This town was built for refugees
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- The town of Neu-Isenburg just south of Frankfurt is not a classic tourist hotspot. But its history is linked to religious persecution, a refugee crisis, and intercultural tensions. Also, one of post-war Germany's greatest statesmen wasn't born here, but his name was.
Chapters:
00:00 An intriguing town
00:23 Aircraft noise
00:36 Religious persecution
01:08 The Count of Isenburg-Offenbach
02:06 The tram that thinks it's a train
02:38 The border
03:14 Town planning, Baroque style
04:02 The church and the town hall
04:38 Building the town
04:55 The French school
05:29 Rivalries
06:28 Historic pride
06:53 Willy Brandt? No, Willi Brandt!
07:39 The House of the Lion
08:11 Getting there
Music:
"On My Way Home"
by The 126ers
CZcams Audio Library
"Hot Swing"
by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com/
Creative Commons Attribution licence
Map of the Holy Roman Empire
by Ziegelbrenner
via commons.wikimedia.org
Street map of modern Neu-Isenburg
created with data from
OpenStreetMap openstreetmap.org
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Send letters and postcards to:
Rewboss
Postfach 10 06 29
63704 Aschaffenburg
Germany
Please don't send parcels or packages, or anything that has to be signed for.
Kudos for making Neu-Isenburg look somewhat attractive!😉
I'm down to visit!
Au lion d’or als Name für ein Hotel ist ein Wortspiel (au lit on dort = im Bett schläft man)
Au lit on dorme.
@@michaelburggraf2822Je dors, il dort, ils dorment. "Au lit on dort" is correct.
@@elkewoll2950 verflixt - wie peinlich. Aber wenigstens ein deutlicher Hinweis, dass ich mich endlich mal wieder mehr mit Französisch beschäftigen sollte.
Vielen Dank!
or ist eher gold… il a ecrit que ce etait un lion d’or.
@@Canleaf08 Natürlich ist or Gold. Das ist doch der Name des Hotels.
Much of the inner city of Erlangen is also one of these planned, symmetrical cities built for Huguenot refugees. Even though one half of the plan is somewhat altered by the later palace and palace gardens, you can still see the original plan in the modern layout of the city.
Das war Wissenswertes über Erlangen.
Outstanding how much fascinating history you dug up just for this small town alone!
Greetings from Austria
Interesting video! Neighbouring Walldorf was actually also founded as a refugee settlement, hard to imagine how much influx the region must have had in just a few years.
Walldenser, also protestants from France
There are several publishing companies located at Neu-Isenburg, which is the main reason why I know the place at all. And I have always been wonderin why there was no "old Isenburg" or at least "Isenburg" anywhere close by. So thank you for answering a question that has been pestering me for quite some time. 😀
Mhh, to me that doesn't answers why they didn't named it just Isenburg, didn't I paid attention in the video?
Growing up in southern Frankfurt, I am very familiar with this suburb. We often went shopping at their "Isenburg Zentrum" mall or do the public swimming pool there. (In fact, that's where I mostly learned to swim - but not their current one, the previous pool that existed in the same location).
The tram line through the forest is among the most beautiful sections of the Frankfurt tram network...
thank you for another great and informative video, Andrew! Also, that bird song fit perfectly into the outro music :o)
The sound of blackbirds always evokes memories of European holidays for me. 😊
The bird hopping away just for the video to end is one of the details I like :D
I honestly thought this video was going to be about the BallinStadt in Hamburg, a small "village" where people leaving Europe for America would stay in for a few days before boarding the ship when they sailed with the Hapag line. It was constructed mainly for 2 reasons.
1 because it made the Hapag more interesting for emigrants because once they paid and were in Hamburg, they didn't need to take care of checking when they were departing from where and where they would stay until the ship left and 2 because then the company could ensure they would be healthy when entering the US since otherwise they would be sent back, paid by the company, hurting their revenues
Lovely. I lived there for almost 10 years but never learned that much about its history
visit Bad Karlshafen , near Kassel, too. It was also a refugee camp, which is still visible in the town
Erlangen/Franconia as well
Similarly to the Huguenottes there was another group called Waldenser who fled to Germany due to religious persecution in the early 17th century. One such settlement is Perousse between Leonberg and Pforzheim (it's a part of Rutesheim community today). Welschneureut - today a suburb of Karlsruhe - has been founded as a Waldenser settlement too.
Ich liebe deine Geschichtsvideos! 👍😊
Visit Friedrichstadt in Schleswig-Holstein. It was built by dutch refugees and looks like Amsterdam in a walnut. Very beautiful tiny city.
That crow was a paid actor.
That was a European blackbird. No doubt you'll be receiving a letter soon from the legal department of the Corvid Actors' Guild.
Some quite interesting input! I frequently am in the industrial area of Neu-Isenburg for work, yet never had the time to see the town itself. Fascinating history!
same with Freudenstadt (black forest) it was build for protestant refugees from the Steiermark in Austria. It is also a "Planstadt" the map shows a "Mühle spielbrett". the Name freudenstadt (Town of Joy) was choosen because of the joy of the people to have found a new home.
Very nice! I'm encountering Huguenot names also everywhere in Offenbach, frequently associated with the most successful spinoff Businesses. There are several families going by the name Picard, and one of those was the founder of the Leathermanfactury Picard.
There is Berdoux, associated with coal and vine, and the 'Musikhaus André', which were the first to use the newly by Alois Sennefelder invented stone lithography, to print and publish W. A. Mozart's music on sheets. And then, there is the Isenbuger Schloß, and the 'Französische Kapelle'.
What a splendid video of history telling - thank you!
I lived in dreieich for the first twelve years of my life, it‘s right beside neu-Isenburg. I never had much interaction with the city though, but passing through it mostly seemed like a more modern city with nothing „notable“ really. We did like to go to the mall that is there, the „neu-Isenburg Zentrum“.
0:32 German humor
Interesting history. 👍🏻
Fascinating video! I went to Neu-Isenburg once, looking for rental. I didn't get any but it was a nice trip away from Frankfurt. Thanks for making this!
Huguenots moving to the not-Germany-but-German-speaking kingdoms or riches started around 1580 during and after the Guerres de Religion (French Wars of Religion) from 1562 to 1598. Many moved to the Odenwald and were later very welcomed because of the Thirty Years' War loss of population in this area (~80%). Many moved to the Kurpfalz (Palatinate, the region around Mannheim) because of the then protestant Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine (~Duke). But this changed around 1690 with Johann Wilhelm II and his recatholization, so many of those refugees then migrated to the New Territories aka USA and brought things like Pennsylvanian Dutch (which is just an old dialect of the Palatinate) and the "stein" beer-mugs.
Very interesting!
I have a question you might have more experience with - as a German living in the UK, I've considered taking British citizenship, after dual citizenship is made possible in Germany. However, I've already read that the conservative parties want to revoke this, should they form the next government. Considering there is a fair chance of this happening - what would be the consequences for people who obtained dual citizenship during the brief period that it was generally allowed? Would this mean I'd have to chose a single citizenship again? Or will I be able to keep it, similar to individuals who gained dual citizenship when it was still EU?
This really worries me, I don't want to dedicate time and money to this if I won't be able to keep it. Most of the discussion online doesn't really go into the consequences of this scenario..
I've done it the other way around: German heritage raised in the UK. I still have both passports - I think it's very difficult to enforce single citizenships when people have multiple already.
@@Redrally Thanks for sharing. After some reading I get that impression too. The old law stated that the German citizenship would be revoked if the person takes a new one, so it doesn't seem to enforce this when a person already holds both. Still this has me worried a little bit, since Brexit and Covid I consider nothing impossible anymore.
@@computername yeah, and when the country of origin doesn't allow renouncing their citizenship Germany will totally allow to keep both.
But there is obviously a difference between revoking citizenship to avoid dual nationals, and simply not allowing to add a second. Would have to check what the UK conservatives plan for people already with dual citizenship. And they can't make it a flat "no dual" law, because for example the northern irish have a right to UK and irish citizenship.
there are lots of "Franzosenkirchen" for french refugees of that area in Germany, in other towns the people were just integrated
very silly that they don't extend the tram at least into neu-isenburg's centre, and ideally inte sprendlingen too.
I've seen these tramways that stop at borders way too much in germany, it's so weird that it just stays like that when they could slap on another kilometer of tracks and actually treat it like a tram rather than a weird train station..
In this case, the City of Frankfurt actually proposed to extend the tram a while ago, but Neu-Isenburg wasn't interested. Locals were afraid of unseemly wires, there was doubt over how the financing would be split, all the usual stuff.
@@n.bastians8633 "the wires would ruin the quaint village atmosphere" they said, shouting over the sound of 30 cars idling on the street behind them.
@@swedneck not to mention the influx of 'undesirables', everybody knows the ethnic 'youths' who do break-ins don't come by bus, and never have a car. /s
That's the actual argument in some rich Antwerp suburbs, btw. The bus is more than enough to have their housekeepers and nannies come to their houses, no need for a tram.
Yup have flown over Neu Isenburg more often than I've driven through it.....
That kind of geometric layout seems to have been in fashion then. Erlangen and Mannheim, both also Hugenot refugee towns, are build in a very symmetric way as well, in their cases as grid.
Go and Visite Friedrichsdorf. That's another planned town for hugenots, this time in the north of Frankfurt and on the former territory of Hessen-Homburg. It's called the Zwiebackstadt, but the last company that made Zwieback recently moved on to Neu-Anspach.
rewboss:
Makes a video about french Christians, who had to flee their homes.
Legolas in my Brain for ten minutes straight:
🎶They're taking Protestants to Ysenburg 🎶
😂
The "original" Isenburg is a castle and same-named town in the Westerwald mountain range, somewhat north of Koblenz - this was the origin of that noble house, of which one side branch had this count who founded this town). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isenburg,_Rhineland-Palatinate
There is a 107 km foot distance between both nowadays (Google maps says 25 hours, i.e. likely more than 2 days of travel back then).
Of topic: the forests around Neu-Isenburg are also straight lines like on a chessboard. I get lost everytime I go running or walking there. Every. Time. (I don't live that close so that's about once a year.)
interessting
By the way: It was the frustration with Napoleon Bonaparte that made German rulers change the common language in Hugenot towns from French to German after 1815.
These hugeunots went into germany but also all over Europe and even the americas from exodus of relgious persecution, in uk they arrived then expelled by Mary 1 then allowed to come back by Elizabeth the first. Also the french who first invaded the americas with also exciled relgious groups
when i was there the other day, the thing that most stood out to me was the sheer amount of afd-plakate for the upcomiong eu election. i know they largely keep out of the city and put their posters up in the suburbs, but down friedensallee it was almost on every lamppost, sometimes multiple posters. especially weird considering the things i've learned about its history in this video!
The tram connection reminds me of another forest tramway, Reichenberg - Apfelstadt. That only was in Germany in 1938 - 1945, so I should probably use their proper names, but it's fun to search for it this way. 😉
Have you been to the "Hugenotten- und Waldenserpfad" - particularly the part near Mörfelden? Lots of information posters along the way. Not just about the refugees from the 17th century but later refugees as well, after wwI and wwII and the more recent refugees in the 2000s.
The whole town is reconstructed. Have you seen pics of it after WW2?
I love this sweet little irony at 0:32 !
I love how the HRE made inter city relation in germany much more interising, than just THE FOOTBALL.
Yup, we've always been a regional chaos.
No huge german capital, but a bunch of regional capitals that all used to be the seat of their own governments. The highest courts are spread out, regional 2nd level politics are still important (and influence federal lawmaking)
And that regional identity is still very strong. Not just between north and south or east and west, but also between neighboring cities. Like Cologne and Düsseldorf or Bremen and Hamburg.
Alright, now we know where New Ysenburg and Old Ysenburg are, but where is Ysengard?
Germans adopted the Y because Greek Independence was popular among the intelligentsia in the moment, much for the same reason Shelly writes "Ode on a Grecian Urn".
I remember visiting this place as a child because family friends lived there. Barely saw the historic center you show here. In my memory it was a craphole of apartment blocks full of immigrants and my family friends agree about it.
Fun fact: The nation of France gets its name from the Germanic tribe of the Franks, making it share ethymological roots with the city of Frankfurt, which is right next to Neu-Isenburg.
most french people are not decentants of the franconiacs but rather of celtic origin... they just kept the name after they where "made part of" the Frankenreich. So they have this name not from their ancestors but from their former "Lords".
Very similar cultures but big difficulties, which were settled generations after that. How would it be turned out, when there were big differencis in cultures?
Too bad about the town hall, that was quite a nice building.
Can you go to Weilburg and some please?
Not the time period I was expecting, nor the direction of refugee travel I was expecting knowing how many Germans from the Soviet Zone as well as land east of the Oder-Neisse line taken by Poland, fled into the American and British zones after WW2.
Isenburg or Isengard
If anyone are interested in more Huguenots towns in Germany, Bad Karlshafen has a German Huguenot Museum and a Baroque style city for taking photos (although it maynot be the best location for normal tourists
01:50 Der *Main* wurde damals offenbar auch noch mit y geschrieben because *y not* 😂
In der Schweiz ist es auch ziemlich verbreitet, ein Y für ein langes I zu benutzen.
And considering in german the Y doesn't really have it's own sound (same with J and Q), and everyone tried to be fancy, writing Mayn doesn't even sound weird. And we have names like Meier and Mayer.
North of Stuttgart are villages Perouse, Großvillars and Pinache (?). Why the villages have french names ? For reason of Hugenotten too.
Waldenser. If I've understood things correctly they're not exactly the same as Huguenottes.
@@michaelburggraf2822 : Jetzt wo sie die Waldenser ( siehe etwa Kleinwalsertal) erwähnen, bin ich unsicher.
@@brittakriep2938 Die Walser waren ein Teil der alemannischen Besiedlung der Schweiz. Diese Volksgruppe hatte sich auf die Bewirtschaftung alpinen und hochalpiner Regionen spezialisiert und fing im späten Mittelalter an, vom Wallis aus in andere Gegenden, z.B. das kleine und große Walsertal, zu wandern.
Sie haben nichts mit den Waldensern zu tun.
Worked in Neu-Isenburg many years. Would not want to live there. There are so many better alternatives south and southeast of Frankfurt.
Thats when Rome persecuted the Protestants. Exulantenstadt = are founded by and/or for exiles (religious refugees) as a result of the Reformation and confessionalization in the early modern period. There were several waves of foundations between the 16th and 18th centuries.
The background was the flight of Protestant population groups into territories of Catholic rulers after the Counter-Reformation was implemented. Followers of the Bohemian Brothers, for example, settled in parts of Silesia and Poland. Protestants from Flanders often fled to the Lower Rhine area and northern Germany.
French Huguenots came via the Rhineland to central Germany.
The exile cities in the narrower sense arose exclusively on the territory of Protestant princes. They were often founded as ideal cities according to a fixed plan and their residents were given special privileges.
❤❤❤❤❤
Also Ludweiler in the Saarland
(Lud(wig)weiler named after Louis XIV)
Has a similar history
""Chinese renovations"" (that is, you demolish and then rebuild with more or less the same look) is not something I particularly favour, but I must say, that most German towns profit from this approach.
Neu-Isenburg is certainly within the top 20 of the ugliest cities in Germany (it has some nice corners too, but not many). Anyhow, its history is significantly more interesting than its appearance.
1685 😳 this is going to take some time ...
Huegenot?
Huguenot.
Lärmschutz neben flughafen - Nur in deutschland
Bunch of Welsches settling Germania.. 😄 just kidding..
Hugenotten
Ich sehe du bist von ArschAffenburg . . . . . .
Your pronunciation of 'protestantism' makes me wonder if you've been in Germany long enough to start forgetting your English 🙂- the primary stress on the 3rd syllable instead of the 1st sounds much closer to the German 'Protestantismus.
5:25 interesting to see that the german tradition of lacking having any meaningful immigration policy has such a long history
That's not true. They had, but not in this part of Germany.
Learn something about the great elector of brandenburg, before making nonsense comments. BTW: For present times you are right.
And in that case it was basically helping out religious buddies.
nice interesting story. The judgments on Willy Brandt vary. Had it been for him he'd have recognised the GDR and involved in less than appetiszing private and political scandals Well, Kohl didn't recognise the GDR, and was clearly THE greatest statesman of post war Germany by far, finally reunifying his country and people with moderation, against the wishes of most of Western Europe but peacefully in accord with the important neighbors France and Russia and despite everything successfully.
Kohl "THE greatest statesman of post war Germany by far"?! The guy who never let an opportunity go to put his feet in his mouth? The guy who claimed a "black hole" memory (or, at another time, that "he gave his word") to avoid answers to questions of corruption? The guy famous for trying to sit out problems? The guy prophesying blooming landscapes? The guy who mismanaged the reunification (and said reunification was the only thing that kept him from being voted out)? The guy who made political satirists fall into despair because "How can you satirize a person who is such a walking satire?" *That* Kohl?
As for actual great statesman, try Brandt. Or hell, even Schmidt and Merkel. All of which were far preferable to Kohl. Kohl was a disaster - and, how did you say it, involved us in less than appetizing political scandals (can't say I care about private ones).
Frankly, no and no. This twisting the lore. 1.) Brandt was victimized by the GDR foreign intelligence service, when they managed to plant the spy Guillaume squat into his front office. 2.) Brandt was the one, that, despite his 'Ostpolitik', never budged a iota from his stance regarding a possible future reunification. 3.) He was the one, that made humanitarian visits possible, and i know what I'm speaking of, because my father fled from Leipzig in 1958, but left his parents and his brother behind. If it wasn't for Brandt, we would not have been able to write or see them. And yet, when Guillaume was busted, Brandt immediately resigned taking political responsibility for something, that wasn't his fault at all.
Contrast that to a Helmut Kohl, who became a criminal with party financing, who never achieved a thing on his own, but had the great fortune to have the iron curtain coming down without him ever contributing something. And then struggling on, without ever trying his hand at as single reform Utterly disgusting.
If I would be asked to rank chancellors best to worst, my ranking would be:
Merkel, Brandt, Schröder, Schmidt, Adenauer, Kohl, Kiesinger. Kohl was a nothing. Unremarkable. Sitting out every decision, good only in manipulating his minions. Even the criminal F. J. Strauss had more fantasy, originality and chutzpah than Kohl.
Why the ranking? Lock at the history, and ask, who had the valor to come to an unpopular decision, or try reform. Merkel: Refugee crisis, and two financial crisises. Brandt: neue Ostpolitik, and he was the one that invented the social in 'Soziale Marktwirtschaft'. During his reign, West German workers experienced the biggest progress. Schröder: Agenda 2020/Harz 4, wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans. Despite his faults, Schröder managed to survive the toughest stretch in foreign policy, and still laid the ground work that helped Mr. Merkel to survive the Lehmann subprime crisis and the Greece debt crisis. Schmitt managed the RAF terror and the NATO Nachrüstung. Adenauer had tough tasks during the reconstruction era. But Kohl? He just gave away the public assets to his business friends, nibbled away at the social security, while never finding the courage for some meaningful reform, and on top of it all took illegal donations from said business friends. Disgusting!
Even from a conservative point of view, ranking Kohl above Adenauer is a lot of BS, and close to sacrilege. ;D
Kohl was what now? And Kohl had so much Dreck am Stecken they are still trying to scrub clean his legacy.
@@Misophist Thank you. That was brief, simplified but 100% correct.
Another example of this is Friedrichsdorf
de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrichsdorf
You know, maybe "building a town so refugees have a place to live" is something that we SHOULD repeat from history... Also trains
Check out how "well" it has worked in Sweden
Visit Offenbach. There you can see how "well“ Muslims are willing to be integrated into Germany society. We don’t need to build towns for refugees anymore because every town in Germany is dominated by refugees….