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Ladbergen, Germany

A Westphalian Village

From the present state of our genealogical research, it seems that our family of Fiegenbaums can trace their geographic roots to Ladbergen, a small village in the present state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland).

You can visit Ladbergen's web site (written in German, of course) and see pictures of the celebration of the town's 1,050th anniversary in 2000.

• See pictures of the town
• Read a short history of Ladbergen
• A brief account of the 1050 years

To see 360^o panoramas of parts of Ladbergen, visit
http://www.panorama-cities.net/ladbergen/ladbergen.html

To plan your walking tour of Ladbergen, you will need a city map:
http://www.stadtplaeneonline.de/daten/nordrheinwestfalen/ladbergen/

A history of the village has been published in both German and English:

• Saatkamp, Friedrich. Ladbergen: Aus Geschichte und Gegenwart des 1000-jährigen westfälischen Dorfes. 2. Auflage. Ladbergen (Westfalen): Heimatverein Ladbergen, 1975.
• Saatkamp, Friedrich. Ladbergen: Out of the History and the Present of the 1000-year Westphalian Village. Edited and translated by Dean R. Hoge. New Knoxville, Ohio: New Knoxville Historical Society, 1985.
      This is a translated and altered version of the German language, second edition (1975), listed above.

Local History within the Bigger Picture

In the course of my research into the family history, I have attempted to learn at least the correct names and basic information about members of the family. I have also attempted to accurately portray the geo-political identity of the place-names where our shared history has taken place.

When the story takes place on the North American continent, for the most part I need only be aware of when territories became states and when states created counties. These do not tend to be the sort of changes influenced by marriage, inheritance, feudal obligation (unless you have a particularly jaundiced political perspective), or war. And, because of the language I speak and my place of residence, sources of information about these matters are readily available to me.

The same task in Europe has been much more complicated. Although Ladbergen, as a village on the heath of northwestern "Germany," has remained relatively constant, the world around it has changed frequently and sometimes dramatically, in part as a result of the turmoil that has been present for centuries in the history of north-central Europe. Accurately charting the course of time and place has been a challenge for me and is one of the reasons why my intention to present in this space a summary of the Ladbergen's history has not been successful for so long.

In the meantime, it seems appropriate to outline some of the pieces of that story about which I now have some confidence. These fragments will help to explain why a single small farming community appears under so many different names in the genealogy I have created:

• Ladbergen
• Ladbergen, Grafschaft Tecklenburg
• Ladbergen, Grand Duchy of Berg
• Ladbergen, First French Empire
• Ladbergen, Kingdom of Prussia
• Ladbergen, Province of Westphalia, Kingdom of Prussia

Bits & Pieces of Local History

Ladbergen, Grafschaft Tecklenburg

11^th Century - 1707

County Tecklenburg (German: Grafschaft Tecklenburg), a territory of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (German: Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation), was established in the 11^th century southwest of Osnabrück. The history of this prinicipality in the medieval era and it association with the houses of Bentheim, Schwerin and others is beyond the scope of this simple outline.
The Teutoburg Forest (German: Teutoburger Wald), a range of low, forested mountains, bisects the County from northwest to southeast. The main castle of the Counts of Tecklenburg was located on a steep southern slope in the Forest and the town of Tecklenburg grew up around it. The village of Ladbergen is located about seven miles south of the town of Tecklenburg, about midway between Münster and Onsabrück. This placed the farming community in the southwest corner of the County. The land in the area is typical of the Münster-land to the south and and west - flat heathland (German: Heide) with a not very fertile soil. A high water table made many areas untillable until extensive drainage was undertaken in the 20^th cenutry.

In 1707, Count Wilhelm Moritz von Solms-Braunfels sold his portion of County Tecklenburg to Frederick III, Elector-Margrave of Brandenburg & King in Prussia (Frederick I).¹
The elevation of the Duchy of Prussia to the Kingdom of Prussia; the distinction between the titles King in Prussia and King of Prussia; and a comparison of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 to the Kingdom of Prussia after the the Congress of Vienna in 1815 are all more than I can handle here.
What is noteworthy is that from this date the administration of County Tecklenburg took on a new order and discipline. The inhabitants of Ladbergen took notice, often reluctantly and sometimes with discomfort. The sale of the County also marked the beginning of local church records, which are available to researchers in the USA on microfilm through the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church, or more commonly, the Mormon Church).

1806

In 1806, Maximilian Joseph ceded the Duchy of Berg to Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, in return for the Principality of Ansbach. Napoleon placed the Duchy (including territories of the former Prussian Duchy of Cleves east of the Rhine river) under the rule of his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat.

On 12 July 1806, on signing the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine (German: Rheinbundakte), 16 states in present-day Germany formally left the Holy Roman Empire and joined together in the Confederation of the Rhine, a largely military alliance. The Confederation was a satellite of the French Empire, with Napoleon as its "protector."

Murat joined the Confederation of the Rhine and assumed the title of a Grand Duke (the Duchy of Berg was elevated to a Grand Duchy). His lands were further enlarged by the annexation of the County of Mark, the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, the Imperial city of Dortmund and numerous minor territories of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire.

On 6 August 1806, following an ultimatum by Napoleon, the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, abdicated and declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved.

1807

After the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807, the Kingdom of Prussia lost about half of its territory, including the land gained from the Second and Third Partitions of Poland (which now fell to the Duchy of Warsaw) and all land west of the Elbe River. France recaptured Prussian-occupied Hanover, including Bremen-Verden. The remainder of the Kingdom of Prussia was occupied by French troops (at Prussia’s expense) and the king, Frederick William III, was obliged to make an alliance with France and join the Continental System, Napoleon's trade embargo with Great Britain.

Ladbergen, Grand Duchy of Berg

1808

Upon Joachim Murat's promotion to the King of Naples in 1808, the Grand Duchy of Berg came under the rule of Napoleon "in personal union."

Grafschaft Tecklenburg was absorbed into the Grand Duchy of Berg.

Ladbergen was a commune in Canton Lengerich, Arrondissement Münster, département Ems; Grand-duché de Berg (German: Gemeinde Ladbergen, Kanton Lengerich; Distrikt Münster; Departement Ems; Großherzogtum Berg).

See the map of the Grand Duchy of Berg, 1808-1810.

1809

In 1809, the Emperor Napoleon appointed his infant nephew, Prince Napoleon Louis Bonaparte (1804–1831), the Grand Duke of Berg. French bureaucrats under Pierre Louis Roederer administered the territory in Prince Napoleon's name.

1810

In 1810, large parts of northwest Germany were incorporated directly into the First French Empire in order to better monitor the Continental System.

Ladbergen, First French Empire

1811

Département Ems-Supérieur (German: Departement der Oberen Ems or, Ober-Ems) was the name of one of the three Hanseatic départements of the First French Empire. Named after the Ems River, with the capital at Osnabrück, it was formed in January 1811, when the region was annexed by France. Its territory had been part of the Grand Duchy of Berg, which included the former Grafschaft Tecklenburg (i.e., the village of Ladbergen); the Duchy of Oldenburg (German: Herzogtum Oldenburg); the Kingdom of Westphalia (French: Royaume de Westphalie; German: Königreich Westphalen); and, the Duchy of Arenberg-Meppen (German: Herzogtum Arenberg-Meppen). The département was subdivided into the following arrondissements (German: Distrikt or Unterpräfektur) and cantons (German: Kantone):

Arrondissements	Cantons
Lingen	Bevergern, Freren, Fürstenau, Haselünne, Ibbenbüren, Lingen, Meppen, Papenburg and Sögel.
Minden	Bünde, Enger, Levern, Lübbecke, Minden, Petershagen, Quernheim, Rahden, Uchte and Werther.
Osnabrück	Bad Essen, Bad Iburg, Bramsche, Dissen, Lengerich, Melle, Osnabrück, Ostbevern, Ostercappeln, Tecklenburg and Versmold.
Quakenbrück	Ankum, Cloppenburg, Diepholz, Dinklage, Friesoythe, Löningen, Quakenbrück, Vechta, Vörden and Wildeshausen.

After Napoleon was defeated in 1814, most of the département became part of the Kingdom of Hanover (German: Königreich Hannover.

See the map of the Hanseatic Departments, 1811.

Ladbergen, Kingdom of Prussia

1814 - 1816

From the time of Emperor Napoleon's defeat until the reorganization of the Kingdom of Prussia, former Prussian territory liberated from the French Empire (from the Grand Duchy of Berg, from the Kingdom of Westphalia, and held directly by the Empire) was governed by a provisional Prussian administration known as the Generalgouvernement zwischen Weser und Rhein. This land included:

1815

By royal decree on 30 April 1815, the Kingdom of Prussia (German: Königreich Prueßen) was organized into ten provinces:

(In 1822, Jülich-Kleve-Berg and Niederrhein were combined to create a new province, Rheinprovinz).

In the new Provinz Westfalen, three Regierungsbezirke (government or administrative districts) were created: Hamm, Minden, and Münster.

Ladbergen, Province of Westphalia, Kingdom of Prussia

1816

On 31 July 1816, the provisional administration of the new Province of Westphalia (German: Provinz Westfalen) came to an end. On the following day, 1 August 1816, provincial authorities took office.

From 10 August 1816 to 30 December 1831, Ladbergen was a village located in Kreis Münster, Regierungsbezirk Münster, Provinz Westfalen, Königreich Prueßen.

From 1 January 1832 to 1918, Ladbergen was located in Kreis Tecklenburg, Regierungsbezirk Münster, Provinz Westfalen, Königreich Prueßen.

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Notes (Click on a note number to return to that footnote, above.)

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