Emsland ParishesKirchspiel Meppen |
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Emslanders to the American Mid-West |
Meppen - St. Vitus Parish |
The map notes the location of villages that made up Meppen parish
in the 19th century. The image of the parish church of Meppen was taken from Meppen website http://www.meppen.de/330.htm (under Sehenswuerdigkeiten.) Meppen was founded as a mission station about 780 AD. A church was built there by at least 802 and in 835 Meppia was given to Kloster Corvey by Emperor Ludwig the Pius. The Propsteikirche in Meppen, with St Vitus as patron saint along with St Margaretha, was built in 1461-71 and lengthened in 1866-69. The church was damaged in 1845 from artillery bombardment and was not repaired enough for use until 4 years later. Further renovation took place in 1981-83. |
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| Of the villages that originally belonged to Meppen parish,
Hesepe was detached to become a separate parish before 1365. The other villages remained
with Meppen until the 19th century when Ruehlertwist was made part of the parish of St
Georg in Twist sometime before 1824. More villages were separated from Meppen in the 20th
century - Fullen in 1907, Geeste in 1910, Schoeninghsdorf in 1922, Hemsen in 1952,
Teglingen in 1957, Ruehle and Ruehlermoor in 1964, Varloh in 1967 and Schwefingen in 1985.
In the immediate vicinity of the town of Meppen a few farm clusters were attached to
Bokeloh in 1951 and Esterfeld acquired its own parish in 1953 along with Meppen-Neustadt. Most information taken from Handbuch des Bistums Osnabrueck, compiled by Hermann Stieglitz and published by Bischoefliches Generalikariat Osnabrueck. |
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Emsland in the Nineteenth Century]
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