Enger () is a town in the

Herford Herford (; ) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is situated in the cultural region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and the Detmold (administrat ...

district, in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Geography

Enger is situated between the

Teutoburg Forest The Teutoburg Forest ( ; ) 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 the ''Teutoburg Forest'' ...

and the

Wiehen Hills The Wiehen HillsElkins, T.H. (1972). ''Germany'' (3rd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus, 1972. . (, , also locally, just ''Wiehen'') are a hill range in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony in Germany. The hills run from west to east like a long f ...

, approx. 6 km west of the town of

, the capital of the district.

Neighbouring places

* Spenge * Bünde * Hiddenhausen *

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 () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

Town divisions

Enger consists of the following districts (population as of December 31, 2005): * Belke-Steinbeck (2,471 inhabitants) * Besenkamp (1,849 inhabitants) * Dreyen (1,404 inhabitants) * Enger (7,809 inhabitants) * Herringhausen (West) (430 inhabitants) * Oldinghausen (773 inhabitants) * Pödinghausen (2,181 inhabitants) * Siele (122 inhabitants) * Westerenger (3,797 inhabitants)

History

The town, first mentioned in 948, calls itself "Widukind's town." The

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

leader

Widukind Widukind, also known as Wittekind and Wittikund, was a leader of the Saxons and the chief opponent of the Frankish king Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 777 to 785. Charlemagne ultimately prevailed, organized Saxony as a Frankish provinc ...

died about 808. However, there is no evidence that Enger existed in his lifetime. A legend tells that Widukind founded a church in Enger after his baptism, and that he lived at the place until his death. He was buried in the church of Enger, and his monumental tomb is still there. Despite this, it remains doubtful that the remains of Widukind are actually in the tomb. Analysis shows that the memorial slab dates to the time around the year 1100. The main current attractions of Enger are Widukind's tomb, the Widukind museum, the Widukind festival ("Timpkenfest"), held annually on January 6 and the "Kirschblütenfest" in April.

Notable people

* Wolfgang Aßbrock (1952–2007), politician and member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Parliament (2005–2007) * Wilhelm Müller (1875–1957), politician *

Heinrich Vedder Hermann Heinrich Vedder (born 3 July 1876 in , Westphalia, Germany; died 26 April 1972 in Okahandja, South-West Africa) was a German missionary, linguistics, linguist, ethnology, ethnologist and historian. Originally a silk weaver, he received miss ...

(1876–1972), missionary

References

External links

Official site
Herford (district) {{Herford-geo-stub