Misplaced Pages

#243756

172-468: The origins of the country castle ( Landesburg ) of Reineberg are lost in legend. According to the episcopal chronicler of the town of Minden the founding of the castle goes back to Bishop Conrad I of Rüdenberg (1209–1237). Osnabrück sources report, however, that the Osnabrück bishop, Adolf von Tecklenburg (1216–1224), was the co-founder ( Miterbauer ). In 1271 Reinberg Castle was first mentioned in

344-706: A 1042-founded Benedictine monastery removed in 1434 from the Weser shore to a new upper site, where the monastery of St Mauritius was founded. The Dominicane convent St Paul was established in 1236. German medieval sovereigns governed their realms with an itinerant court , travelling from town to town. Louis the German hold an imperial assembly in Minden in 852. The Emperors of the Ottonian and Salian dynasty visited Minden several times. When Henry IV came to visit in 1062,

516-464: A Prussian fortress until 1873, when Germany's Imperial Diet ( Reichstag ) passed the law to remove the fortress status of several fortified places, among them Minden. The fortress walls were razed by 1880 – the town had to pay for it – and a new Weser bridge was constructed, permitting the town to catch up economically. However, it was never able to regain its former political and economic importance. The upper class used

688-927: A biological site ( Biologische Station Nordholz ) for education in ecology. The percentage of woodland is smaller than in other towns of the same type. Old Saxony bef.798–804 [REDACTED] Duchy of Saxony 804–1180 [REDACTED] Prince-Bishopric of Minden 1180–1648 [REDACTED] Margraviate of Brandenburg 1648–1701 [REDACTED]   Kingdom of Prussia 1701–1807 [REDACTED] Kingdom of Westphalia 1807–1810 [REDACTED] First French Empire 1810–1813 [REDACTED]   Kingdom of Prussia 1813–1871 [REDACTED]   German Empire 1871–1918 [REDACTED]   Weimar Republic 1918–1933 [REDACTED]   Nazi Germany 1933–1945 [REDACTED]   Allied-occupied Germany 1945–1949 [REDACTED]   West Germany 1949–1990 [REDACTED]   Germany 1990–present The Minden area shows continuing settlement activity from

860-494: A contemporary account by the Minden cathedral canon, Tribbe, dating to the 15th century. Like almost all castles of this type the Reineburg was often enfeoffed due to its landlord's chronic shortage of money. Around 1525 we find Johann Tribbe as the seneschal of Reineburg. In 1543 the castle was enfeoffed to a widow, Clara of Hatzfeld, and her sons Meinolf and Joachim. Hardly had Bishop George come to power in 1554, when he issued

1032-653: A dispute between members of his entourage and citizens caused a fire that destroyed the cathedral and parts of the town. The imperial visit of Charles IV in October 1377 was the last one until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. In 1168, Henry the Lion , Duke of Saxony, married his second wife Matilda , daughter of Henry II of England , in Minden Cathedral ; with this marriage Henry maintained

1204-421: A few families and still others lived on isolated farms spread over the countryside. There were also areas where the pattern was a mix of two or more of those systems. Unlike in the late Roman period, there was no sharp break between the legal status of the free peasant and the aristocrat, and it was possible for a free peasant's family to rise into the aristocracy over several generations through military service to

1376-578: A fortress in 1764. The town functioned as the capital of the Prussian territory of Minden-Ravensberg from 1719 to 1807 and as the seat of the upper administrative authority named Kriegs- und Domänenkammer (Chamber of War Affairs and State Property), that ruled Minden-Ravensberg together with the Prussian territories of the County of Lingen and the County of Tecklenburg . The most prominent president of

1548-601: A king to rule over them all. By the late sixth century, this arrangement had been replaced by a permanent monarchy, the Kingdom of the Lombards . The invasions brought new ethnic groups to Europe, although some regions received a larger influx of new peoples than others. In Gaul for instance, the invaders settled much more extensively in the north-east than in the south-west. Slavs settled in Central and Eastern Europe and

1720-653: A municipal water supply system in the 1880s and an electric power station in 1902. Medieval In the history of Europe , the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the Post-classical period of global history . It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and

1892-567: A powerful lord. Roman city life and culture changed greatly in the early Middle Ages. Although Italian cities remained inhabited, they contracted significantly in size. Rome, for instance, shrank from a population of hundreds of thousands to around 30,000 by the end of the 6th century. Roman temples were converted into Christian churches and city walls remained in use. In Northern Europe, cities also shrank, while civic monuments and other public buildings were raided for building materials. The establishment of new kingdoms often meant some growth for

SECTION 10

#1732780871244

2064-466: A practical skill rather than a sign of elite status. In the 4th century, Jerome (d. 420) dreamed that God rebuked him for spending more time reading Cicero than the Bible . By the 6th century, Gregory of Tours (d. 594) had a similar dream, but instead of being chastised for reading Cicero, he was chastised for learning shorthand . By the late 6th century, the principal means of religious instruction in

2236-426: A regional oversight of the administrations of the five Minden and eight Ravensberg districts or Ämter . The Reineburg was now enfeoffed several times together with its associated Amt and was under the command of the Prussian king, Frederick William I. In 1723 it was demolished due to its dilapidated condition. The remaining usable material was used in the construction of the government building in Minden and also for

2408-538: A road network in the outer areas of the town. Since the 1890s, a sequence of six ring roads in the west and north of the town has formed the backbone of the road network. Grandiose festivities took place when Emperor William II and Empress Auguste Victoria visited Minden and the southern village of Barkhausen for inauguration of the Emperor William Monument on the Wittekindsberg above

2580-474: A small foothold in southern Spain. Justinian's reconquests have been criticised by historians for overextending his realm and setting the stage for the early Muslim conquests , but many of the difficulties faced by Justinian's successors were due not just to over-taxation to pay for his wars but to the essentially civilian nature of the empire, which made raising troops difficult. In the Eastern Empire

2752-575: Is administratively divided into 19 quarters: The area of the historical town until the 19th century is today part of the quarter Innenstadt. Minden has no meteorological station, therefore the data of the next station Bückeburg in distance of 10 kilometres (6 miles) are given. The meteorological data of the whole East-Westphalian region comply with zone Cfb of the Köppen climate classification , named as Temperate Oceanic climate . This rough classification gives no suitable and detailed description of

2924-709: Is crossed by the Weser flowing north. The town centre lies on a plateau on the western side of the river 5 kilometres (3 miles) north of the Porta Westfalica gap between the ridges of the Weser Hills and Wiehen Hills , where the Weser leaves the Weser Uplands and flows into the North German Plain . The small Bastau stream flows into the Weser from the west near the town centre. The edge of

3096-672: Is no universally agreed upon end date. Depending on the context, events such as the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, Christopher Columbus 's first voyage to the Americas in 1492, or the Protestant Reformation in 1517 are sometimes used. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period. For Spain, dates commonly used are the death of King Ferdinand II in 1516,

3268-631: The Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 58 encamped a new barracks area in the nordwest of the town centre. The Hanoveran Pionier-Battalion No. 10 was part of the X Corps , that was incorporated into the Prussian Army after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and had its barracks near to Minden station. The main military training area was a large location in today's quarter of Minderheide at the very northwest edge of

3440-539: The fyrd , which were led by the local elites. In military technology, one of the main changes was the return of the crossbow , which had been known in Roman times and reappeared as a military weapon during the last part of the Early Middle Ages. Another change was the introduction of the stirrup, which increased the effectiveness of cavalry as shock troops. A technological advance that had implications beyond

3612-619: The Age of Discovery . The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity , the medieval period, and the modern period . The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early , High , and Late Middle Ages . Population decline , counterurbanisation , the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes , which had begun in Late Antiquity , continued into

SECTION 20

#1732780871244

3784-717: The Alans , Vandals , and Suevi crossed into Gaul ; over the next three years they spread across Gaul and in 409 crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into modern-day Spain. The Migration Period began, when various peoples, initially largely Germanic peoples , moved across Europe. The Franks , Alemanni , and the Burgundians all ended up in northern Gaul while the Angles , Saxons , and Jutes settled in Britain , and

3956-637: The Amt of Hüllhorst . Of the rudimentary remains of this castle site only the castle moat is still visible on the summit. it is 310 metres long and between 15 and 22 metres wide. It is said of the Reineberg that the Saxon prince, Wittekind , who was suffering from leprosy, "came from the Limberge , reached the spring of Linderung on the western side, went from there to the Reineberg and was cleansed there. Whence

4128-529: The Benedictine Rule for Western monasticism during the 6th century, detailing the administrative and spiritual responsibilities of a community of monks led by an abbot . Monks and monasteries had a deep effect on the religious and political life of the Early Middle Ages, in various cases acting as land trusts for powerful families, centres of propaganda and royal support in newly conquered regions, and bases for missions and proselytisation. They were

4300-643: The Bundesstraße 65  [ de ] from Minden to Lübbecke and the regional road from Minden to Espelkamp . The villages, so connected, have developed into settlements of considerable size. The Bastau depression is wood and housing estate-free, having agricultural use. Only one north-south road passes through it, southwest of the town. The gleysols of this area as well as in the Weser valley depression are in agricultural use after drainage. Four nature conservation areas extend completely or partly over Minden territory. The most northern of them provides

4472-697: The Carolingian dynasty , briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th and early 9th centuries. It covered much of Western Europe but later succumbed to the pressures of internal civil wars combined with external invasions: Vikings from the north, Magyars from the east, and Saracens from the south. During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and

4644-565: The Cologne-Minden Railway Company was opened in 1847 with a solidly fortified station and connected with the Hanover–Minden railway . After defortification, the railway got an important momentum for economic growth in Minden. The spatial narrowness in the fortress restricted the development of industrial firms of different branches to a certain degree, but did not prevent it. The dominant industry, as well as in

4816-531: The Desert Fathers of Egypt and Syria . Most European monasteries were of the type that focuses on community experience of the spiritual life, called cenobitism , which was pioneered by Pachomius (d. 348) in the 4th century. Monastic ideals spread from Egypt to Western Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries through hagiographical literature such as the Life of Anthony . Benedict of Nursia (d. 547) wrote

4988-543: The Dümmer Geest Lowland . The eastern part lies in the Middle Weser Valley depression. Crossing the Weser valley was once favoured by a ford with a break in the middle; there its meander touches the western edge of the valley, the eastern floodplain is usually flood-meadow, so that the central bridgehead ( Brückenkopf ) becomes a river island . Today a system of two bridges crosses

5160-584: The Gregorian chant in liturgical music for the churches. An important activity for scholars during this period was the copying, correcting, and dissemination of basic works on religious and secular topics, with the aim of encouraging learning. New works on religious topics and schoolbooks were also produced. Grammarians of the period modified the Latin language, changing it from the Classical Latin of

5332-714: The Macedonian dynasty . Commerce revived and the emperors oversaw the extension of a uniform administration to all the provinces. The military was reorganised, which allowed the emperors John I (r. 969–976) and Basil II (r. 976–1025) to expand the frontiers of the empire on all fronts. The imperial court was the centre of a revival of classical learning, a process known as the Macedonian Renaissance . Writers such as John Geometres ( fl. early 10th century) composed new hymns, poems, and other works. Missionary efforts by both Eastern and Western clergy resulted in

Reineberg - Misplaced Pages Continue

5504-486: The Medieval Warm Period climate change allowed crop yields to increase. Manorialism , the organisation of peasants into villages that owed rent and labour services to the nobles , and feudalism , the political structure whereby knights and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rent from lands and manors , were two of the ways society was organized in

5676-721: The Peace of Westphalia in 1648  CE , as capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Minden as imperial territory since the 12th century, afterwards as capital of Prussia 's Minden-Ravensberg until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, and as capital of the East-Westphalian region from the Congress of Vienna until 1947. Furthermore, Minden has been of great military importance with fortifications from

5848-451: The Porta Westfalica gap on 18 October 1896. Since then the monument has been a visible element of the southern view from Minden. The first line of the Minden tramway has connected the primary site of the memorial with Minden since 1893 when the memorial was still under construction. The Minden District Railways ( Mindener Kreisbahnen ), founded in 1898, built up a narrow-gauge railway net with three lines until World War I. Minden got

6020-484: The 15th to the late 19th century, and is still a garrison town. Minden hosts diverse industries, none predominant. The town has been terminus of one of the oldest German railway trunks since 1847, adding to the multimodal transport hub between its harbour, federal roads, and a nearby highway ( Autobahn ) junction. Minden is a town in the northeastern part of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia . The town

6192-468: The 17th-century German historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods: ancient, medieval, and modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is around 500, with the date of 476 first used by Bruni. Later starting dates are sometimes used in the outer parts of Europe. For Europe as a whole, 1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there

6364-582: The 1st to the 4th century, when it belonged to the Weser–Rhine Germanic development sphere. During the Roman campaigns in Germania , this part of Westphalia came into the focus of military activities. It remains a matter of discussion whether or not the Minden region was the location of the military camp from where commander Publius Quinctilius Varus began marching to the, for Rome disastrous, Battle of

6536-478: The 5th and the 7th centuries, going first to England and Scotland and then on to the continent. Under such monks as Columba (d. 597) and Columbanus (d. 615), they founded monasteries, taught in Latin and Greek, and authored secular and religious works. The Early Middle Ages witnessed the rise of monasticism in the West. The shape of European monasticism was determined by traditions and ideas that originated with

6708-731: The 5th century. The Eastern Empire was marked by closer relations between the political state and Christian Church, with doctrinal matters assuming an importance in Eastern politics that they did not have in Western Europe. Legal developments included the codification of Roman law ; the first effort—the Codex Theodosianus —was completed in 438. Under Emperor Justinian (r. 527–565), another compilation took place—the Corpus Juris Civilis . Justinian also oversaw

6880-685: The 6th and 7th centuries, all of them ruled by the Merovingian dynasty, who were descended from Clovis. The 7th century was a tumultuous period of wars between Austrasia and Neustria. Such warfare was exploited by Pippin (d. 640), the Mayor of the Palace for Austrasia who became the power behind the Austrasian throne. Later members of his family inherited the office, acting as advisers and regents. One of his descendants, Charles Martel (d. 741), won

7052-651: The Arabs. The migrations and invasions of the 4th and 5th centuries disrupted trade networks around the Mediterranean. African goods stopped being imported into Europe, first disappearing from the interior and by the 7th century found only in a few cities such as Rome or Naples . By the end of the 7th century, under the impact of the Muslim conquests , African products were no longer found in Western Europe. The replacement of goods from long-range trade with local products

Reineberg - Misplaced Pages Continue

7224-536: The Bald received the western Frankish lands, comprising most of modern-day France. Charlemagne's grandsons and great-grandsons divided their kingdoms between their descendants, eventually causing all internal cohesion to be lost. In 987 the Carolingian dynasty was replaced in the western lands, with the crowning of Hugh Capet (r. 987–996) as king. In the eastern lands the dynasty had died out earlier, in 911, with

7396-551: The Balkan Peninsula. The settlement of peoples was accompanied by changes in languages. Latin , the literary language of the Western Roman Empire, was gradually replaced by vernacular languages which evolved from Latin, but were distinct from it, collectively known as Romance languages . These changes from Latin to the new languages took many centuries. Greek remained the language of the Byzantine Empire, but

7568-643: The Battle of Poitiers in 732, halting the advance of Muslim armies across the Pyrenees. Great Britain was divided into small states dominated by the kingdoms of Northumbria , Mercia , Wessex , and East Anglia which descended from the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Smaller kingdoms in present-day Wales and Scotland were still under the control of the native Britons and Picts . Ireland was divided into even smaller political units, usually known as tribal kingdoms, under

7740-577: The Byzantine Empire, as the assumption of the imperial title by the Carolingians asserted their equivalence to the Byzantine state. There were several differences between the newly established Carolingian Empire and both the older Western Roman Empire and the concurrent Byzantine Empire. The Frankish lands were rural in character, with only a few small cities. Most of the people were peasants settled on small farms. Little trade existed and much of that

7912-523: The Byzantine Empire, which he sealed with the marriage of his son Otto II (r. 967–983) to Theophanu (d. 991), daughter of an earlier Byzantine Emperor Romanos II (r. 959–963). By the late 10th century Italy had been drawn into the Ottonian sphere after a period of instability; Otto III (r. 996–1002) spent much of his later reign in the kingdom. The western Frankish kingdom was more fragmented, and although kings remained nominally in charge, much of

8084-453: The Catholic occupation the bishop ordered the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1630; the calendar was re-set in 1634 under the Swedish régime, but finally standardized to the new style in 1668. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 secularized the Prince-Bishopric to the Principality of Minden and assigned the territory to the Prince Electorate of Brandenburg , later named Brandenburg-Prussia . Swedish troops moved back in 1650, and

8256-462: The Christian period as nova (or "new"). Petrarch regarded the post-Roman centuries as " dark " compared to the "light" of classical antiquity . Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People (1442), with a middle period "between the fall of the Roman Empire and the revival of city life sometime in late eleventh and twelfth centuries". Tripartite periodisation became standard after

8428-422: The Church had widened to the extent that the cultural and religious differences were greater than the similarities. The formal break, known as the East–West Schism , came in 1054, when the papacy and the patriarchy of Constantinople clashed over papal supremacy and excommunicated each other, which led to the division of Christianity into two Churches—the Western branch became the Roman Catholic Church and

8600-499: The Church had become music and art rather than the book. Most intellectual efforts went towards imitating classical scholarship, but some original works were created, along with now-lost oral compositions. The writings of Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489), Cassiodorus (d. c.  585 ), and Boethius (d. c. 525) were typical of the age. Changes also took place among laymen, as aristocratic culture focused on great feasts held in halls rather than on literary pursuits. Clothing for

8772-448: The Dnieper River in modern Ukraine to the Adriatic Sea. By 1018, the last Bulgarian nobles had surrendered to the Byzantine Empire. Few large stone buildings were constructed between the Constantinian basilicas of the 4th century and the 8th century, although many smaller ones were built during the 6th and 7th centuries. By the beginning of the 8th century, the Carolingian Empire revived the basilica form of architecture. One feature of

SECTION 50

#1732780871244

8944-534: The Early Middle Ages are mostly illuminated manuscripts and carved ivories , originally made for metalwork that has since been melted down. Objects in precious metals were the most prestigious form of art, but almost all are lost except for a few crosses such as the Cross of Lothair , several reliquaries , and finds such as the Anglo-Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo and the hoards of Gourdon from Merovingian France, Guarrazar from Visigothic Spain and Nagyszentmiklós near Byzantine territory. There are survivals from

9116-457: The Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period , including various Germanic peoples , formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire —came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate , an Islamic empire, after conquest by Muhammad's successors . Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures,

9288-455: The Eastern branch the Eastern Orthodox Church . The ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Empire survived the movements and invasions in the west mostly intact, but the papacy was little regarded, and few of the Western bishops looked to the bishop of Rome for religious or political leadership. Many of the popes prior to 750 were more concerned with Byzantine affairs and Eastern theological controversies. The register, or archived copies of

9460-427: The Eastern emperors to pay tribute. They remained a strong power until 796. An additional problem to face the empire came as a result of the involvement of Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) in Persian politics when he intervened in a succession dispute . This led to a period of peace, but when Maurice was overthrown, the Persians invaded and during the reign of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) controlled large chunks of

9632-436: The European population remained rural peasants. Many were no longer settled in isolated farms but had gathered into small communities, usually known as manors or villages. These peasants were often subject to noble overlords and owed them rents and other services, in a system known as manorialism . There remained a few free peasants throughout this period and beyond, with more of them in the regions of Southern Europe than in

9804-441: The Frankish King Charles the Simple (r. 898–922) to settle in what became Normandy . The eastern parts of the Frankish kingdoms, especially Germany and Italy, were under continual Magyar assault until the invader's defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. The breakup of the Abbasid dynasty meant that the Islamic world fragmented into smaller political states, some of which began expanding into Italy and Sicily, as well as over

9976-466: The Franks and Celtic Britons set up small polities. Francia was centred in northern Gaul, and the first king of whom much is known is Childeric I (d. 481). His grave was discovered in 1653 and is remarkable for its grave goods , which included weapons and a large quantity of gold. Under Childeric's son Clovis I (r. 509–511), the founder of the Merovingian dynasty , the Frankish kingdom expanded and converted to Christianity. The Britons, related to

10148-443: The French troops abandoned Minden on 3 November 1813 after the disastrous Battle of Leipzig , they blew up some of the arches of the Weser bridge, with the damage replaced for decades by a wooden auxiliary construction only. Minden became part of the Kingdom of Prussia again as capital both of the District of Minden and the government region ( Regierungsbezirk Minden ) in the new formed Province of Westphalia . By royal order it

10320-425: The German tried to annex all of East Francia. Louis the Pious died in 840, with the empire still in chaos. A three-year civil war followed his death. By the Treaty of Verdun (843), a kingdom between the Rhine and Rhone rivers was created for Lothair to go with his lands in Italy, and his imperial title was recognised. Louis the German was in control of Bavaria and the eastern lands in modern-day Germany. Charles

10492-431: The Great (d. 526) and set up a kingdom marked by its co-operation between the Italians and the Ostrogoths, at least until the last years of Theodoric's reign. The Burgundians settled in Gaul, and after an earlier realm was destroyed by the Huns in 436, formed a new kingdom in the 440s. Between today's Geneva and Lyon , it grew to become the realm of Burgundy in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Elsewhere in Gaul,

SECTION 60

#1732780871244

10664-438: The High Middle Ages. This period also saw the collapse of the unified Christian church, with the East-West Schism of 1054 . The Crusades , first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims . Kings became the heads of centralised nation-states , reducing crime and violence but making the ideal of a unified Christendom more distant. Intellectual life

10836-403: The Italian peninsula was conquered by the Ostrogoths . The Eastern Roman Empire, often referred to as the Byzantine Empire after the fall of its western counterpart, had little ability to assert control over the lost western territories. The Byzantine emperors maintained a claim over the territory, but while none of the new kings in the west dared to elevate himself to the position of emperor of

11008-619: The Late Middle Ages and beginning the early modern period . The Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history : classical civilisation or Antiquity , the Middle Ages and the Modern Period . The "Middle Ages" first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or "middle season". In early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum , or "middle age", first recorded in 1604, and media saecula , or "middle centuries", first recorded in 1625. The adjective "medieval" (or sometimes "mediaeval" or "mediæval"), meaning pertaining to

11180-439: The Lombards, which freed the papacy from the fear of Lombard conquest and marked the beginnings of the Papal States . The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor on Christmas Day 800 is regarded as a turning point in medieval history, marking a return of the Western Roman Empire, since the new emperor ruled over much of the area previously controlled by the Western emperors. It also marks a change in Charlemagne's relationship with

11352-405: The Mediterranean, pottery remained prevalent and appears to have been traded over medium-range networks, not just produced locally. The various Germanic states in the west all had coinages that imitated existing Roman and Byzantine forms. Gold continued to be minted until the end of the 7th century in 693-94 when it was replaced by silver in the Merovingian kingdom. The basic Frankish silver coin

11524-411: The Middle Ages, derives from medium aevum . Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the " Six Ages " or the " Four Empires ", and considered their time to be the last before the end of the world. When referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being "modern". In the 1330s, the Italian humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua (or "ancient") and to

11696-496: The Middle East than Europe, losing control of sections of the Muslim lands. Umayyad descendants took over the Iberian Peninsula, the Aghlabids controlled North Africa, and the Tulunids became rulers of Egypt. By the middle of the 8th century, new trading patterns were emerging in the Mediterranean; trade between the Franks and the Arabs replaced the old Roman economy . Franks traded timber, furs, swords and slaves in return for silks and other fabrics, spices, and precious metals from

11868-407: The Prussian Principality of Minden . Even today the Reineberg is the name of a village in the collective municipality of Hüllhorst south of the Wiehen Hills ( Ahlsen-Reineberg ). This municipality has a depiction of the Reineburg in its coat of arms. In 1951 an official survey of the visible remains of the castle was carried out. Local historian, Professor Langewische from Bünde , discovered that

12040-501: The Pyrenees into the southern parts of the Frankish kingdoms. Efforts by local kings to fight the invaders led to the formation of new political entities. In Anglo-Saxon England , King Alfred the Great (r. 871–899) came to an agreement with the Viking invaders in the late 9th century, resulting in Danish settlements in Northumbria, Mercia, and parts of East Anglia. By the middle of the 10th century, Alfred's successors had conquered Northumbria, and restored English control over most of

12212-399: The Reineberg received its name" ( rein = pure, clean). In this spring is supposed to be an underground vault with a magic entrance in which "King Weking's silver cradle stands" . Today the Reineberg falls within the borough of Lübbecke, but once belonged to the Amt of Reineberg, later Hüllhorst. The old Amt of Reineberg or Amt Reineberger Feld existed from 1723 to 1807 and belonged to

12384-424: The Reineberg without permission to Count Nicholas II of Tecklenburg. The bishop protested and besieged the castle. Tecklenburg troops advanced to do battle, but were driven off by Lübbecke's townsfolk with support from the seneschal ( Drost ) of Limberg , Allhard von dem Busche. Attempts by Tecklenburg, to gain ownership of the castle were thus foiled. Reineberg Castle was turned into a strong fortress according to

12556-524: The Reineburg once had five outer baileys. From the southern edge of the town of Lübbecke, e. g. from the Waldstadion (stadium), the Reineberg may be reached on foot in 15–20 minutes. The parth around the Reinberg is about 1.1 kilometres long. Minden Minden ( German: [ˈmɪndn] ) is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany,

12728-623: The Rhine and eastwards, leaving Charles West Francia with the empire to the west of the Rhineland and the Alps. Louis the German (d. 876), the middle child, who had been rebellious to the last, was allowed to keep Bavaria under the suzerainty of his elder brother. The division was disputed. Pepin II of Aquitaine (d. after 864), the emperor's grandson, rebelled in a contest for Aquitaine , while Louis

12900-737: The Roman Empire into a more flexible form to fit the needs of the Church and government. By the reign of Charlemagne, the language had so diverged from the classical Latin that it was later called Medieval Latin . Charlemagne planned to continue the Frankish tradition of dividing his kingdom between all his heirs, but was unable to do so as only one son, Louis the Pious (r. 814–840), was still alive by 813. Just before Charlemagne died in 814, he crowned Louis as his successor. Louis's reign of 26 years

13072-496: The Romans and the invaders are often similar, and tribal items were often modelled on Roman objects. Much of the scholarly and written culture of the new kingdoms was also based on Roman intellectual traditions. An important difference was the gradual loss of tax revenue by the new polities. Many of the new political entities no longer supported their armies through taxes, instead relying on granting them land or rents. This meant there

13244-728: The Schaumburg district. In both elevations the hard coal containing Berriasian layers reach near to the surface. By reason of the correspondence of the Bückeberg Formation to the Wealden Group , the type of coal found here was named Wealdenkohle in German. Mining in the Minden Coalfield started in the 17th century during the Swedish occupation and ended in the late 19th century. Another coal mine in

13416-668: The Teutoburg Forest in 9  CE . Likewise, the localization of the Battle of Idistaviso and the Battle of the Angrivarian Wall , both taking place in 16  CE , to the eastern part of Minden or its neighbour town of Porta Westfalica is uncertain. Definite archaeological proofs for these locations have not been found as of 2024 . However, relicts of a temporary Roman military camp were found in Barkhausen in 2008, about 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) south of

13588-636: The Vandals went on to cross the strait of Gibraltar after which they conquered the province of Africa . In the 430s the Huns began invading the empire; their king Attila (r. 434–453) led invasions into the Balkans in 442 and 447, Gaul in 451, and Italy in 452. The Hunnic threat remained until Attila's death in 453, when the Hunnic confederation he led fell apart. These invasions by the tribes completely changed

13760-543: The Weser department. On 1 January 1811 Napoleon moved Minden to the department Ems-Supérieur of the French Empire ; now the Weser formed the eastern frontier between France and Westphalia. The rights of the Cathedral chapter in the cathedral close were abolished, the still existing convents were dissolved, and some ecclesiastical buildings like St John's church were secularized and used for military purposes. Before

13932-496: The Weser depression, Weichselian gravel deposits are found and used in gravel pits. The forestry use of the considerably inclined Wiehen Hills shows a striking contrast to the nearly woodless loess stripes of the northern foothills as well as north of the Bastau depression. The loess developed to most fertile soils ( luvisols ) and has been used as arable land since prehistoric times. Both of its stripes are key traffic veins, today

14104-640: The Weser ;– like Bremen and Münden  – had similar rights, many conflicts arose about the partly contradictory legal positions. In course of the War of the Fourth Coalition , French troops occupied the town on 13 November 1806. In the following year Napoleon founded the Kingdom of Westphalia , governed by his brother Jerome Bonaparte as king, and Minden became part of this client state until 1810 as district capital in

14276-455: The West were not uniform; some areas had greatly fragmented landholding patterns, but in other areas large contiguous blocks of land were the norm. These differences allowed for a wide variety of peasant societies, some dominated by aristocratic landholders and others having a great deal of autonomy. Land settlement also varied greatly. Some peasants lived in large settlements that numbered as many as 700 inhabitants. Others lived in small groups of

14448-639: The Wiehen Hills is often connected with clear sky in the north of the hills. The Wiehen Hills escarpment extends more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) from west of Osnabrück to the Porta Westfalica gap and is continued in the Weser Hills range. The escarpment forming horizons incline gently flattening to the north; they are of jurassic age, overlayed by cretaceous sediments that form the hill of Bölhorst, and tertiary layers further to

14620-567: The acceptance of figurative monumental sculpture in Christian art , and by the end of the period near life-sized figures such as the Gero Cross were common in important churches. During the later Roman Empire, the principal military developments were attempts to create an effective cavalry force as well as the continued development of highly specialised types of troops. The creation of heavily armoured cataphract -type soldiers as cavalry

14792-623: The allied French and Saxonian troops in a decisive battle. The region remained Prussian, with the adjacent region in the possession of the British King George II (being the Prince-elector of Hanover in personal union ). Because French troops had occupied the town twice during the war, King Frederick the Great realized that it could no more be defended in the old manner; thus he gave order to annul Minden's status as

14964-417: The basilica is the use of a transept , or the "arms" of a cross-shaped building that are perpendicular to the long nave . Other new features of religious architecture include the crossing tower and a monumental entrance to the church , usually at the west end of the building. Carolingian art was produced for a small group of figures around the court, and the monasteries and churches they supported. It

15136-632: The break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire, Rome's direct continuation, survived in the Eastern Mediterranean and remained a major power. The empire's law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or "Code of Justinian", was rediscovered in Northern Italy in the 11th century. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions. Monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks , under

15308-609: The castle for twelve years following a treaty. During the Thirty Years' War the castle was badly damaged again and plundered three times: in 1636, 1638 and 1640. On 9 September 1636, Imperial Staff Sergeant ( Oberwachtmeister ) Heister, had the entire record office on the Reineberge burned. On 28 March 1673 Münster troops captured Lübbecke and Reineberg in the course of the Franco-Dutch War , because Brandenburg

15480-405: The centre of Minden. The name Minda was firstly mentioned in a Royal Frankish Annals record referring to an army assembly held by Charlemagne in 798  CE . The location of the so-named settlement is supposed at the left river side, where today's Fischerstadt exists. Directly neighbouring was the suspected site of a permanent frankish army camp and a royal estate, located favourably at

15652-628: The chamber was the Baron vom Stein (in office from 1796 to 1803). The Weser had long been an important trade route, and the legal regulation of trading had immense significance. In 1552 Emperor Charles V conferred the privilege of its merchants' unhindered trading on the whole Weser to the town of Minden. During the Thirty Years' War, Emperor Ferdinand II confirmed the staple right to Minden in 1627, meaning that all passing merchants had to offer their goods for sale for some days. As other towns on

15824-524: The citizens was demonstrated by the construction of the town hall, probably adjoining the separately governed cathedral precinct. As a result, the Bishop moved his official residence from Minden to Petershagen in 1307. The economic development of Minden was influenced by its location on a navigable river and by its success in grain trading since the Middle Ages. Minden got the right to store goods and could force passing ships to unload their cargo; furthermore

15996-407: The city of Byzantium as the newly renamed eastern capital, Constantinople . Diocletian's reforms strengthened the governmental bureaucracy, reformed taxation, and strengthened the army, which bought the empire time but did not resolve the problems it was facing: excessive taxation, a declining birthrate, and pressures on its frontiers, among others. Civil war between rival emperors became common in

16168-599: The conquest of North Africa sundered maritime connections between those areas. Increasingly, the Byzantine Church differed in language, practices, and liturgy from the Western Church. The Eastern Church used Greek instead of the Western Latin. Theological and political differences emerged, and by the early and middle 8th century issues such as iconoclasm , clerical marriage , and state control of

16340-743: The construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the reconquest of North Africa from the Vandals and Italy from the Ostrogoths, under Belisarius (d. 565). The conquest of Italy was not complete, as a deadly outbreak of plague in 542 led to the rest of Justinian's reign concentrating on defensive measures rather than further conquests. At the Emperor's death, the Byzantines had control of most of Italy , North Africa, and

16512-548: The continuance of the House of Welf . The rights to hold a market, to mint coins, and to collect customs duties were granted in 977 by Emperor Otto II . Until the beginning of the 13th century, the bishop appointed the Wichgraf as secular administrator of the town. The citizens of Minden and their council obtained independence from the bishop's rule around 1230 and received a town charter in 1301. The increased self-confidence of

16684-551: The control of kings. There were perhaps as many as 150 local kings in Ireland, of varying importance. The Carolingian dynasty , as the successors to Charles Martel are known, officially took control of the kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria in a coup of 753 led by Pippin III (r. 752–768). A contemporary chronicle claims that Pippin sought, and gained, authority for this coup from Pope Stephen II (pope 752–757). Pippin's takeover

16856-638: The conversion of the Moravians , Bulgars , Bohemians , Poles , Magyars, and Slavic inhabitants of the Kievan Rus' . These conversions contributed to the founding of political states in the lands of those peoples—the states of Moravia , Bulgaria , Bohemia , Poland , Hungary, and the Kievan Rus'. Bulgaria, which was founded around 680, at its height reached from Budapest to the Black Sea and from

17028-822: The death of Louis the Child , and the selection of the unrelated Conrad I (r. 911–918) as king. The breakup of the Carolingian Empire was accompanied by invasions, migrations, and raids by external foes. The Atlantic and northern shores were harassed by the Vikings , who also raided the British Isles and settled there as well as in Iceland. In 911, the Viking chieftain Rollo (d. c. 931) received permission from

17200-401: The death of Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1504, or the conquest of Granada in 1492. Historians from Romance-speaking countries tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts: an earlier "High" and later "Low" period. English-speaking historians, following their German counterparts, generally subdivide the Middle Ages into three intervals: "Early", "High", and "Late". In the 19th century,

17372-578: The disorder, was killed fighting the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378. In addition to the threat from such tribal confederacies in the north, internal divisions within the empire, especially within the Christian Church, caused problems. In 400, the Visigoths invaded the Western Roman Empire and, although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 sacked the city of Rome . In 406

17544-442: The early Carolingian period, with a growing dominance of elite heavy cavalry. The use of militia-type levies of the free population declined over the Carolingian period. Although much of the Carolingian armies were mounted, a large proportion during the early period appear to have been mounted infantry , rather than true cavalry. One exception was Anglo-Saxon England, where the armies were still composed of regional levies, known as

17716-518: The eastern quarter of Meißen worked from 1878 to 1958. A source of 10-percentage brine with its origin in the deep Zechstein series was pumped in the Bölhorst mine and once used for balneotherapy . The last relief -forming age was the pleistocene . During the Saalian glaciation the whole region was ice-covered, now verified by glacial erratic rocks from Scandinavia placed for decoration in

17888-821: The edge of the Wiehen Hills in the quarter of Haddenhausen. The altitude of the town is given officially as 42.2 metres (138.5 feet), based on the elevation of the town hall. The town covers an area of 101.12 square kilometres (39.04 sq mi). It extends 13.1 km (8.1 miles) from north to south and 14.1 km (9 mi) from east to west. Minden is 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Bielefeld , 60 km (37 miles) west of Hanover , 80 km (50 mi) south of Bremen and 60 km (37 mi) east of Osnabrück . The neighbouring towns and communities of Minden are (clockwise from north): Petershagen , Bückeburg ( Schaumburg District in Lower Saxony), Porta Westfalica , Bad Oeynhausen , and Hille . Minden

18060-531: The elites was richly embellished with jewels and gold. Lords and kings supported entourages of fighters who formed the backbone of the military forces. Family ties within the elites were important, as were the virtues of loyalty, courage, and honour. These ties led to the prevalence of the feud in aristocratic society, examples of which included those related by Gregory of Tours that took place in Merovingian Gaul. Most feuds seem to have ended quickly with

18232-591: The emergence of Islam in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad (d. 632). After his death, Islamic forces conquered much of the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia, starting with Syria in 634–635, continuing with Persia between 637 and 642, reaching Egypt in 640–641, North Africa in the later seventh century, and the Iberian Peninsula in 711. By 714, Islamic forces controlled much of

18404-403: The empire than tax-payers. The Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) split the empire into separately administered eastern and western halves in 286; the empire was not considered divided by its inhabitants or rulers, as legal and administrative promulgations in one division were considered valid in the other. In 330, after a period of civil war, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) refounded

18576-573: The empire to Christianity , a gradual process that lasted from the 2nd to the 5th centuries. In 376, the Goths , fleeing from the Huns , received permission from Emperor Valens (r. 364–378) to settle in the Roman province of Thracia in the Balkans . The settlement did not go smoothly, and when Roman officials mishandled the situation, the Goths began to raid and plunder. Valens, attempting to put down

18748-447: The empire, including Egypt, Syria, and Anatolia until Heraclius' successful counterattack. In 628 the empire secured a peace treaty and recovered all of its lost territories. In Western Europe, some of the older Roman elite families died out while others became more involved with ecclesiastical than secular affairs. Values attached to Latin scholarship and education mostly disappeared, and while literacy remained important, it became

18920-486: The empire. Such movements were aided by the refusal of the Western Roman elites to support the army or pay the taxes that would have allowed the military to suppress the migration. The emperors of the 5th century were often controlled by military strongmen such as Stilicho (d. 408), Aetius (d. 454), Aspar (d. 471), Ricimer (d. 472), or Gundobad (d. 516), who were partly or fully of non-Roman background. When

19092-454: The entire Middle Ages were often referred to as the " Dark Ages ", but with the adoption of these subdivisions, use of this term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages, at least among historians. The Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century AD; the following two centuries witnessed the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories. Economic issues, including inflation, and external pressure on

19264-584: The frontiers combined to create the Crisis of the Third Century , with emperors coming to the throne only to be rapidly replaced by new usurpers. Military expenses increased steadily during the 3rd century, mainly in response to the war with the Sasanian Empire , which revived in the middle of the 3rd century. The army doubled in size, and cavalry and smaller units replaced the Roman legion as

19436-400: The governance of the territory. Reineberg Castle was, as mentioned, according to a treaty of 1306, initially in the common ownership of the neighbouring prince-bishops of Minden and Osnabrück. In 1412 we find the knight ( Ritter ), Dietrich von Münchhausen, as the tenant of the castle, in a dispute with his landlord, Bishop Wulbrand, and the cathedral chapter of Minden, because he had enfeoffed

19608-451: The imperial officials called missi dominici , who served as roving inspectors and troubleshooters. Charlemagne's court in Aachen was the centre of the cultural revival sometimes referred to as the " Carolingian Renaissance ". Literacy increased, as did development in the arts, architecture and jurisprudence, as well as liturgical and scriptural studies. The English monk Alcuin (d. 804)

19780-415: The king of the united Austrasia and Neustria. Charles, more often known as Charles the Great or Charlemagne , embarked upon a programme of systematic expansion in 774 that unified a large portion of Europe, eventually controlling modern-day France, northern Italy, and Saxony . In the wars that lasted beyond 800, he rewarded allies with war booty and command over parcels of land. In 774, Charlemagne conquered

19952-679: The large brooches in fibula or penannular form that were a key piece of personal adornment for elites, including the Irish Tara Brooch . Highly decorated books were mostly Gospel Books and these have survived in larger numbers , including the Insular Book of Kells , the Book of Lindisfarne , and the imperial Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram , which is one of the few to retain its " treasure binding " of gold encrusted with jewels. Charlemagne's court seems to have been responsible for

20124-614: The largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover . It is the capital of the district ( Kreis ) of Minden-Lübbecke , which is part of the region of Detmold . The town extends along both sides of the River Weser , and is crossed by the Mittelland Canal , which is led over the river on the Minden Aqueduct . In its 1,200-year written history, Minden had functions as diocesan town from 800  CE to

20296-528: The letters, of Pope Gregory the Great (pope 590–604) survived, and of those more than 850 letters, the vast majority were concerned with affairs in Italy or Constantinople. The only part of Western Europe where the papacy had influence was Britain, where Gregory had sent the Gregorian mission in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Irish missionaries were most active in Western Europe between

20468-417: The line of Western emperors ceased, many of the kings who replaced them were from the same background. Intermarriage between the new kings and the Roman elites was common. This led to a fusion of Roman culture with the customs of the invading tribes, including the popular assemblies that allowed free male tribal members more say in political matters than was common in the Roman state. Material artefacts left by

20640-501: The lower Weser terrace was soon surrounded to the north and west by a settlement of artisans and merchants, who lived in a parish of their own. The development of the upper town began with the activities of ecclesiastical convents. A convent of Benedictine nuns removed from the Wiehen Hills to the northwestern edge of the town around St Mary approximately 1000  CE . In 1029, the Canonical Convent of St Martin appears, and

20812-517: The main and sometimes only outposts of education and literacy in a region. Many of the surviving manuscripts of the Latin classics were copied in monasteries in the Early Middle Ages. Monks were also the authors of new works, including history, theology, and other subjects, written by authors such as Bede (d. 735), a native of northern England who wrote in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. The Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul split into kingdoms called Austrasia , Neustria , and Burgundy during

20984-410: The main tactical unit. The need for revenue led to increased taxes and a decline in numbers of the curial , or landowning, class, and decreasing numbers of them willing to shoulder the burdens of holding office in their native towns. More bureaucrats were needed in the central administration to deal with the needs of the army, which led to complaints from civilians that there were more tax-collectors in

21156-467: The middle of the 4th century, diverting soldiers from the empire's frontier forces and allowing invaders to encroach. For much of the 4th century, Roman society stabilised in a new form that differed from the earlier classical period , with a widening gulf between the rich and poor, and a decline in the vitality of the smaller towns. Another change was the Christianisation , or conversion of

21328-488: The migrations of the Slavs added Slavic languages to Eastern Europe. As Western Europe witnessed the formation of new kingdoms, the Eastern Roman Empire remained intact and experienced an economic revival that lasted into the early 7th century. There were fewer invasions of the eastern section of the empire; most occurred in the Balkans. Peace with the Sasanian Empire , the traditional enemy of Rome, lasted throughout most of

21500-464: The military was the horseshoe , which allowed horses to be used in rocky terrain. The High Middle Ages was a period of tremendous expansion of population . The estimated population of Europe grew from 35 to 80 million between 1000 and 1347, although the exact causes remain unclear: improved agricultural techniques, the decline of slaveholding, a more clement climate and the lack of invasion have all been suggested. As much as 90 per cent of

21672-786: The natives of Britannia  – modern-day Great Britain – settled in what is now Brittany . Other monarchies were established by the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula , the Suebi in northwestern Iberia, and the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa . In the sixth century, the Lombards settled in Northern Italy , replacing the Ostrogothic kingdom with a grouping of duchies that occasionally selected

21844-414: The new Amt office in the Reineberger Felde (called zum Siek ), where several domestic buildings already existed. Finally the castle came under the general influence of the Bishop of Minden and became a Minden state castle or Landesburg . The fortifications in front of the castle show signs of medieval siege technology. The castle estate developed into the Minden Amt of Reineberg, which later became

22016-407: The new conditions for construction of a new town quarter in a half-circle to the north and west of the old centre with prestigious buildings on spacious plots, but the urgent narrowness inside the centre maintained. A lot of buildings in the style of historicism replaced older ones at the market place and in the main streets. The lack of buildings outside the fortifications was favourable for planning

22188-423: The north. The underground basis is of palaeozoic material from Devonian to Permian . A new described genus of dinosaur, the Wiehenvenator , was found in the Wiehen Hills near Haddenhausen, popularly referred to as the "Monster of Minden". The Porta sandstone ( Portasandstein ) of the Wiehen Hills has been used as building material for centuries and is seen in many public and private buildings in Minden and

22360-411: The older village. After the dissolution of the Duchy of Saxony in 1180 the bishop became sovereign of the Prince-Bishopric of Minden as a constitutional territory of the Holy Roman Empire , and remained in this status until 1648. During the Investiture controversy two bishops were nominated at the same time in 1080 both by the papal supporters and those of King Henry IV . The Cathedral close on

22532-411: The order to redeem all the enfeoffed castles in his diocese. This therefore also affected the then tenant, Hilmar von Quernheim . He wished to retain his fief however and was actually given an extension of several years until the bishop finally rescinded it in spring 1564. Because Hilmar von Quernheim did not respond, the bishop had the castle stormed on 2 May. But by 1567 Hilmar was again enfeoffed with

22704-478: The payment of some sort of compensation . Women took part in aristocratic society mainly in their roles as wives and mothers of men, with the role of mother of a ruler being especially prominent in Merovingian Gaul. In Anglo-Saxon society the lack of many child rulers meant a lesser role for women as queen mothers, but this was compensated for by the increased role played by abbesses of monasteries. Only in Italy does it appear that women were always considered under

22876-467: The peninsula in a region they called Al-Andalus . The Islamic conquests reached their peak in the mid-eighth century. The defeat of Muslim forces at the Battle of Tours in 732 led to the reconquest of southern France by the Franks, but the main reason for the halt of Islamic growth in Europe was the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate and its replacement by the Abbasid Caliphate . The Abbasids moved their capital to Baghdad and were more concerned with

23048-417: The place where ways from the south were bundled by the Porta Westfalica gap, connected with a west–east way parallel to the Wiehen and Weser hills, and at a ford through the Weser. The region had already been converted to Christianity, when around 800  CE a bishopric was founded in Minden, one of the seven diocese foundations established under the rule of Charlemagne. The first cathedral was built nearby to

23220-412: The plateau marks the transition from the Middle Weser Valley to the Lübbecke Loessland , divides the upper town from the lower town, and marks the boundary between two ecological zones. In the frame of Natural regions of Germany , the western part of Minden belongs to a sequence of geomorphological units (from south to north): the Wiehen Hills, the Lübbecke Loessland, therein the Bastau depression, and

23392-408: The political and demographic nature of what had been the Western Roman Empire. By the end of the 5th century the western section of the empire was divided into smaller political units, ruled by the tribes that had invaded in the early part of the century. The deposition of the last emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus , in 476 has traditionally marked the end of the Western Roman Empire. By 493

23564-532: The political power devolved to the local lords. Missionary efforts to Scandinavia during the 9th and 10th centuries helped strengthen the growth of kingdoms such as Sweden , Denmark , and Norway , which gained power and territory. Some kings converted to Christianity, although not all by 1000. Scandinavians also expanded and colonised throughout Europe. Besides the settlements in Ireland, England, and Normandy, further settlement took place in what became Russia and Iceland . Swedish traders and raiders ranged down

23736-409: The principality administration was restored from Petershagen to Minden in 1668. The Brandenburgian "Great Elector" Frederick William ( r.  1640–1688 ) confirmed all traditional rights of the town, but under his successors King Frederick I ( r.  1688–1713 ) and Frederick William I ( r.  1713–1740 ) the town was subordinated to the strongly centralized Prussian government in

23908-419: The protection and control of a male relative. Peasant society is much less documented than the nobility. Most of the surviving information available to historians comes from archaeology ; few detailed written records documenting peasant life remain from before the 9th century. Most of the descriptions of the lower classes come from either law codes or writers from the upper classes. Landholding patterns in

24080-414: The records. In the outgoing years of the 13th century the bishops of Osnabrück and Minden were the common owners of the castle. Reineberg Castle acted as a fortified base of power for the bishops of Minden . Their intent was to hold their own against the Bishop of Osnabrück , the counts of Tecklenburg and the lords ( Edelherren ) of Diepholz . Later their importance grew even more through the expansion of

24252-413: The region. Another valuable material is iron ore, that was being mined until the first half of the 20th century. Mining relics remain: e.g. the Potts Park , an amusement park in Dützen, on a former ore mine. The Bölhorst hill 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of the Wiehen Hills is formed by horizons of Lower Cretaceous age and, in geological sense, is the western extension of the eastward Bückeberg in

24424-422: The regional situation. The furthest north-eastern part of East-Westphalia is the driest of the state, though located in a small distance to the sea, caused by the main direction of the cyclones from roughly west to east with its prevailing south-westerly rain-bringing weather fronts . So the Minden region lies in the leeward rain shadow of the Teutoburg Forest and the Wiehen Hills. A cloudy weather south of

24596-470: The rivers of the Russian steppe, and even attempted to seize Constantinople in 860 and 907 . Christian Spain, initially driven into a small section of the peninsula in the north, expanded slowly south during the 9th and 10th centuries, establishing the kingdoms of Asturias and León . In Eastern Europe, Byzantium revived its fortunes under Emperor Basil I (r. 867–886) and his successors Leo VI (r. 886–912) and Constantine VII (r. 913–959), members of

24768-449: The slow infiltration of the Balkans by the Slavs added a further difficulty for Justinian's successors. It began gradually, but by the late 540s Slavic tribes were in Thrace and Illyrium , and had defeated an imperial army near Adrianople in 551. In the 560s the Avars began to expand from their base on the north bank of the Danube ; by the end of the 6th-century, they were the dominant power in Central Europe and routinely able to force

24940-430: The southern part of Great Britain. In northern Britain, Kenneth MacAlpin (d. c. 860) united the Picts and the Scots into the Kingdom of Alba . In the early 10th century, the Ottonian dynasty had established itself in Germany , and was engaged in driving back the Magyars. Its efforts culminated in the coronation in 962 of Otto I (r. 936–973) as Holy Roman Emperor . In 972, he secured recognition of his title by

25112-476: The spirit of absolutism . The 400-year civil self-determination ended with two town regulations from 1711 and 1721; the representatives of the town were no longer elected for a certain period, but for life, and they needed royal confirmation for inauguration. The Battle of Minden took place some miles to the north of Minden on 1 August 1759, during the Seven Years' War of 1756 to 1763. The allied forces of Prussia, Great Britain , and some German allies defeated

25284-601: The town became a flourishing member of the Hanseatic League . The precise year of the first Weser bridge construction is not known. A previous wooden pedestrian bridge was replaced in the late 13th century by another one fit for wagon transport. In the early 16th century Minden got a stone arch bridge . At the end of the medieval age the papal legate Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa visited some German church provinces to remedy deficits in pastoral care and clerical administration. During his journey he stayed in Minden for one week in August 1451, where he signed various decrees, but on

25456-434: The town, an area that had already been part of the main fighting during the Battle of Minden in 1759. After the Congress of Vienna of 1815 had passed general principles of free traffic on the main rivers, the six Weser-states of the German Confederation annulated all restrictions and most of the financial burdens for shipping on the river by the Weser Shipping Act ( Weserschifffahrtsakte ) of 1823. The first steam ship

25628-441: The town. The Bastau depression, a late-Saalian Weser bed, became a marshy peat-covered area; the peat is completely exhausted for its use in firing. In the time of Weichselian glaciation the glacier did not reach this region. In the periglacial climate of that time fine material ( silt ) was blown and accumulated north of the Wiehen Hills as well as north of the Bastau depression in either small west–east stripes of loess . In

25800-447: The towns chosen as capitals. Although there had been Jewish communities in many Roman cities , the Jews suffered periods of persecution after the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Officially they were tolerated, if subject to conversion efforts, and at times were even encouraged to settle in new areas. Religious beliefs in the Eastern Roman Empire and Iran were in flux during the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Judaism

25972-435: The valley. The Mittelland Canal connecting the river systems of Ems , Weser and Elbe traverses the town from west to east. These waterways cross in the northern area of the town at the Minden Aqueduct ( Wasserstraßenkreuz Minden ). The Weser leaves the Minden area at its lowest part in the quarter of Leteln, at 40 metres (131 feet), while the highest part is the top of Häverstädter Berg with 272 metres (892 feet), at

26144-514: The west, Byzantine control of most of the Western Empire could not be sustained; the reconquest of the Mediterranean periphery and the Italian Peninsula ( Gothic War ) in the reign of Justinian (r. 527–565) was the sole, and temporary, exception. The political structure of Western Europe changed with the end of the united Roman Empire. Although the movements of peoples during this period are usually described as "invasions", they were not just military expeditions but migrations of entire peoples into

26316-469: The whole district, was the manufacture of cigars ; this branch decreased after World War I and finally vanished, because the growing market share of cigarettes had been ignored. Minden was seat of a Chamber of commerce from 1849 to 1932, when it was merged with those of Bielefeld. Overpopulation and unemployment were the reasons for an enormous emigration from the Minden Land ; various emigration agencies had their location in Minden. The town remained

26488-443: The whole this project did not achieve the intended aims. The Lutheran Reformation was introduced in 1529 during a vacancy after the death of the not very respected Bishop Francis of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , and a 36-man unit constituted itself as town regiment. A new church order, based on Martin Luther 's principles, was announced from the pulpit of St Martin's Church ( Martinikirche ) on 13 February 1530. The Dominican convent

26660-438: Was a trend throughout the old Roman lands that happened in the Early Middle Ages. This was especially marked in the lands that did not lie on the Mediterranean, such as northern Gaul or Britain. Non-local goods appearing in the archaeological record are usually luxury goods. In the northern parts of Europe, not only were the trade networks local, but the goods carried were simple, with little pottery or other complex products. Around

26832-422: Was allied with the Netherlands . Then all fell quite around the old episcopal castle - the Principality of Minden being awarded to Brandenburg as part of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. In 1719, Frederick William I decreed the union of the County of Ravensberg with Minden, and this was followed, from 1723 to 1808, by the establishment of the Chamber of War and Estates ( Kriegs- und Domänenkammer ) in Minden as

27004-402: Was an active proselytising faith, and at least one Arab political leader converted to it. In addition Jewish theologians wrote polemics defending their religion against Christian and Islamic influences. Christianity had active missions competing with the Persians' Zoroastrianism in seeking converts, especially among residents of the Arabian Peninsula . All these strands came together with

27176-438: Was an important feature of the 5th-century Roman military. The various invading tribes had differing emphases on types of soldiers—ranging from the primarily infantry Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain to the Vandals and Visigoths who had a high proportion of cavalry in their armies. During the early invasion period, the stirrup had not been introduced into warfare, which limited the usefulness of cavalry as shock troops because it

27348-399: Was declared a fortress once more. The fortress regulations ordered a 600-metre (2,000 ft) area in front of the wall being free of any buildings, not even vertical gravestones were allowed. The refortification had severe consequences, hindering any extension of the town area and thus economic development. The Infanterie-Regiment "Prinz Friedrich der Niederlande" (2. Westfälisches) Nr. 15

27520-465: Was dissolved in 1529, and its buildings have been used since 1530 as a location of the new founded municipal Gymnasium , the first Protestant Gymnasium in Westphalia. Imperial Catholic troops occupied Minden from 1625 to 1634 during the Thirty Years' War . Protestant Swedish troops laid siege to Minden and captured it in 1634. Queen Christina of Sweden ( r.  1632–1654 ) granted Minden full sovereignty in internal and external affairs. During

27692-420: Was dominated by efforts to regain the dignity and classicism of imperial Roman and Byzantine art , but was also influenced by the Insular art of the British Isles. Insular art integrated the energy of Irish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Germanic styles of ornament with Mediterranean forms such as the book, and established many characteristics of art for the rest of the medieval period. Surviving religious works from

27864-408: Was invited to Aachen and brought the education available in the monasteries of Northumbria. Charlemagne's chancery —or writing office—made use of a new script today known as Carolingian minuscule , allowing a common writing style that advanced communication across much of Europe. Charlemagne sponsored changes in church liturgy , imposing the Roman form of church service on his domains, as well as

28036-434: Was less need for large tax revenues and so the taxation systems decayed. Warfare was common between and within the kingdoms. Slavery declined as the supply weakened, and society became more rural. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, new peoples and individuals filled the political void left by Roman centralised government. The Ostrogoths , a Gothic tribe, settled in Roman Italy in the late fifth century under Theoderic

28208-436: Was marked by scholasticism , a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities . The theology of Thomas Aquinas , the paintings of Giotto , the poetry of Dante and Chaucer , the travels of Marco Polo , and the Gothic architecture of cathedrals such as Chartres are among the outstanding achievements toward the end of this period and into the Late Middle Ages. The Late Middle Ages

28380-470: Was marked by difficulties and calamities including famine, plague, and war, which significantly diminished the population of Europe; between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a third of Europeans. Controversy, heresy , and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the interstate conflict, civil strife, and peasant revolts that occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding

28552-439: Was marked by numerous divisions of the empire among his sons and, after 829, civil wars between various alliances of father and sons over the control of various parts of the empire. Eventually, Louis recognised his eldest son Lothair I (d. 855) as emperor and gave him Italy. Louis divided the rest of the empire between Lothair and Charles the Bald (d. 877), his youngest son. Lothair took East Francia , comprising both banks of

28724-496: Was not possible to put the full force of the horse and rider behind blows struck by the rider. The greatest change in military affairs during the invasion period was the adoption of the Hunnic composite bow in place of the earlier, and weaker, Scythian composite bow. Another development was the increasing use of longswords and the progressive replacement of scale armour by mail armour and lamellar armour . The importance of infantry and light cavalry began to decline during

28896-423: Was put in operation in 1836, and a first harbour basin was built in 1859 on the east side of the river, connected with the railway in 1863. In the following decades, the great majority of transferred goods were imported goods, as export was of low importance. Inland shipment grew enormously after the completion of the Mittelland Canal and its connection to the Weser by the shaft lock in 1915. The trunk line of

29068-442: Was reinforced with propaganda that portrayed the Merovingians as inept or cruel rulers, exalted the accomplishments of Charles Martel, and circulated stories of the family's great piety. At the time of his death in 768, Pippin left his kingdom in the hands of his two sons, Charles (r. 768–814) and Carloman (r. 768–771). When Carloman died of natural causes, Charles blocked the succession of Carloman's young son and installed himself as

29240-405: Was stationed in the garrison from 1820 to 1919, when it was dissolved; the naming Colonel-in-chief was Prince Frederick of the Netherlands and after his death Queen Emma of the Netherlands . Frederick's wife Princess Louise of Prussia was Colonel-in-chief of the Infanterie-Regiment " Graf Bülow von Dennewitz " (6. Westfälisches) Nr. 55 , that was partly stationed in Minden, too. Since 1999,

29412-417: Was the denarius or denier , while the Anglo-Saxon version was called a penny . From these areas, the denier or penny spread throughout Europe from 700 to 1000 AD. Copper or bronze coins were not struck, nor were gold except in Southern Europe. No silver coins denominated in multiple units were minted. Christianity was a major unifying factor between Eastern and Western Europe before the Arab conquests, but

29584-409: Was with the British Isles and Scandinavia, in contrast to the older Roman Empire with its trading networks centred on the Mediterranean. The empire was administered by an itinerant court that travelled with the emperor, as well as approximately 300 imperial officials called counts , who administered the counties the empire had been divided into. Clergy and local bishops served as officials, as well as

#243756