Delfzijl (Gronings: Delfziel) is a city and former municipality
in the municipality of Eemsdelta in the Dutch province of Groningen.
The port of Delfzijl is the most important port in the Northern
Netherlands.
The municipality covered an area of 227.4 km²
(of which 94.49 km² water) and had a population of 24,609 on 1
August 2020, of which 15,280 in Delfzijl (2020). In addition to the
city of Delfzijl, the municipality consisted of 13 villages and 24
hamlets. The municipality of Delfzijl was founded in 1808 and was
expanded during the municipal reorganization of 1990 with the then
defunct municipalities of Bierum and Termunten. On January 1, 2021,
the municipality of Delfzijl merged with Appingedam and Loppersum to
form a new municipality called Eemsdelta.
The inhabitants of
Delfzijl used to bear the nicknames 'Kraben', 'Krabers' ('crabs') or
'Strandjutters'. Another nickname was 'Klokkedaiven', the origin of
which is unknown.
The name "Delfzijl" means zijl (=
lock) in the Delf (= the old name of the Damsterdiep). Delfzijl was
created in the thirteenth century when a lock was built in the Delf.
Nevertheless, the area where the current Delfzijl is located had
been inhabited for a long time. In 1982, a hunebed was found in the
immediate vicinity of Delfzijl, under the wierde Heveskesklooster
east of Delfzijl. This is an indication that Delfzijl was already
inhabited in early times. The later wierden also testify to this.
The name Delfzijl is first mentioned in a charter from June 19,
1303. Originally there were three zijlen (locks) in the Delf. These
were called Slochter-, Scharmer- and Dorpsterzijl. It is therefore
also referred to as "the three Delfzijlen". The three locks fell
under the Generale Zijlvest of the Drie Delfzijlen. Inhabitation
soon arose at these locks when a lock keeper was appointed. This was
the beginning of the creation of the current Delfzijl.
In the
Middle Ages, there were several shelters in the vicinity of
Delfzijl, especially at Uitwierde.
Around 1400 there was
already talk of a primitive port company at Delfzijl for the
transhipment of sea-going vessels to smaller inland vessels. The
port of Delfzijl has been mentioned in various maritime writings
from the 16th century. Delfzijl was an important alternative port
for the Netherlands when the ports of Holland and Zeeland were
unsafe due to war conditions. In 1591, Prince Prince Maurits visited
the harbor with a fleet of 150 ships. A few decades later, Piet Hein
visited Delfzijl with the "Zilvervloot". During the Second
Anglo-Dutch War in 1665, Michiel de Ruyter entered the port of
Delfzijl with the West Indies fleet and thirty ships captured by
him. In 1705 the Greenland fleet with 96 ships and a loot of 1,100
whales moved to Delfzijl for fear of a French war fleet.
Due
to its location on the water, Delfzijl was and is vulnerable to
flooding. In 1597, 1686, 1717 (the Christmas flood) and 1825 there
were floods and dyke breaches. Also in the 21st century, the
denominations in the dike at Delfzijl must be closed repeatedly to
prevent the city from flooding. A memorial has been placed in the
water gate at the end of Havenstraat, marking the high water level
in 1962. The highest water level was measured in November 2006. Due
to a northwesterly storm, the water was 4.83 meters above NAP during
high tide. The old record of 4.50 meters dates back to 1825.
The three locks in the Delf were
an important strategic point. They were not only used to discharge
the inland water into the sea, but could also be used to allow the
sea water to flow over land. Moreover, an important trade route of
the city of Groningen could be controlled from Delfzijl. Shipping
traffic on the Ems was also checked, which meant that shipping
outside the port of Emden could be hindered. The town's harbor was
also a base for a large force from the sea.
Around 1414 the
East Frisian warlord Keno tom Brok built a fortified house in
Delfzijl, which was probably demolished the following year. In 1499
Count Edzard I of East Friesland built a block house in Delfzijl. In
1501, Groningen troops captured the redoubt, but East Frisian troops
managed to recapture the redoubt in the same year. In 1514, the
unfinished Delfzijl redoubt was captured by East Frisian troops led
by Otto van Diepholt for Count Edzard I, after the troops had fled.
Duke George of Saxony sent 4000 Oldenburg troops and recaptured the
fortress, plundered the redoubt and set it on fire. In 1515, Edzard
I's troops managed to take the fortress again, but after his defeat
in the Saxon Vete near Detern in 1516, he had the fortress cleared,
after which the Groningen forces demolished the fortress.
In
1534 East Frisian troops undertook one last raid on Farmsum, after
which a new fortress was built near Delfzijl. In 1536 the East
Frisians recognized Emperor Charles V as lord and this redoubt was
taken by his general Schenck van Toutenburg.
After the Battle of the Ems, Alva visited
Delfzijl on July 25, 1568. He saw the strategic significance and the
danger of possible invasions by Sea Beggars and therefore made plans
to turn it into a large fortress together with Farmsum under the
name 'Marsburg'. Originally his intention was to create a fortress
to which Delfzijl, Farmsum and Appingedam would belong. This was
very much against the wishes of the city of Groningen and was
canceled due to repeated insistence. From 1569, however, a
provisional redoubt with 4 bastions and a moat of 30 meters wide was
erected and an occupation was garrisoned. In 1572 De Robles had the
redoubt reinforced by the area between the locks and the redoubt
also provided with bastions and canals. However, the fortress
remained weak due to the great distance from the Ems, which meant
that any support with artillery from ships was not possible. With
the Pacification of Ghent in 1576, the Count of Rennenberg took the
redoubt in 1577 from the Spanish troops led by Caspar de Robles,
whom he sent to Leeuwarden. He then had the defenses dismantled and
some time later commissioned Johan van den Kornput to make designs
for the fortification of Delfzijl. This plan was not immediately
implemented. Rennenberg first had a redoubt with four strongholds
built by Berthold Entens van Mentheda in 1580, surrounded by a moat,
the so-called 'Oude Schans'. This redoubt measured 100 by 100 meters
and was located where the core of the current Delfzijl would later
arise. After the defection from Rennenberg to the Spanish camp at
the siege of Delfzijl (1580), the fortress was taken by his Spanish
troops under the leadership of Schenk van Nydeggen.
In 1591
the redoubt was recaptured during the capture of Delfzijl by Prince
Maurits as part of the Groningen redoubt war. He provided
reinforcement for the redoubt and so Van den Kornput's plan could
still be carried out. The existing fortress of Delfzijl was
surrounded by a new fortress with five bastions (or bastions or
overcers) on the landward side, surrounded by a wide moat. From the
northeast via the west to the south, these were successively the
Schippersbolwerk (northeast), the Kaspersbolwerk or
Holwierderbolwerk (north), the Provoostbolwerk or Uitwierderbolwerk
(northwest), the Jonkersbolwerk or Komandeursbolwerk (west), the
Damsterbolwerk (southwest) and the Farmsumerbolwerk. (south). On the
sea side, a broad parapet was constructed along the harbor with the
Grote Waterpoort (which was renovated in 1833). The whole was
surrounded by a 40 meter wide canal. On the south side, the harbor
was covered by the new Kostverloren hornwork with an entire bastion
(the Kostverloren stronghold in the south) and a half bastion (in
the southeast). Between the strongholds were several gates to the
outside: the Landpoort between the Provoost and the Jonkersbolwerk
was the main gate, the Waterpoort or Havenpoort and the Kleine
Waterpoort or Ruyterpoort gave access to the harbor in the east and
the Farmsumerpoort gave access from the fortress Delfzijl access to
the horn system.
In 1594 an army unit of 1000 men led by
Francisco Verdugo made an unsuccessful attempt to recapture the
fortress of Delfzijl. This attack was almost successful because he
managed to lure the occupation away to the Damsterbolwerk, while he
made an attack via the Oosterbolwerk, which was narrowly thwarted by
a small group of soldiers with the help of a warship that was
stationed off the coast. From the reduction that year until 1643 a
Frisian (Staatse) occupation was stationed.
Plans in the 17th century to further strengthen
the fortress by building bastions on the south side as well, opening
up the harbor completely and building a covered road did not
materialize. Even after it turned out that Bernhard von Galen had
been offered money from England in 1665 if he were to conquer
Delfzijl, which failed because State troops threatened to cut his
supply lines and he was forced to withdraw. During his second attack
in the year of disaster 1672, Delfzijl managed to prevent an attack
by flooding the area on the south side by opening the locks and
piercing the dam of the Damsterdiep. The arrival of the East India
fleet, which had fled to Delfzijl, under the command of Admiral
Arnoud van Overbeek, with powder and other ammunition, further
strengthened the occupation. In 1686 one of the strongholds was
washed away during the Martian Flood. In 1696 the fortress was
strengthened by Menno van Coehoorn. Within the fortress, the houses
were located on a few main streets (Landstraat and Waterstraat) with
a few side streets (such as the Marktstraat) and to the north of it
the training ground De Vennen for the garrison soldiers. The
garrison church of Delfzijl was built in 1614 on the island of
Conijnenbergh within the fortress, but outside the old fortress. In
1715 a new Waterpoort was built on the site of the old Waterpoort.
In the mid-18th century, more attention was given to the
fortress due to external threats. Artillery was stationed from 1773.
During the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War there was the fear that English
troops might land at Delfzijl. That is why the coastal batteries
around Delfzijl were manned and sentries were posted and a guard
ship stationed.
In the French era, a French garrison was
established in Delfzijl and work began on strengthening the
fortress. Four batteries were installed to cover the Kostverloren
front and also to draw Farmsum inside the fortress. A fifth battery
was placed on the outside of the left bastion and in front of the
Uitwierderbolwerk the Noordbatterij was built against the dike.
Furthermore, beds for guns and powder magazines were placed on all
batteries. These fortifications were completed in 1796. In 1799 a
barracks were built and a battalion of the 'green hunters' was
garrisoned under the command of the captains Baron Chassé and Cort
Heyligers. However, the fortress mainly had to rely on inundations.
For the rest it was seen as weak. In 1806 the fortress was visited
by the French Minister of Navy Decrès and the Dutch Admiral De
Winter to prepare the construction of a large fortress. In 1811
Delfzijl was designated as a new municipality and the fortress was
considerably reinforced with, among other things, a block house on
the Noordbatterij, a furnace for making 'glowing' bullets on the
Schippersbolwerk, a number of casemates and powder magazines at the
bottom of the walls and reinforcements on the hornwork . Outside
bastions were built in front of the Landpoort and a second moat was
dug there. In 1812 Napoleon designated Delfzijl together with Fort
Lasalle near Den Helder as 'les points de résistance'. Until
Napoleon's exile to Elba, the site remained occupied by a French
unit led by Pierre Maufroy: In 1813, 1,400 French soldiers were
stationed. In 1814 Cossacks, Prussia and the Dutch landstorm struck
the siege of Delfzijl under the leadership of Colonel Marcus Busch.
However, the besiegers suffered great losses. It was only after the
French commander received an official letter in 1814 that his
emperor had surrendered that he surrendered power on 23 May. The
French attacks had caused heavy destruction to the places in the
area around Delfzijl. Delfzijl itself was also heavily damaged. The
garrison church also had to be rebuilt.
In 1819 Delfzijl was
given the status of a non-voting city by King Willem I (thus with
city rights), which was formalized in 1825 (with Winschoten). This
had only symbolic value, as city rights had actually already been
abolished in French times.
In 1833 the Waterpoort from 1715
was replaced by the current Grote Waterpoort. Two years later, the
fortress was severely damaged by the Christmas flood. The Vesting
Delfzijl retained its status in the first half of the 19th century
and was regarded as a work of the first class according to the
Kringenwet, while the batteries around Farmsum belonged to the
second class. However, the Fortification Act of 1874 deemed all
fortifications superfluous, after which they were completely
demolished between 1877 and 1886. In 1878 the northern moat was also
closed. Only part of the western moat has been preserved.
In the second half of the
19th century, when the fortress had actually already been overtaken
by time, the place managed to grow strongly at the expense of
arch-rival Appingedam. One of the reasons for this was the emergence
of commercial shipping from peat shipping in the Veenkoloniën, which
in the course of time increasingly sought its location in Delfzijl.
Furthermore, the port was mainly used for the supply of grain,
timber, fertilizer, coal and the export of industrial goods from the
hinterland. At that time, mills, ship carpenters, lime kilns, line
lanes and brickyards (such as the Fivelmonde brick factory) were
partly built outside the fortress along the Damsterdiep.
Developments were rapid in the 1850s. In 1856, the School for
Industry and Maritime Affairs (the later nautical school Abel
Tasman) was founded. In 1857, part of the site of De Vennen was sold
to be able to build simple houses. In 1858 the National Pilotage
Service was established in Delfzijl.
As early as 1845, four
engineers joined forces: two Delfzijlster brothers Balkema and two
cousins from Liège, Xavier Tarte and Castillion Du Portail, who
set out to stimulate railway development in the Northern
Netherlands. Until 1900, Harlingen was regarded as the most
important northern seaport, a status that was diluted by government
policy in favor of the ports in the Randstad, whereby the interests
of Harlingen and Delfzijl were played off against each other. In
addition to Delfzijl, the ports of Harlingen and Vlissingen were
regarded as more accessible alternatives to Amsterdam and Rotterdam,
whose ports were not equipped for the development of shipping until
1860 due to silting up. Only after 1860 did a nationally coordinated
policy on railway construction come about. For Harlingen it was then
20 years too late, for Delfzijl the railway connection was realized
even later. Harlingen was provided with a cross-border rail
connection with Germany between 1863 and 1876, Staatslijn B.
Delfzijl did not receive its railway until 1884, but it was
regionally and nationally supported much more by the province of
Groningen and the national government. As a result, 'Delfzijl' won
over Harlingen. The own rail connection with the city of Groningen
(the railway line Groningen - Delfzijl via Sauwerd) further
increased the trade.
In 1875 the ramparts were demolished and
expansion could start. In 1876 the Eemskanaal was dug from Delfzijl
to Groningen, because the Damsterdiep was less and less suitable for
the increasingly larger ships. With this canal Delfzijl was cut off
from Farmsum, but it did acquire an important strategic position, as
shipping now no longer sailed via the port of Appingedam, but via
the port of Delfzijl. Delfzijl even managed to prevent Appingedam
from using this new channel. Several shipyards, machine factories,
offices of ship brokers and companies focused on the ship's
equipment were built along the new canal. Outside shipbuilding,
however, industrial development has largely failed to materialize.
However, the Adam flour mill remained in the fortress. All these
developments caused the population to increase sharply in the last
quarter of the 19th century. In 1880, a new school with 10 classes
was built at Singel 52 to cope with population growth. In 1888 a new
synagogue was built next to it at Singel 50, which was given an
expressionist facade in 1931.
In 1888, two lighthouses were
built along the coast of the Ems, in Watum and Delfzijl. They did
not look like the usual lighthouses, they were sturdy buildings that
suited their time well. They were 10.5 meters high and could
accommodate 2 families of the lighthouse keepers. Both lighthouses
were destroyed in the Second World War. A replacement lighthouse for
Delfzijl (number 2), with a red-white-green sector light at 17
meters above the average water level of the Ems, had to make way in
1981 for the expansion of the port of Delfzijl.
After 1900
the port received a further impulse because in 1903 the government
had a new quay built with steam cranes and the province provided the
port area with goods sheds and other port facilities. The port
gradually developed into an international transhipment port for
wood, coal, grains and chili nitrate and an export port for iron
earth and agricultural products from the Groningen peat colonies,
such as potato flour, potatoes and straw cardboard. There was also a
large fishing port. Various shipping companies (including that of
Wagenborg in 1939 by architect Jan Beckering Vinckers at Marktstraat
10) and ship offices were established by entrepreneurs.
Two railway lines were added: in 1910 the Zuidbroek - Delfzijl
railway of the NOLS, which connected with the Groninger Veenkoloniën
and Drenthe, and in 1929 the Woldjerspoorweg to Groningen via the
Woldstreek. Passenger and freight traffic was not viable on either
line, so they disappeared in 1934 and 1941 respectively. The line
via Sauwerd continued to exist as a local railway to this day.
This increase to about 10,000 residents by the First World War
could still be accommodated within the contours of the demolished
ramparts. After the ramparts were demolished, houses first rose on
De Vennen and on the places where the barracks had stood until
before. In the 20th century, the site of the fortress would develop
into the shopping area of Delfzijl. After the fortress was fully
built, a first expansion plan was drawn up in 1913 for the area
'over the canal' (now called Oud West) by municipal architect F.A.
Pot. After the steam tram line from OG to Winschoten was projected
through it in 1919, architect C.C.J. Welleman (the later mayor of
Delfzijl) made a new expansion plan. In addition, space was created
in the area southwest of the city canal, between the
Groningen-Delfzijl railway line and the Damsterdiep, for a new
residential area with shops. A park was created along the city moat.
The villas were built along it, while simple middle-class houses
were built behind them. It took a while before people wanted to live
'so far outside the fortress'. After 1940, this district was further
expanded to the southwest according to the same expansion plan.
Welleman planned another district north of the railway line along
the Uitwierderweg, which was built from the 1930s. A number of
social buildings were also built during this period, such as the
neo-gothic St. Abel Tasmanplein in 1930 and a new town hall at Johan
van den Kornputplein in 1936 (expanded in the 1950s with a spire
tower). Noteworthy houses that were built around the turn of the
century can be found at the Oude Schans 2 (1870), Marktstraat 13
(1910), Waterstraat 15-17 (1930), the Menno van Coehoornsingel 25
(1931) and the Menno van Coehoornplein 1 (1935).
During the mobilization in the 1930s, two light casemates (type s)
were built on either side of the harbor mouth to secure access to
the harbor with cables. In the end, only the harbor installations
were destroyed and a few German ships were shelled. Possibly because
the German soldiers suspect a stronger occupation, Delfzijl was not
captured on May 10, but only after a reconnaissance on May 11, 1940.
During the Second World War, Delfzijl was, until Van der Waals'
betrayal, a fulcrum of the so-called Swedish Road led by the
Delfzijl star doctor Allard Oosterhuis. In 1943, the place was
designated as the center of the Stützpunktgruppe that had to defend
Emden and become part of the Atlantic Wall. The Batterie Nansen was
built to the west of the city from 1943 and the Batterie Fiemel to
the east. The area around the city was also heavily fortified with
bunkers, trenches and other military means.
At the end of the
Second World War, the port of Delfzijl was used to unload the
so-called Swedish white bread. Due to the many reinforcements, the
German occupation ended later than in most places in the
Netherlands. The Germans had inundated the area around the city and
also used the air defenses on both sides of the Ems as artillery
pieces to target the advancing Canadian troops that were approaching
the city from April 21, 1945. There was fierce battle for the Zak
van Delfzijl. The city was of strategic importance for the
protection of the Ems and the German city of Emden. The so-called
Zak van Delfzijl (Delfzijl Pocket) ensured that the liberation of
Delfzijl lasted several days. Only after all the anti-aircraft guns
had been destroyed did the German garrison capitulate on 1 or 2 May
1945. The inner city of Delfzijl was largely destroyed during the
liberation of the war.
After the war, the city center was
rebuilt. The reconstruction led to new expansions, including the
reformed cross church of Delfzijl in 1953. However, the real
development of the city only started after 1955.
In the
1950s, the Eemsmond region in which Delfzijl is located was
designated by the Dutch government as an area for economic
development and opening up the Northern Netherlands. The reasons for
this were that after the Second World War, the Dutch government
committed to large-scale industrialization, in which the location on
deep waterways was considered essential for the establishment of
basic industries; industries that had to process raw materials into
semi-finished products. Due to its remote position, Delfzijl would
not have been eligible for this if a large salt paper had not been
found in the bottom of Westerlee in 1951. This made Delfzijl
attractive for the establishment of processing industries. The
chemical industry could obtain brine from the sea here and
industrial waste products could easily be discharged at sea, it was
thought. The end products (soda and fertilizers) could be quickly
exported from Delfzijl to the important sales markets, especially in
Scandinavia. In 1957, the Royal Dutch Salt Industry had a soda
factory built at the port of the city. This factory immediately
became the city's largest employer, with approximately 1,400 jobs.
In 1958, the government, the province and the municipality also set
up the Delfzijl Port Authority, which would work hard for the
industrialization of Delfzijl through the construction of the large
Oosterhorn business park (for which three villages in the Oosterhoek
were destroyed) and the acquisition of businesses. In 1959 this was
further reinforced by the fact that the city was designated by the
government as a development center in the problem area (later
euphemistically called 'stimulating area') Groningen: there was a
lot of unemployment due to the emissions of the increasingly
mechanized agriculture. Industry could help get these people back to
work. It was hoped that the industry at Delfzijl could fulfill a
'draft horse' function: the capital-intensive basic industries had
to attract other processing companies and thus make Delfzijl grow
into a widespread industrial complex. Because basic industries
require a lot of capital, the government made large government
subsidies available for this. The discovery of natural gas in 1958
provided a further stimulus. Because of this and the fact that the
government had set up a 'natural gas pot' from which companies could
receive location subsidies, the very energy-demanding aluminum
smelter Aldel could be realized.
The support of the Empire
created a huge boost for the place. In 1959 the Eemskanaal was
diverted to the east side of Farmsum, where a new port area was
created. In the early 1960s, major plans were envisaged for the
city, which was to grow to 80,000 inhabitants. In the run-up to
this, large pieces of land in the neighboring villages of Farmsum,
Biessum and Uitwierde near the Delfzijl urban area were drawn. The
major city expansions had to arise on this. In the 1960s, the new
Delfzijl-Noord district was erected at a rapid pace north of the
Groningen-Delfzijl railway line, adjacent to the water of the Ems,
adjacent to the neighborhood at Uitwierderweg. The original plot
structure on the east side of the Biessum mound disappeared
completely. Southwest of the existing buildings, the Tuikwerd
district was built in the 1970s. In 1968 the city got its own
hospital: Delfzicht. PvdA alderman Jan Beijert played an important
role in many of these plans.
The construction of a deep-sea
port started in 1968, followed by the construction of the Oosterhorn
industrial estate and the construction of the Zeehavenkanaal. The
Groningen-Delfzijl railway line also served the industrial area with
freight trains via the Delfzijl trunk line. For all planned
developments, the villages of Weiwerd, Heveskes and Oterdum had to
make way in Delfzijlster Oosterhoek. The medieval church of Heveskes
was left lonely in a great void that had to be transformed into an
industrial area. On the seawall where the picturesque dyke village
of Oterdum used to be, only the old reconstructed cemetery remained.
Due to the construction of the Hogelandsterweg (the N997 to
Eemshaven, among others), the hamlet of Ladysmith had to give way to
the north of Delfzijl. Only the demolition of the then not yet part
of the municipality of Delfzijl, Borgsweer was prevented. In 1974,
in connection with the Delta Act, the old Drie Delfzijlen were
demolished together with the 18th-century lockkeepers' houses and
spindle locks and replaced by a new pumping station and an elevated
seawall. Because the seagoing ships continued to grow in tonnage,
the national government decided to build Eemshaven for even larger
ships.
When the port of Delfzijl was completed in 1973, the economy had now entered the oil crisis, partly as a result of which industrial expansion slowed down sharply. Neither had the policy resulted in the hoped-for 'draft horse effect'. The subsidies had mainly drawn branches of large companies and there were no spin-offs. Another cause of the absence of companies was the sharply stricter environmental requirements of the province of Groningen. Large parts of the industrial area of both Delfzijl and Eemshaven were therefore still fallow. Only a port formation had developed around Delfzijl: companies that had established themselves there because of the port. The government then stopped granting subsidies for the establishment of new companies. An important part of the intended industrial area Oosterhorn in the Oosterhoek therefore remained undeveloped. This applies in particular to the places where the demolished villages have stood. However, the city continued to build houses for a while afterwards to accommodate the growing population. However, the forecasts were far from being met and after 1981 the population even shrank sharply, which increasingly became a central theme for the city. Delfzijl-North and Delfzijl-West as well as Tuikwerd were struggling with large vacancies. Residents moved away due to a lack of work in the region and because many rental and owner-occupied homes no longer met the requirements of time. It turned out that the highly educated no longer wanted to live there. Hazing and aging increased and unemployment soared to alarming heights. However, the city's administrators remained committed to growth until the mid-1990s.
In 1996, the city
decided to demolish 1000 homes, 650 of which by the local Delfzijl
Housing Association (which was merged into Acantus in 2002). In
2000, however, the committee set up by the city under the leadership
of the North Holland commissioner Frans Tielrooij determined that
this had turned out to be completely inadequate: despite the major
demolition, vacancy was still increasing. Moreover, much of the work
in the industrial areas near the city was no longer low but highly
skilled and these employees lived elsewhere in owner-occupied houses
instead of the outdated rental houses in the city. The image of the
increasingly impoverished city was very bad. Delfzijl thus faced one
of the largest demolition tasks in the Netherlands. On the advice of
the Tielrooij Committee, it was decided to combine demolition with
urban renewal through new construction of more spacious green and
more differentiated residential areas. By 2010, the vacancy rate had
largely been resolved with the demolition of 1,200 homes and the
construction of 450 new homes. According to the 2012 forecasts by
Statistics Netherlands, the population in the municipality will fall
from 26,000 to 18,000 inhabitants until 2040. The restructuring plan
cost the city, the province and the state hundreds of millions of
euros. The decline in the number of residents also meant that
facilities such as the hospital and the theater came under pressure
as the population of the municipality fell below the crucial limit
of 25,000 inhabitants. In 2018 the hospital was closed and replaced
by an outpatient clinic.
As part of the restructuring of
Delfzijl, the old city center was also tackled from 2015. In order
to reduce the large vacancy in the shopping area and to give the
city center a more beautiful appearance, it was decided to create an
open connection with the port and a new salt marsh area with a
nature and recreation area along the coast (Project Marconi). The
old fortress structure had to be made more visible by digging open
part of the canal again, creating a lot of greenery and reducing the
shopping area. This should also give the station area a more
beautiful appearance. For the plans, the ten-storey Vennenflat from
1969 between the center and the port was demolished in 2018.