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The Stade Region emerged in 1823 by an administrative reorganisation of the dominions of the
Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
, a
sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to ...
state, whose then territory is almost completely part of today's German
federal state A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the c ...
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 ...
. Until 1837 the ''Kingdom of Hanover'' was 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 Kings of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...
. The official title of the Region was ''High-Bailiwick of Stade'' (1823–1885; ) and then ''Governorate of Stade'' (1885–1978; ). The ''High-Bailiwick of Stade'', being a mere administrative unit of the integrated ''Kingdom of Hanover'', was named after and seated in
Stade Stade (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (, ) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the Stade (district), district () which bears its name. It is located roughly to the wes ...
,
Bremen-Verden Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (; ), were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained imperial immediacy in 1180. By their original constitution they were prince-bishoprics of th ...
's former capital, taking over its staff, installations and buildings. The territory of the ''Stade Region'' was combined by the territories of the
Land of Hadeln Land Hadeln is a historic landscape and former administrative district in Northern Germany with its seat in Otterndorf on the Niederelbe, Lower Elbe, the lower reaches of the River Elbe, in the Elbe-Weser Triangle between the estuaries of the E ...
, the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (), all Hanoverian dominions, which were collectively administered. The territory belonging to the ''Stade Region'' covered about the triangular area between the mouths of the rivers
Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...
and
Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...
to the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
and today's German federal states of
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
and
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
. This area included about today's ''Lower Saxon'' counties ( or ) of
Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...
(southernly),
Osterholz Osterholz is a district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Wesermarsch, Cuxhaven, Rotenburg and Verden, and by the city of Bremen. History Originally the prince-archbishop ...
, Rotenburg upon Wümme,
Stade Stade (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (, ) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the Stade (district), district () which bears its name. It is located roughly to the wes ...
and Verden as well as of the Bremian exclave of the city of
Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (; ) is a city on the east bank of the Weser estuary in northern Germany. It forms an exclave of the Bremen (state), city-state of Bremen. The Geeste (river), River Geeste flows through the city before emptying into the Weser. Brem ...
.


History


Before the establishment of the ''High-Bailiwick of Stade''

The collectively administered
Land of Hadeln Land Hadeln is a historic landscape and former administrative district in Northern Germany with its seat in Otterndorf on the Niederelbe, Lower Elbe, the lower reaches of the River Elbe, in the Elbe-Weser Triangle between the estuaries of the E ...
, the ''Duchy of Bremen'' and the ''Duchy of Verden'' were therefore colloquially referred to as the Duchies of Bremen-Verden or simply ''Bremen-Verden''. The latter two emerged in 1648 by the transformation of the
Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen () was an Hochstift, ecclesiastical principality (787–1566/1648) of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church that after its definitive secularization in 1648 became the hereditary Bremen-Verden, Duchy of ...
, then ''Duchy of Bremen'', and the
Prince-Bishopric of Verden The Prince-Bishopric of Verden (, ''Hochstift Verden'' or ''Stift Verden'') was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that was located in what is today the state of Lower Saxony in Germany. Verden had been a diocese of the Catho ...
, then ''Duchy of Verden''. The ''Kingdom of Hanover's'' predecessor the Prince-Electorate of Brunswick and Lunenburg (or, colloquially called after its capital ''Electorate of Hanover''; , or ) purchased ''Bremen-Verden'' from its Danish occupants de facto in 1715 (and again from its legitimate owner
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
in 1719 ( Treaty of Stockholm) for
rixdollar Rixdollar is the English term for silver coinage used throughout the European continent (, , , ). The same term was also used of currency in Cape Colony and Ceylon. However, the Rixdollar only existed as a coin in Ceylon. Unissued remainder bankn ...
s tlr1 million). De jure this acquisition had to be legitimised by imperial feoffment. It took Elector George II Augustus until 1733 to get Charles VI to enfeoff him with the Duchy of Bremen and Verden. In 1728 Emperor ''Charles VI'' enfeoffed Elector ''George II Augustus'', who in 1727 had succeeded his father George I Louis, with the reverted fief of
Saxe-Lauenburg The Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg (, ), was a ''reichsfrei'' duchy that existed from 1296 to 1803 and again from 1814 to 1876 in the extreme southeast region of what is now Schleswig-Holstein. Its territorial centre was in the modern district of Herz ...
. By a redeployment of Hanoverian territories in 1731 ''Bremen-Verden'' was conveyed the administration of the neighboured
Land of Hadeln Land Hadeln is a historic landscape and former administrative district in Northern Germany with its seat in Otterndorf on the Niederelbe, Lower Elbe, the lower reaches of the River Elbe, in the Elbe-Weser Triangle between the estuaries of the E ...
(at the Northern tip of ''Bremen-Verden''), since 1180 an exclave, first of the ''younger Duchy of Saxony'', from 1296 on of the ''Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg'', one of the former's successors. At both feoffments ''George II Augustus'' swore that he would respect the existing privileges and constitutions of the ''Estates'' of ''Bremen-Verden'' and of ''Hadeln'', thus confirming 400-year-old traditions of Estate participation in government. The small ''Land of Hadeln'' maintained until 1885 as to its legislation a certain level of internal autonomy () but as to the executive power ''Hadeln'' was administered by neighboured ''Bremen-Verden's'' provincial government. Being a
Prince-Elector The prince-electors ( pl. , , ) were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Usually, half of the electors were archbishops. From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince- ...
of the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
and represented in its
Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
by virtue of his ''Electorate of Hanover'', ''George II Augustus'' didn't bother about ''Bremen-Verden's'' status of
Imperial immediacy In the Holy Roman Empire, imperial immediacy ( or ) was the status of an individual or a territory which was defined as 'immediate' () to Emperor and Empire () and not to any other intermediate authorities, while one that did not possess that stat ...
. Since ''Bremen-Verden'' had turned Hanoverian it never again sent its own representatives to a ''Diet'' .


The ''Stade Region'' as part of the state of ''Hanover'' in the years from 1813 to 1866

After the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
, which brought changing occupations and annexations of the ''Duchies of Bremen and Verden'' (for more details see
Bremen-Verden Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (; ), were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained imperial immediacy in 1180. By their original constitution they were prince-bishoprics of th ...
), Bremen-Verden was restored in 1813 to the ''Electorate of Hanover'', which transformed into the
Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
in 1814. Even though ''Bremen-Verden's'' status as a territory of imperial immediacy had become void with the end of the ''Holy Roman Empire'' in 1806, the Duchies were not right away incorporated in
real union Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions in contrast to personal unions; however, they are not as unified as states in a political union. It is a development from personal union and has historically been ...
into the Hanoverian state. Since the Hanoverian monarchs had moved to London, ''Hanover'' had become a state of very conservative and backwarded rule, with a local government recruited from local aristocrats adding up much to the preservation of outdated structures. The
real union Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions in contrast to personal unions; however, they are not as unified as states in a political union. It is a development from personal union and has historically been ...
with ''Hanover'' only followed in 1823, when an administrative reform united ''Bremen-Verden'' and ''Hadeln'' to form the ''High-Bailiwick of Stade'', administered according to unitarian modern standards, thereby doing away with various traditional Bremian government forms. ''Hadeln'' kept part of its traditional autonomy until 1852, its Estates continued to function with restricted authority until 1884. In 1823 the high-bailiwick consisted of 7,025 square kilometres with 208,251 inhabitants. On 1 May 1827 a small section of the lower Weser shore in the West of the ''High-Bailiwick of Stade'', forming the nucleus of the future city of
Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (; ) is a city on the east bank of the Weser estuary in northern Germany. It forms an exclave of the Bremen (state), city-state of Bremen. The Geeste (river), River Geeste flows through the city before emptying into the Weser. Brem ...
, was transferred to the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, as agreed upon earlier that year in a contract by the Hanoveran minister Friedrich Franz Dieterich von Bremer and ''Bremen's''
Burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...
Johann Smidt. ''Bremerhaven'' (literally English: ''Bremian Harbour'') was founded to be a haven for ''Bremen's'' merchant marine, with that city located upstream the Weser being more and more disconnected from the sea, due to that river's silting up. ''Bremerhaven'' also became the home port of the
German Confederation The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...
's
Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
under
Karl Rudolf Brommy Rear Admiral Karl Rudolf Brommy (changed his name to reflect the English pronunciation of his original name, Bromme) (10 September 1804 – 9 January 1860) was a German naval officer who helped establish the first unified German fleet, the Reic ...
.


Reorganisation of religious bodies in the ''Stade'' region

Two
Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
consistories, one for the ''Land of Hadeln'' in
Otterndorf Otterndorf (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Oterndörp'') is a town on the coast of the North Sea in the federal state of Lower Saxony, Germany, and is part of the collective municipality () of Land Hadeln. The town, located in the administrative distric ...
(founded by ''Hadeln's'' Estates in 1535, integrated into Stade's consistory in 1885) and one in Stade (founded by Swedish
Bremen-Verden Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (; ), were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained imperial immediacy in 1180. By their original constitution they were prince-bishoprics of th ...
's government in 1650) for the rest of the High-Bailiwick supervised the Lutheran cult and clergy. A general superintendent chaired each consistory. Lutherans made up by far the majority of the population. Among Lutherans revivalism played a major role in the 1850s. In 1848 the Lutheran parishes were democratised by the introduction of presbyteries (parish councils), elected by all major male parishioners and chairing each parish in co-operation with the pastor, being before the sole chairman. This introduction of presbyteries was somewhat revolutionary in the rather hierarchically structured Lutheran church. The Lutheran church was the state church of the
Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
with the king being (Supreme Governor of the Lutheran Church). In 1864 , Hanoverian minister of education, cultural and religious affairs (1862–1865), persuaded the to pass a new law as to the constitution of the Lutheran church. The constitution provided a state
synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the Ancient Greek () ; the term is analogous with the Latin word . Originally, ...
(parishioners' parliament, ). But its first session only materialised in 1869, when after the Prussian annexation of the
Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
(1866) the Hanoverian Lutherans desired a representative body separate from Prussian rule, though it was restricted to Lutheran matters only. After the Prussian conquest in 1866, on 19 September 1866, the day before the official Prussian annexation took place and with the last king,
George V of Hanover George V (Georg Friedrich Alexander Karl Ernst August; 27 May 1819 – 12 June 1878) was the last King of Hanover, reigning from 18 November 1851 to 20 September 1866. The only child of King Ernest Augustus and Queen Frederica, he succeeded ...
, in exile, the Kingdom's six consistories joined to form the still existing Lutheran State Church of Hanover. An all-Hanoverian consistory, the ''Landeskonsistorium'' (state consistory), was formed with representatives from the regional consistories. The Lutheran state church became a stronghold of Hanoverian separatism and therefore somewhat politicised. It opposed the Evangelical State Church in Prussia, comprising the Protestant parishes in the Prussian territory prior the 1866 annexations, not only for its being a stronghold of Prussian patriotism, but for being a
united church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestantism, Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinc ...
of formerly Lutheran and Calvinist parishes, with a preponderance of Calvinism because the Calvinist
Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, ; , ; ) is a formerly royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) German dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. ...
dynasty wielded its influence in the unification of Lutherans and Calvinists in then Prussia in 1817. The Hanoverian Lutherans managed to maintain their independence and the ''Evangelical State Church in Prussia'' stayed abreast of the changes and renamed in 1875 into
Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces The Prussian Union of Churches (known under Prussian Union of churches#Status and official names, multiple other names) was a major Protestant Landeskirche, church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of ...
. The
Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
communities were in a somewhat sorry state. They emerged in the 1590s, when the Calvinist city of
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
actually possessed some area around
Bederkesa Bad Bederkesa (Low German: ''Beers'') is a village and a former municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the town of Geestland. It is situated approximately 20 km northeast of ...
and Lehe (a part of today's
Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (; ) is a city on the east bank of the Weser estuary in northern Germany. It forms an exclave of the Bremen (state), city-state of Bremen. The Geeste (river), River Geeste flows through the city before emptying into the Weser. Brem ...
) at the lower
Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...
stream. In 1654, after the
First Bremian War The Swedish wars on Bremen were fought between the Swedish Empire and the Hanseatic town of Bremen in 1654 and 1666. Bremen claimed to be subject to the Holy Roman Emperor, maintaining Imperial immediacy, while Sweden claimed Bremen to be a media ...
, the city ceded the area to Swedish ''Bremen-Verden'', which subjected the Calvinists there to supervision by the Lutheran consistory. Under Lutheran pressure only six congregations stood fast to Calvinism. In the municipalities, where they were located, Calvinists made up the majority of the population, later Lutheran migration outweighed the Calvinist preponderance. The rest of the Stade Region was and is a Calvinist
diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...
. In 1848 Hanoverian law also provided for presbyteries in the Calvinist parishes in the Stade Region, which exactly fit the presbyterian structure of Calvinism. But only in 1882 – long after the Prussian annexation of Hanover – the inappropriate supervision by Lutheran consistorials ended, when King
William I of Prussia Wilhelm I (Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 1861 and German Emperor from 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. ...
decreed the creation of the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover comprising all the Calvinist communities in the prevailingly Lutheran
Province of Hanover The Province of Hanover () was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1866 to 1946. During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, alo ...
. The simultaneously Lutheran and Calvinist consistory in Aurich was made the consistory of that church body, becoming an exclusively Calvinist body only in 1922, following the constitutional reorganisation of the church bodies after the
Weimar Constitution The Constitution of the German Reich (), usually known as the Weimar Constitution (), was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era. The constitution created a federal semi-presidential republic with a parliament whose ...
had decreed the separation of church and state in 1919. After the forcefully wielded attempts of reCatholicisation in 1628–1632, which ended with the reconquest by the legitimate Lutheran Administrator regnant of the
Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen () was an Hochstift, ecclesiastical principality (787–1566/1648) of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church that after its definitive secularization in 1648 became the hereditary Bremen-Verden, Duchy of ...
, John Frederick, no Catholic communities existed and missionary and pastoral activities were supervised by the Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of the Nordic Missions, but widely hindered by ''Bremen-Verden's'' government. By annexations after the Napoléonic Wars, the
Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
had become a state of three Christian denominations. In 1824 Hanover and the
Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...
thus agreed upon to integrate the territory comprising the ''Stade Region'' into the neighboured Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim, with the ''Vicariate Apostolic's'' competence ending there. In 1859 (in , 170 Catholics) and in 1872 (in Verden upon Aller) the first Catholic parishes were founded (after 1632), with all the Stade Region being a Catholic diaspora. Jews left scarce archival traces in the mediaeval
Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen () was an Hochstift, ecclesiastical principality (787–1566/1648) of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church that after its definitive secularization in 1648 became the hereditary Bremen-Verden, Duchy of ...
. In 1611 the city of Stade signed a contract with
Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
Jews, allowing the foundation of a community. In 1613 Administrator ''John Frederick'' followed by settling Ashkenazzi Jews in the city, but during the turmoil of Catholic conquest and Lutheran reconquest the last archival traces of Jews date from 1630. Only by the end of the 17th century Jews reappear in
Bremen-Verden Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (; ), were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained imperial immediacy in 1180. By their original constitution they were prince-bishoprics of th ...
. At the beginning of the 19th century some 30 Jewish families lived dispersedly over the region, under precarious legal status, and without Jewish institutions. By the Westphalian and French annexations in 1807 and 1810 the Jews in the Stade Region had been emancipated and thus naturalised, only to lose their French citizenship again by France's defeat in 1813, falling back into a status of toleration or mere indigenousness without political rights in restituted
Bremen-Verden Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (; ), were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained imperial immediacy in 1180. By their original constitution they were prince-bishoprics of th ...
. In 1842 the
Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
granted equal rights to Jews and promoted to build up Jewish communities and a regional superstructure (
Rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
nate) within a nationwide scope. The Jews in the Stade Region regarded this a progress and a burden alike, because prior they hadn't employed any rabbi and religion teacher, opened hardly a synagogue or
school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...
due to the implied financial burden. In 1845 – according to the new law – a , under land-rabbi Joseph Heilbut, was established, serving 16 Jewish communities, which were founded over the years, with altogether 1,250 Jews in 1864 (highest number ever reached). The local authorities now requested, that the Jewish communities establish synagogues and Jewish education for the pupils. Synagogues existed in Neuhaus upon Oste and in Osten (both early 19th century), in Horneburg (opened 1831) and in
Stade Stade (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (, ) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the Stade (district), district () which bears its name. It is located roughly to the wes ...
(opened 1849, closed due to financial restrictions in 1908). And a teacher for Jewish religion and Hebrew was employed (after 1890 Stade's community couldn't afford a teacher any more). From 1903 on the Jewish community of Stade was granted public subsidies to continue functioning. The land-rabbins simultaneously fulfilled religious and state functions, like supervising Jewish elementary schools and the teaching of Jewish religion in all schools. The Kingdom of Hanover was thus one of the few states within the
German Confederation The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...
, where rabbis held a similar semi-state authoritative position as to Jews as did, e.g., Lutheran clergy towards Lutherans. After the Prussian annexation the constitution of Hanover's four land-rabbinates came under threat to be abolished, because in Prussia proper the government hindered as much as possible the establishment of nationwide Jewish organisations, let alone such which it would grant official recognition. In the end Prussia respected the existing Hanoverian land-rabbinate constitution, which continued to exist – modified according to the separation of state and religion in 1919 by the
Weimar constitution The Constitution of the German Reich (), usually known as the Weimar Constitution (), was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era. The constitution created a federal semi-presidential republic with a parliament whose ...
 – until the Nazi Reich's government de facto abolished the constitution in 1938. The communities in urban Lehe (28 families, after 1924 part of Wesermünde: 300 community members in 1928), Scharmbeck (20 families) and Verden upon Aller were the biggest by membership, while rural communities vanished. The Stade Region stayed a
Jewish diaspora The Jewish diaspora ( ), alternatively the dispersion ( ) or the exile ( ; ), consists of Jews who reside outside of the Land of Israel. Historically, it refers to the expansive scattering of the Israelites out of their homeland in the Southe ...
, and from 1860 on Stade's land-rabbinate was never staffed again, but served alternately by one of the other three Hanoverian land-rabbinates. Labour migration and emigration to urban centres outside the Stade Region and Jewish demography rather lead to a reduction of the number of Jews in the ''Stade Region'' (786 in 1913, 716 in 1928).


The ''Stade Region'' as an administrative unit of Prussia (1866-1945/1947)

After the
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n annexation of the
Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
in 1866, the kingdom was transformed into the Prussian
Province of Hanover The Province of Hanover () was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1866 to 1946. During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, alo ...
. The adaptation to other Prussian administrative structures took only place in 1885, when the high-bailiwick was redesigned according to Prussian law as the ''Governorate of Stade'' (). The Hanoverian subsections of a high-bailiwick (, plural: ), were redeployed into 14 bigger Prussian style counties (, plural: ). At the time of its redeployment the high-bailiwick's population amounted to 300,000. In 1905 the population amounted to 403,302 with an area of , which made up a density of 59 persons per square kilometre. The ''Governorate of Stade'' weathered the following wars and constitutional changes. ''Bremerhaven'' was several times enlarged at the expense of the ''Governorate of Stade''´s territory. But on the latter's territory several suburbs grew and in 1924 were united to form the urban county of Wesermünde. In 1932 by an administrative reform the number of the governorate's 13 rural counties was reduced to a mere seven. In 1932 in the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
the Lutheran Church of the State of Hanover opened a camp for formerly workless singles, employed in public works (roadworks, amelioration) in Sandbostel. In 1933 the Nazis seized the power in Germany (
Machtergreifung The rise to power of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919, when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He quickly rose t ...
). On the Reich's and the level of the states gradually all resistance was decapitated. Anti-Semitic discriminations were imposed onto Jewish Germans and Germans of Jewish descent. In 1932
Franz von Papen Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, (; 29 October 18792 May 1969) was a German politician, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and army officer. A national conservative, he served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932, and then as Vice-Chancell ...
's Reich's government had overthrown the last democratic
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n government under
Otto Braun Otto Braun (28 January 1872 – 15 December 1955) was a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. From 1920 to 1932, with only two brief interruptions, Braun was Minister President of Prussia, Ministe ...
( Prussian Coup). So the ''Governorate of Stade'', being a part of the
Free State of Prussia The Free State of Prussia (, ) was one of the States of the Weimar Republic, constituent states of Weimar Republic, Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it cont ...
, one of the most stable and democratised German states, came fast under Nazi influence. The governor resigned under pressure of Gauleiter Otto Telschow. The Nazis' rule enforcement was characterised by installing Nazi-loyal parallel structures, which would interfere with existing public administration and bring it to dictatorial lines. The ''Governorate of Stade'' came under ever increasing interference of the Nazi party's regional subsection Gau Eastern Hanover under Gauleiter Otto Telschow, especially after 1935, when the Nazi-party Gaue replaced the functions of the streamlined German states. The new Nazi Reich's government – "provisionally" ruling Prussia – had direct rule over the Prussian police, with police being an institution of the respective German states. The ordinary police had to guard together with S.A. men, the Prussian ''Criminal Police Department'' in charge for the ''Governorate of Stade'' was seated in its biggest city Wesermünde. In March/April 1933 the ''Criminal Police'' was transformed into the new , directly subordinated to the new Geheime Staatspolizei (GeStapo, secret state police), circumventing all prior existing Prussian administrative structures, to which the former ''Criminal Police'' had been subjected and reporting before. At first Wesermünde's ''Stapo Department'' persecuted all political enemies of Nazism and later persons involved in all kinds of disobediences, such as strikes, absenteeism, black marketing, circumventions of ordered dues to be delivered, which all became an ever-growing phenomenon with the increasing weariness in the long duration of the war. The ''Stapo'' had its special eye on forced labourers in the governorate, abducted from all over German occupied Europe. In 1939 the Sandbostel camp, meanwhile usurped by the Nazi trade union
Reichsarbeitsdienst The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major paramilitary organization established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the Economy of Nazi Germany, German economy, militarise the wo ...
, was converted into the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag X-B and a camp of internment for civilian enemy aliens. Until 1945 about a million inmates passed through the camp, with about 46,000 perished. As to territorial changes the Reich's Nazi government decreed by the
Greater Hamburg Act The Greater Hamburg Act (), in full the Law Regarding Greater Hamburg and Other Territorial Readjustments (), was passed by the government of Nazi Germany on 26 January 1937, and mandated the exchange of territories between Hamburg and the Free S ...
(1937) to incorporate the
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
ian exclave of
Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...
into the ''Governorate of Stade'', forming then an urban county. While at the most eastern end of the governorate some municipalities were integrated into the state of Hamburg. Two years later the Reich's Nazi government decreed to incorporate some municipalities of the counties of Osterholz and Verden into the city of Bremen and in return to disentangle ''Bremerhaven'' from the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and to incorporate it into ''Wesermünde''. But that redeployment didn't last long.


The ''Governorate of Stade'' as part of the British and U.S. Zone of Occupation (1945–1949)

From 1945 on the occupational U.S. forces in defeated Germany used the harbours of Bremen and Wesermünde as their ''Port of Embarkation''. Being actually located in the British Zone of Occupation the
Control Commission for Germany - British Element The British occupation zone in Germany (German: ''Britische Besatzungszone Deutschlands'') was one of the Allied-occupied areas in Germany after World War II. The United Kingdom, along with the Commonwealth, was one of the three major Allied po ...
and the Office of Military Government for Germany, U.S. (OMGUS) agreed in 1947 to constitute the cities of ''Bremen'' and ''Wesermünde'' as a
German state The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...
named Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, becoming at that occasion an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation within the ''British zone''. Radio AFN (
American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two sub ...
), based in rechristened ''Bremerhaven'', became popular for its transmissions of jazz and rock music. After this territorial toing and froing the ''Governorate of Stade'' belonged to
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 ...
, the state newly founded in 1946 by the ''Control Commission for Germany – British Element'' (Cf. Ordinance No. 46), even before in 1947 the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
officially dissolved the
Free State of Prussia The Free State of Prussia (, ) was one of the States of the Weimar Republic, constituent states of Weimar Republic, Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it cont ...
.


The ''Governorate of Stade'' as an administrative unit of the state of ''Lower Saxony'' (1946–1978)

From 1973 to 1977 the number of Lower Saxon counties has been reduced by uniting counties. The urban county of
Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...
and the neighboured counties of the
Land of Hadeln Land Hadeln is a historic landscape and former administrative district in Northern Germany with its seat in Otterndorf on the Niederelbe, Lower Elbe, the lower reaches of the River Elbe, in the Elbe-Weser Triangle between the estuaries of the E ...
and Wesermünde were united to form the new County of Cuxhaven. The county of Bremervörde was integrated into the County of Rotenburg upon Wümme. Thus the governorate consisted only of a mere five counties: Cuxhaven,
Osterholz Osterholz is a district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Wesermarsch, Cuxhaven, Rotenburg and Verden, and by the city of Bremen. History Originally the prince-archbishop ...
, Rotenburg (Wümme),
Stade Stade (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (, ) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the Stade (district), district () which bears its name. It is located roughly to the wes ...
and Verden. In 1977 the governorate's population amounted to almost 700,000. The ''Governorate of Stade'' continued to exist until 31 January 1978. The next day it was incorporated into the neighbouring Governorate of Lunenburg (), with the complete dissolution of all ''Lower Saxon'' governorates following in 2004. Today no single administrative entity covers the territory of the former
Bremen-Verden Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (; ), were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained imperial immediacy in 1180. By their original constitution they were prince-bishoprics of th ...
. Today's efforts and activities in the field of culture in the region are covered by the (Engl. about: ''landscape union of the former duchies of Bremen and Verden'', or short ''Landschaftsverband Stade'').


List of High-Bailiffs and Governors

Bearing the title: High-Bailiff (, plural: ) *1823–41 (1766–1845),
Bremen-Verden Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (; ), were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained imperial immediacy in 1180. By their original constitution they were prince-bishoprics of th ...
's Estates elected him the last president of the provisional government (1813–1823) after the French retreat. In 1823 he became the first High-Bailiff of the ''Stade Region'', the merely administrative entity succeeding Bremen-Verden's dissolution in 1823. *1841–55 Freiherr (1801–1861), father of the later Prussian general Ernst von Bülow *1856–58 Freiherr (1798–1858), also Royal Hanoverian High-Bailiff in Osnabrück *1858–62 (died 23 November 1862), Geheimer Rat (privy councillor) *1863–72 (1802–1887), 1848–1850 minister for education, cultural and religious affairs of the
Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
*1872–85 Bearing the title: Governor (, plural: ) *1885–88 *1888–95 Dr. *1895–99 Dr. *1899–1909 Freiherr *1909–11 Graf *1911–22 *1922–33 Dr. (1879–1943), member of the Prussian House of Commons (1921–1932) for the DVP, forced to resign as governor by Gauleiter Otto Telschow *1933–36 (1890–1968), member of the Reichstag (1930–1933) for the
NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...
*1936–44 *1944–45 *1945 Dr. Oskar Brenken provisional *November 1945–49 (1898–1969), 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 ...
(1956–57) for the CDU *1949–50 Dr. (1886–1979), only per pro as ''Regierungsvizepräsident'' *1950 Dr. (1899–1982), provisional *1950–54 Dr. (1897–1964), 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 ...
(1957–1964) for the SPD *1954–58 Dr. , member or the Lower Saxon Parliament (1959) for the GB/BHE *1958–59 Dr. (1903–1965), provisional, Lower Saxon Minister for Federal Affairs, Expellees and Refugees (1964–1965) in the second and third cabinet of Minister-President Georg Diederichs ( SPD) *1959–73 (1914–1973) *1973–78 Joachim Passow (1925–1983), only per pro as ''Regierungsvizepräsident''


Vital Statistics 1890–1980

SourceM. Rademache
Geschichte on Demand
Daten der Kreise der Provinz Hannover


Notable people from the Stade Region as from 1823 on

A list of interesting people whose birth, death, residence or activity took place in the Stade Region. * (1866–1959), teacher, politician, after Prussian annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1866 member of the separatist
German-Hanoverian Party The German-Hanoverian Party (, DHP), also known as the Guelph Party (), was an agrarian, federalist political party in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. It represented the interests of Hanoverian separatists and regionalists that sought ...
* Anita Augspurg (born in Verden upon Aller; 1857–1943), suffragette, women's rights fighter * (1889–1979), Lutheran pastor in Stade, in 1935 beaten up by a Nazi squad, scolding him 'serf of the Jews' (Judenknecht), astronomer (name-giver of the asteroid 1651 Behrens), member of the anti-Nazi Protestant Confessing Church * Cato Bontjes van Beek (1920–1943), grew up in Fischerhude, ceramist, resistant fighter against Nazism, beheaded in Berlin-Plötzensee * (1783–1867), Bremian, Danish and West Indian sugar manufacturer, politician, anti-Napoléonic freedom fighter *, (born in , 1903–1988), chemist *
Karl Rudolf Brommy Rear Admiral Karl Rudolf Brommy (changed his name to reflect the English pronunciation of his original name, Bromme) (10 September 1804 – 9 January 1860) was a German naval officer who helped establish the first unified German fleet, the Reic ...
(born Bromme; 1804–1864), counter-admiral, navy-warrior in the independence wars of Brazil, Chile and Greece, founding organiser of the Greek Navy, supreme commander of the German Confederation's Reich's Navy in Bremerhaven (1849–1853) *
Adolf Butenandt Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (; 24 March 1903 – 18 January 1995) was a German biochemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939 for his "work on sex hormones." He initially rejected the award in accordance with government pol ...
(born and grown up in Lehe, since 1947 part of Bremerhaven; 1903–1995), biochemist, Nobel prize-winner of chemistry in 1939 * Louise Cooper (1849–1931), missionary, founder and leader of blind mission in Hildesheim * Carl Diercke (1842–1913), geographer, cartographer, pedagogue, school councilor, founder of Diercke atlas series * Wilhelm Heinrich Evers (1884–1960), aeronautical engineer and aircraft designer in the U.S. and Germany * (1720–1792), carpenter, ''Moor Commissioner'' in charge of draining, reclaiming and settling moor lands in the Stade Region *
Carl Friedrich Gauß Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; ; ; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician, astronomer, geodesist, and physicist, who contributed to many fields in mathematics and science. He was director of the Göttingen Observatory and ...
(1777–1855), mathematician and astronomer, carried out triangulation in the Stade Region * August Karl von Goeben (1815–1880), general, sometimes disputed as Hanoverian treator, who served as commander in the Prussian army while the Prussian conquest of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1866 * (1859–1918), farmer, anti-Semitic and agricultural politician, member of Prussian House of Commons (1893–1912), member of the Reichstag (1903–1918) *Baron (1826–1907), Hanoverian diplomat, minister for education, cultural and religious affairs of the Kingdom of Hanover (1865–1866), after Prussian annexation in 1866 leader of the separatist German-Hanoverian Party * Bernhard Hoetger (1874–1949), sculpturist, architect, among others active in Worpswede *
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben August Heinrich Hoffmann (, calling himself von Fallersleben, after his hometown; 2 April 179819 January 1874) was a German poet. He is best known for writing "", whose third stanza is now the national anthem of Germany, and a number of popular ...
(1798–1874), poet (e.g., of today's German anthem), Germanist, as exiled illegally in the Stade Region * Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf (born in Neuenkirchen in Hadeln; 1893–1961), lawyer, businessman, last county commissioner (Landrat) of the county of Hadeln (1928–1932), politician, last Upper President of the Prussian Province of Hanover (1945–1947), co-founder and first Prime Minister of the state of Lower Saxony (1947–1955, 1959–1961), Vice Prime Minister (1957–1959) * Fritz Mackensen (1866–1953), painter, graphicker, sculpturist, novelist * Otto Modersohn (1865–1943), painter * (1851–1927), politician, member of the Reichstag (1890–1924), speaker of the SPD faction the Reichstag (1911–1918) *
Joachim Ringelnatz Joachim Ringelnatz is the pen name of the German author and painter Hans Bötticher (7 August 1883 in Wurzen, Saxony – 17 November 1934 in Berlin). From 1894 to 1900 he lived with his family in the Gottschedstrasse 40 in Leipzig. Profile Hi ...
(1883–1934), marine in Cuxhaven, participating in September 1918 in the rebellion of 1918–1919, clerk, novelist, cabarettist * (1879–1943), lawyer, member of Prussian House of Commons (1921–1932), Regierungspräsident of Stade (1922–1933, forced to resign by Gauleiter Otto Telschow), author *
Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach Walther Kurt von Seydlitz-Kurzbach (; 22 August 1888 – 28 April 1976) was a German general during World War II who commanded the LI Army Corps during the Battle of Stalingrad. At the end of the battle, he gave his officers freedom of action a ...
(1888–1976), general, president of the anti-Hitlerist ''Federation of German Officers'' in Soviet prisonship-of-war (then integrated into the National Committee for a Free Germany), returned from Soviet prisonship-of-war in 1955 to Verden upon Aller * Otto Telschow (1876–1945), member of the Reichstag (1930–1945), Nazi Gauleiter of East Hanover district of the Nazi party (1928–1945) * (1763–1845), administrator, jurist, historian * (1902–1979), carpenter, resistance fighter against Nazism''Lebensläufe zwischen Elbe und Weser: Ein biographisches Lexikon'', Brage Bei der Wieden and Jan Lokers (eds.) on behalf of the Landschaftsverband der ehemaligen Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden, Stade: Landschaftsverband der ehemaligen Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden, 2002, (Schriftenreihe des Landschaftsverbandes der ehemaligen Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden; vol. 16)


Notes


References

* (vol. 2) , (vol. 3) . {{DEFAULTSORT:Stade (Region) States and territories established in 1823 States and territories disestablished in 1978 Government regions of Prussia Former government regions of Germany Former states and territories of Lower Saxony Bremen-Verden Kingdom of Hanover Province of Hanover 1823 establishments in the Kingdom of Hanover