Wesel

Geography

Wesel is situated at the confluence of the Lippe River and the Rhine.

Division of the city

Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighoven, Ginderich, Feldmark, Fusternberg, Büderich, Flüren and Blumenkamp.

History

Origin

The city originated from a Franconian manor that was first recorded in the 8th century.

In the 12th century, the Duke of Clèves took possession of Wesel. The city became a member of the Hanseatic League during the 15th century. Wesel was second only to Cologne in the lower Rhine region as an entrepôt. It was an important commercial centre: a clearing station for the transshipment and trading of goods.

Early modern

In 1545, a Walloon community in Wesel was noted, with French-language church services.

In 1590, the Spanish captured Wesel after a four-year siege. The city changed hands between the Dutch and Spanish several times during the Eighty Years War. In 1672, a French force under Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé captured the city.

Wesel was inherited by the Hohenzollerns of the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1609 but they were unable to take control of Wesel until the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678. In 1688, a French Huguenot commune was founded in the town. Although the city had been heavily fortified the Prussians evacuated the city during the Seven Years' War and it was occupied by the French. It was returned to Prussia at the end of the war. Friedrich Wilhelm von Dossow was the Prussian Governor of Wesel during the 18th century.

Wesel was ceded to the French in 1805 under the Treaty of Schönbrunn. The French heavily fortified the city constructing a rectangular fort called the Citadelle Napoleon at Büderich and the Citadelle Bonaparte on an island in the Rhine off Wesel. Though blockaded by the Allies in 1813 the city remained in French hands until after the Battle of Waterloo. After the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, the city became part of the Prussian Rhine Province and the Citadelle Napoleon was renamed Fort Blücher.

World War II

Forced laborers of the 3rd SS construction brigade were dispatched in the town in 1943.

During World War II, as a strategic depot, Wesel became a target of Allied bombing. Air raids, using impact and air-burst bombs, on 16, 17, 18 and 19 February 1945, destroyed 97% of the town. The Wehrmacht blew up bridges along the Rhine and Lippe to prevent Allied forces from advancing. The Wehrmacht also destroyed the 1,950m-long railway bridge, the last Rhine bridge remaining in German hands, on 10 March. On 23 March, Wesel came under the fire of over 3,000 guns when it was bombarded anew, in preparation for Operation Plunder. The shelling was assisted by a raid of RAF bombers and a larger raid that night, during which ten individual bombers each dropped a 10,000 kg bomb on Wesel at 2100 hours. Before the town was finally taken by Allied troops, 97% of its structures were destroyed. In the ensuing attacks by Allied forces, the town was taken with minimal casualties. Operation Varsity – the largest airborne landings of the war in one day and one location – dropped 18,000 troops into the area to take the hills behind Wesel. The British 1st Commando Brigade was already attacking Wesel, carried into action by LVT Buffalos. The remainder of the Allied force crossed the Rhine in more amphibious vehicles.

From almost 25,000 in 1939, the population was reduced to 1,900 by May 1945. In 1946, Wesel became part of the new state North Rhine-Westphalia of West Germany.

Transport

There is a railway station in the city centre as well as Wesel-Feldmark, about 2 km north. The stations are served by trains to Oberhausen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Arnhem (Netherlands), and Mönchengladbach. A small diesel-only connecting railway line goes to Bocholt also, there are plans to electrify it.

There is no airport in the city with the nearest airports are:

Weeze Airport, located 41 km (25 mi) to the west.

Düsseldorf Airport, located 64 km (40 mi) south.

Dortmund Airport, located 90 km (56 mi) to the south east.

Münster Osnabrück Airport, located 104 km (65 mi) to the north east.

Buildings and places of interest

Berliner Tor, city gate

Willibrordi-Dom (Cathedral). Commemorative plaque for Peter Minuit, Gründer von New York (founder of New York)

Wesel Citadel

Restored 15th century city hall

Broadcasting Mast Wesel, one of Germany's tallest constructions

Niederrheinbrücke Wesel, modern Rhine bridge opened in 2009

Auesee, an natural bathing lake, an old arm of the Rhine river

Politics

Wesel's mayors:

1808–1814: Johann Hermann Westermann

1814–1840: Christian Adolphi

1841–1862: Franz Luck

1863–1870: Wilhelm Otto van Calker

1870–1873: Heinrich Bang

1873–1881: Carl Friedrich August von Albert

1881–1891: Caspar Baur

1891–1902: Josef Fluthgraf (1896 Oberbürgermeister)

1903–1931: Ludwig Poppelbaum

1931–1933: Emil Nohl

1933–1945: Otto Borgers

1945: Jean Groos

1945: Wilhelm Groos

1946–1947: Anton Ebert (CDU)

1947–1948: Paul Körner (CDU)

1948–1952: Ewald Fournell (CDU)

1952–1956: Helmut Berckel (CDU)

1956–1966: Kurt Kräcker (SPD)

1967–1969: Willi Nakaten (SPD)

1969–1979: Günther Detert (CDU)

1979–1984: Wilhelm Schneider (SPD)

1984–1989: Volker Haubitz (CDU)

Twin towns – sister cities

Wesel is twinned with:

Hagerstown, United States (1952)

Felixstowe, England (1972)

Salzwedel, Germany (1990)

Kętrzyn, Poland (2002)

Notable people

Derick Baegert (1440–after 1509), painter

Andreas Wytinck van Wesel, or Andreas Vesalius, anatomist, imperial physician to the court of Emperor Charles V

Jan Joest (1455–1519), painter

Hermann Wesel († 1563), last Bishop of Dorpat

Hans Lippershey (1550–1619), eyeglass maker associated with the invention of the telescope

Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby (1555–1601), English diplomat and soldier

Carl Philipp, Reichsgraf von Wylich und Lottum (1650–1719), Prussian field marshal

Peter Minuit (1594–1638), founder of New Amsterdam, which later became New York City

Johann Friedrich Welsch (1796–1871), painter

Konrad Duden (1829–1911), author of the first Duden

Ludwig Hugo Becker (1833–1868), painter

Friedrich Geselschap (1835–1898), painter

Richard Veenfliet (1843–1922), painter and soldier

Ida Tacke (1896–1978), co-discoverer of the chemical elements rhenium and technetium

Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893–1946), foreign minister of Nazi Germany (1938–1945)

Miscellaneous

One of Germany's highest radio masts is situated in the district of Büderich on the left bank of the Rhine. The Wesel transmitter measures 320.8 metres in height.