Verden an der Aller (;
Northern Low Saxon: ''Veern''), also called Verden (Aller) or simply Verden, is a town in
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...
, Germany, on the river
Aller. It is the
district town of the district of Verden in Lower Saxony and an independent municipality (
:de:Selbständige Gemeinde). The town is located in the middle
Weser region on the Aller river immediately before it flows into the Weser. As a center of
horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given Horse breed, breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired chara ...
and
equestrian sports
Equestrian sports are sports that use horses as a main part of the sport. This usually takes the form of the rider being on the horse's back, or the horses pulling some sort of horse-drawn vehicle.
General
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, it bears the nickname "equestrian town". The suffix "Aller" was introduced at a time when the name "Verden" was also common for the French town of
Verdun in the German-speaking area. The town name comes from "ford" or "ferry". The town was conveniently located at a ford through the Aller river, near an important trade route.
Verden is famous for a massacre of
Saxons in 782, committed on the orders of
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
(the
Massacre of Verden), for its cathedral, and for its horse-breeding.
History
In the Early Middle Ages (year 782) there was a massacre of allegedly 4,500
Saxons, by order of Charlemagne because of their involvement in a preceding uprising. Verden was then within the
Duchy of Saxony.
After in 1180 a coalition of Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa and his allies had defeated the then Saxo-Bavarian Duke
Henry the Lion. Henry was subsequently stripped of his duchies. Saxony was divided among the imperial coalitionaries and so the Catholic Bishop of Verden gained
imperial immediacy for parts of his diocesan territory, thus establishing the
Prince-Bishopric of Verden.
On 12 March 1259 Prince-Bishop Gerhard of Verden granted the place
town privileges following the Bremian version of
German town law. In the 15th century Verden gained considerable independence as a
Free Imperial City, immediately under the emperors (imperial immediacy), circumventing its former overlords the prince-bishops, who still held the cathedral and pertaining premises in town as a
cathedral immunity district.
By the
Peace of Westphalia the city of Verden was
mediatised as regular city again within the Prince-Bishopric of Verden, which was transformed by the same contract into the
Principality of Verden in May 1648. The northern city (with the town hall and St. John's church) and the southern town (with the
proto-cathedral) were then united to form one city.
In 1675, during the
Swedish-Brandenburg War, Verden was conquered by several states of the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark following the
Bremen-Verden Campaign and remained in allied hands until the end of the war in 1679. In the wake of the
Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1679, Verden was returned to Sweden.
The Principality of Verden was first ruled in
personal union
A personal union is a combination of two or more monarchical states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, involves the constituent states being to some extent in ...
by the Swedish Crown – interrupted by a Danish occupation (1712–1715) – and from 1715 on by the
Hanoverian Crown. The
Kingdom of Hanover incorporated the principality in a
real union and the princely territory, including Verden upon Aller, became part of the new
Stade Region, established in 1823.
Until the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Verden was renowned for its trade and crafts and also its mounted division. During the Nazi regime forced-labourers were used in a furniture factory in Verden. Between 1945 and 1949 Verden was part of the British zone of occupation. Refugees from the former
Prussian provinces of
East Prussia
East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...
,
Pomerania
Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...
and
Silesia, settled in and around the town.
With the labour immigration from the East
German Democratic Republic inhibited by the
Berlin Wall foreign workers (
Gastarbeiter) started to arrive from southern Europe and
Anatolia
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
in the 1960s. After the fall of
Communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
more immigrants arrived from Eastern Europe.
From 1945 until 1960, the
5th Division, of the
British Army of the Rhine, was stationed in Verden. In 1960, the division was renamed as the
1st Division (later 1st Armoured Division). One of the former British barracks is now used to house the ''Kreisverwaltung'' (district administration) and a new sporting stadium has been erected opposite. The second barracks has been demolished to make way for a new residential estate.
Geography
Verden is located in the German state of
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...
, on the river
Aller. It is the administrative centre of the district of
Verden. The nearest large cities are Bremen () and Hannover ().
Sights

The old town lies east of the Aller. The Lutheran cathedral () is known as the ' and towers above the pedestrianised high street, with its cafés and shops. This
proto-cathedral, consecrated to Ss. Mary and Cecilia, served the former Catholic Diocese of Verden as episcopal church and was built between the 12th and 15th centuries. Other noteworthy buildings include the Lutheran churches of St. John and of St. Andrew, as well as the town hall and the ''Domherrenhaus'' (House of cathedral canons).
Verden is further renowned for horse racing and sport horse auctions and is thus also called the (horse) riding town ().
Infrastructure
East of Verden, there is the tall radio transmitter, , used by
Deutsche Telekom primarily for TV and mobile phone broadcasting.
in 2009, the derelict fodder silo towering over the town won the prize of being "The ugliest wall in North Germany" in a Radio Bremen Vier competition. The prize was to be decorated with a large mural by Graffiti Artists Markus Genesius and Stefan of WOW123. The mural can now be seen above the town skyline.
Mars Petcare has its largest pet food factory in Europe, with a large research centre similar to the
Waltham Petcare Science Institute in the UK.
Twin towns – sister cities
Verden is
twinned with:
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Bagrationovsk, Russia
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Bartoszyce County, Poland
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Górowo Iławeckie, Poland
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Gmina Górowo Iławeckie, Poland
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Havelberg, Germany
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Saumur, France
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Warwick, England, United Kingdom
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Zielona Góra, Poland
Notable people

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Catharine Wolpmann (1603 – fl. 1659), twice charged locally with
witchcraft
Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...
, in 1647 and 1655 and twice acquitted
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F. C. D. Wyneken (1810–1876), missionary pastor in the United States
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Marcus Lehmann (1831–1890), Orthodox rabbi
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Anita Augspurg (1857–1943), jurist, actress, writer, activist of the radical feminist movement and pacifist
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Adolf Köster (1883–1930), politician (SPD),
Foreign Minister (1920) and
Interior Minister
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...
(1921–1922).
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Gerhard Lindemann (1896–1994), Generalmajor
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Gottfried Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1901–1949), politician and grandson of
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
, died locally
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Hanna Grages (1922–2010), gymnast, competed at the
1952 Summer Olympics
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Volker Münz (born 1964), politician (AfD), member of the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
, 2017 to 2021.
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Hille Perl (born 1965), virtuoso player of the
viola da gamba
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Jan Hendrik Schön (born 1970), German physicist and fraud
Gallery
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Verden An Der Aller
1648 disestablishments
Populated places established in the 15th century
Verden (district)