BOCHOLT
Bocholt
was first mentioned in the year 779 as "Buocholt" and received city
rights in 1222. Bocholt is traditionally interpreted as "Buchholz".
This etymology is suggested by the medieval city seal, which all show a tree
image as a as a canting symbol, which is clearly identified on the city seal
of 1302 as a beech tree. By locals, the city is in Low German referred to as
"Bokelt". The slogan is a confirmed Bocholter (on Bocholter Low German):
"Nörgens Bäter as in Bokelt" (nowhere better than in Bocholt).
In the Middle Ages the settlement grew to a start of
the 9th Century, founded the original parish and a bishop's main court at a
crossing of the Aa. The city survey served as security for the Prince Bishop
of the Diocese of power in the West. The development of the city went well,
in the 14th Century had the fortified city will be expanded, a second church
was built - but until the 20th Century was not given parish rights. In the 15th
Century parish church of St. George was rebuilt as a Gothic church, three monasteries
were, at the end of the century had Israhel van Meckenem († November 10,
1503 in Bocholt) as a goldsmith and engraver in Bocholt.
By the beginning of the modern era the rise of the city had
ended. Because of its frontier position the Bocholter economy suffered from
the Eighty Years' War. The so-called Spanish winter 1598/99 Bocholt was for
months occupied by Spanish troops. The construction of the Town Council 1618/24
is an indication of recovery of urban prosperity. After that the Thirty Years
War ruined the city. Repeated conquest and looting, and a costly occupation
by Hessian troops from 1635 to 1650, impoverished Bocholt. There were also devastating
plague years. The economic decline was also political. The city, like others
since the mid-16th Century, tended to Protestantism and all sovereign Rekatholisierungsversuchen
resisted, they also lost in 1627, in fact, their urban independence and got
it back after the Counter-Reformation was limited. The
recovery lasted centuries. By the mid-16th Century, the city had brought the
influx of war refugees from Brabant, the knowledge of the cotton mill and in
1569 a cotton guild, the "Bomsidenambt," was based here. The manual
was made of cotton textile production during the period of the economic focus
of Bocholt, of course, depending on a cotton import from the Netherlands in
the 18th and early 19 Century - especially in the Seven Years War and the Napoleonic
rule - was always subject to disturbances.
After the Peace of Luneville (1801), the end of the diocese
of Münster (1802) and the Imperial Diet-circuit (1803) the city of Bocholt
was ruled by the princes of Salm-Salm and Salm-Kyrburg. In regions of the former
Prince Bishop's office Bocholt (including the rule of value) and Ahaus, and
in the areas of estates and Anholt Gemen was established the Principality of
Salm. The town of Bocholt was advanced to the state capital, by the prince there
in a secularized convent, and the "Prince Salmisch Community Government"
was set up. The Principality of Salm was founded in 1806 as a member of the
Confederation. In 1811, the Principality of Salm, among other states was annexed
by France, in 1813 was occupied by Prussia, and a little later by the Congress
of Vienna (1815) international law assigned Bocholt and Salm to the Kingdom
of Prussia.
The industrialization that began in 1852 with the establishment
in Bocholt of the first steam engine for a spinning mill, brought especially
from 1871 a strong economic recovery. Until the outbreak of World War II at
least 114 textile companies were founded. With the rise of the textile industry
were connected just as strong population growth and a strong development of
infrastructure. In 1878 the railroad arrived, 1913 electricity was established;
a new hospital in 1875-78, a slaughterhouse 1899/1900, town gas works in 1901,
Fire station in 1907, District Court in 1910/11, water supply / sewerage in
1911-13, cemetery relocation in 1908, the elderly and orphanage in 1909/10,
Forest Recreation Center in 1913.
Key identification notes: Bocholt's beech tree arms are distinctive,
and the name Bocholt typically appears on its uncommonly encountered copper
coins. They were minted sporadically from 1616 to 1762.
21 Heller
10½ Heller
