Werne

Coat of arms

Werne

Location of Werne within Unna district

Coordinates: 51°40′N 7°37′E / 51.667°N 7.617°ECoordinates: 51°40′N 7°37′E / 51.667°N 7.617°E

Country

Germany

State

North Rhine-Westphalia

Government

• Mayor

Lothar Christ (CDU)

Area

• Total

76.08 km² (29.37 sq mi)

Elevation

60 m (200 ft)

Population (2015-12-31)

• Total

29,955

• Density

390/km² (1,000/sq mi)

CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)

59368

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Website

Werne (Westphalian: Wäen) is a town in the Federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the Unna district in Germany. It is located on the southern edge of the Münsterland region near the Ruhrgebiet. The population of Werne is about 32,000.

The first Bishop of Münster, Liudger established Werne as a parish by erecting a chapel in the southern parts of the Dreingau ("in pago dreginni"). He acted on orders of Charlemagne who, having finally brought the region under the fold of Francia following the conclusion of the Saxon Wars, was eager to press on with Christianization. The Latin text of the oldest preserved document ("in villa quae dicitur werina"), which dates from 834 and is being kept at the Leiden University Library, indicates that by this time a village had already formed around the chapel.

Traders and peasants continued to accrete throughout the next three centuries. At some point between the years 1192 and 1195, the regional bishopric established a customs agency at Werne and put the place under its direct jurisdiction. The year 1253 found Werne in an alliance (the "Werner Bund") with the cities of Münster, Dortmund, Soest and Lippstadt to defend transit and trading rights relating to a bridge over the Lippe river. In 1470 Werne became a member of the Hanseatic League. A town hall was built from 1512 to 1561.

The first moves towards a fortification of Werne date to 1302 when a trench was dug around the church; this was improved and extended to protect the entire settlement in 1383, two years before it received town privileges in 1385. After Adolph I, Duke of Cleves had burned Werne to the ground in 1400, the full fortification of the city commenced in 1415. However, this did not prevent occupation, looting and torching of the city on several occasions during the Thirty Years' War and of course it was no help at all against the Black Death, which killed 313 people (out of a population of about 1,000) in 1636 and 1637 while the war still raged. (Parts of the city wall and some of the towers were pulled down in 1779; the last city gate (the "Neutor") was demolished in 1843.)

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Wikipedia