Haren (Ems) | |
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 View towards the town centre of Haren | |
.svg) Flag _COA.svg) Coat of arms | |
Location of Haren (Ems) within Emsland district  | |
 Location of Haren (Ems) | |
  Haren (Ems)  Haren (Ems) | |
| Coordinates:52°46′N07°13′E / 52.767°N 7.217°E /52.767; 7.217 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Lower Saxony |
| District | Emsland |
| Subdivisions | 12Ortsteile |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2019–24) | Markus Honnigfort[1] (CDU) |
| Area | |
• Total | 208.79 km2 (80.61 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 15 m (49 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 9 m (30 ft) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 24,719 |
| • Density | 118.39/km2 (306.63/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 49733 |
| Dialling codes | 05932 |
| Vehicle registration | EL |
| Website | www.haren.de |
Haren (German pronunciation:[ˈhaːʁən]ⓘ;Polish 1945:Lwów, Polish 1945–1948:Maczków) is a town inLower Saxony,Germany in the district ofEmsland.
Haren was first mentioned in the Middle Ages (around 890) in a registry of theCorvey Abbey. Around 1150 the settlement ofNeuharen ("New Haren") was founded, while the nearbyAltharen ("Old Haren") formed around a local castle, belonging to the bishop ofMünster, who bought it around 1252 from DuchessJutta von Ravensberg. At the end of theThirty Years War Haren was almost completely destroyed, but soon recovered and became a notable trading port at theEms River. The inhabitants of Haren were in large part tradesmen and sailors, transporting grain and other commodities down the Ems River.
During the Napoleonic epoch in 1803, the town was given to the Duke ofArenberg as compensation for the lands on the other side of the river. However, already in 1810, the town was directly incorporated into the French Empire. At theCongress of Vienna Haren, together with the entireDuchy of Arenberg-Meppen, was assigned to theKingdom of Hanover, which in turn in 1866 became part of theKingdom of Prussia and then theGerman Empire. Following theFranco-Prussian War a largeprisoner of war camp was set up in the vicinity. The French prisoners built, among other facilities, the Haren-Rütenbrock canal, thanks to which peat started to be produced in the area. Despite all the changes, until 1913 both settlements were directly administered by the church. Only then did the German government take over the administrative area ofMeppen, to which Haren belonged.
By 1935 there were 205 ships of various sizes registered in Haren. While some of them were mobilised and lost at sea duringWorld War II, Haren remains a notableport of registry for German ships. Altharen and Neuharen were finally united in October 1956 and in December 1965 Haren received city rights.
At the end ofWorld War II, there were over 3 million Polish citizens in Germany, most of themdisplaced persons (DPs) who got there either asslave labourers, prisoners ofGerman concentration camps orprisoners of war. As the political situation in Communist-controlled Poland was uncertain, the Allied authorities decided to create a Polish enclave in Germany that would serve both as a resettlement camp, local cultural centre and a station from which the DPs could further be dispatched to Poland or various western states. As Haren lay in the occupation zone administered by thePolish I Corps (and more specifically thePolish 1st Armoured Division), it was chosen as the most appropriate centre of a Polish enclave in Germany.
On 19 May 1945, thePolish 1st Armoured Division, a unit attached to theBritish Army moved all of the thousand families of Haren out to surrounding communities. Over 4000 Poles fromlabor camps andprisoner-of-war camps inNorthern Germany moved into the town.[3] Many of them had been members of thePolish Home Army, men and women, who had fought in theWarsaw Uprising of 1944.
Initially, the new Polish enclave was named Lwów, after the city in South-Eastern Poland by then occupied and later annexed by theSoviet Union. However, under Soviet pressure, the name was then changed toMaczków, in honour of GeneralStanislaw Maczek, the commanding officer of the Armoured Division and the local Allied occupation forces.[3] The streets in the town were renamed to Polish, either honouring various military units (Legionów Str.,Artyleryjska Str.) or named after streets inWarsaw (Ujazdowskie Avenue).
During the next months, a Polish town with a Polish mayor, a Polish school, afolk high school, a Polish fire brigade and a Polish rectory were established. The latter registered 289 weddings and 101 funerals. 479 Poles have birth certificates showingMaczków as a place of birth. As there were hundreds of thousands of Poles in the area administered by the 1st Armoured Division, "Maczków" also served as a cultural centre: newspapers were being published there on a daily basis (Dziennik andDefilada eventually reaching 90 thousand copies), a theatre was opened (led byLeon Schiller) and concert halls were active. Among the most notable events held in the Polish enclave was a 1947 concert byBenjamin Britten and LordYehudi Menuhin.
In the Autumn of 1946, the Polish forces stationed in North-Western Germany started to be demobilised and ferried back to the United Kingdom. Also, the civilian inhabitants started to return to Poland or move to other European states. Eventually, by the end of 1948, the town was returned to the original inhabitants (and renamed back to Haren).
Haren istwinned with:
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