page_title: Rheiderland
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rheiderland / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Alte Karte vom Rheiderland, Ausschnitt aus der Ubbo-Emmius-Karte, hergestellt 1645 von Willem and Joan Blaeu in Amsterdam.English: Old map of the Rheiderland in East Frisia. Detail from the Ubbo Emmius map.
context_page_description: The Rheiderland is a region of Germany and the Netherlands between the River Ems and the Bay of Dollart. The German part of the Rheiderland lies in East Frisia, west of the Ems. The Dutch part lies in the Dutch province of Groningen and is mostly part of Oldambt. The Rheiderland is one of the four historic regions on the mainland in the district of Leer; the others being the Overledingerland, the Moormerland and the Lengenerland.
context_section_description: Rheiderland was settled by Frisians from an early date. After the foreign rulers were expelled from Friesland, Rheiderland, like the other Frisian areas, developed a territory directly subsidiary to the Holy Roman Empire, whose constitution included a governing council. The feudal system was unknown in this region. The main settlements were Weener and Hatzum.
   
  Rheiderland became oriented towards Ommelanden. From 1362, due to the invasion of the sea, large districts of the area were submerged, creating a natural boundary, and the links with the Frisian areas east of the Ems developed. Much of the submerged land was reclaimed from the sea as a polder, a process which continued until the 20th century.
  From 1413 the area fell under the dominion of the Tom Brok family, and subsequently of Focko Ukena and then the Cirksena family. The area was later only independent for a brief period. The same fate befell what is now the German part of Rheiderland, which became part of the County of East Frisia.
  Until 1600, Rheiderland was nominally independent under the dominion of the Counts of East Frisia, but it was then definitively annexed to East Frisia. In 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Rheiderland was included in the Department of Groningen (Département Ems-Occidentale) in the Kingdom of Holland, later part of the French Empire, and was thus separated from East Frisia (the remainder of East Frisia became the Département of Ems-Orientale). After Napoleon fell from power, Rheiderland was reunited with East Frisia within the kingdom of Hanover, later of Prussia.
  Until 1932 the German part of Rheiderland formed the district of Weener in either Hanover or Prussia. By a decree of the Prussian Ministry of State, this district was dissolved and amalgamated with the district of Leer.
  After World War II, the Netherlands claimed the whole of Rheiderland, but this claim was rejected by the victorious powers. In the German section the use of Dutch as the majority language quickly resumed. In any case, the only legal grounds for the Dutch claim were that the area had been part of the Kingdom of Holland, a French client kingdom, during the brief years of Napoleonic rule; but the Allied powers had no interest in making territorial changes along Germany's western border.
caption: Map of Rheiderland c. 1277 including the settlements on the Dollart subsequently lost to the sea (according to Ubbo Emmius).
exif: {}