Dinkelland is a municipality in the northeast of Twente, in the
Dutch province of Overijssel. Dinkelland is bordered in the north by
the municipality of Uelsen, in the far north-east by the
municipality of Neuenhaus, in the east by the municipalities of
Nordhorn and Bad Bentheim (all four in the County of Bentheim, Lower
Saxony, Germany). In the southeast, Dinkelland borders on the
municipalities of Losser and Oldenzaal, in the extreme south on
Enschede, in the southwest on Hengelo and Borne and in the west and
northwest on Tubbergen.
The municipality is working together
with the municipality of Tubbergen in the joint Noaberkracht
Dinkelland Tubbergen scheme.
The municipality forms the north-eastern part of the Twente region.
It borders on the Lower Saxon communities of Nordhorn, Lage and
Neuenhaus in the county of Bentheim. Denekamp is halfway between
Oldenzaal and Nordhorn.
The population lives from tourism and
agriculture (livestock). Commuters who work in Oldenzaal also live in
Denekamp.
Denekamp
Denekamp was named Demnichem in a church register from
1276 and was first mentioned as an independent parish with its own
church and pastor. From the original first church developed, after
extensions around 1350 and before 1436, the St. Nicholas Church built
from Bentheim sandstone in the early Gothic style domed construction.
Until 1818, Denekamp belonged together with the parishes of
Ootmarsum and Tubbergen to the school district of Ootmarsum, then became
a municipality together with the villages of Agelo, Breklenkamp, Nutter,
Oud Ootmarsum and Lattrop. In 1949, as part of the post-war border
corrections, smaller German territories were added to the municipal area
of Denekamp. The corrections were 0.03 km² along the Nordhorn-Almelo
Canal[3] for water management from Rammelbecke and for customs control
on Grensweg. In the 1990s, the municipality lost part of the Klein
Angelo farmstead to the municipality of Ootmarsum. On January 1, 2001,
the municipalities of Denekamp, Ootmarsum and Weerselo merged to form a
new municipality, which bore the name Municipality of Denekamp until May
31, 2002 and on June 1, 2002 was given the name Municipality of
Dinkelland.
Ootmarsum
Ootmarsum, called Othmarsheim in the
Middle Ages, is said to have been founded in 126 AD by a legendary king,
Othmar or Ottmar. What is certain is that the town already existed in
Ottonian times and formed a large parish. Around 1300 Ootmarsum received
city rights from the Bishop of Utrecht, it was soon walled off and
turned into a small fortress. It lay at the crossroads of two trade
routes, one of which ran from Flanders to Bremen. After Moritz von
Nassau conquered the city for the Protestant Netherlands in 1602 during
the Eighty Years' War, the fortifications were torn down. It fell into
an insignificant place as the development of transport and industry took
place elsewhere. Around 1900 the place was recognized as a picturesque
town and some tourism came up. The center was restored in the 1980s.
Weerselo
Weerselo grew up around an old monastery and was
repeatedly ravaged by robber barons in the 14th century. They lived in
Saasveld at Saterslo Castle, which was demolished in 1818.
Preparations for the municipal reorganization of Denekamp,
Ootmarsum and Weerselo into the municipality of Dinkelland went
smoothly. When the merger was completed on January 1, 2001, major
internal political differences arose. The cause for this must be
sought in the age-old rivalry between Denekamp and Ootmarsum, which
is comparable to the rivalry between Hengelo and Enschede or between
Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
The major point of contention became
the final name for the new municipality in 2001. This was created
under the working name Denekamp, much to the dismay of the council
members of Ootmarsum. They wanted the new municipality to be called
Ootmarsum, because of the name recognition that the city enjoys in
the Netherlands. The fault line between Denekamp and Ootmarsum ran
right through the party of the CDA, which had obtained an absolute
majority with 13 of the 21 seats and had formed the municipal
council without other parties. In the end, the name Dinkelland -
after the river Dinkel - was proposed as a compromise, but the
Ootmarsummers stuck to their point of view. A majority of the
council members, mainly from the former municipalities of Denekamp
and Weerselo, eventually agreed to the new name.
Although the
matter was settled, the atmosphere within the CDA remained tense. In
the end, the bomb exploded at the end of 2003 about the new building
and the location of the town hall. Five of the thirteen CDA council
members, including the four council members from Denekamp, took a
different view and eventually decided to leave the party. At the
beginning of 2004 they formed a new party under the name Nieuw
Dinkelland. This has sought affiliation with the three existing
local parties, which jointly participated in the municipal elections
in 2006 under the name Lokaal Dinkelland. Within the CDA municipal
council, tempers remained calm, although Denekamp alderman Johannink
announced in 2006 that he would leave the CDA and join Lokaal
Dinkelland.
In 2007 there was a crisis in the daily
management of the municipality. On November 6, 2007, the three
aldermen lost confidence in the mayor. This breach of trust prompted
the city council to submit a recommendation for the dismissal of
Mayor Willeme to Queen's Commissioner G.J. Jansen. Partly on the
basis of the investigation initiated by the Queen's Commissioner,
the Minister of the Interior has decided to resign Mayor Willeme as
of 1 March 2008. The Overijssel ex-deputy Jan Kristen was appointed
as temporary successor. On 23 June 2009 it was announced that VVD
member Roel Cazemier will take over the chain of office from acting
mayor Jan Kristen.
After the 2010 elections, Lokaal
Dinkelland became the largest party with 12 seats. Although the
party had an absolute majority in the council, it opted for a
coalition together with the VVD. From October 2011, the future of
the local swimming pool "Dorper Esch" in Denekamp caused a split in
the fraction of Lokaal Dinkelland. On April 20, 2012, members Bos
and Maathuis decided to split from Lokaal Dinkelland and continue as
an independent group. On February 27, 2013, Bos and Maathuis
announced that they had become members of D66. It was later
announced that they will also participate as such in the municipal
elections of March 19, 2014.