Fledder is a district in the east of

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; ; archaic English: ''Osnaburg'') is a city in Lower Saxony in western Germany. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population of 168 ...

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 ...

, characterised by its large prevalence of

industrial estates An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office park ...

. Despite being the location of numerous businesses and large supermarkets the district has comparatively few residential buildings; its population is roughly 2,590. In 1912, a centrally located

shunting yard Shunting yard may refer to: * Classification yard * Shunting yard algorithm * British term for rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of Track (rail transport), tracks in a rail network for storing, ...

was set up between the factory of the car manufacturer

Karmann Wilhelm Karmann GmbH, commonly known as Karmann, was a German automobile manufacturer and contract manufacturer based in Osnabrück, Germany. Founded by Wilhelm Karmann in 1901, the company specialised in various automotive roles, including d ...

and the former Klöckner steelworks. It was substantially expanded and modernised during the 1960s, however its overall capacity soon became insufficient. In 1962, the Fledder district was formally designated an industrial zone by the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

of Osnabrück. The idea of transforming the area into a cohesive wholesale centre originally came from Dr. Hans—Achim Kastan, leader of the wholesale association. After Osnabrück's old wholesaling quarter – situated between the main train station and the city centre – was dissected by the extension of the inner ring road causing mounting transport problems. At the beginning of the 1960s, Dr. Castan began to devise plans for a new wholesale centre based in Fledder. Following long-lasting negotiations with – among others - the city council regarding property matters and plans for development, the wholesalers themselves who needed to be won over to the project, and also with the Federal Ministry of Economics and credit institutes regarding issues of

financing Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm use ...

, Castan was able to guarantee relatively fast development of the wholesale centre. Numerous businesses were quick to settle in the area afterwards, necessitating a railway siding as well as road links. This led to further expansion of the shunting yard. The haulage and logistics firm Meyer & Meyer is based in Fledder – founded in 1902, it employs around 2,300 people today. The district's name links back to the old term used for the lowland area to the southwest of the city centre. Due to its lowness and moisture, this area was only used for

pasturage Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, ca ...

. The term "Fladder" was used to denote such

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of Habitat (ecology), habitat found in upland (geology), upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and the biomes of montane grasslands and shrublands, characterised by low-growing vegetation on So ...

only thinly covered with soil. Locally the area tends to be referred to as ''der'' Fledder (''the'' Fledder). There is a round bunker from

World War II 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 ...

located on Schellenbergstraße near the Schellenbergbrücke. The surrounding area is today the property of Karmann. In addition, there was also an air-raid protection tower known as Kiebitzheide, which was eventually pulled down. An old high-rise bunker still stands on the corner of Stahlwerksweg and

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 ...

er Straße; today various businesses use it for office space and workshops. Fledder is also home to two

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

Meaning of name

A ''Fladder'' or ''Fledder'' is an area of brittle, wet

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

or a stretch of land where water is able to spread without infiltrating easily.Fangmeyer, W., "Deutung von Ortsnamen im Osnabrücker Land" in Heimat-Jahrbuch Osnabrücker Land (1982) p. 79

References

Links

City of Osnabrück, Referat für Stadtentwicklung und Bürgerbeteiligung – statistics -, 4/2008
(PDF file, 1.49 MB)
City of Osnabrück, Referat für Stadtentwicklung und Bürgerbeteiligung – statistics -, 11/2009
(PDF file, 35.4 KB) {{coord, 52.2669, N, 8.0723, E, source:wikidata, display=title Geography of Osnabrück