Wilhelmshaven Totally Explained

Everything about Wilhelmshaven totally explained

Wilhelmshaven is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated at the western coast of the Jadebusen, which is a bay of the North Sea. Population: 83,238 (2006).

History

Wilhelmshaven is a relatively young city by German standards. In need of a naval base for Prussia's developing fleet, Prussian king Wilhelm I founded the town in 1869.
   There was a castle at the place as early as 1383, the Sibetsburg; this castle was owned by pirates and destroyed in 1433 by the Hanseatic League. Four centuries later the Kingdom of Prussia planned to establish a fleet and a harbour at the North Sea. In 1853, Prince Adalbert of Prussia arranged the Jade Treaty (Jade-Vertrag) with the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, in which Prussia and the grand duchy entered into a contract: 3.13 km² of Oldenburgian territory at the Jadebusen should be ceded to Prussia. Wilhelm I (later to become the German emperor of the same name) inaugurated the port sixteen years later as part of the Province of Hanover and gave it his name.
   Wilhelmshaven grew to become one of the most important German ports. The duchy of Oldenburg benefited as well from the port; adjacent to Wilhelmshaven the town of Rüstringen was founded on the Oldenburgian territory. Wilhelmshaven and Rüstringen were merged in 1937.
   A Nazi concentration camp was established in Wilhelmshaven, Alter Bant Weg. The camp was a subcamp to the Neuengamme concentration camp. From spring 1943 until November 1943 also inmates of the SS-Baubrigade II from the Neuengamme camp were transferred to Wilhelmshaven and forced to clear up after air raids.
   During World War II the city, which had been a main operating base for the German navy, was bombed by Allied air attacks; two thirds of the town's buildings were destroyed.
   In September 1946 Operation Union allowed the married British servicemen and civilian members of the Occupation Forces to have their families join them in the occupied zones of Germany. With so many units scattered throughout the occupied zone, most areas didn't have enough children to justify opening local schools. Many older children had no formal lessons for a year, until the opening of the first boarding school at Wilhelmshaven
   Prince Rupert School (PRS) opened in July 1947 and is believed to be the first comprehensive, co-educational, boarding school under the terms of the 1944 Education Act. The school, for the children of the British Armed Forces and Control Commission personnel stationed in the British Zone of Germany, was situated in Wilhelmshaven. The site had originally been a German Naval submarine base for two Training Flotillas. At the end of the Second World War the site was occupied by the Royal Navy and called H.M.S. Royal Rupert. Subsequently, the Royal Navy vacated the site to allow it to be used as a school and formally handed it over on 1st July 1947, by the lowering of the White Ensign and the raising of the Union Jack.
   The school continued in Wilhelmshaven until 1972 when it was moved to Rinteln.
   On the 3rd September 2007 a memorial was dedicated in Wilhelmshaven on a corner of what was the school site. This was paid for by ex pupils and staff who wanted a permanent reminder of the times they'd spent in Wilhelmshaven. For further details see http://www.prs-wilhelmshaven.co.uk/

Wilhelmshaven today

After the war the harbour was used not only for military purposes, but for economy and tourism as well. Today, Wilhelmshaven is the German navy's main base at the North Sea again. It is also the third largest German port (after Hamburg and the combined ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven) with mainly oil products being loaded and unloaded. Besides the military, chemical industries and a refinery are the main employers of Wilhelmshaven which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the western part of Germany. The oil terminal and the refinery are connected with other German industrial centres by pipelines. Wilhelmshaven also provides an Applied Sciences University (Fachhochschule) for engineering and business sciences. Economic hopes rest in four major development projects:

the JadeWeserPort project for a deep water container port to be constructed 2006 - 2010, able to berth even the largest container vessels presently under construction
the further development of the chemical industry
the construction of an LNG-Terminal
the proposed coastal highway (Küstenautobahn) connecting north-western German industrial centres at the Elbe, Weser, and Ems rivers.

Sights

In Wilhelmshaven there's an aquarium with native animals from the North Sea, the information centre of the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park. The town's landmark is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke ("Emperor Wilhelm Bridge"), which crosses an inlet of the Jadebusen. It was built in 1908; with a length of 159 m it was once the greatest swing bridge of Europe. The main exhibits of the Navy Museum are the former German Navy] destroyer Mölders (D186), a submarine, and some smaller warships as well as an exhibition of German naval history from the 19th century onwards.

Twinned cities

Vichy, France, since 1965

Norfolk, U.S., since 1976

Dunfermline, Scotland, since 1979

Qingdao, People's Republic of China, since 1992

Bad Harzburg, Germany since 1988

Bydgoszcz, Poland, since 2006Further Information

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