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115-690: Terboven was born in Essen , Germany , and attended Volksschule and Realschule before he volunteered for military service during the First World War . After the war, he studied law and political science at the University of Munich and the University of Freiburg, where he first got involved in politics. Terboven joined the Nazi Party in 1923, participated in the Beer Hall Putsch and eventually rose through

230-705: A Counter-Reformation . In 1624, a "re-Catholicization" law was enacted, and churchgoing was strictly controlled. In 1628, the city council filed against this at the Reichskammergericht. Maria had to flee to Cologne when the Dutch stormed the city in 1629. She returned in the summer of 1631 following the Bavarians under Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim , only to leave again in September. She died 1644 in Cologne. The war proved

345-580: A new fascist state in those parts that were occupied by the German Army . While officially in control over all the areas held by erstwhile Fascist Italy , large parts in the northeast located between Switzerland and the Adriatic were re-organized as Operational Zones ( Operationszonen ). These were informally annexed by Germany, and attached to adjacent Gaue of the Reich. There were two such Operational Zones: In

460-408: A curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. and suppressed all newspapers, public assemblies and railroad transportation. On Terboven's orders, ten prominent citizens were executed in reprisal, and their assets were confiscated. In addition, Terboven set up an ad hoc extrajudicial tribunal to try Norwegians considered “hostile to the state”. An additional 24 men were tried and summarily executed over

575-555: A decree declaring the German-occupied territories of Bohemia and Moravia to be incorporated into "Greater Germany". They were not formally annexed, but were placed under the protection of Germany as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . Ethnic Germans living in the area became citizens of Germany. A separate native government was retained, but a German Reichsprotektor was appointed who wielded effective executive control over

690-654: A fortress for the Nazi regime's last stand. However, after Adolf Hitler 's suicide, his successor, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz , dismissed Terboven from his post as Reichskommissar on 7 May 1945. On 8 May 1945, the day of Germany's surrender, Terboven committed suicide by detonating 50 kg of dynamite in a bunker on the Skaugum compound in Norway. His family survived in West Germany , and his wife, Ilse (Stahl) Terboven died in 1972. Terboven

805-528: A little more extreme and drier in other continents in such geographical location . Its average annual temperature is 10 °C (50 °F): 13.3 °C (56 °F) during the day and 6.7 °C (44 °F) at night. The average annual precipitation is 934 millimetres (37 in). The coldest month of the year is January, when the average temperature is 2.4 °C (36 °F). The warmest months are July and August, with an average temperature of 18 °C (64 °F). The Essen weather station has recorded

920-515: A local body of nineteen members with limited authority. Most of the boroughs were originally independent municipalities but were gradually annexed from 1901 to 1975. This long-lasting process of annexation has led to a strong identification of the population with "their" boroughs or districts and to a rare peculiarity: the borough of Kettwig , located south of the Ruhr River, and which was not annexed until 1975, has its own area code and remains part of

1035-680: A member of the Prussian State Council on 10 July 1933. On 28 June 1934, Terboven married Ilse Stahl, Joseph Goebbels 's former secretary and mistress. Adolf Hitler was a witness at the wedding, and while in Essen put into play preparations for the Night of the Long Knives . On 5 February 1935, Terboven was appointed Oberpräsident (High President) of Prussia's Rhine Province which included Gau Essen and three other Gaue. He thus united under his control

1150-452: A severe blow to the city, with frequent arrests, kidnapping and rape. Even after the Peace of Westphalia from 1648, troops remained in the city until 9 September 1650. The first historic evidence of the important mining tradition of Essen date back to the 14th century, when the princess-abbess was granted mining rights. The first silver mine opened in 1354, but the indisputably more important coal

1265-557: A single Vandalengau ( Gau of the Vandals ) or 3-5 other new Reichsgaue. An earlier proposal from 1939 also advocated for the creation of a Reichsgau Beskidenland , which was to stretch from the area to the west of Kraków to the San river in the east. In Axis-occupied Yugoslavia, Sepp Janko , Nazi representative of Danube Swabian interests, pushed for the establishment of a Reichsgau Banat or Prinz-Eugen -Gau , which would have encompassed

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1380-682: A small French military command, occupied the Krupp car hall to seize several vehicles. This event caused 13 deaths and 28 injured. The occupation of the Ruhr ended in summer 1925. On the night of Kristallnacht on 10 November 1938, the synagogue was sacked, but remained through the whole war in the exterior almost intact. The Steele synagogue was completely destroyed. During the Nazi era, tens of thousands of slave labourers were forced to work in 350 Essen forced labour camps. Here, they did mining work and worked for companies like Krupp and Siemens. Alfried Krupp

1495-834: A so-called Reichsreform , fearing it would upset local party leaders. For the same reason, the borders of the Gaue remained unchanged within Germany throughout this time. The Gaue were only enlarged through the adding of occupied territories after 1938. While the Länder continued to exist, the real power on local level lay with the Gauleiters , not the Minister Presidents of the German states. The Gauleiters were directly appointed by Hitler and only answerable to him. In practice, interference from above

1610-570: A special type of Gau where the Gauleiter also carried the position of Reichsstatthalter . The Gaue system was dissolved on 8 May 1945, following the surrender of Nazi Germany . Gau is an archaic Germanic term for a region within a country, often a former or actual province, and used in Medieval times as roughly corresponding to an English shire . The term was revived by the Nazi Party in

1725-670: A studio in Essen, which is responsible for the central Ruhr area. Each day, it produces a 30-minute regional evening news magazine (called Lokalzeit Ruhr ), a five-minute afternoon news programme, and several radio news programmes. A local broadcasting station went on air in the late 1990s. The WAZ Media Group is one of the most important (print) media companies in Europe and publishes the Ruhr area's two most important daily newspapers, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ; 580,000 copies) and Neue Ruhr/Rhein Zeitung (NRZ; 180,000 copies). In Essen,

1840-627: A supplementary OKW order dated 10 September 1943, Hitler decrees on the establishment of further Operational Zones in Northern Italy, which were to stretch all the way to the French border. Unlike Alpenvorland and Küstenland , these zones did not immediately receive high commissioners ( oberster kommissar ) as civilian advisors, but were military regions where the commander was to exercise power on behalf of Army Group B . Operation zone Nordwest-Alpen (Northwest Alps) or Schweizer Grenze (Swiss Frontier)

1955-479: A total of 37,014 tonnes (82 million pounds ) of bombs on the city. Over 270 air raids were launched against the city, destroying 90% of the centre and 60% of the suburbs. On 5 March 1943 Essen was subjected to one of the heaviest air-raids of the war. 461 people were killed, 1,593 injured and a further 50,000 residents of Essen were made homeless. On 13 December 1944 three British airmen were lynched. The Krupp decoy site ( Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage )

2070-625: A total population of approximately 1.4 million. The city extends over 21 kilometres (13 mi) from north to south and 17 kilometres (11 mi) from west to east, mainly north of the River Ruhr . The Ruhr forms the Lake Baldeney  [ de ] reservoir in the boroughs of Fischlaken, Kupferdreh, Heisingen and Werden . The lake, a popular recreational area, dates from 1931 to 1933, when some thousands of unemployed coal miners dredged it with primitive tools. Generally, large areas south of

2185-722: Is a blade found in the borough of Vogelheim  [ de ] in the northern part of the city during the construction of the Rhine–Herne Canal in 1926. Other artifacts from the Stone Age have also been found, although these are not overly numerous. Land utilization was very high—especially due to mining activities during the Industrial Age—and any more major finds, especially from the Mesolithic era, are not expected. Finds from 3,000  BCE and onwards are far more common,

2300-428: Is a so-called arms of alliance ( Allianzwappen ) and consists of two separate shields under a single crown. Most other coats of arms of cities use a mural crown instead of a heraldic crown. The crown, however, does not refer to the city of Essen itself, but instead to the secularized ecclesiastical principality of Essen under the reign of the princess-abbesses. The dexter (heraldically right) escutcheon shows

2415-486: Is the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex , which had once been the largest of its kind in Europe. Ultimately closed in 1993, both the coking plant and the mine have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 2001. Notable accomplishments of the city in recent years include the title of European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area in 2010 and the selection as

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2530-555: Is the central and, after Dortmund , second-largest city of the Ruhr , the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of 586,608 makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne , Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as the tenth-largest city of Germany. Essen lies in the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, second largest by GDP in the EU , and is part of the cultural area of Rhineland . Because of its central location in

2645-510: The Lebensraum of the German people, the Slavic , Baltic and other populations of Eastern Europe were intended to be wiped out through a combined process of extermination , expulsion , starvation , and enslavement that would effectively Germanize these territories in the long run. Nazi racial offices planned that the colonization with Germanic peoples of these conquered eastern territories

2760-525: The Archdiocese of Cologne , whereas all other boroughs of Essen and some neighbouring cities constitute the Diocese of Essen . Essen has a typical oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb ; Trewartha : Dobk ) with cool winters and warm summers (different from Berlin or Stuttgart ). Without large mountains and the presence of inland seas, it ends up extending a predominantly marine climate is found in Essen, usually

2875-508: The Beisfjord massacre took place, the murder of hundreds of Yugoslavian political prisoners and prisoners-of-war by German and Norwegian concentration camp guards. Some 288 prisoners were shot to death, and many others were burned to death when the barracks were set on fire. Terboven had ordered the massacre a few days earlier. In July 1942, at least one German guard assigned to the Korgen prison camp

2990-506: The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: The Essen city council governs the city alongside the mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows: The coat of arms of the city of Essen is a heraldic peculiarity. Granted in 1886, it

3105-632: The Enabling Act of 1933 and were reduced to rudimentary bodies. Each Gau was headed by an administrative leader, the Gauleiter , a high-ranking Nazi Party official with near- autocratic powers. Germany consisted of 32 Gaue in 1934, eventually peaking at 42 Gaue with regions occupied in 1938 to early 1939 ( Austria , Sudetenland , Memelland ) and conquered during the Second World War incorporated into existing Gaue or organised as Reichsgaue ,

3220-515: The European Green Capital for 2017. Essen is located in the centre of the Ruhr area, one of the largest urban areas in Europe comprising eleven independent cities and four districts with some 5.3 million inhabitants into a megalopolis . The city limits of Essen itself are 87 kilometres (54 mi) long, and border ten cities – five belonging to a district ( kreisangehörig ) and five independent – with

3335-501: The Flemings , the Danish , Norwegians , Swedish , and English as part of a superior Aryan - Nordic master race ( Herrenrasse ). Following the integration of Austria into Greater Germany ( Großdeutschland ), Hitler decided that he would follow the same policy in the future for all other countries that he regarded by virtue of their perceived racial qualifications as "belonging" to

3450-486: The Free City of Danzig in 1939, Reichsgau Wartheland and Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia were created. Annexed territories of pre-war Poland not within these two Reichsgaue were incorporated into the neighboring Gaue East Prussia and Silesia . The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as well as Alsace-Lorraine , annexed from pre-war France in 1940, were attached to the bordering Southwestern Gaue of Nazi Germany . There

3565-567: The Großgau Ruhr, the Essen district became an independent unit subordinated to the central Party headquarters in Munich. However, on 1 August 1930 the Essen district officially was raised to Gau status and Terboven was named Gauleiter . He would retain this post throughout the Nazi regime. In 1930, Terboven also became a City Councilor in Essen and a member of the Provincial Landtag of

Josef Terboven - Misplaced Pages Continue

3680-520: The Großgau Ruhr. From 1927 to December 1930, Terboven was the editor of the weekly Nazi newspaper The New Front: The Weekly Sheet of the Working People. In 1929, he was sentenced to three months imprisonment for continuing to publish the proscribed paper. In the 20 May 1928 election, Terboven failed in his attempt to be elected to the Prussian Landtag . On 1 October 1928 upon the dissolution of

3795-659: The Nazi Party in November 1923 with membership number 25,247 and participated in the abortive Beer Hall Putsch in Munich . As an early Party member, he later would be awarded the Golden Party Badge . When the Party subsequently was outlawed, he continued to work at the bank until after the ban was lifted in February 1925. In August 1925 Terboven went to work full-time for the Party, becoming

3910-763: The Norwegian Parliament building . Nothing in Terboven's background and training particularly qualified him for that post, but he had Hitler's full confidence. He was responsible to no one but Hitler, and within the Nazi governmental hierarchy, his office stood on the same level as the Reich Ministries. Terboven regarded himself as virtually an autonomous viceroy with what he termed "limitless power of command". His conception of his role resulted in his attempting to ignore any directives not issued by Hitler himself. Reichskommissar Terboven had supervisory authority over only

4025-502: The Red Army advance in to the Finnmark region of northern Norway, Terboven instituted a scorched earth policy that resulted in the forced evacuation of 50,000 Norwegians and widespread destruction, including the burning of 10,000 homes; 4700 farms; and hundreds of schools, churches, shops and industrial buildings. As the tide of the war turned against Germany, Terboven's personal aspiration

4140-646: The Rhine Province until it was dissolved in 1933. On 14 September 1930, Terboven was elected to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 23, Dusseldorf-West; he would serve as a Reichstag deputy until the end of the Nazi regime. From 15 December 1930, Terboven was also the editor of the National-Zeiting in Essen . After the Nazi seizure of power , Terboven was promoted to SA- Gruppenführer on 1 March 1933 and made

4255-658: The Sachsenhausen concentration camp , in Germany. Of the 72 who were deported from Telavåg, 31 were murdered in captivity. The women and the children were imprisoned for two years. Another 18 Norwegian prisoners unrelated to Telavåg, who were held at the Trandum internment camp, were also executed as reprisals. In another incident, the shooting of two German police officials on 6 September 1942 led to Terboven personally declaring martial law in Trondheim from 5 to 12 October 1942. He imposed

4370-468: The toponymic aspect of Germanizing the east: In the eastern territories I will replace the Slavic geographic names with German names. The Crimea could, for instance, be called Gotenland. [...] We need names that will confirm our rights which go back for two thousand years. The central and upper Vistula valley within the General Government were variously discussed as having to become either

4485-557: The 1920s as the name given to the regional associations of the party in Weimar Germany , based mainly along state and district lines. The Gaue existed parallel to the German states, the Länder , and Prussian provinces throughout the Nazi period. Pro forma , the Administrative divisions of Weimar Germany were left in place. The plan to abolish the Länder was ultimately given up because Hitler shrank away from structural reforms,

4600-412: The 1970s, attracted workers from all over the country; it was the fifth-largest city in Germany between 1929 and 1988, peaking at over 730,000 inhabitants in 1962. Following the region-wide decline of heavy industries in the last decades of the 20th century, the city has seen the development of a strong tertiary sector of the economy . The most notable witness of this structural change ( Strukturwandel )

4715-522: The Empire" ( Reichsfürstin ) in an official letter. In 1244, 28 years later, Essen received its town charter and seal when Konrad von Hochstaden , the Archbishop of Cologne , marched into the city and erected a city wall together with the population. This proved a temporary emancipation of the population of the city from the princess-abbesses, but this lasted only until 1290. That year, King Rudolph I restored

Josef Terboven - Misplaced Pages Continue

4830-458: The Essen show is smaller and is focused on car tuning and racing interests. Other important fairs open to consumers include SPIEL , the world's biggest consumer fair for tabletop gaming, and one of the leading fairs for equestrian sports , Equitana , held every two years. Important fairs restricted to professionals include "Security" (security and fire protection), IPM (gardening) and E-World (energy and water). The Westdeutscher Rundfunk has

4945-582: The German civilian administration, which was very small and did not rule Norway directly. Day-to-day governmental affairs were managed by the existing seven-member Norwegian Administrative Council , which had been set up by the Norwegian Supreme Court after the king and cabinet fled into exile. On 25 September 1940, Terboven dismissed the Administrative Council and appointed a thirteen-member Provisional State Council to administer affairs. All

5060-690: The Germans would be placed under the administration of a Governor-General and would be known as the General Government of the Occupied Polish Territories. This came into effect on 26 October. On 22 July 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the occupation of Eastern Galicia , Hitler signed a decree declaring that the region would be administered by the Governor-General of Poland from 1 August. While theoretically outside

5175-573: The Jewish population and focused on crushing the Norwegian resistance movement. His actions led to numerous atrocities, such as the Beisfjord massacre in which hundreds of Yugoslavian political prisoners and prisoners-of-war were murdered. As the tide of the war turned against Germany, Terboven implemented a scorched earth policy in northern Norway that resulted in the forced evacuation of 50,000 Norwegians and widespread destruction. He hoped to turn Norway into

5290-474: The Krupp family dynasty and Essen shaped each other. In 1811, Friedrich Krupp founded Germany's first cast-steel factory in Essen and laid the cornerstone for what was to be the largest enterprise in Europe for a couple of decades. The weapon factories in Essen became so important that a sign facing the main railway station welcomed visitors Hitler and Mussolini to the "Armory of the Reich " ( Waffenschmiede des Reiches ) in 1937. The Krupp Works also were

5405-533: The Norwegians, as they alienated the population against the Germans. Terboven's relations with the army commander were strained, but his relations with the Higher SS and Police Leader , Wilhelm Rediess , were very good, and he co-operated in providing Rediess's staff a free hand with their policies of repression. Terboven established multiple concentration camps in Norway, including Falstad concentration camp near Levanger and Bredtvet concentration camp in Oslo in late 1941. At one of those camps on 18 July 1942

5520-420: The Reich. This meant that the Low Countries , at least the German-speaking parts of Switzerland , Liechtenstein and the Scandinavian states were eventually to be annexed into a much larger Greater Germanic Reich ( Großgermanisches Reich ) by being broken up into smaller state and party administrative units, such as Denmark into a Gau Nordmark , and the Netherlands into a Gau Westland . Afterwards

5635-437: The River Ruhr (including the suburbs of Schuir and Kettwig ) are quite green and are often quoted as examples of rural structures in the otherwise relatively densely populated central Ruhr area. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany , Essen with 9.2% of its area covered by recreational green is the greenest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the third-greenest city in Germany. The city has been shortlisted for

5750-413: The Ruhr, Essen is often regarded as the Ruhr's "secret capital". Two rivers flow through the city: the Emscher in the north, and in the south the Ruhr River , which is dammed in Essen to form the Lake Baldeney  [ de ] and Lake Kettwig  [ de ] reservoirs . The central and northern boroughs of Essen historically belong to the Low German Westphalian dialects area, and

5865-413: The WAZ Group also publishes the local Borbecker Nachrichten  [ de ] and Werdener Nachrichten  [ de ] , both of which had been independent weekly newspapers for parts of Essen. Additionally, Axel Springer run a printing facility for their boulevard-style daily paper Bild in Essen. Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany The Gaue (singular: Gau ) were

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5980-410: The Yugoslavian territories of Bačka , Banat , parts of Transylvania ( Siebenbürgen ) and Baranya . The Nazi racial categorization of the ethnic groups of Europe classified the Northern Europeans , especially those closely related to the Germans (itself considered to be a single nationality of which Swiss and Austrians were nothing but sub-regional identities at best) such as the Dutch ,

6095-511: The abbey. She was to become the most important of all abbesses in the history of Essen. She reigned for over 40 years, and endowed the abbey's treasury with invaluable objects such as the oldest preserved seven branched candelabrum, and the Golden Madonna of Essen , the oldest known sculpture of the Virgin Mary in the western world. Mathilde was succeeded by other women related to the Ottonian emperors: Sophia, daughter of Otto II and sister of Otto III , and Teophanu, granddaughter of Otto II. It

6210-407: The accused provided no adequate defense. The trials were not open to the public, and the proceedings were not published. Sentences were carried out shortly after they were pronounced with no right of appeal. It is estimated that some 150 individuals were sentenced to death by these tribunals. Many more were sentenced to long terms of hard labour. On 26 April 1942, the Nazis learned that two members of

6325-428: The allies, Essen was assigned to the British Zone of Occupation . On 8 March 1946, a German army officer and a civilian were hanged for the lynching of three British airmen in December 1944. Although weaponry is no longer produced in Essen, old industrial enterprises such as ThyssenKrupp and RWE remain large employers in the city. Foundations such as the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach - Stiftung still promote

6440-576: The announcement of Germany's surrender , Terboven committed suicide on 8 May 1945 by detonating 50 kilograms (110 lb) of dynamite in a bunker on the Skaugum compound. He died alongside the body of SS- Obergruppenführer Rediess, who had shot himself earlier. Terboven's family survived in West Germany , although his daughter, Inga, in an event in 1964 unrelated to her father's history, killed her two-year-old daughter by strangulation. Terboven's wife, Ilse, died in 1972. Essen Essen ( German pronunciation: [ˈɛsn̩] )

6555-403: The arts through the respected Folkwang University of the Arts , its Zollverein School of Management and Design, and the Red Dot industrial product design award. In early 2003, the universities of Essen and the nearby city of Duisburg (both established in 1972) were merged into the University of Duisburg-Essen with campuses in both cities and a university hospital in Essen. In 1958, Essen

6670-412: The boundaries of the Reich proper, the General Government was considered part of "Greater Germany" by Nazi officials as an "autonomous" region (i.e., not directly subordinated to the Berlin government). It was not a protectorate, but a colony, outside the Reich and its law. Its Polish inhabitants were effectively stateless and without rights. It was sub-divided into four Distrikte (districts). After

6785-406: The centres of resistance to Social Democracy and the Freikorps alike. During the Nazi era (1933–1945), mayors were installed by the Nazi Party . After World War II , the military government of the British occupation zone installed a new mayor and a municipal constitution modelled on that of British cities. Later, the city council was again elected by the population. The mayor was elected by

6900-513: The church and the settlement. The church was rebuilt, expanded considerably, and is the foundation of the present Essen Cathedral. The first documented mention of Essen dates back to 898, when Zwentibold , King of Lotharingia , willed territory on the western bank of the River Rhine to the abbey. Another document, describing the foundation of the abbey and allegedly dating back to 870, is now considered an 11th-century forgery. In 971, Mathilde II , granddaughter of Emperor Otto I , took charge of

7015-423: The city and the abbey about supremacy over the region remained common until the abbey's dissolution in 1803. Many lawsuits were filed at the Reichskammergericht , one of them lasting almost 200 years. The final decision of the court in 1670 was that the city had to be "duly obedient in dos and don'ts" to the abbesses but could maintain its old rights—a decision that did not really solve any of the problems. In 1563,

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7130-422: The city council, with its self-conception as the only legitimate ruler of Essen, introduced the Protestant Reformation . The Catholic abbey had no troops to counter this development. During the Thirty Years' War , the Protestant city and the Catholic abbey opposed each other. In 1623, princess-abbess Maria Clara von Spaur, Pflaum und Valör, managed to direct Catholic Spaniards against the city in order to initiate

7245-448: The coat of arms can be found on the roof of the Handelshof  [ de ] hotel near the main station . Essen has a population of 586,608 and is the 2nd largest city in Ruhr area after Dortmund and the 10th largest city in Germany. Essen has also the largest urban density with cities such as Bochum , Gelsenkirchen and Oberhausen borders this city. In 1960, the population reached its historical peak of over 720,000 (Essen

7360-423: The corporate headquarters of Schenker AG , the logistics division of Deutsche Bahn. Other major companies include Germany's largest construction company Hochtief , as well as Aldi Nord , Evonik Industries , Karstadt , Medion AG and Deichmann , Europe's largest shoe retailer. The Coca-Cola Company had originally established their German headquarters in Essen (around 1930), where it remained until 2003, when it

7475-402: The council as its head and as the city's main representative . The administration was led by a full-time Oberstadtdirektor . In 1999, the position of Oberstadtdirektor was abolished in North Rhine-Westphalia and the mayor became both main representative and administrative head. In addition, the population now elects the mayor directly. The current mayor of Essen is Thomas Kufen of

7590-475: The double-headed Imperial Eagle of the Holy Roman Empire , granted to the city in 1623. The sinister (heraldically left) escutcheon is one of the oldest emblems of Essen and shows a sword that people believed was used to behead the city's patron Saints Cosmas and Damian . People tend to connect the sword in the left shield with one found in the cathedral treasury. This sword, however, is much more recent. A slightly modified and more heraldically correct version of

7705-407: The end of 2017. The city's exhibition centre, Messe Essen , hosts some 50 trade fairs each year. With around 530.000 visitors each year, Essen Motor Show is by far the largest event held there. It has been described as "the showcase event of the year for the tuning community" and as the German version of the annual SEMA auto show in Las Vegas . As contrasted with the Frankfurt Auto Show ,

7820-409: The following extreme values: In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it has the same form as the German infinitive of the verb for "eating" (written as lowercase essen ), and/or the German noun for food (which is always capitalized as Essen , adding to the confusion). Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of

7935-412: The formation of a Norwegian puppet regime on 1 February 1942 under Quisling as minister-president , the so-called Quisling government . Terboven also did not have authority over the 400,000 regular German Army forces that were stationed in Norway which were under the command of Generaloberst Nikolaus von Falkenhorst , but he commanded a personal force of around 6,000 men of whom 800 were part of

8050-406: The head of a small Nazi newspaper and book distributorship in Essen. At this time he also founded the Ortsgruppe (Local Group) in Essen, becoming its first Ortsgruppenleiter . He also joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) becoming the SA- Führer in Essen. He formally re-enrolled in the Party on 15 December 1925. By 1927, he had advanced to Bezirksleiter (District Leader) of the Essen district in

8165-517: The highest party and governmental offices within his jurisdiction. On 27 April 1935 Terboven received the Golden Party Badge . He was promoted to the rank of SA- Obergruppenführer on 9 November 1936. On the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939, he was named Reich Defense Commissioner for Wehrkreis (Military District) VI, which included his Gau together with Gau Dusseldorf , Gau Cologne-Aachen , most of Gau Westphalia-North and Gau Westphalia-South and part of Gau Weser-Ems . On 16 November 1942,

8280-617: The invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, a fifth district was added, created out of former territories of Austrian Galicia : After the overthrow of Benito Mussolini , the Italian government secretly began negotiations with the Allies about Italy switching sides to the Allied camp. In retaliation the Germans occupied large parts of Italy, freed Mussolini , and re-installed him as the puppet ruler of

8395-581: The jurisdiction of the Reich Defense Commissioners was changed from the Wehrkreis to the Gau level and Terboven remained Commissioner for only his Gau of Essen. Terboven was named Reichskommissar for Norway on 24 April 1940 even before the military invasion 's completion on 10 June. He moved into Skaugum , the official residence of Crown Prince Olav , in September 1940 and made his headquarters in

8510-491: The main administrative divisions of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. The Gaue were formed in 1926 as Nazi Party regional districts in Weimar Germany based on the territorial changes after the First World War . The Gau system was established in 1934 as part of the Gleichschaltung process, replacing the de jure system of Länder (states) and Prussian provinces , which held no administrative purpose since

8625-464: The main reason for the large population growth beginning in the mid-19th century. Essen reached a population of 100,000 in 1896. Other industrialists, such as Friedrich Grillo , who in 1892 donated the Grillo-Theater to the city, also played a major role in the shaping of the city and the Ruhr area in the late 19th and early 20th century. Riots broke out in February 1917 following a breakdown in

8740-461: The members were Terboven's hand-picked appointees and worked under his control and supervision. A proclamation was issued deposing King Haakon VII , outlawing the government-in-exile, disbanding the Storting and banning all political parties except Vidkun Quisling ’s Nasjonal Samling . Terboven therefore remained in ultimate charge of Norway until the end of the war in 1945, even after he had permitted

8855-405: The most important one being a Megalithic tomb found in 1937. Simply called Chest of Stone ( Steinkiste ), it is referred to as "Essen's earliest preserved example of architecture". Essen was part of the settlement areas of several Germanic peoples ( Chatti , Bructeri , Marsi ), although a clear distinction among these groupings is difficult. The Alteburg  [ de ] castle in

8970-583: The name, there remain a few noteworthy interpretations. The oldest known form of the city's name is Astnide , which changed to Essen by way of forms such as Astnidum, Assinde, Essendia and Esnede. The name Astnide may have referred either to a region where many ash trees were found or to a region in the east (of the Frankish Empire ). The oldest archaeological find, the Vogelheimer Klinge , dates back to 280,000 – 250,000  BCE . It

9085-548: The next three days. Despite the small number of Jews in Norway's population (around 1,800), Terboven persecuted them relentlessly. Some 930 managed to escape to neighboring Sweden , but some 770 were rounded up and deported to Germany. The main deportation occurred on 26 November 1942, when 532 Jews were shipped to Stettin aboard the SS Donau . From there, they were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp , and only 9 survived

9200-406: The northern borough of Karnap at 26.5 metres (86.9 ft), the highest point in the borough of Heidhausen at 202.5 metres (664 ft). The average elevation is 116 metres (381 ft). Essen comprises fifty boroughs which in turn are grouped into nine suburban districts (called Stadtbezirke ) often named after the most important boroughs. Each Stadtbezirk is assigned a Roman numeral and has

9315-418: The princess-abbesses to full sovereignty over the city, much to the dismay of the population of the growing city, who called for self-administration and imperial immediacy . The title free imperial city was finally granted by Emperor Charles IV in 1377. However, in 1372, Charles had paradoxically endorsed Rudolph I's 1290 decision and hence left both the abbey and the city in imperial favour. Disputes between

9430-508: The provinces of Cuneo and Imperia . The Nazi government openly pursued and practiced aggressive territorial expansionism , intending to further extend the already greatly increased territorial base of the German state. In anticipation of these expected future territorial enlargements, potential new districts were theorized upon at length by Nazi ideologists, government officials, and territorial planning departments. These expansions were intended to take place in two distinct ways: To expand

9545-429: The ranks to become the Gauleiter of Essen and the editor of various Nazi newspapers. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Terboven was promoted to SA-Gruppenführer and was made a member of the Prussian State Council . In 1940, he was appointed Reichskommissar for Norway, a position that granted him significant power and control. Terboven established multiple concentration camps in Norway, ruthlessly persecuted

9660-485: The resistance were being sheltered by the inhabitants of Telavåg , a small fishing village. When the Gestapo arrived, shots were exchanged, and two Gestapo agents were killed. Terboven was outraged and personally led a reprisal raid on 30 April that was quick and brutal. All buildings were burned to the ground, all boats were sunk or confiscated and all livestock taken away. All men in the village were either executed or sent to

9775-558: The river and Essen. Essen is twinned with: Essen cooperates with: Essen is home to several large companies, among them the ThyssenKrupp industrial conglomerate which is also registered in Duisburg and originates from a 1999 merger between Duisburg-based Thyssen AG and Essen-based Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp . The largest company registered only in Essen is Germany's second-largest electric utility RWE AG . Essen hosts parts of

9890-590: The secret police. In contrast to the military forces commanded by Falkenhorst, which aimed to reach an understanding with the Norwegian people and were under orders by Falkenhorst to treat Norwegians with courtesy, Terboven behaved in a petty and ruthless way and was widely disliked not only by the Norwegians but also by many Germans. Goebbels , the Reich Minister of Propaganda , expressed annoyance in his diaries about what he called Terboven's "bullying tactics" against

10005-420: The south of Essen dates back to the eighth century, the nearby Herrenburg  [ de ] to the ninth century. Recent research into Ptolemy 's Geographia has identified the polis or oppidum Navalia as Essen. Around 845, Saint Altfrid (around 800–874), the later Bishop of Hildesheim , founded an abbey for women ( coenobium Astnide ) in the centre of present-day Essen. The first abbess

10120-494: The south of the city to the Low Franconian Bergish area. Essen is seat to several of the region's authorities, as well as to eight of the 100 largest publicly held German corporations by revenue, including three DAX -listed corporations. Essen is often considered the energy capital of Germany with E.ON and RWE , Germany's largest energy providers, both headquartered in the city. Essen is also known for its impact on

10235-527: The supply of flour. There were then strikes in the Krupp factory. On 11 January 1923 the Occupation of the Ruhr was carried out by the invasion of French and Belgian troops into the Ruhr. The French Prime Minister, Raymond Poincaré , was convinced that Germany failed to comply the demands of the Treaty of Versailles . On the morning of 31 March 1923, the culmination of this French-German confrontation occurred when

10350-464: The surrounding Party districts: Gau Bayreuth , Reichsgau Sudetenland , Reichsgau Lower Danube and Reichsgau Upper Danube . These two separate government and party divisions continued to co-exist in the protectorate for the entire duration of its existence. Following the German invasion and conquest of Poland , Hitler signed a decree on 12 October 1939, declaring that the Polish territories occupied by

10465-439: The territory. Two separate structures for its territorial administration existed within the protectorate . Administration of the government of the protectorate was divided into two Länder (states): Bohemia and Moravia, which were in turn sub-divided into a number of smaller units. The Nazi Party divided the area into four separate party districts but, instead of creating four new Gaue , they were assigned organizationally to

10580-439: The title of European Green Capital two consecutive times, for 2016 and 2017, winning for 2017. The city was singled out for its exemplary practices in protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity and efforts to reduce water consumption. Essen participates in a variety of networks and initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the city's resilience in the face of climate change. The lowest point can be found in

10695-454: The very notion of these countries ever having been independent or separate from the rest of the Reich was to be suppressed indefinitely. The objective called for the inauguration of a new period of rapidly enforced Gleichschaltung , the end result of which would be that aside from their local "language dialects" these countries were to become perfect duplicates of National Socialist Germany in all political and social respects. In addition it

10810-516: The war. On 25 February 1943, another 158 were similarly deported aboard the M S Gotenland , and only six survived. On 25 September 1944, Terboven, in his capacity as Gauleiter of Essen, was named commander of the Volkssturm units in the Gau. In reality, it was his Deputy Gauleiter , Fritz Schlessmann , who executed those duties as he had been Acting Gauleiter in Essen during Terboven's absence in Norway since 1940. In October 1944, in response to

10925-592: The well-being of the city, for example by supporting a hospital and donating €55   million for a new building for the Museum Folkwang , one of the Ruhr area's major art museums. The administration of Essen had for a long time been in the hands of the princess-abbesses as heads of the Imperial Abbey of Essen . However, from the 14th century onwards, the city council increasingly grew in importance. In 1335, it started choosing two burgomasters , one of whom

11040-454: Was Altfrid's relative Gerswit (see also: Essen Abbey ). In 799, Saint Liudger had already founded Benedictine Werden Abbey on its own grounds a few kilometres south. The region was sparsely populated with only a few smallholdings and an old and probably abandoned castle. Whereas Werden Abbey sought to support Liudger's missionary work in the Harz region ( Helmstedt / Halberstadt ), Essen Abbey

11155-580: Was also an extraterritorial Gau named Auslandsorganisation for party members overseas. Its headquarters were in Berlin. This Auslandsgau was considered to be the 43rd Gau of Nazi Germany. On 15 March 1939, German troops invaded and occupied the rump state of Czechoslovakia that had existed after the Sudetenland had been annexed by Germany following the Munich Conference . On 16 March, Hitler signed

11270-545: Was awarded the Iron Cross , 1st and 2nd class, and attained the rank of Leutnant before being discharged on 22 December 1918. He studied law and political science at the University of Munich and the University of Freiburg , where he first got involved in politics. He dropped out of the university in 1922 without earning a degree and trained as a bank official in Essen, working as a bank clerk through June 1925. Terboven joined

11385-460: Was born in Essen , the son of minor landed gentry of Dutch descent. The family name comes from the Low German daar boven ("up there"), referring to a farmstead on a hill. Josef Terboven attended Volksschule and Realschule in Essen until 1915 and then volunteered for military service in the First World War . He served with Feldartillerie Regiment 9 and then with the nascent air force . He

11500-510: Was built in Velbert to divert Allied airstrikes from the actual production site of the arms factory in Essen. The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Essen in April 1945. The US 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 17th Airborne Division , acting as regular infantry and not in a parachute role, entered the city unopposed and captured it on 10 April 1945. After the occupation of Germany by

11615-561: Was chosen as the seat to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Essen , often referred to as the diocese of the Ruhr ( Ruhrbistum ). Founded around 845, Essen remained a small town within the sphere of influence of an important ecclesiastical principality , Essen Abbey , until the onset of industrialization. The city then—especially through the Krupp family's iron works—became one of Germany's most important coal and steel centres. Essen, until

11730-517: Was convicted in the Krupp trial at Nuremberg for his role in this but was pardoned by the US in 1951. There were several subcamps in Essen in Second World War , such as the subcamps Humboldtstraße  [ de ] , Gelsenberg  [ de ] , Schwarze Poth  [ de ] . As a major industrial centre, Essen was a target for allied bombing, the Royal Air Force (RAF) dropping

11845-637: Was killed. The commandant ordered retribution: execution by gunfire for "39 prisoners at Korgen and 20 at Osen ";. In the days that followed, Terboven also ordered retribution, and around 400 prisoners shot and killed in various camps. From 1941, Terboven increasingly focused on crushing the Norwegian resistance movement , which engaged in acts of sabotage and assassination against the Germans. On 17 September, Terboven decreed that special SS and Police Tribunals would have jurisdiction over Norwegian citizens who violated his decrees. They were summary proceedings with

11960-458: Was located between the Stelvio Pass and Monte Rosa and was to contain wholly the Italian provinces of Sondrio and Como and parts of the provinces of Brescia , Varese , Novara and Vercelli . The zone of Französische Grenze (French Frontier) was to encompass areas west of Monte Rosa and was to incorporate the province of Aosta and a part of the province of Turin , and presumably also

12075-714: Was made part of the Prussian Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg from 1815 to 1822, after which it became part of the Prussian Rhine Province until its dissolution in 1946. During the German Revolution of 1918–19 , Essen was the home of the Essen Tendency ( Essener Richtung ) within the Communist Workers' Party of Germany . In 1922 they founded the Communist Workers' International . Essen became one of

12190-468: Was meant to care for women of the higher Saxon nobility. This abbey was not an abbey in the ordinary sense, but rather intended as a residence and educational institution for the daughters and widows of the higher nobility; led by an abbess, the members other than the abbess herself were not obliged to take vows of chastity . Around 852, construction of the collegiate church of the abbey began, to be completed in 870. A major fire in 946 heavily damaged both

12305-515: Was moved to the capital Berlin. In light of the Energy transition in Germany , Germany's largest electric utility E.ON announced that, after restructuring and splitting off its conventional electricity generation division (coal, gas, atomic energy), it will move its headquarters to Essen in 2016, becoming a sole provider of renewable energy . The DAX -listed chemical distribution company Brenntag announced it would move its headquarters to Essen at

12420-402: Was not mentioned until 1371, and coal mining only began in 1450. At the end of the 16th century, many coal mines had opened in Essen, and the city earned a name as a centre of the weapons industry. Around 1570, gunsmiths made high profits and in 1620, they produced 14,000 rifles and pistols a year. The city became increasingly important strategically. Resident in Essen since the 16th century,

12535-488: Was placed in charge of the treasury. In 1377, Essen was granted imperial immediacy but had to abandon this privilege later on. Between the early 15th and 20th centuries, the political system of Essen underwent several changes, most importantly the introduction of the Protestant Reformation in 1563, the annexation of 1802 by Prussia , and the subsequent secularization of the principality in 1803. The territory

12650-569: Was proposed as a replacement-name for Estonia , and Dünaland for Latvia . In a conference on 16 July 1941, discussing the future organization of the conquered Soviet territories, Hitler stated his intention to turn not only the areas mentioned above but also the entire Baltic region ( Reichskommissariat Ostland ), the Volga German colony, and the Baku district into future Reichsgebieten (Reich territories). On 3 November 1941, he also elaborated on

12765-596: Was rare and their power was almost absolute. New Reichsgaue were established after the Anschluss of Austria and the incorporation of Sudetenland following the Munich Agreement . Southern parts of Czechoslovakia also gained by the Munich Agreement were not made part of Reichsgau Sudetenland , but incorporated into Reichsgaue Ostmark (formerly Austria ). Of the territories annexed from Poland and

12880-596: Was the fifth largest German city at that time) due to its booming industrial era of the Ruhr Area and the West German Wirtschaftswunder . Since 1970s, the population of Essen declined due to loss of jobs by coal and mining. Essen has a large migrant population, most of them are from Turkey , Syria and Poland . The City of Monessen, Pennsylvania , situated along the Monongahela River , was named after

12995-561: Was to organise Festung Norwegen (Fortress Norway) for the Nazi regime's last stand. However, after Hitler's suicide, his successor, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz , summoned Terboven to his headquarters in Flensburg on 3 May 1945 and ordered him to cooperate with winding down hostilities. Terboven expressed his desire to continue fighting. Consequently, Dönitz dismissed Terboven from his post as Reichskommissar on 7 May and transferred his powers to General der Gebirgstruppe Franz Böhme . With

13110-738: Was to proceed most intensively in the three so-called Siedlungsmarken (Settlement marches ) or Reichsmarken of Ingermannland ( Ingria ), the Memel - Narew area, and the Southern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula . The latter of these was intended to be newly re-organized as a Gotengau ( Gau of the Goths ), in honour of the Crimean Goths who had at one point dwelled there. Of the Baltic countries , Peipusland

13225-471: Was under the reign of Teophanu that Essen, which had been called a city since 1003, received the right to hold markets in 1041. Ten years later, Teophanu had the eastern part of Essen Abbey constructed. Its crypt contains the tombs of St. Altfrid, Mathilde II, and Teophanu herself. In 1216, the abbey, which had only been an important landowner until then, gained the status of a princely residence when Emperor Frederick II called abbess Elisabeth I "Princess of

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