Historical Portfolio - Germany

1. History of Verden (Aller)
by Dora Asch

2. Index
· A few facts about Verden
· Historical timetable
· Massacre of Verden
· The cathedral

3. · A town in Lower Saxony, north Germany
· Located at the river 'Aller'
· Population: 26.729 habitants
· Verden is famous for the massacre of Saxons in 782,
for its cathedral, and for its horse breeding
· It's called Verden (Aller) because the French town
Verdun is also called Verden in German

4. Historical timetable
· 8000 – 4000 before Christ: Supposedly, people already lived
in Verden in the Middle Stone Age
· 450: In the Migration Period, the Saxons colonized Verden
· 782: The massacre of Verden, where 4500 Saxons were killed
· about 800: The Bishopric of Verden was founded and was called
Ferdi in Saxonia
· 1034: The first time the name “Verden“ appeared in papers
· 1210: The bishop Yso built a town wall as protection of the north
part of Verden
· 1220: first bridge across the Aller was built
· 1350: Another wall was built for the south part of Verden and the
city was split in two parts

5. · 1402: The buccaneer Klaus Störtebeker was executed in Hamburg
and he donated seven windows for the cathedral in Verden because
of the seven deadly sins
· 1667: the town wall between the north and south part of Verden was
destroyed
· 1891: first horse race ever in Verden
· 1973: dedication of the “Niedersachsenhalle“
· 1997: first European championship of the dressage rider in Verden
· 2002-present: annual world championship for dressage rider

6. The Massacre of Verden
· also called Bloodbath of Verden or Bloody Verdict of Verden
· the leader of the Saxons, called „Widukind“, started a revolution
against the Franconians and Charles the Great
· Charles the Great wanted revenge and in 782, during the Saxon
Wars, 4500 Saxons were killed under his orders
· The Saxons rebelled against Charles the Great, didn't want to
bow down to Karl, the king of the Franconians, and didn't want
to adopt the Christian faith
· „Widukind“ excaped to Denmark before the massacre
· Between 1934 and 1935, the German nationalists built a memorial
known as the Sachsenhain ('Saxon Grove')
· 4500 stones were put along a 2 km long path

7. · the Sachsenhain was used as a training area for the Hitler Youth,
and later fugitives were hidden there
· since 1950, there's a hostel called „Evangelischer Jugendhof
Sachsenhain“ (Evangelical youth hostel Sachsenhain)

10. The cathedral in Verden
· „Dom St. Maria und Cäcilia“
· the town's landmark and one of the main attractions in Verden
· an Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral
· before this building, there were another two wooden churches
that were burned down, first in 850, second in 950
· was built in two construction phases, from 1290 until 1323,
finished in 1473 until 1490, and renovated 1830
· was the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Bisphoric of Verden
· part of the cathedral used to be a school in 1002, but over time
more and more people went to school and they built another
building for the school in 1872, now called the „Domgymnasium“

11. · the part of the cathedral which used to be a school is now a small
religious shop
· first gothic cathedral in Lower Saxony
· the cathedral was used as an example for many other churches
in Germany
· since 1973, the cathedral has its own cemetry

14. Sources
http://www.wikipedia.de
http://www.verden.de
http://www.dom-verden.de
http://www.bonnensia.de
http://www.ehj.de/sachsenhain