Stedingen

Stedingen is an area north of Bremen in the delta of the Weser river in north-western Germany.

Founding

In the year 1106, five Dutchmen made a long journey from the mouth of the Rhine to Bremen. They wanted to talk to the Archbishop of Bremen about taking over settling land on the Weser River, under certain conditions. They made an agreement whereby the Archbishop gave the farmers and their descendants the swampy regions south of the Hunte on both sides of the Weser for cultivation. This land was to pass from father to son in free hereditary possession. Every settler would pay a yearly tax of one pfennig, and in addition would pay the 11th sheaf of all fruits of the field and a 10th of livestock. In the administration of their lands and in secular jurisdiction the farmers and their descendants were free. When the Dutch farmers showed this agreement to their countrymen, after returning to their homeland, many young men eagerly set out to cultivate the new land on the Weser.

It was a difficult beginning. The troubled waters of the Weser flooded through moor and swamp. Heath, cotton grass and reeds covered the land and the riverbank. But the settlers took the work in hand. They dug ditches to drain much of the water, and they built dikes to provide dry land and to prevent the flooding. At first, there was little to gain from its soil. Often it was difficult for them to do their work, but they were free. And this freedom was worth all the difficulties. Other country folk had to perform compulsory services for their Counts and their Lords.