Nordenham
Categories: Towns in Lower Saxony
Nordenham is a town of about 28.000 inhabitants in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located at the mouth of the Weser River on the Butjadingen peninsula at the coast of the North Sea.
Due to government industrialisation programs in the 1960s and 70s, various industries opened plants in Nordenham. Among others, the main industries are a nuclear power plant, airplane construction (Airbus) and chemical industry. On the Butjadingen peninsula outside Nordenham people do dairy farming or work in the tourism industry.
Nordenham developed after the efforts by a merchant, Wilhelm Müller, who traded cattle and sheep to England in the 19th century. One of the oldest parts of the town-area is the village Blexen, where the bishop Willehad died in the year 789. In 1404 a castle was built by the Hanse-city of Bremen, the Vredeborch, to protect her interests against the rebellious inhabitans, the Friesians. On that site the town-founder Wilhelm Müller later built his farm-house and a restaurant.
Between 1499-1514 the area was conquered by the Grand-Dutchy of Oldenburg and in 1813 by the French emperor Napoleon, whose army shot ten local soldiers at the church-door in Blexen.
On May 1st, 1908 Nordenham got the town-rights, 2nd-class and since 1955 Nordenham is an independant town in the Wesermarsch-district.
Since 1981 Nordenham has a town-twinning with the English town of Peterlee, County Durham. Since 1992 there also is a town-twinning with the Polish town Świnoujście. The inhabitants prefer speaking of a "City of Nordenham", not a "town", although they don't have any cathedral.
The city's most famous son is Roy Horn of "Siegfried & Roy", who grew up in Blexen but soon left town after school and supposedly never returned for a visit after his remarkable breakthrough as a magician. In the IMAX-movie "Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box" (1999) his youth in Blexen was shortly mentioned, but the there shown landscape doesn't have any resemblance to the real landscape.
External Links
- Official Website of the town (German)
- Tourist-Website of the town (German, with English translation of menues)de:Nordenham