
(German) {{Authority control Stade (district) nds:Kronenborg