It started as the rural settlement of “Buochstadon”, which was
first documented in 959. The name has been interpreted as meaning
“the site of the beechwood”. In 1135 the site was named
“Buchstadihude”- a “Hude” which is a ship’s mooring point had been
established on the river Este on the edge of the Geest area. It
rendered important services to the “Altes Land” settlement. Members
of the local nobility donated land from their property for a
Benedictine convent in 1196. The “Alte Kloster”, the most
distinguished convent along the river Elbe grew out of this
initiative.
In 1285 Buxtehude took a huge leap in status from that of a mere
mooring and convent site to that of a harbour town. The Archbishop
of Bremen Giselbert von Brunkhorst founded the new town of
Buxtehude 1.5km away from the original settlement in the strip of
moorland between “Marsch” and “Geest”. Unlike Hamburg, Lueneburg
and Stade where the town had grown from one side of the river to
the other, Buxtehude was the first German town to be systematically
built around its harbour. It had, therefore become the most modern
town on German soil. The medieval traffic network and the hydraulic
engineering achievements are there to be wondered at on the old
town-centre plan. Along with the Saint Petri Church, a Gothic brick
basilica, the canal in the town centre (Fleth) or former harbour is
the town’s most important historical monument.
Hanseatic City Guide Buxtehude
Adress
Stadt Buxtehude, Breite Straße 2, 21614 Buxtehude
Telefon: 04161/501-0
Internet: www.buxtehude.de
E-Mail: stadtinfo@stadt.buxtehude.de
I. The Town
Buxtehude is known as the town where the dogs bark with their tails and where the hare and the hedgehog race for a bet. However anyone who believes that Buxtehude is merely a fairytale town is greatly mistaken. Buxtehude has been in existence for more than one thousand years.
Buxtehude Harbour
Buxtehude’s location between “Marsch” land and “Geest” land
ensured that it turned it into an important centre of trade and
commerce. Already by 1287 it had an annual fair which expanded over
the years. Around 1350 the town received the special privilege of
trading in corn from the areas of Altes Land, Land Hadeln and
Dithmarschen. This formed the basis for the town’s economic upturn.
Buxtehude and Stade became a strategic pointfor corn distribution
in the lower Elbe region, from here it was then shipped mainly to
the Netherlands. Buxtehude quickly received the status of a
Hanseatic town. It is first recorded as a member of the Hanseatic
League in 1363 enjoying a standing equal to that of Kiel and
Uelzen. As the Elbe could only be crossed smoothly during the
Middle Ages or earlier modern times from Buxtehude or Stade, the
town therefore grew to be a ferry station of much significance.
After the decline of the Hanseatic League busy ferry traffic
continued due to extensive cattle transportation from Juetland to
the Netherlands. Around the year 1600 between 20 and 30,000 oxen
per annum were being ferried across the Elbe at Buxtehude. By the
end of the 17th century Buxtehude shipping companies were sailing the trading
route Hamburg-Archangelsk-Italy-Hamburg. The 18th century saw a fall off in cattle transportation and a shift to
Harburg as an Elbe crossing point. This of course resulted in
difficult times for the town and a population decline to 1,855 by
1815.
The emergence of industrialisation brought about a new upturn, the
first signs of this were visible in Buxtehude in the first half of
the 19th century. The easily navigable river Este contributed greatly to
this development, with the first factories being established near
the harbour : a cement factory, an oil mill, a pottery factory, a
steam sawmill as well as a shipyard. Followed by further
enterprises in the old town centre and a paper mill in nearby
Altkloster, Buxtehude turned into a prosperous industrial and
economic location.
West Canal (Fleth)Buxtehude
After the second World War, Buxtehude managed to pick up the thread and continued to develop into an attractive centre for medium-sized businesses. Numerous new companies, some of them of international renown settled in the west and most of all in the east of the town near the Geest. The town continues to offer favourable conditions for enterprise, while its good public transport infrastructure and close proximity to Hamburg are extremely advantageous factors. The Technology Centre of Buxtehude was established in 1986 as a conscious step towards supporting the setting-up of new businesses. This skilfully pursued industrialisation policy has contributed greatly to achieving a very stable economic environment. The mix of large and medium-sized enterprises from a wide range of industrial sectors has been an important factor in this stability. Evidence of this of this is clearly demonstrated by Buxtehude’s unemployment rate - one of the lowest in the Federal State of Lower Saxonia.
Today, situated on the outskirts of its bigger Hanseatic League
“sister” Hamburg and near Altes Land with its beautiful fruit
trees, over 38,000 people live in Buxtehude. The historic old town
centre with its pedestrian zone, its canal or “Fleth”, its moat and
its many well-preserved merchant houses is the centre of attraction
for visitors from far and near. People love to celebrate in these
enchanting surroundings. Buxtehude’s cultural life is a lively one.
The highlights of which include: “The Buxtehude Bull”, one of
Germany’s most important book prizes, an attractive theatre and
concert programme, the “Igel” art association and the Buxtehude
museum for regional history.
Buxtehude nurtures European and inter-German relationships through
its partnership with the towns of Blagnac in the south of France
and Ribnitz-Dammgarten in the former G.D.R. Today, as part of the
wider metropolitan area of Hamburg, the old Hanseatic and fairytale
town of Buxtehude presents itself as a truly vibrant and
self-confident economic and cultural centre, whose appeal extends
well beyond its borders.
II. The Tradition
The Archives
Municipal Archive Buxtehude, Stavenort 5, 21614 Buxtehude
Phone: +49 (4161) 501-2311 ; Fax: +49 (4161) 501-2328
E-Mail: stadtarchiv@stadt.buxtehude.de
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 9.00-12.00, Mon-Wed 2pm-4pm, Thur 2pm-6pm
As a town Buxtehude has a remarkable historical heritage. Over 150
official town records are held in the town archives, beginning with
the granting of the town charter in 1328 to Buxtehude which had
already been established in 1285. A further 707 town records are
stored on permanent loan in the archives of Stade. The document of
greatest interest here is the certificate of approval dating from
1296 providing for the construction of the Saint Petri Church. Also
stored in the Stade archives and of great value to the town’s
history are the records of the two Buxtehude convents, especially
the 626 documents giving comprehensive details of the assets of the
Alt Kloster which goes back to 1196. Around 140 meters of shelving
containing official registers are stored in Buxtehude: inheritance
registers from 1320, pension registers from 1397, original
registers of citizens from 1623 (in an edition from 1400), minutes
of town council meetings since 1648, town treasurers invoices from
1420 along with the statute books of Buxtehude trade guilds.
Archiving of official records began in the 15th century and ten indexes complete the collection up to the year
1945. More recent material has been compiled with the support of
the “Faust” archiving software programme and since 1991 it has been
housed in a new archive building at Stavenort 5.
Literature and Presentation
Karl-Emil Fick, Buxtehude. Siedlungsgeographie einer niedersächsischen Geestrandstadt, Bremen 1952.
Margarete Schindler, Buxtehude. Studien zur mittelalterlichen Geschichte einer Gründungsstadt, Wiesbaden 1959.
Artur Conrad Förste, Die 40 wichtigsten gedruckten Irrtümer über die Geschichte Altklosters und über die Viverstadt
Buxtehude, Buxtehude 1968.
Margarete Schindler, Buxtehude, in: Handbuch der Niedersächsischen Hansestädte, reworked by Jürgen Bohmbach (Publication taken from the Stade
official archive), Stade 1983, pages 37–42.
Margarete Schindler, Blick in Buxtehudes Vergangenheit. Geschichte der Stadt, 2. Completely reworked and greatly expanded version. Buxtehude
1993.
Artur Conrad Förste, 38 neue Forschungen und Quellen zur Geschichte und Ortsnamenkunde der Buxtehuder Geest, Moisburg 1995.
Detlev Elmers, Hafenbau, in: Europäische Technik im Mittelalter 800 bis 1400. Tradition und Innovation. Ein Handbuch, produced by Uta Lindgren, Berlin 1996, pages 105–110; especially
page 110.
Heinz-Joachim Schulze, Das Alte Kloster und seine Geschichte, in: 1196 – 1296 – 1996. 800 Jahre Altes Kloster und 700 Jahre St.-Petri-Kirche in Buxtehude, jointly produced by the municipal authority of Buxtehude and
Buxtehude Savings Bank (Buxtehude Notes No. 6. Contributions from
Culture and Community yesterday and today), Buxtehude 1996 pages
17–106.
Adolf E. Hofmeister, Zur Gründung des Klosters Buxtehude, in: Lower Saxonia Annual for Local History produced by
the Historischen Kommission für Niedersachen und Bremen, Bd. 71,
Hannover 1999, pages. 235–258.
Jürgen Udolph, Anmerkungen zum Ortsnamen Buxtehude, in: Stader Jahrbuch 1999/2000, produced by Jan Lokers and assisted bySabine Graf und Christian
Hoffmann on behalf of the Stade Historical Society, Stade
2001,pages 35–47.
Brigide Schwarz, Geld-Segen aus Rom für den Bau der St.-Petri-Kirche in Buxtehude. Die Ablassurkunde von 1296, in: Heimatliches Buxtehude, Bd. VI, produced on behalf of the Buxthude Historical Society by
Hans-Georg Blank and Bernd Utermöhlen, Buxtehude 2003, pages
193–208.
Rüdiger Articus, „Buxtehude! ... das Entzücken der Hamburger Künstlerschaft“. Die Stadt an der Este in künstlerischen
Ansichten des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts (History of the town of Buxtehude, produced by Bernd Utermöhlen and
Klaus Frerichs), Buxtehude 2006.
