Uetersen

The town of Uetersen [ˈyːtɐzən] (formerly also Ütersen (Holstein) and Danish Yttersen) is located in the district of Pinneberg in Schleswig-Holstein. It is known as the Choir Town of the North and Rose and Wedding Town on the Pinnau River. Uetersen is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, the Lower Elbe Maritime Landscape and the AktivRegion Pinneberger Marsch & Geest. The small town with about 18,000 inhabitants is one of the most densely populated towns in Schleswig-Holstein. The town serves the rural communities in the south-western district of Pinneberg as a sub-centre and contact point for the supply of services, goods and infrastructure facilities. In total, the town serves a catchment area of around 50,000 people in the surrounding area. As the largest sub-centre in Schleswig-Holstein, it has been striving for recognition as a sub-centre with partial functions of a medium-sized centre for several years.

The town does not have a foundation charter. The year of foundation is assumed to be 1234, the year in which the town was first mentioned in a document. Since 1933, this date is officially recognized by national history.

The history of the town was marked mainly by fires, wars, disasters and misfortunes. Thus, the former town burned down almost completely several times. Among the greatest disasters of the town are the great flood of 1412, the storm surges of Christmas 1717 and October 7, 1756, in which the town was flooded meters high and 62 people drowned. Another unusual natural disaster was the tornado of August 10, 1925, which destroyed large parts of Uetersen. On February 24, 1962, the Adolph-Bermpohl hurricane caused the last flooding in Uetersen (for the time being).

Since 1999, the town has held the title of wedding town. The town's registry office is responsible for around 35,000 citizens of the neighbouring town of Tornesch and the Haseldorf district. On an annual average, more than 550 marriages take place in the town. The highest number of marriages took place in 2015 (579) and 2016 (598).

From 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2016, Uetersen formed an administrative community with the then dissolved Amt Haseldorf, whose administrative business was conducted by the town. It was closed on 6 December 2006 in Uetersen town hall and was one of a total of 15 administrative communities in Schleswig-Holstein.

Geography

Geology and geographical position

Uetersen lies in the west on the border between Seestermüher Marsch and Geest. The difference in height between the two landscape formations is clearly visible when approaching the town from the marsh. The lowest point of the town lies in the dyke meadows at the Klosterkoppeln at one metre, the highest point at 18 metres in the forest area of Langes Tannen (Russenberg). The southern part of the town with the old town lies on the edge of the former Pinnautal. This valley is no longer recognizable because the riverbed of the Pinnau has been changed several times. The eastern part of the town is situated on a former dune landscape, which dates back to the Ice Age and extends from Wedel over the Holmer Sandberge to Elmshorn. This dune landscape was hardly forested and only overgrown with heather and stunted pines and was also constantly in motion. Especially during the spring storms enormous amounts of sand were whirled up, which came through all the cracks and made breathing a torture. As early as the 18th century, attempts were made to bring the dunes to a standstill by planting standing oats and sand thistles, but it was not until around 1870 that a large part of the dune landscape was levelled and covered with rich marshland so that the dunes came to a standstill. This was further removed after the First World War and the sand used to fill in the harbour area. Until the middle of the 18th century, the dune landscape provided a clear view of Hamburg's Michel, some 27 kilometres away. Street names such as Bergstraße, Hochfeldstraße, Großer Sand, Kleiner Sand and Sandweg are reminders of the high dunes. The northern part of the city is bordered by the forest of Langes Tannen, within which there are still some larger sand dunes overgrown with trees. The area is designated as a landscape conservation area under the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG).

Uetersen is centrally located in the district of Pinneberg. It borders the municipalities of Heidgraben and Groß Nordende to the north, the town of Tornesch to the east, the municipality of Moorrege to the south and Neuendeich and the Seestermüher Marsch to the west. Uetersen lies on the historic Ochsenweg, which is used as a long-distance cycle route. Uetersen can be reached by car via the A 23 motorway and the B 431 trunk road. The town lies about 30 kilometres northwest of Hamburg on the Pinnau, a tributary of the Elbe. The river is a federal waterway under the jurisdiction of WSA Hamburg and is of great economic importance to the town. Other watercourses are the Basshornlaufgraben and the Ohrtbrookgraben, which forms the border to Tornesch in the lower area, and the Heidgraben, which supplies the Uetersener Rosarium with water. The historic Mühlbach, which drains the Rosarium, was piped during the redevelopment of the town centre in 1984 and flows underground through the town area. Other bodies of water are the Klosterdeichwettern, which drains the extensive monastery paddocks, and the historic Burggraben.

City breakdown

Characteristic for Uetersen is the long main street as a testimony to the development of the spot, which was raised to a town in 1870, from a village developed along a military road. The settlement of the inhabitants took place first along the old army road (Lohe, Mühlenstrasse, Kreuzstrasse, Marktstrasse, Großer Wulfhagen and Großer Sand, with a focus on the Mühlenstrasse, the market-like extended Marktstrasse and Großer Wulfhagen), which first followed the Geestrand in a north-south direction and then ran to the east and later to the southeast and crossed the Pinnau. There were further settlements in the Lohe with Katzhagen and others ran along the Ochsenweg to the Pinnau and around the Kleiner Sand, which branched off into further small roads. Later settlements took place in the direction of the marsh and today's Eggerstedsberg as well as in Tantaus Allee and in the north and north-east of the town.

The urban area of Uetersen today consists of the old town with the monastery district and the inner city, the quarters Lohe, Katzhagen, Kreuzmoor, the residential areas around Rudolf-Kinau-Weg, Am Seeth/Wischhörn, Am Gehölz, Tornescher Weg, Am Steinberg, Weidenkamp/Ohrtbrook and Kleine Twiete, the boundaries of which, however, are not fixed. The new development area "Am Hochfeld" in the north of the town is a new addition. Around 320 residential units are to be built on the already partially developed, 38-hectare site.

Climate

The city with the adjacent marshlands is influenced by the North Sea and the foothills of the Gulf Stream. The climate is characterized by mild winters and humid summers. Due to the short distance to the North Sea of about 60 kilometres, the city is influenced by strong winds predominantly from the west, which often bring the notorious "North German dirty weather" in autumn.

In the winter months it can be very stormy. Temperatures can drop to -20 °C. The lowest measured value was -30 °C in February 1940. The warmest month is July with an average of 17 °C, the coldest January with 1.1 °C. Temperatures around 28 °C are not uncommon in high summer. Since the 1990s, peak temperatures of up to 37 °C have also been measured (August 1992, July 2010). The coldest March with -17 °C and warmest October with an average of +13 °C since the weather records of the German Weather Service was in 2006. The warmest October day since the weather records was the 19th in 2012 with a temperature of about 22 °C. An average of 778 millimetres of precipitation falls over the course of a year.

Biotopes and nature conservation

An ordinance of the district of Pinneberg as the lower nature conservation authority of 19 December 1997 protects a total of 117 natural monuments in Uetersen. Among them is the Uetersener Blutbuche, which is one of the distinctive and old tree specimens in southern Schleswig-Holstein. In the outskirts of the town there are several biotopes which are under nature protection. The Uetersener Binnendüne (inland dune) in the south-east of the town is one of the three natural monuments in the district of Pinneberg that require special protection, along with the Lange Anna and the Holmer Sandberge.

Since the 1990s, the SPD local association has been thinking about a tree protection statute to protect trees. The attempt to create such a statute in Uetersen has so far failed due to the majority of the Christian Democrats in the council assembly.

A particular problem in the city is the heavy infestation of the numerous horse chestnuts by the leaf miner. For years, attempts have been made in November to get on top of the infestation with the help of volunteers. With the support of the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald (SDW), the first central event of the nationwide Chestnut Tree Day was held in Uetersen in November 2008. According to SDW estimates, around two hundred million larvae were destroyed during this action, which involved around five hundred helpers.

In March 2012, as the first action in Schleswig-Holstein, a 6600 square meter meadow orchard was planted on the outskirts of the city with the support of Wikiwoods. The fruit trees are intended to help stop climate change and promote environmental awareness and education.

Environment

Uetersen gained national notoriety for its dioxin problem. Large parts of a new development area (Am Eichholz/Esinger Steinweg) are located on former fields where paper sludge containing dioxin was spread in the 1960s. In the meantime, a large part of the affected soil has been covered with an additional protective layer of soil. A complete remediation demanded by the residents did not take place for cost reasons and was also not considered necessary by experts. A danger for the groundwater is denied, but cannot be excluded. Measurements are being taken. On the edge of the area, there is another dioxin-contaminated field on the K 22 and another dioxin-contaminated paper sludge landfill in the floodplain of the Pinnau.

Soil samples are regularly taken in the vicinity of an old domestic waste dump on the Pinnau, near the Stichhafen.

Within the urban area there are other former landfills and land polluted by commercial enterprises (tanneries, nurseries, etc.).

On 1 January 2003 the state ordinance for the Uetersen water protection area came into force in order to protect the groundwater in the catchment area of the waterworks and thus the water supply from contamination in the long term. The inhabitants of the town of Uetersen, the Seestermüher Marsch as well as the town of Tornesch and the municipality of Heidgraben are supplied with drinking water from Uetersen.

One third of the water protection area is located in the western part of the town of Uetersen and two thirds in the Seestermüher Marsch. Due to the former, polluted operating area of the Tesdorf leather factory (1,2-dichloropropane) and the use of chlorotoluron as a pesticide, the groundwater is contaminated and must be cleaned at great expense by an activated carbon filter system. However, groundwater still contains pollutants in the raw water that is pumped. For this reason, it is mixed with drinking water from the Hamburg waterworks, which is supplied from the Haseldorfer Marsch, in a ratio of 20:80 and delivered to the end consumers.

One of the green areas contaminated with dioxin-contaminated paper sludge in the south-east of the city


Climate Uetersen


Uetersen and surroundings around 1650, well visible the dune landscape in the north and east of the town


Uetersen according to a plan by Carl August Christian Rost († 1826)

History

Origin of the city name

The name of the town of Uetersen probably originated from the Low German term (de) üterste enn, which means (the) outermost end. The name refers to the fact that the town is located at the transition of the Geest to the Seestermüher Marsch. The first verifiable written reference comes from a deed of gift from the Knights of Barmstede around 1234, in which the place is called Utersten. Other forms of the name in the Baroque period were Vtersten, Vttersten and Vtirzsten. Altogether there were about 20 different forms of writing until the present name of the town prevailed. However, there is also the assumption that the name originated from Ütersteen, which means outermost stone, or from Ütristina, the old name of the Pinnau.

Previous story

The founding year of the town cannot be determined, as there is no document about it. Various archaeological finds point to the first human settlements in the town area before the Iron Age. In 1789, a Bundschuh from the Roman imperial period was found. This is the earliest known archaeological find in Schleswig-Holstein. Other important finds were urns, Slavic vessel shards and a skull of a peat cattle (bos brachyceros) from the time around 500 A.D. However, this does not mean that there must have been continuity of settlement from this time until the 9th century. In 809 troops of Charlemagne are said to have passed through the area coming from Hamburg after the subjugation of the North-Elbian Saxons in order to build a castle in Esesfelth, and in 827 the place is said to have been founded by order of the Emperor Louis the Pious (778-840). Later the Wends passed through the settlement several times. Around 1050 there is also said to have been a Benedictine monastery on the edge of the settlement, of which Johann Friedrich Camerer reported in 1762 in his work Vermischte historisch-politische Nachrichten in Briefen von einigen merkwürdigen Gegenden der Herzogthümer Schleßwig und Hollstein, ihrer natürlichen Geschichte und andern seltenen Alterthümern. Nothing further is known about the whereabouts of the monastery.

Later, the knights of Haseldorf probably moved their residence from Haseldorf to Uetersen and around 1154 a simple castle (motte) in wood-earth technique together with a small pre-settlement with some houses and huts is said to have existed, which was mentioned in a Danish document as Uthersen taarn (outermost tower). This designation refers to the location of a castle on a Geestsporn at the edge of the Seestermüher Marsch. In another written document, which was probably last available to Johann Friedrich Camerer in 1758, another monastery is said to have existed around 1220, which was consecrated under Gerhard I and Gebhard II respectively. Nothing is known about its whereabouts either. This document can no longer be found, so that the town has no historically verifiable year of foundation. At about the same time two castles, Burg Uetersen (I) and Burg Uetersen (II) were built near the present monastery by the knights of Barmstede, who were connected with the knights of Haseldorf, of whom only the moat of the larger castle still reminds. During remodelling work on the monastery grounds in 2008, a lot of earthenware from the 13th century was found. On the basis of these shards, it is assumed that there was a pre-castle and a main castle.

History of the foundation of the present town

It is proven that the village belonged to the original parish of Barmstedt in the 12th century and until the first quarter of the 13th century and that the knight Heinrich II von Barmstede, who was in the service of the archbishopric of Bremen, donated his property, which included the settlement, the water mill and the oldest documented windmill in the country, to the Cistercians around 1234 for the establishment of a nunnery. This was later the centre of the genesis of today's town.

Through further donations by the knight's descendants and purchases by the monastery, the property was constantly expanded, which had its greatest extent in the 13th and 14th centuries. The possessions extended from Krempe to Klein Flottbek and from Kehdingen near Drochtersen to Bönebüttel near Neumünster. At the beginning of the 14th century the monastery began to breed the Holstein horse. This is documented by a deed from the year 1328: Monastery Provost Johannes gave the Provost of Neumünster Monastery two young horses from the monastery's own stud farm. It is the oldest document in Schleswig-Holstein that documents the existence of a stud farm.

12th to 16th century

The village was initially probably limited to the castle of the knights of Barmstede and the nearby manorial water mill. It developed relatively quickly that around 1300 the place became the center and namesake of the lordship and bailiwick of Uetersen and was first administered by Johann II and after his death (1321) by an inheritance contract by Adolf VII.

Already in 1664 (and again in 1746) the place received the status of a spot. This led to the settlement of more families. In the middle of the 17th century 256 houses were counted. The favourable location on the army road and the crossing over the Pinnau near the monastery at that time accelerated the development. At the crossing of the Pinnau the navigability of the river also began. This provided a short land and water route to the strongly developing economic centre of Hamburg.

Due to the cultivation of grain and the manorial water mill, there was a lively trade in grain and mill products with neighbouring Hamburg via the Pinnau. In addition, the trade with brick products and the burning of lime from shells developed, which was distributed by land and water. Thus, an extensive river and coastal shipping developed quite early.

In the village, craftsmen formed a guild under the leadership of the shoemakers and potters. Every year, two large markets were held at Jacobi (25 July) and Felicianus (9 June).

Like other places in the region, Uetersen was not spared wars and disasters. In 1282 the first battle took place near Uetersen between an army of the ruling Holstein sovereign Gerhard I with Hamburg support and rebels from Dithmarschen and the Haseldorfer Marsch under the leadership of Heinrich IV of Barmstede. The rebels were defeated, the counts conquered the castles of Uetersen and Haseldorf. Against a payment of five thousand marks, Heinrich IV of Barmstede was later able to redeem them.

In 1306, discontented noblemen and knights incited the peasants from the Haseldorfer Marsch, who feared the loss of their privileges, to revolt against the counts of Holstein. They received support from the peasants of Dithmarsch and Krempermarsch, who had already successfully resisted an armed action of their lords some years before. In addition, they were helped by the Kehdinger and Altländer from the opposite side of the Elbe. At the second battle of Uetersen, on the 28th of July in the same year, the insurgents, with their leader Pelz, a member of the von Wedel family, whom they also called Bishop Pelz, were defeated, after hard fighting, by a coalition of the dukes of Lauenburg and Lüneburg and the counts of Holstein, under the leadership of Giselbert, archbishop of Bremen; the ringleaders were taken prisoners, publicly flogged and quartered. The nobles were banished and lost their possessions. A part of them found shelter in Lübeck, which at the same time was at enmity with the counts. The peasants were deprived of the privileges they had received at the beginning of the cultivation of the Marsh. The Counts of Holstein consolidated their power by taking possession of the Barmstedes' castle in Uetersen and building the Hatzburg near Wedel.

Between 1347 and 1352 the Black Death raged in Uetersen and the surrounding area, claiming many lives, and the number of nuns and conventuals in the Uetersen monastery also decreased noticeably. One neither understood the cause of diseases nor did one have any idea of suitable countermeasures. They tried to get rid of the disease through prayer and atonement, quarantine of the sick, flight of the healthy and the search for scapegoats. Even "cattle cures" (the killing of livestock) were used, although a prolonged famine was as good as over.

Around 1398 Klaus Störtebeker and his comrades made the area around Uetersen unsafe. Under the cover of darkness and the tide, he drifted up the Pinnau to Uetersen in several boats (his ship anchored at night in front of the mouth of the Pinnau). There they tried to steal provisions and cattle, but they only partially succeeded and were driven away by the inhabitants. One pirate was killed, another captured and executed the following day in front of the Drostei in Pinneberg. With the Duke of Schleswig and the Count of Schauenburg, Simon of Utrecht met in Uetersen in 1435 to conduct the preliminary talks for the Peace of Vordingborg, which was concluded between Erik VII of Denmark at Vordingborg Castle with Adolf VIII of Holstein from July 15 to 17 of the same year.

After the beginning to the middle of the 14th century had still brought diseases and war hardships, a quiet time followed in which the place continued to develop. In the first years of the 15th century, great calamity again struck the village and the monastery. Johann Friedrich Camerer wrote in 1762 in his work Vermischte historisch-politische Nachrichten: "These times were unfortunate for the monastery. It burned the same with all splendor (the monastery), and what the fire did not rob, the dangerous water (the great flood of 1412) robbed. The ponds (dykes), dams, fields, and all the country marriages were at this time completely depleted and destroyed. " Thereupon the nuns of the convent and inhabitants of the place became so poor that they had to beg. More storms, floods, crop failures and severe winters followed, which demanded a lot from the inhabitants. So Uetersen and surroundings were hit by the natural disaster of Holstein, a hurricane with the Fastelabendsflut and an earthquake with firestorms on February 14th 1648. From Glückstadt to Hamburg, countless estates and buildings were devastated, 11 church towers were blown down (including that of the monastery church) or collapsed. Countless people and animals lost their lives. Camerer reported about this disaster: "The storm, which raged in this region at this time, is said to have had much of an earthquake." Only very slowly did the town and its inhabitants recover from the great disaster of the 15th and 16th centuries.

By a privilege from the year 1524, the prelates and the knighthood in Schleswig-Holstein initially obtained the highest court over their subjects. From 1573 onwards, a district court was established in Uetersen, which was held twice a year in spring and autumn and was presided over by the provost of the monastery. He was assisted by twelve sworn courtmen (today jurors at a jury court) from the respective district. The place was considered a noble estate before the settlement of the kings with the dukes in 1647. The monastery had the right to appoint guardians, administered wills and exercised jurisdiction. Around 1750 the village had four quarters: Klosterhof with Katzhagen, Großer Wulfhagen, Lohe and Großer and Kleiner Sand. In the east there was still the parcel Bashorn. There were 256 houses in the village, seven of them villa-like.

In 1545 the "Uetersener Schützengilde" was founded, one of the oldest marksmen's guilds in the country, which became the " Brandgilde für den Klosterhof Uetersen" in 1730. In 1786, the monastery provost Peter zu Rantzau subordinated it to the "Brandschutzgilde zu Uetersen".

Reformation

The Reformation in Uetersen was only enforced in 1555 through the personal intervention of King Christian III. The Uetersen monastery was not willing to follow the king's order to confess and submit to the new doctrine. The Lutheran preacher Balthasar Schröder, introduced by the king in 1541, had to give way after seven years because of the resistance of the convent women to the Protestant doctrine, whereupon the nuns, supported by the counts of Schauenburg, again accepted a Catholic clergyman. Only when King Christian III visited the monastery personally with a delegation did he drive him out and again appointed a Protestant preacher, Johann Plate, who remained as pastor in Uetersen for 26 years. The monastery was then converted into a noble ladies' convent. This led to long-lasting disputes between the Counts of Schauenburg and the Dukes of Holstein, which took years to settle. On 5 May 1559, the county of Schauenburg finally became Protestant.

17th century

In the 17th century, water, fire and war emergencies, which often occurred simultaneously, brought the inhabitants and the town more than once to the brink of ruin. On 21 January 1603 so much snow fell in Uetersen and the surrounding area that hardly any house was visible. Several people died in the masses of snow. The worst time began with the appearance of the plague in 1605. From Easter to two weeks after Whitsun the plague raged in Uetersen and surroundings so strongly that more than 1000 people lost their lives and whole families died out. On July 21, 1623, the town and the surrounding area were hit by an unusual storm. It arose: "a terrible storm, whereby at Uetersen, Esingen, beym Moor, in the Bauland (Kirchsp. Uetersen) and Niendiek fell a cruel large hail, partly of the size of small Hünereyer, which damaged many livestock, broke the windows, all grain, wheat and barley into the earth and so completely destroyed."

In 1627 the All Saints' Flood of 7 November caused considerable damage in Uetersen and the Haseldorfer Marsch, several people drowned. In the following years the place was afflicted by bad harvests and again by the plague. In 1635 the "Brandschutzgilde zu Uetersen", a predecessor of today's volunteer fire brigade, was founded to protect the village from fires. In 1640, a well-ordered forestry was started and the market law was reorganized. In 1662 a large fire, probably caused by arson, almost completely destroyed the village. A few years later (April 1697) another fire catastrophe destroyed large parts of the village. Within a few hours about thirty houses burned down.

Thirty Years' War

The village was spared from the Thirty Years' War to a certain extent, although it was located on the historical military road. The battles were mainly fought in the surrounding area. Tilly crossed the Elbe at Artlenburg in July 1627, besieged nearby Pinneberg and was severely wounded in the final assault. Afterwards Wallenstein came from Ostholstein, occupied the Hatzburg near Wedel and Haseldorf, and spared the place, though he could easily reach it by the Pinnau.

On August 31, 1645, the last Swedish commander departed, but left behind a half company with 63 horses on the Blomsche Hof in Uetersen under Otto von Ahlefeldt, who were stationed until the beginning of November.

Franco-Swedish War

During the Swedish-French War (1635-1648), fighting again took place in the area around Uetersen. The Swedish army passed through the village in 1647 and partly devastated it severely. The Pinneberger Amtmann Dr. Stapel wrote in a report: "...in the times of war the subjects had cut wood partly out of need and sold such in Hamburg...the poverty is so great that the fine (for the illegal cutting) is not to be brought by most. "Further he wrote:" that some inhabitants of Uetersen had asked him for benefits (wood cutting) because of their burned and ruined houses...". During the later retreat the parishes of Horst and Hohenfelde, which belonged to the monastery of Uetersen, had to suffer badly. Twelve years later (1657/58) the Swedes were again in the area of Uetersen. They destroyed the Schauenburg castle in Pinneberg; the castles in Haseldorf and Haselau also went up in flames. Afterwards they raided Uetersen and burned down the monastery.

Second Northern War

The Danish-Norwegian war against Sweden (1657 to 1660) again brought war turmoil. Holstein was occupied by the Swedes under the leadership of Charles X Gustav. In Oldesloe was the Swedish war camp. On the opposite side were the Danes, who received help from Frederick William of Brandenburg. Frederick William mustered 18,000 men and led them to Holstein, which had already been invaded by the Swedes. The Swedes, led by Count Palatine von Sulzbach, retreated before this superior force and left many towns such as Pinneberg, Segeberg and Uetersen in flames. But not only the Swedes left their traces. The confederates, among them predominantly the Poles, brought hardship and misery with them, so that the war was remembered for a long time as the "Polack War".

Due to the wars and diseases the number of inhabitants in Uetersen and the surrounding area had decreased considerably. Poverty did the rest: "The people were wild" and their farms were run down, so that the wolves multiplied unhindered. "The plague of wolves was so great that consultations were held at the Diet in 1650 to exterminate the 'grisen Hund'." To this day, people tell of a village that was located in the Kummerfelder Wohld (about 12 km as the crow flies from Uetersen) that was demolished after the war because of the wolves.

18th century

Just as the 17th century ended, the 18th century began. New horrors were spread by the Swedes in the Nordic War. Under the leadership of General Magnus Stenbock, they burned Altona to the ground in 1713 and moved on to nearby Pinneberg. There Stenbock met Anna Catharina von Sparre, who saved Uetersen from being burned down (see the section: Historical Legends, Originals and Fables).

The 18th century was free of major warlike events in the village as it progressed. But now the plague and the damp element took their toll. In 1711 the plague spread from Poland and Pomerania via Hamburg, so that in the summer of 1712 from Wedel the dominion of Pinneberg was afflicted by the plague and there were also victims to lament in Uetersen. One of the biggest catastrophes of Uetersen was the devastating storm tide of Christmas 1717, when the village and the adjacent Haseldorfer- and Seestermüher Marsch were flooded in such a way, that it was possible to travel by barges to Elmshorn, ten kilometres away. Other severe storm surges were those of April 16, 1745 and October 7, 1756, when the town was flooded several metres high and 62 people drowned. On December 19, 1792, another devastating storm night occurred in which only a few houses remained undamaged and numerous trees were uprooted. In 1762 the biggest peat fire in the duchy of Holstein spread from Uetersen. It extended far into the county of Rantzau and dominion of Pinneberg on both sides, so that one could hardly ride or drive into these areas. Several thousand marks of peat were destroyed in the process.

Despite the plague and natural disasters, Uetersen developed through Benedikt von Ahlefeldt into the most important place in Holstein at that time. Benedikt von Ahlefeldt had his architect Jasper Carstens build the provost building that still exists today (1733/34) and the new monastery church in Uetersen. In 1737 he had the road coming from Elmshorn through Uetersen paved (today's B 431) and the "Buttermarkt" with the "Jungfernstieg" became the hub of cultural life. At the same time the first pharmacy was opened (1737) and the first guilds were founded (1738 shoemakers, 1739 blacksmiths and 1751 the potters guild). At the same time the first schools were established (1719) on the initiative of the convent prioress Ida Hedwig von Brockdorff and Alexander Kölpin. The later "Rektorschule" had such an excellent reputation throughout the country that pupils such as Johannes Rehmke or the nephews of Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke attended it.

The inhabitants mainly traded in grain, beer, lime, peat and horses. Especially the trade with grain brought a certain wealth and some, at that time imposing buildings were built. The harbour was a transhipment point for shells, which were needed for lime burning. Camerer reported in his Vermischte historisch-politische Nachrichten about this area at the harbour: "Oefter I have thought of the young Telemaque when he describes the beauty of Egypt...By the way, it looks nice when you look through this area, big white mountains lie on the shore, and from a distance the stranger does not know what it is. But if one comes closer, the thing explains itself. They are small white sea shells which are brought from Holland and from which lime is burned here.

Other merchants traded with beer and horses, beer they exported in large quantities to Altona, the horse trade with Hamburg was a lucrative business. The common people traded wool to Hamburg, which was processed there.

Between 1790 and 1795, 19 uprisings and unrest occurred in the duchies, ten of which were related to the wave of inflation in the nineties. The Instenunruhen in Kaltenkirchen (1794) were put down by the Obristen Johann von Ewald, who thereupon took up quarters in Elmshorn and Klostersande. In Uetersen there were riots at the end of October of the same year. More than 200 people, mainly from the lower classes, took to the streets. Among other things, they threw stones at the houses of the customs administrator Titus Kölpin and the grain merchant Knoop because they were exporting grain. It was not until the deployment of two squadrons of Obrist Ewald that calm was restored. These riots attracted great attention in society.

19th century

After the Battle of Leipzig, nearby Hamburg was liberated by Swedish, Prussian and Russian troops in May 1814 during the so-called Hamburg French period. Subsequently, most of these troops quartered in southern Schleswig-Holstein. In the following Cossack winter the population of Uetersen suffered from the raid of the Lüneburg Hussar Regiment and the quartering of the troops of Generals von Pahlen and von Woronzow. Almost daily foreign troops passed through the village over the old army road. Soldiers were quartered in all private houses and public buildings and had to be fed. There was looting, pillaging and attacks on the population. During this time about 48,000 soldiers with 28,800 horses touched the town. The total costs caused by damages, raids and extortions amounted to about 20.000 Taler. After the troops had left, the monastery received compensation in bons (Russian debt). The population of Uetersen, on the other hand, was not compensated. Until the mid-1970s, graves of Russian soldiers who had died in Uetersen during the Cossack winter were still to be found in the wooded area of Langes Tannen on the so-called Russenberg.

Around 1818 a dysentery epidemic broke out in the town. Theodor von Kobbe wrote in his book Humoristische Erinnerungen aus meinem academischen Leben in Heidelberg und Kiel in den Jahren 1817-1819 about the disease: "that Uetersen was afflicted at that time by a dreadful epidemic, dysentery, which in the town, which consisted of about 400 fireplaces, at that time spared hardly five houses ... and had claimed a victim from almost all of them".

In 1823, the Uetersen Greenland Company was founded, which, like several other towns on the Lower Elbe and the navigable tributaries, engaged in whaling. Important Uetersen Greenlanders were Matthias Karlau, Bartholomäus Heinrich Meinert, Otto Mehlen and Jacob Thormählen. The first and only ship "Freundschaft" was equipped in Altona. Several expeditions were undertaken to the North Sea at great expense. But the whale and seal catches were comparatively poor. In 1850 the ship was renamed "Freya" and from June 1850 to June 1857 about 7400 seals, two whales and four polar bears were caught. With the sinking of the only whaling ship from Uetersen on 8 April 1859 during a snowstorm off Greenland, Uetersen's whaling came to an abrupt end. On 23 August 1848 a great cholera epidemic started from Uetersen, which affected the whole district of Pinneberg and cost countless lives. At that time it was assumed that the cholera was brought in by "Schifferknechte" who had come from Hamburg with an Ewer. The Schleswig-Holstein uprising also claimed victims, although no fighting took place in the vicinity.

After the German-Danish War, administration and justice were separated in 1867. The village was awarded its own district court, which began its work in the same year. It was subordinate to the district court of Altona and later to the district court of Itzehoe. Initially, justice was administered in rented offices, but in 1880 the court moved to the present-day Uetersen district court.

On 13 January 1870 the town of Uetersen was granted the town charter.

Industrialization

In the 19th century Uetersen experienced a rapid population growth in the course of the Industrial Revolution. The population increased from 2600 (1803) to about 6000 (1898) inhabitants. Connected by artificial roads with Elmshorn, Pinneberg and Wedel or Altona, there was a lively trade. The inhabitants were mainly engaged in large and small businesses, trade, agriculture and shipping. The large-scale industry was relatively important.

22 businesses in the village employed more than 5 workers each. The largest were steam operated, including a cigar box factory, a hat factory, and a trimmings factory with 36 workers. Others operated by steam were a fertilizer factory, a kiln and tile factory, six grain and tan mills, and two cement factories, one of which was the first and for a long time the only German Portland cement factory on the English pattern, employing 350 workers. A brisk trade was carried on in the vicinity with the manufacture of coopers' coils in about 40 shops. The products were sold in Hamburg, Denmark, Sweden and America.

About 3400 ships used the town's unloading and loading berths every year. In 1880 the Uetersen master gardener Ernst Ladewig Meyn was the first to begin with the occulation (grafting) of roses. This method of propagating roses at low cost was the cradle of rose growing. Until 1900 the townscape changed a lot, the simple wooden houses were replaced by new buildings, others were extended by oriel extensions. In 1857, the first gasworks of any spot in the country was inaugurated and in 1858 the first gas lanterns lit the town, replacing the kerosene lamps by 1879.

The town now had several commercial shops, hotels and inns, four doctors, a pharmacy and a newspaper. Welfare institutions, a twelve-grade elementary school, an eight-grade girls' middle school and a six-grade boys' middle school were established. Other schools were the royal seminary training school, the municipal preparatory school and the secondary school. The town administration was headed by a mayor, two town councillors and twelve town councillors. The assets of the town at the end of the 19th century amounted to 1,134,960 marks.

The workers' movement also developed in Uetersen at an early stage. At the end of August 1865 Karl von Bruhn founded the first congregation of the General German Workers' Association in Uetersen. At the general assembly of the General German Workers' Association in Hanover from 26 May to 5 June 1874, the workers of Uetersen were represented organisationally for the first time by H. Winter. At the Gotha Unification Congress in 1875 H. Fahl represented the party members from Pinneberg, Barmstedt and Uetersen of Bebel's and Liebknecht's SDAP. In 1889 there was a cement workers' strike in Uetersen and Moorrege. The strike was decided on 16/18 May 1889 in Breslau at the Congress of German Potters, at which the local potters were represented by the main agitator Warting from Uetersen. 260 of the 380 workers went on strike for better working conditions. After just under two weeks, the striking workers gave up for financial reasons, despite material support from the local population. Until the end of 1889, the strike provided fuel for the public dispute among the people of Uetersen. This workers' struggle was followed in 1889 and 1890 by a large number of strikes in the German Reich, which only became legal after the repeal of the Socialist Act.

20th century

An accident from 1904 is anchored in the local memory. During the celebrations for the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II, five children collapsed in the ice of a pond on the former Ochsenweg and drowned. A memorial stone over three metres high was erected in their honour in the New Cemetery. Later the pond was drained and a school was built there.

Just a few years later, in 1913, the then fire chief of the Uetersen volunteer fire brigade founded the volunteer ambulance column and set up the first ambulance service in the district of Pinneberg. In the same year the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Rosengarten was solemnly inaugurated, which received its name in honour of the 25th anniversary of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The inauguration ceremony took place with many guests from Germany and abroad.

First World War

During the First World War (1914-1918) there was great hardship in the town as retail and trade fell into disuse and there was an increasing shortage of food and clothing. The wives of men called up for military service and single women were required to work in place of the missing men. Food was distributed on special cards, and for clothing the citizens needed official purchase vouchers, as well as in some cases for other commodities. The supply difficulties occurred especially in the notorious "turnip winter of 1916/17," and were compounded by severe frost and a shortage of heating coal. With funds from the town and donations from merchants, property owners, associations and other institutions, it was possible to maintain a people's kitchen in the cellar of the town hall, which helped to satisfy the hunger of many residents. This "people's kitchen" continued to operate until after the war. After the end of the First World War 307 men from Uetersen did not return and were considered "fallen" or "missing".

After the First World War

Shortly after the beginning of the First World War, prices generally rose, funds became increasingly scarce, and the gold mark lost more and more of its value. During the hyperinflation of 1923, copper money almost completely disappeared and other small change was also soon in short supply, so that the city felt compelled to have notes produced itself: initially only 25- and 50-penny notes, later also higher-value ones, mainly as emergency money. In November 1923 it was possible to bring inflation to a halt; the Rentenmark was introduced and almost all Uetersen citizens and businesses started again at "point zero". The town was one of the economically distressed areas of Prussia. The unfavourable traffic situation at that time had a negative effect, because the town was connected to the railway line Altona-Kiel only by a branch line (the Uetersener railway). The once important cement and brick industry was closed down in 1930, the large tanneries and the mill industry had hardly anything to do. They gradually closed down or curtailed operations.

In the elections to the city council and the municipal councils on March 2, 1919, the SPD became the dominant political force in the city, while in the surrounding rural communities the bourgeois forces were ahead. These had predominantly joined together to form unified lists. The subsequent elections to the Prussian Landtag, the provincial Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein and the district council on 20 February 1921 brought a "shift to the right". The SPD and the DDP suffered losses, while the DVP and the DNVP made gains. The municipal election on 4 May 1924 provided another triumph for the bourgeois parties, and the town's Social Democratic majority was lost. In another municipal election on November 17, 1929, the NSDAP did not yet appear because it lacked suitable candidates to run against the well-known municipal politicians. Thus the bourgeois list ("Justice and Truth") continued to dominate in the city, representing "special interests" of various strata of the population.

A natural disaster unusual for these latitudes occurred on August 10, 1925, when the F3-magnitude Uetersen tornado destroyed large parts of Uetersen. The storm lasted more than a quarter of an hour, the swath of devastation had a width of about ten kilometers, thousands of window panes were smashed, countless roofs were destroyed by hailstones, factory chimneys toppled and the crops were mostly destroyed. Hundred-year-old trees were uprooted or snapped like matchsticks, including the town's landmark at the time, a 700-year-old oak tree. One person died and 13 people were injured, some of them seriously. The material damage to buildings and agricultural assets amounted to approximately four million Reichsmark (the equivalent of 13.2 million euros), and it took months to repair the damage. Horticulture, which was important for the city, needed several years to recover from this natural disaster.

In the same year, the first postal bus line in Schleswig-Holstein started operating from Uetersen, running three times a day. In 1928 the town celebrated the forty-ninth North German Federal Shooting with around six thousand festival participants. On March 24, 1938, a major fire destroyed Röpcke's Mill, the largest mill operation in Schleswig-Holstein at the time. More than 150 helpers of the Uetersen fire brigade and the neighbouring brigades from Moorrege, Heist, Groß Nordende and Elmshorn as well as 100 soldiers from the Uetersen air base were in action. In 1929 the winter showed its hardest face, in the night from February 10th to 11th the temperature dropped to -24 °C, all pumping stations failed and within this night the ice on the Pinnau reached a thickness of 15 cm. It was the coldest winter on record.

At the end of 1934, the first negotiations began about the construction of a military airfield on the site of today's Uetersen airfield. This was triggered by the town's magistrate, who hoped that the construction of an air base would significantly improve the economic structure. Already in March 1935 the construction of the military airfield was started and on 29 August 1936 the official topping-out ceremony took place in the town hall of Uetersen. Less than five weeks later, on October 3, 1936, Uetersen became a garrison town, and under the command of Colonel Hans Hückel, the Flieger-Ersatzabteilung 37 moved into the town and occupied the newly constructed barracks on the air base. On 31 October of the same year, the first recruit swearing-in ceremony took place.

rise of National Socialism

Already in the Reichstag election in July 1932, the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) won 51% of the voters in Schleswig-Holstein, while the Reich-wide result was only 37%. There are numerous studies on the causes of this unique rise of National Socialism in the north. These include the cession of Northern Schleswig, the effects of the world economic crisis on farms and the emerging rural movement, the low confessional loyalty of voters to a party, and the collapse of the middle-class voter potential of the German People's Party (DVP) and the German National People's Party (DNVP).

Election results for the Reichstag election in July 1932:
Party	NSDAP	SPD	KPD	DNVP	CsV	DStP	DVP	Center	WP
Voices	2190	1564	466	176	128	34	32	25	11

In Uetersen, the SPD and KPD still had a strong electorate in the Reichstag elections of November 1932. The NSDAP was able to register 2037 votes, the SPD received 1480, the KPD 537. Under the leadership of Victor Andersen (SPD) and others, resistance was organized in Uetersen and the surrounding area; spectacular actions such as preventing the march of 600 SS supporters in December 1932 were carried out. More than 750 people took part in a demonstration against the National Socialists on 18 February 1933.

Election results for the Reichstag election in November 1932:
Party	NSDAP	SPD	KPD	DNVP	CsV	DStP	DVP	Center	WP
Voices	2037	1480	573	269	130	48	45	28	6

The time of National Socialism

Election results for the Reichstag election in March 1933:
Party	NSDAP	SPD	KPD	DNVP	CsV	DStP	DVP	Center	DBP
Voices	2363	1476	479	259	112	16	37	22	1

In the Reichstag election in March 1933, the NSDAP achieved an overwhelming share of the vote in the city of over 52% (Pinneberg district 53.6%). Although the election campaigns of the SPD and KPD had been marred by newspaper bans, violent disruptions of election meetings and arrests, both parties were able to come close to regaining the absolute number of votes. After the election to the state parliament, district council and town council, also held in March 1933, the NSDAP received eleven of the 18 seats in Uetersen, the SPD six and the KPD one.

In March 1933, twelve SA and SS members were sworn in as auxiliary police officers in Uetersen; this was followed by arrests of KPD functionaries and house searches. The SPD and KPD deputies were removed from the town council, and the then mayor Heinrich Wellenbrink had to resign from office. The trade unions were brought into line and the National Socialists seized the trade union traditions. Thus the 1st of May was celebrated in a large demonstration under the leadership of the national socialist politicians. On May 1, 1933, however, a "Red Flag" also flew fixed on the chimney of the paper mill.

On 10 May 1933 a book burning also took place in Uetersen in the course of an "action against the un-German spirit" of the German student body, publicly books of Jewish, Marxist and pacifist authors were burned on the Buttermarkt.

After the SPD was banned in June 1933, other functionaries of the KPD and SPD were victims of persecution, including the former mayor of Elmshorn, Fritz Petersen. The civic associations were brought into line.

The KPD had prepared for resistance in illegality. Party members attempted to smuggle propaganda material across the Danish border, distributed leaflets and supported the families of imprisoned comrades by secretly collecting money. The perpetrators of the illegal actions were tracked down. In 1935, the Gestapo arrested 269 resistance fighters in the Pinneberg district. Eight leading KPD functionaries were sentenced to long prison terms on November 13, 1935, in the "Criminal Case Against Johannes Offenborn and Others" for "Preparing a Highly Treasonable Enterprise." In 23 subsequent trials, 261 other persons, among them 31 from Uetersen, stood trial, which imposed a total of 661 years in prison and 40 years in jail.

In 1934, the 700th city birthday and the opening of the new Rosarium were celebrated. The city's birthday and the rose show, the largest of its kind in Germany at the time, were used for Nazi propaganda. Adolf Hitler became an honorary citizen of the city and the Friedrich Ebert School was renamed the Adolf Hitler School. A memorial stone to the 1925 tornado was placed in the Rosarium, and the stump of the 700-year-old oak tree was removed and replaced by the newly planted Adolf Hitler Oak. In 1936 the NSDAP local group Uetersen, founded in 1930, moved into the former private school building in Moltkestraße. This was called the Brown House in Moltkestraße by the people of Uetersen. After the National Socialist rule, a sanatorium was established in the building. In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, the NSDAP local group had 568 members, 61 of whom were political leaders or office holders.

About 1650 prisoners of war and civilian prisoners from 21 countries, mainly from France, Poland and the Soviet Union, were barracked in Uetersen and were partly forced to work in industrial plants and in agriculture. With 358 forced labourers, MESSAP (Deutsche Messapparate GmbH), a subsidiary of the Junghans clock factory in the Black Forest, was the largest armaments factory in the town; time-measuring devices and detonators were assembled there. Another armaments factory with 135 forced laborers was Pinnauwerke GmbH, an offshoot of Drägerwerke in Lübeck, which manufactured gas masks and filters.

255 prisoners from various nations were housed in the then Hotel "Deutsches Haus" and 130 Frenchmen in a youth hostel. 250 men from Poland and the Soviet Union lived in the barracks camp at Esinger Steinweg. In the buildings of the Nordmark-Werke 160 women were imprisoned and in a barrack at Schützenplatz 200 men. In the cemetery, around 30 gravestones commemorate the prisoners of war and their children who died of illness or exhaustion.

Second World War

After the outbreak of the Second World War, motor vehicles were also confiscated in Uetersen out of "wartime economic necessity", decommissioned or could only be driven with special permits. For the evening hours the darkening obligation was ordered. The Hitler Youth collected for the Winterhilfswerk and the population of Uetersen received ration cards and ration coupons for the basic supply. There was also a call for energy saving and donations in kind. With the beginning of the Total War in 1943, most of the businesses in the town were shut down because there was a shortage of goods and raw materials; the men who were not liable for military service were called up for war-related work. In 1944, as in the whole country, the last forces were mobilized for the war. Almost all Uetersen men from the age of 17 to 59 were mustered and drafted immediately. The remaining boys, girls and women were trained as sick or Wehrmacht helpers in October 1944 due to a Wehrmacht decree. From then on the population of Uetersen had to live with severe restrictions. Thus, in addition to food, electric power was also allocated.

Uetersen survived the Second World War without major destruction. In the night of 6 to 7 June 1940, the Royal Air Force flew a direct attack on Uetersen. Some houses in the east of the town were destroyed. There was one dead and about 30 injured. From 11 to 28 June enemy aircraft flew over the town in several waves, dropping bombs indiscriminately in the vicinity. Another direct attack followed in the night of September 8-9, 1940, when about 25 explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped in Uetersen and the surrounding area, some of them severely damaging several houses in the town area. Two airplanes were shot down. The four crew members of one aircraft were captured and maps of Uetersen and the surrounding area were seized, on which the targets were marked in red. The second aircraft was still able to glide along the Elbe and later sank.

Towards the end of the Second World War, Nazi evidence began to be destroyed. Military installations were blown up, files, records, party uniforms, party books and swastika flags were burned, pistols, machine guns and bazookas were sunk in the Pinnau and the Rosarium. Party insignia and the like were secretly buried. The German troops from Hamburg, Wedel and the nearby air base retreated via Uetersen to a defensive line Elmshorn-Barmstedt-Alveslohe, but no more fighting took place.

On the evening of 4 May 1945, the German units in northern Germany surrendered and the following day the surrender document was signed on the Timmeloberg. British tank troops from Moorrege, coming across the Pinnau, occupied Uetersen and ended the National Socialist rule in the town. The Uetersen mayor of the NSDAP, Hermann Dölling, was arrested in the town hall after the occupation by British tank troops and taken to an internment camp as part of the denazification process. He was later classified as "exonerated".

In the Second World War about 1200 people from Uetersen were killed in action and about 400 were taken prisoner of war, about 220 are still missing.

Postwar

After the Allied invasion, there was great hardship from 1945 to 1950. Whole streets were occupied by the British military and the inhabitants had to look for new accommodation. Due to the many refugees, returnees and displaced persons and the war and civil prisoners from 21 European countries, the number of inhabitants had risen to over 14,800. The new citizens were housed in gymnasiums, cellars and empty factories. In addition, over a thousand people were staying in the city illegally. By 1946, the gas supply in the city could not be restored. There was a shortage of coal and scarce wood was rationed. Brennhexen, small movable stoves, were often used to heat only individual rooms, and layers of ice formed on the interior walls. Old blankets were handmade into coats and the former Wehrmacht camp was looted. Red pleated skirts were sewn from found Nazi flags and various articles of clothing were made from discarded flour sacks. The hunger winter of 1946/47, which went down in history as the worst of the 20th century, also occurred at this time. Around 20 people in the town froze to death or died of debilitation. At the Swedish Feeding at the same time, an attempt was also made to provide children and adults with four warm soups a day during the winter months by means of mass feedings, in order to save them from death from frostbite.

Until the currency reform, there were only a few things to buy. Bartering was very important and barter centres were set up in some shops in the city, where various things were offered. Bathtubs were scarce and bathing was done "in turn" once a week. In the city there was a bathhouse with two to three bathtubs that could be rented. A full bath cost about 1 mark.

At the beginning of the 1950s, the economic upswing began. The harbour basin, which was started in 1952, was expanded again in 1963. Uetersen thus got the largest inland harbour on the right lower Elbe side. Residential buildings were erected on a large scale. A large market place was built in the town centre and a regulated waste water disposal and refuse collection system was established. In the 1950s and 1960s, the town became the "football stronghold" in the Pinneberg district. The new Rosenstadion was built, and TSV Uetersen became champion in the Hamburg Germania-Staffel in 1950, was promoted to the Hamburg amateur league and became champion in the football Oberliga Hamburg in 1956/57. The club was football district champion fifteen times from 1951 to 1969, eleven of them in a row.

The Hamburg storm surge of 1962 also hit Uetersen. Already on February 12, a severe hurricane of force 12 with heavy rain showers swept over the town, uprooting trees and covering entire roofs of apartment blocks. Flying roof tiles damaged parked cars. Initial estimates put the property damage at around DM 150,000. In the night of 16 to 17 February, a flood wave pushed the water from the Elbe into the Pinnau, the river became a raging torrent and flooded the inner and old town of Uetersen as well as the historic monastery complex from Stichhafen via the Klosterwiesen. More than 50 pigs drowned in the floods. From midnight until four o'clock in the morning the flood water reached the highest level of 4.09 meters above sea level and there was a power failure in the town. A disaster task force was set up in Uetersen town hall and emergency generators were used to keep the hospital running. Helpers from the surrounding fire brigades, a squadron of the flight trainee regiment from the Uetersen air base and the local branch of the Federal Air Defence Association as well as countless volunteers were in action until 28 February. In the vicinity of the Harles and Jentzsch factory site, the Pinnau dike was breached over a width of four to five meters. For several days, volunteers and soldiers there hauled sandbags to exhaustion, rammed in piles and laid fascines to close the hole again. Initial estimates put the damage at 7.2 million deutschmarks. In Moorrege, opposite, the Pinnau also burst its banks and flooded parts of the community; some buildings and agricultural land were under water.

In the same year, the town inadvertently hit the headlines of the international press through the doctor Kurt Borm, when he was arrested at his workplace in the Uetersen hospital. He had deliberately concealed his past during the recruitment interviews. He was accused of having killed more than 6652 mentally ill people in Aktion T4 and 1000 concentration camp prisoners in Aktion 14f13 under the code name Dr. Storm. in Sonnenstein during the National Socialist era. However, he was acquitted in 1972.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the transformation of the city began. A new district was created near the Kreuzmoor; in 1977 the construction of the new town hall and the pedestrian and shopping zone began, and the town centre was redesigned. Many historic buildings such as the post office building from 1902 and the Röpckes Mühle were demolished for the construction of modern residential and commercial buildings. The former city railway station had to make way for a new street layout. On September 1, 1981, the new pedestrian and shopping zone and the newly built town hall were ceremonially inaugurated. In the winter of 1978/79, the city was affected by the snow disaster in northern Germany. For several days public life came to an almost complete standstill, in some parts of the city the snow was up to two metres high. On September 12, 1982, a major fire destroyed the H. W. Feuerschütz oHG lumber business in the city center. A single-family house and several cars were also destroyed by flames, and adjacent residential buildings were severely damaged in some cases. It was the biggest fire in Uetersen's town history, with property damage amounting to several million Deutschmarks.

In 1984, the city celebrated its 750th anniversary from August 24 to September 2. Part of the event was broadcast live on TV (Aktuelle Schaubude, ZDF Sonntagskonzert) and radio (Hamburger Hafenkonzert, NDR 1 Welle Nord). At the same time the 50th anniversary of the Rosarium Uetersen was celebrated.

In the following years, further extensive redesign and construction measures were carried out and an additional commercial area was designated.

In November 1995 the restaurant Feuerstein, formerly Café von Stamm, in the old town burned down, which was known far beyond the town borders. More than 100 firefighters from Elmshorn, Uetersen and Wedel were busy extinguishing the fire for over twelve hours. In a dramatic operation, the firefighters were able to prevent the flames from spreading to neighbouring historic buildings.

21st century

On January 18, 2003, three hundred and fifty neo-Nazis took part in a march led by Christian Worch and Thorsten Heise. There were clashes between 650 police officers and part of the 1500 counter-demonstrators; about 150 anti-fascists broke through a police cordon near the Nazi meeting place. The march ended in chaos, the neo-Nazis were pelted with projectiles, cars and windows were demolished. A total of 18 arrests were made, including one neo-Nazi.

In 2004, the town became known nationwide when the Uetersen hospital was closed despite protests, although it was the only clinic in the Pinneberg district to be in the black. After that, the former hospital was home to Regio-Kliniken, which became a case for the public prosecutor's office because of mismanagement and alleged corruption of the management. The company made a loss of nine million euros in 2008. For 2009, a deficit of over seven million euros was reported, and in 2013 losses in the millions were again incurred. In the meantime, the clinics have been sold to Sana Kliniken in order to secure health care for the population. In the summer of 2006, as in other cities, the World Cup was celebrated with fan festivals. On the occasion of the town's fan festival, the nationwide photo competition Gib der WM Dein Gesicht (Give the World Cup your face) was also held, in which two children from Uetersen (aged 8 and 9) came top and became famous throughout Germany. They were selected from 1490 candidates, landed in 1st and 2nd place in the children's category and achieved 6th and 7th place overall.

In 2007, at the request of the Cologne-based DEVK insurance company, around three hundred apartments in the Kreuzmoor neighbourhood of Uetersen were seized and placed under receivership. The apartments had been in a state of disrepair for years and a large proportion of the seven hundred or so people lived in unworthy living conditions. It took millions of euros in investment to remedy the deplorable conditions. In the meantime, the forced administrator sold a total of 376 apartments in the quarter to a housing company.

In the summer of 2007, the city was threatened by major flooding several times after heavy rainfall. Only through the efforts of hundreds of helpers from the Technical Relief Agency from Hamburg, the Disaster Management and the volunteer fire brigades from the district area was it possible to prevent the Rosarium from overflowing and to save the city from major flooding. The fire brigades and the technical relief organisation were busy pumping out the water masses from the Rosarium, sometimes for days. The annual autumn and lantern festival could only be held under difficult conditions because parts of the city centre were under water. On 28 June 2008, one of the largest rescue exercises with more than 260 activists for prospective paramedics in Schleswig-Holstein took place on the grounds of the Nordmark-Werke. The pyrotechnic explosions could be heard as far as the neighbouring communities and a dense cloud of black smoke was visible far beyond the town. Part of the population of Uetersen believed that a serious accident had occurred. A large contingent of the Uetersen Volunteer Fire Brigade, the rescue service of the RKiSH (Rettungsdienst-Kooperation in Schleswig-Holstein) and the Rapid Response Group (SEG) of the German Red Cross further unsettled the population, although this large-scale exercise had been announced in the media beforehand. In addition to the treatment of explosion injuries, burns and smoke poisoning, the main focus of this exercise was on technical rescue as well as operational logistics and organization.

In March 2009, Thormählen again made headlines in the media. Since 2006, he had not passed on the costs for the heating, amounting to more than half a million euros, to E.ON Hanse. As a result, several hundred tenants of a high-rise building on Klosterkoppel had their gas turned off, leaving them without heating or hot water for days. It was only when the Hamburger Sparkasse, as Thormählen's main creditor, reached an agreement with the energy supply company and took over a guarantee that the gas supply was resumed. A short time later, the building in question and another high-rise were placed under receivership. In December 2009, charges were brought against the landlord for 29 counts of commercial fraud. The proceedings against Thormählen were discontinued at the end of February 2010 subject to conditions and the payment of compensation to the tenants. Meanwhile, E.ON Hanse is pursuing another civil suit against Thormählen to recover gas debts of about €193,000. The houses had been scheduled for auction since mid-2010, but the date for the auction was postponed several times. At the end of 2010, the houses were surprisingly sold by the Hamburger Sparkasse to an unknown buyer; the market value was around four million euros.

In June 2009, the redesign work for the new shopping center on Gerberplatz began. Ten million euros were invested by the company Groga-Immobilien-GmbH for the expansion of the previous shopping center. On 1.4 hectares the project was to be realized in a rush. Part of the conversion work has already been carried out, and the construction work was to be completed by April 2010. Due to the severe winter of 2009/2010 and further extensions, completion was delayed until mid-August.

In mid-July 2009, the city celebrated its 775th anniversary. However, the planning was overshadowed by disputes over the budget and squabbles between individual merchants. The event also included the Schleswig-Holstein State Costume Festival with over 350 participants from 31 associations and the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Rosarium Uetersen. Near the former Uetersen hospital, after long planning disputes, the construction of the refectory "KantUene" for the Ludwig-Meyn-Gymnasium and the Gustav-Heinemann-Realschule was started, the construction work was finished after the summer holidays 2010.

Despite protests from the population, it was decided due to the new school reform to phase out the operation of the primary and secondary school Am Roggenfeld from the school year 2010/2011. Together with the Gustav-Heinemann-Realschule it now forms the regional school "Rosenstadtschule" Uetersen.

Due to a victory of FC St. Pauli II against Holstein Kiel II, TSV Uetersen, as runner-up of the Landesliga Hammonia, was promoted again to the football Oberliga Hamburg through the "back door" and received the Cuban national football team for a friendly match in the Rosenstadion on the occasion of the 775th anniversary of the city.

On 24 April 2010, Uetersen was one of the main venues of the action and human chain from Krümmel to Brunsbüttel (KETTENreAKTION!). Several thousand people as well as politicians of the SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and other initiatives from the surrounding area, the Lübeck region, Ostholstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern formed a human chain across the city to Tornesch. Partly there were massive traffic problems, because the main roads were blocked by participants.

At the end of July 2010, the tallest building disappeared from the cityscape. The chimney of the StoraEnso paper factory from 1906, which was visible from afar and more than 75 metres high, was shortened to around 40 metres. It was one of the landmarks along with the 60-metre-high Raiffeisen silo at the Stichhafen harbour and the Uetersen water tower.

In December 2010, it became known that the Uetersen animal feed company Harles und Jentzsch had processed dioxin-contaminated fats and was at the centre of an animal feed scandal ("dioxin scandal") in which, according to the authorities, at least 3,000 tonnes of dioxin-contaminated animal feed fat had been supplied to numerous German animal feed manufacturers for further processing, as a result of which several thousands of supplied farms in Germany had to be blocked.

At the beginning of July 2011, the town celebrated its 777th anniversary. Highlights of this celebration were the performance of 30 bands and individual artists, among them Joon Wolfsberg, and the tying of the longest rose garland (320 m) in Europe.

The plan to merge with the neighbouring town of Tornesch failed in September 2013 due to a citizen vote. While the majority of eligible voters in Uetersen were in favour of a merger, 86 % of the voters in Tornesch rejected it.

Historical legends, originals and mythical creatures

In historical records and chronicles of the city appear again and again people who distinguished themselves by special deeds or their peculiarities. For example, there is a report of an old witch who lived in the forest area of Langes Tannen and is said to have wreaked havoc there.

Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (1650-1714) had visited the monastery twice in 1675 with about 80 subjects, had herself royally fed there and disappeared again without much thanks. The monastery scribe Johan Moritzen later calculated the costs incurred during each visit at almost 60 shillings per person.

38 years later, there is a report of one Anna Catharina von Sparre who, by her high-handed actions in 1713, saved the town from being incinerated by the Swedish troops of Magnus Stenbock, a cousin and childhood friend of Fräulein von Sparre († 1749). When the troops were already in Pinneberg, she traveled there with some companions on January 9, 1713, and paid her respects to the general. He recognized the long-forgotten schoolmate. After an extensive conversation, which was conducted in Swedish, she appeared at the door and opened to her companions: "It is all given to you!". Nevertheless, the monastery later had to pay 1180 riksdaler as plunder money. In 1717 the plenipotentiaries of the Uetersen communities filed a complaint against Anna Catharina von Sparre with the provost and prioress of the Uetersen monastery on suspicion of nepotism. Nothing is known about the outcome of the proceedings. Apparently the prioress had succeeded in clarifying the affair internally.

Another Altuetersen figure was the Fräulein von Hammerstein, called the monastery ghost of Uetersen, a gaunt person and always dressed in black. She moved through the monastery completely silently. The people of Uetersen feared her because she often appeared out of nowhere and never made a sound. She was a daughter of the Prussian Minister of Agriculture Ernst von Hammerstein-Loxten.

Superstition was still widespread in the city in the 18th century. For example, pregnant women had a blank rapier placed under their heads to protect them from subterranean spirits. Also, many common people believed that they received their food from a dragon. Camerer wrote in his Vermischte historisch-politische Nachrichten: "Many people in this region are fully aware that their food comes from the dragon, many people have also seen him, and they have painted him so clearly to me that he tormented me half a night in my dreams. When will reason rule the world and the common man with truth? From our times they are removed, these golden times. “

Population development

At the beginning of the population determination in the middle of the 17th century 256 houses were counted in Uetersen. In 1803 the town had 2601 inhabitants, around 1875 the number increased to about 4300, from 1900 to 1910 the number of inhabitants grew from 5958 to 6259 persons, making it the second largest town in the district of Pinneberg after Elmshorn (13,640). Until 1938 the number of inhabitants grew to 7673 persons. Towards the end of the Second World War, the number of inhabitants rose explosively to over 14,800 due to refugees from nearby Hamburg and displaced persons from the former eastern territories, and has since grown slowly but steadily to over 17,800 inhabitants in 2006. However, forecasts in the 1960s that the population would rise to 60,000 inhabitants (the Klosterkoppel high-rise buildings and the oversized town hall date from this period) proved to be wrong. With 2.23 inhabitants per household, the average household size is above the state level of Schleswig-Holstein (2.09 inhabitants per household).

Population development of the town of Uetersen since 1803.

Year Inhabitants 1803 02.601 1840 03.313 1845 03.396 1855 03.906 1867 03.905 1871 04.037 1880 04.723 1885 05.058 1890 05.311 1895 05.603 1905 06.300 1910 06.891 1917 05.891 1919 06.443 1925 06.989 1935 07.236

Year Inhabitants 1939 07.976 1945 14.407 1951 15.485 1987 16.997 1995 18.155 2001 18.083 2003 18.013 2005 17.551 2006 17.865 2007 17.852 2008 17.739 2009 17.688 2010 17.558 2011 17.829 2016 18.272

Population forecast 2025

According to the calculations of the Statistical Office for Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein of November 2007, a stagnating population of around 18,700 is to be assumed for the town of Uetersen for the period from 2007 to 2025. Thus a population decline of 2.7 percent is expected. The city is increasingly trying to counteract the forecast by designating additional residential and mixed-use areas. This approach is being criticized by more and more citizens, as the last vacant lots and backyards in the city are to be built on. They fear losses in quality of life due to the loss of the last green spaces and dense backyard development. In July 2010, the city's Urban Development and Building Committee approved the demolition of the former Deutsches Haus hotel in the historic Old Town; a residential park with three townhouses and nine condominiums has since been built there. This building project was also criticized by some citizens.

Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel


The Uetersen cement factory around 1900


Memorial stone to the accident on the ice


Human chain in Tornescher Weg


Population development from 1803 to 2016 according to the adjacent table


Monument in memory of 27 Soviet prisoners of war who lost their lives in Uetersen


Memorial stone from 1934 to the tornado of Uetersen in 1925


Oldest view drawing of Uetersen (top left) Anno 1568


Town charter


Mention of the monastery around 1220 and the lost document in Camerer's Vermischte historisch-politische Nachrichten in Briefen von einigen merkwürdigen Gegenden der Herzogthümer Schleßwig und Hollstein, Anno 1762


German translation of the deed of gift from the knight Heinrich II von Barmstede


Magnus Stenbock