Emmen (Drents: Em'm) is a town in the Dutch province of Drenthe.
It is the largest town in the eponymous municipality of Emmen
(107,078 inhabitants). The place itself has a population of 56,560
on January 1, 2020.
Emmen fulfills a central function in the
Zuidenveld region and beyond. Characteristic is the special urban
development, also known as the 'open, green city'. New housing
estates were built at a relatively large distance from the existing
core, in order to preserve areas of valuable landscape. Emmen's
nickname is Butterfly City, as an indirect reference to the former
(Noorder) Dierenpark Emmen, which was succeeded in March 2016 by
Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen.
Emmen originated on the southeast of the Hondsrug and was originally an esdorp. The (partly) still present ash and brink bear witness to this. In a charter by bishop Andries van Cuijk from 1139, there is mention of a court in Emne. It is the oldest mention of Emmen, for which both the names Emne and Empne were used. The significance of Emmen is perhaps the plain, the low land, but this is not entirely certain. The charter refers to a farm or a court, for which different names were used: Hoofdhof, Saalhof, Noble Hof and de Heerenhof. However, there is no certainty whether the same farm is always meant.
The area where Emmen is located today, however, was
inhabited by humans long before 1139. The presence of hunebeds shows
that this was already the case about five thousand years ago. The
finds of burial mounds, comb fields, a peat road, the Temple of
Barger-Oosterveld and the Paar van Weerdinge also demonstrate human
habitation in prehistoric times. However, the very first human (ish)
and who lived in this area are the Neanderthals. Archaeological
finds, such as flint tools, have demonstrated their presence.
In Roman times, Emmen did not yet exist as a residential center.
However, various archaeological finds from that time have been made,
especially on the ash trees, which demonstrate the presence of small
farming settlements. Among other things, hut bowls and house plans
from the 2nd to the 6th century were found. At the time, the area
was part of the free Germania.
The first (wooden) church in
Emmen dates from the 8th century; the first stone church was built
in the 13th century. In 1229, Emmen, under the leadership of Bishop
Wilbrand of Oldenburg, was completely burned down as part of a
retaliatory action following the Battle of Ane. At that time,
however, Emmen is still a small settlement and will remain so for a
long time after the reconstruction.
Although Emmen itself is located on the
Hondsrug sand ridge, and is therefore not a peat colony but
(originally) an esdorp, the extraction of surrounding peat areas
(also known as the Emmer Venen) has had a major influence on the
development of the place.
At the beginning of the 19th
century, the first pioneers began to settle in the peat areas around
Emmen. In the beginning they survived mainly by growing buckwheat.
The Emmerschans also dates from this time, although some sources
claim that this redoubt has a predecessor dating from 1594. The
peatworks began in 1850, but it did not really take off until around
1900. The peatland resulted in new settlements to the south and east
of Emmen, including Emmer-Compascuum, Erica, Klazienaveen and
Nieuw-Amsterdam. The peat workers often lived under appalling
conditions in sod huts.
In 1881 Emmen gets its first official
town hall. In 1974 it was decided to demolish the building, except
for the front house. In 1975, however, the remainder burned down,
after which complete demolition was inevitable. The only thing that
remains of the old town hall of Emmen is a piece of decorative
ceiling, which nowadays hangs in the stairwell of the new town hall.
In the 1920s and 1930s peat extraction declined drastically, due
to the emergence of coal as fuel. A small revival followed due to
the lack of coal in the First World War, but it did not help much.
Unemployment and further poverty resulted and would remain so until
the 1950s. In Emmen itself, poverty was relatively easy. In these
years, it received various new facilities. The Noorder Dierenpark
opened its doors for the first time in 1935, on a part of the site
where an estate used to be: the Willingelandgoed, also known as the
Willingekamp. In the same year, the antiquities room was also
opened. In 1938, Emmen got its first hospital: the Diaconessenhuis
Emmen.
On May 10, 1940, the Nazi regime invaded the Netherlands and many troops entered the country via the border at Emmen. The resistance in Emmen was involved in, among other things, the assistance of escaped prisoners of war, allied pilots and people in hiding. The organized resistance started in Emmen, as in the rest of the country, after the major strikes in the summer of 1943. However, the local district of the National Organization for Aid to People in Hiding only started helping people in hiding in 1943. Just before the Second World War, more than 180 Jews lived in Emmen. Most of them were deported to and killed in the extermination camps during the war. In 1951 there were about thirty Jews left. The Emmen synagogue survived the occupation years without damage and still exists.
The commander in chief of the German Wehrmacht in the Netherlands, Friedrich Christiansen, came to Emmen on January 2, 1945 and established his headquarters in the villa De Lindenhof. The general tried to extend the war from this villa. The resistance in Emmen informed the Allies that Christiansen was staying in De Lindenhof. On February 22, 1945, planes therefore carried out a bombing raid on the villa. Some homes were destroyed and six people were killed. However, the bombs missed their target: De Lindenhof still exists and is now a national monument. On April 10, 1945, the Liberation of Emmen took place under the leadership of General Maczek, after whom a park in Emmen is named.
After the Second World War, the economically weak
southeast of Drenthe was designated as a development area, after
which textile and metal factories, among other things, were
established. The arrival of Bendien, Danlon and the ENKA / AKU in
particular gave an important boost to employment. Industrialization
made new housing estates necessary. These were built at a relatively
great distance from the existing core in order to preserve scenic
areas.
Emmen acquired international fame with this special
urban design. The responsible urban planner was Niek de Boer. He
realized that it would be difficult for the former peat workers from
the bogs around Emmen to adapt to life in a city. He then came up
with the concept of the Open Green City of Emmen, a place with a
village living environment and urban facilities. The first
residential areas were also developed within the framework of the
open green city. Karel Hendrik Gaarlandt, the then mayor of Emmen,
described it as follows:
This open green city is a city of
which landscape elements are an integral part, because they border
it, penetrate into it, are included in it; a city in which public
buildings, such as secondary schools, hospitals or other
institutions can be centrally located, but at the same time in a
park-like environment, which one would otherwise at best only find
on the periphery; a city too, where contact with nature can be a
daily experience, as is the case in large parts of Emmen, what we
like so much in Emmen, what strikes others in Emmen so much, what
the charm is, once again of this industrial core. Let Emmen become a
city, but remain a village. Let Emmen become what it wants and can
be: an open green city.
The place also acquired national and
international fame thanks to the (Noorder) Dierenpark Emmen.
Particularly in the 1990s, innovations distinguished themselves from
other animal parks. Later it went downhill with the park, after
which only the municipality could avert bankruptcy. Partly for this
reason, it was decided to close the park and to realize a completely
new park on the other side of the center. As a result, the largest
project ever in Emmen was started in 2012: Center Renovation Emmen.
In total, more than 500 million euros was invested in the center.
The most prominent parts of the plan, apart from the aforementioned
'relocation of the animal park', are the construction of a new
theater, the construction of a traffic tunnel with a new city square
above it and the transformation of the old zoo grounds into a city
park.