Emlichheim (; ) is a municipality in the district of

Grafschaft Bentheim County of Bentheim () is a districts of Germany, district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the Netherlands, Dutch provinces of Overijssel and Drenthe, the district of Emsland, and the distri ...

in Lower Saxony, Germany, roughly 20 km south of Emmen, and 25 km northwest of

Nordhorn Nordhorn (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Nothoorn'', or ''Notthoarn'', ''Netthoarn,'' and Dutch: ''Noordhoorn'') is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the district seat of Grafschaft Bentheim, located in the southwest corner of the state, near th ...

Geography

Emlichheim lies right on the German- Dutch

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

. The community is bordered on the south by the river

Vechte The Vechte (, ) or Vecht (), often called Overijsselse Vecht () in the Netherlands to avoid confusion with Vecht (Utrecht), its Utrecht counterpart, is a river in Germany and the Netherlands. Its total length is , of which is in Germany. The Ve ...

and on the north by the Coevorden-Picardy Canal. It is the administrative seat of the ''Samtgemeinde Emlichheim'', whose members also include Hoogstede, Laar and Ringe. The village has experienced massive growth due to the inflow of Dutch nationals.

History

Emlichheim has existed at least since

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 ...

’s time. In a document from 1312, the community crops up under the name ''Emminchem''. In old Dutch documents (16th to 19th century), and even today in the

Low Saxon Low Saxon (), also known as West Low German () are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of the German-speaking minority). It is one of two di ...

dialects A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...

, Emlichheim is called ''Emmelkamp''.Copy of an old Dutch book about the history of the County of Bentheim
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Politics

Municipal council

Council’s current composition (19 seats in total): * CDU - 8 seats * SPD - 7 seats * FDP - 2 seats * Grafschafter Bürger Forum (gbf) - 2 seats (State: municipal election by 11. September 2011)

Partner communities

Genemuiden Genemuiden is a city located in the north western part of the Province of Overijssel. It received city rights in 1275, which is also the first time Genemuiden gets mentioned in history.Frits David Zeiler (2007) ''Genemuiden, een zorgenkind van de b ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

since about 1975 * Grabów nad Prosną,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

since 2006

Economy

The firm Emsland-Stärke, with its location in Emlichheim, is one of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

’s

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diet ...

producers. Over a million metric tons of

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es delivered from within a region with a radius of some 150 km are processed here every year, thereby making Emsland-Stärke the community’s largest employer. Some 8 km west of Emlichheim lies the border-straddling

industrial park 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 par ...

within the communities of Laar in Germany and

Coevorden Coevorden (; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Drenthe, in the east of Netherlands, the Netherlands. During the ...

in the Netherlands called EUROPARK. Here, a hotly disputed rubbish burning site, the ''Müllverbrennungsanlage Emlichheim'', is supposed to be built by a private Dutch investor. Another economic factor of the Emlichheim ''Samtgemeinde'' is the

plastics Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic materials composed primarily of polymers. Their defining characteristic, plasticity, allows them to be molded, extruded, or pressed into a diverse range of solid forms. This adaptab ...

processing industry. Among these businesses are Synco and BekuPlast in Ringe and Ringoplast in Ringe-Neugnadenfeld.

Education

Emlichheim has a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, a

Hauptschule A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...

Realschule Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), F ...

, a Gymnasium for secondary level 1 and a special school. These schools supply basic educational needs, but further needs must be sought either in Neuenhaus (Lise-Meitner-Gymnasium) or in the district seat of

. In Nordhorn learners have almost every possibility at their disposal (general-education Gymnasien, specialized Gymnasien,

vocational training Vocational education is education that prepares people for a Skilled worker, skilled craft. Vocational education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self em ...

schools, and so on).

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the community

* Dr. Frank Schindelhauer, medical corps brigadier

References

{{Authority control County of Bentheim (district)