Versmold

Infobox German Location
Art = Stadt
Wappen = Stadtwappen der Stadt Versmold.svg
lat_deg = 52 |lat_min = 02 |lat_sec = 37
lon_deg = 08 |lon_min = 09 |lon_sec = 00
Lageplan =
Bundesland = North Rhine-Westphalia
Regierungsbezirk = Detmold
Kreis = Gütersloh
Höhe = 65-87
Fläche = 84.81
Einwohner = 21059
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 33775
Vorwahl = 0 54 23
Kfz = GT
Gemeindeschlüssel = 05 7 54 048
Gliederung = 6
Straße = Münsterstraße 16
Website = [http://www.versmold.de www.versmold.de]
Bürgermeister = Thorsten Klute
Partei = SPD

Versmold is a town in Gütersloh District in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located some 30 km west of Bielefeld.

History

Belonging to Westphalia, Versmold formed the western most town of the historical county of Ravensberg with its capital Bielefeld. Since 1614 the county belonged to Brandenburg and later to Prussia. Within the the predominant Catholic Westphalia, the county of Ravensberg is Protestant. In 1719 the King of Prussia granted city rights in order to raise more taxes.In the 19th century the county was poor and subsistence oriented. Only the linen production is worthy to note. During the harvest season many people sought for an additional income in Holland. During the 1850s and 1860s the city saw an extensive emigration to America, because of the weak economic situation. Many of them settled in the Midwest, especially Missouri and Texas.After 1871 when the newly united Germany built up a navy, the linen-industry became prosperous by providing sailing canvases. Most notably engaged in the linen-industry was the family Delius. In the 1820s some members of the family emigrated to Mexico where they established a flourishing import-export business. By the late 19th century they had representations in Berlin and Hamburg.

Since the WWII the city flourished mainly due to its meat-processing factories, which had grown out of the rural art of sausage-making. The bigger companies and factories took even the specialties of small often one-man workshops into their sales program. This created the profession of the "Kleinfleischhaendler" (small scale meat dealer) which became typical for the region. This regional peculiarity faded out during the 1980s and 1990s. Supply industries evolved around the meat processing factories. Several forwarding companies specialized in food transportation. The largest of them, "Fernverkehr Nagel" operates today in many countries. It main seat remains in Versmold. The industry diversified after WWII. In the late 1940s a local entrepreneur Gustav Baumhoefer founded a shoe factory producing under the brand name "Ravensberger Schuhe". The factory closed in the early 1980s because of shifts in world markets for shoes. The firm was not competitive anymore. In the 1950s a wood processing factory producing frames was opened, the "Wirus Werke", also shut down during the 1980s. The mother company resides still in Guetersloh. Still a major factory for bottle crown caps "Bruenninghaus" is flourishing.

Today Versmold's population is about 20.000 inhabitants.

Memorials

As in many small German towns part of its modern history had become a visible expression within the cityscape. A small unimposing stone cross from the 11th c. in the middle of a traffic circle had been once the sign for a rural medieval court. A bronze medallion of Otto von Bismarck and bronze bust of the German emperor Wilhelm I are signs of the patriotism and the Bismarck-cult in the 1880s. They are in the city's park. The bust of Wilhelm I is since more than 20 years much damaged by vandalism and hard to find hidden behind bushes. The medallion however is attached to a stone block leisurely placed at one of the walkways.The fallen WWI soldiers from the municipality of Versmold are remembered on a monument in front of the Protestant church, a column crowned by an eagle (see picture). The victims of WW II, without giving their names, found in the sixties a place of commemoration in a small park behind the town hall in the form of bronze crosses and a bronze flambeaux. In the late 1990s, a memorial of the former Jewish population was set up in the middle of the town, very prominent, right in front of the town hall. It lists the names of the local victims of the Holocaust. Most prominent among them figures the family Spiegel. The new blossoming of the town after WWII is visualized by a bronze statue of a worker with a pig passing under his right leg. He holds in both hands a stick with six sausages dangling from it. It stands across the Protestant church on a modern (1980s) Italian style 'piazza'. This statue is locally known as "Schweinebrunnen" (pig's fountain)"

Communities forming the town

* Versmold
* Bockhorst
* Hesselteich
* Loxten
* Oesterweg
* Peckeloh

Local Newspapers

* "Haller Kreisblatt" (with a daily page on local events). Oldest traditional newspaper for the western part of the county of Ravensberg.
* "Westfalenblatt", with a daily local page "Versmolder Anzeiger"

References

* Vinke, Wilhelm, "Heimatgeschichte der Stadt Versmold und Umgebung", Self-published, 1924
* Vinke, Wilhelm, "Versmold - Ein Volks- und Heimatbuch", Amtsverwaltung, 1962
* Vinke, Wilhelm, "250 Jahre Stadt Versmold 1719-1969", Stadt Versmold, 1969
* Westheider, Rolf, "Versmold - Eine Stadt auf dem Weg ins 20.Jahrhundert", Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 1994; ISBN 3-89534-276-9
* Westheider, Rolf, "900 Jahre kirchliches Leben in Versmold 1096-1996", Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 1996; ISBN 3-89534-165-7
* Beckmann, Volker, "Jüdische Bürger im Amt Versmold - Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte im westlichen Ravensberger Land", Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 1998; ISBN 3-89534-248-3

External links

* [http://www.versmold.de Homepage of the municipality Versmold]
* [http://www.haller-kreisblatt.de Haller Kreisblatt]
* [http://www.westfalenblatt.de/redaktion/redaktion.php Westfalenblatt]