OMMEN

'' is a municipality and a Hanseatic city in the Vecht valley of the Salland region, which is at the heart of the province of Overijssel in the eastern Netherlands.

Contents

Population centres

The city of Ommen

Location, infrastructure and economy

Local politics

History

The city of Ommen

Eerde

Ommerschans

Culture

Language

Religion

Bissingh

Sights

References

External links

Population centres

Besides the city of Ommen and the village of Lemele, the municipality consists of the following hamlets and villages:
Archem, Arriën, Arriërveld, Beerze, Beerzerveld, Besthmen, Eerde, Giethmen, Junne, Ommerschans, Stegeren, Stegerveld, Varsen, Vilsteren, Vinkenbuurt, Witharen and Zeesse.

The city of Ommen

Location, infrastructure and economy

Ommen lies 20 kilometres (12½ miles) east of the provincial capital of Zwolle and 35 kilometres (22 miles) north-east of fellow Hanseatic city Deventer. It lies on the north bank of the Vecht river, not far from where the Regge river merges with this stream. Only smaller ships and yachts can use these waterways.
Ommen has a railway station, situated one mile from the centre on the other bank of the Vecht. The station is on the (minor) railway Zwolle-Emmen and trains stop roughly twice an hour.
An important infrastructural problem is road N34, from Zwolle via Emmen to Groningen, which crosses the city of Ommen. One of its main crossroads, near the Vecht bridge is a bottleneck that causes frequent traffic congestion. The government now plans to reroute the N34 road north of the city, in order to reduce crosstown traffic.
Since Ommen is a rural municipality, tourism and agriculture are the pillars of the local economy. The beautiful forests and hilly heathlands of Ommen attracts many nature-seeking visitors. The city of Ommen has several hotels and in the surrounding area there are fifteen campgrounds. Ommen also has a small marina.

Local politics

The current burgomaster is Mr. Gerrit Jan Kok (VVD). He was appointed by the crown in January 2007 to replace Arend ten Oever (CDA), after consultation with the citizens of Ommen.
The last municipal elections were in March 2006. The seventeen seats in Ommen's city council were divided as follows:

★ Local Party Ommen (LPO): 5 seats

★ CDA: 5 seats

★ ChristianUnion: 2 seats

★ Labour: 2 seats

★ VVD: 2 seats

★ Democrats: 1 seat
The current ''College of Burgomaster and Aldermen'' (the municipal executive) is supported by the three coalition parties: LPO, Labour and VVD - each of which provides one alderman.
The sister city of Ommen is Recke in neighbouring North Rhine-Westphalia.

History

The city of Ommen

Whilst archeologists believe that the first settlements in present-day Ommen arose in the 8th century AD, it is not until the end of the 11th century that written records mention Ommen or ''Umme'' as a ford in the Vecht. In 1248, Ommen received city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht, after the city was pillaged by local robber knight Rudolf of Coevorden and a militia of freemen in the aftermath of the Battle of Ane of 1227. Ommen's location at the confluence of two rivers near the important commercial centre of Deventer made it a considerable strategic asset for the bishop against the rebellious Drents.
Ommen soon became a regional port and market for agricultural products, whilst a toll bridge across the Vecht, built in 1492, greatly increased its wealth. Following this commercial growth, Ommen eventually joined the prosperous Hanseatic League, although most of its trade was not directly with the Baltic Sea region but with fellow Hanseatic cities Zwolle, Kampen, Deventer and Zutphen. Ommen was regularly damaged by devastating fires (in 1517, 1624 and 1672) and floods. Therefore, only few buildings from before 1850 remain. Moreover, through the centuries three toll bridges across the Vecht were destroyed by ice floes.

Eerde

About four kilometres (or 2½ miles) south-east of Ommen and adjecent to the hamlet of Eerde lies the castle 'Eerde', a castle in the Dutch-classical style from 1715, surrounded by a 1,667 hectare estate in the Baroque style managed by the Natuurmonumenten foundation since 1965.^[1]
The first castle on this site was built in the 14th century, but was soon destroyed by the bishop's men in 1380. Since the Van Twickelo, Van Renesse and Van Pallandt families have lived in castles on this site. The castle was used by the famous philosopher and spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti, of whom Baron Philip van Pallandt was an avid follower, from about 1929 to 1934. Van Pallandt granted Krishnamurti a terrain at the Besthemerberg, north of Eerde. There Krishnamurti held his Order of the Star in the East lectures and meetings in front of audiences of over three thousand people from 48 countries.
During the Second World War, a Nazi concentration camp, ''Lager Erika'', was situated at the Besthemerberg. Only eight Jews were detained here; the camp was designated mostly for Dutchmen convicted of black market trade or resistance to the occupational authorities. The camp was notorious for the brutal behaviour of its personnel, leading Dutch judges to refuse to send convicts there in 1943. The camp was turned into an ''Arbeitserziehungslager'' mostly for those refusing to do forced labour, but in the fall of 1944 it once again became a penal camp. The camp was liberated on April 11, 1945. From 1945 to 1946, the camp was instead used to detain Dutchmen who had collaborated with the German occupiers. Their treatment was not much better, and hundreds died due to the poor conditions.^[2]
Nowadays the castle houses the private international boarding school Eerde, which offers the IB programme.^[3]

Ommerschans

About ten kilometres (or six miles) due north of Ommen lies the former 'Ommerschans' fortification.^[4] The Ommerschans was a fortress built in 1628 as part of a defence line to defend the northern provinces of Groningen and Friesland from the marauding count Hendrik van den Bergh (in Spanish service) after the expiration of the Twelve Years' Truce. Hendrik, a nephew of William of Orange, then defected to the Dutch Republic in 1633.
The defences of the Ommerschans were restrengthened in the middle of the 17th century to deter and halt a possible invasion from the east. Despite these new fortifications, the Ommerschans was captured without any resistance when the Catholic bishops Bernhard von Galen of Münster and Maximilian Henry of Cologne invaded in 1672, the so-called rampjaar (or disaster year) that started the Franco-Dutch War. The 146 musketeers and 55 pikemen stationed at the Ommerschans fled north, only to return later that year when the bishops retreated after their failed siege of the northern city of Groningen.
Under pressure from the citizens of Ommen and after the Peace of Utrecht of 1713, the fortress was closed down in 1715, only to be reinstated as a fortified arsenal in 1740 when war reignited in Continental Europe. During the Patriot Revolt of 1787, militias from Zwolle, Kampen and Vollenhove conquered and pillaged the Ommerschans, stealing all its weaponry to help them in their paramilitary struggle against the regime. The Ommerschans fortification became abandoned and would never again be used for military purposes.

In the early 19th century, the Dutch government changed it into a resocialisation institution and labour camp for beggars, prostitutes and alcoholics from Amsterdam and other western cities. They were supposed to learn farming and morals by experience so they could reintegrate into society. In reality the beggars were used for semi-forced and all-but-unpaid labour to reclaim the wetlands surrounding Ommerschans, eventually reclaiming an area of 4 by 2½ kilometres. Politician and novelist Jacob van Lennep visited Ommerschans during his walking tour with Dirk van Hogendorp across the newly independent United Kingdom of the Netherlands in the summer of 1823, and documented his appal at the conditions at the labour camp: "These hours are certainly among the saddest I have lived through."
When the institution went bankrupt in 1859 the Dutch government managed the labour camp until 1889, when it was finally closed down. During its years in operation, between several hundred and two thousand workers would live at Ommerschans at any one time, and an estimated 5448 workers died whilst interned there.

Culture

Language

Most inhabitants of Ommen speak Dutch, but many will also speak Low Saxon or ''Plat'' - an ancient language related to Low German and Old English which is indigenous to the north-east of the Netherlands. The unique dialect of Plat spoken in Ommen is Sallands. Although both the national government and the European Union recognise Plat as a regional language, it is considered by many to be a mere dialect of Dutch, and its popularity is waning rapidly, even compared to Twents. English and German are also widely spoken as second languages.
The poet Johanna van Buren died in Ommen in 1962. Her Plat poetry in the Salland and Twents dialect is still popular throughout Overijssel.
The theologian and communication scientist Anne van der Meiden has in recent years translated parts of the Bible into Plat and introduced services in Plat, which are occasionally held in Ommen as well.

Religion

Ommen has a reasonable mix of churches, with sizable Roman Catholic, Dutch Protestant and Liberated Reformed (''Gereformeerd Vrijgemaakt'') congregations.
Ommen was built around the old church at its heart, first mentioned in 1238 and severely damaged by fires in 1330 and 1624. The church was converted to Calvinism during the Reformation of the 16th century, and it was not until the constitutional reforms of 1853 that the Roman Catholicism was once again openly practiced in Ommen and not until 1860 that a new Roman Catholic church was founded in the centre of Ommen. The village of Vilsteren to the west of Ommen, however, had remained entirely Roman Catholic throughout the centuries.
The famous preacher and dissenter Albertus van Raalte lived and worked in Ommen between 1839 and 1844, before he and his congregation moved to America to found the Reformed Church in America and the city of Holland, Michigan.
The Jewish diaspora in Ommen disappeared during and after the German Occupation.

Bissingh

Ommen is famous for its ''Bissingh'' summer markets. These yearly markets have been organised on the second Tuesday of July since 1557. Its success was based on the wide array of products on offer and a relaxation of excises and regulation on alcoholic consumption, attracting merchants and consumers to Ommen from far and wide. In the 19th century it became one of the main markets in the province of Overijssel, and there would often be brawls and riots. In 1918, the council of Dutch Reformed Church asked the city council to end the public events surrounding the Bissing for moral reasons. The city council complied and the Bissingh activities were suspended until 1958, although the market continued.
Nowadays the Bissingh has become a major tourist attraction, lasting for five consecutive Wednesdays after the initial market and comprising of a wide array of ceremonies, fairs, concerts, funfairs and activities.
The etymology of the word ''Bissingh'' is widely discussed. Some believe it is derived from 'Bishop's day', in recognition of Ommen's city rights, whilst others believe the word is related to the English word ''business''.

Sights

★ The church in the centre, built in 1150 but rebuilt and renovated regularly, is by far the oldest building in Ommen.

★ The Tin Figurine Museum in the former City Hall on the banks of the Vecht has over 200,000 figurines and panoramas, including four panoramas of the famous Battle of Ane of 1227.

★ Ommen has five windmills, of which three in the city itself: the ''Lelie'' (1846, still in full operation), ''Den Oordt'' (1842, operates weekly) and the ''Konijnenbelt'' (1806, out of commission).
Vilsteren has its own windmill (1858, recently recommissioned), as does the hamlet of Besthem (1862, recently renovated). The ''Besthemermolen'' also houses the Nature Information Centre with expositions about Ommen's diverse landscape and ecosystems.

★ The small Regional Museum in Ommen explains Ommen's customs and history.

★ The estates of the Vilsteren and Eerde castles are open to the public.

References

1. Stichting Natuurmonumenten, Natuurgebied Eerde''
2. Guusta Veldman ''Knackers achter prikkeldraad : kamp Erika bij Ommen, 1941-1945 '' (1993) ISBN 90-5345-037-8 (in Dutch)
3. School Eerde''
4. Vereniging De Ommerschans, History of the Ommerschans'' (in Dutch)

External links

★ Official Website (Dutch)

★ Ommen Regional Museum (Dutch)

★ International School Eerde (English)

★ Ommen Tin Figurine Museum (English)

★ Ommen Tourist Office (Dutch; summary in German)

★ SONT: Streektaal-Organisaties in het Nedersaksisch Taalgebied (Low Saxon)