Itzehoe

Itzehoe (Itzhoe) is a town in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany.

As the capital of the district Steinburg, Itzehoe is located on the Stör, a navigable tributary of the Elbe, 51 km (31.7 mi) northwest of Hamburg and 24 km (14.9 mi) north of Glückstadt. The population is about 32,530.

History
Itzehoe is one of the oldest towns in Holstein. As early as 810 AD, Charlemagne built the Esesfeld castle in the Oldenburgskuhle, 2 kilometres from the later town, as protection against the Danes marauding from the north, but this has no direct connection with the development of Itzehoe. Under its protection, Archbishop Ebbo of Reims built a small monastery or prayer house, the ‘Cella Lila’, in the summer of 823 in what is now Münsterdorf as a base for the Christian mission he initiated in Denmark. The larger Echeho Castle, built around 1000 in the nearby meander of the River Stör, became the nucleus of a settlement that developed into a trading town, favoured by the granting of the Lübeck rights (1238), combined with freedom from customs duties, which at that time was only granted to Hamburg in the country, and later the right to stack goods (1260). During this time, Itzehoe was involved in the salt, cloth and grain trade and was at times an important hub in European east-west trade. Further settlements developed on the other side of the river around the monastery courtyard (around 1260) and around the Church of St. Laurentii (first mentioned in 1196).

During the Thirty Years' War Itzehoe was twice destroyed by the Swedes, in 1644 and 1657, but was rebuilt on each occasion. It was under Danish rule until the Second Schleswig War of 1864, when it was occupied by Austria. In 1867, it passed to Prussia, and in 1871 it became part of the newly established German Empire.

Itzehoe was listed as a garrison depot (Wehrkreis X (Hamburg)) of the former 225th Infantry Division, which was implicated in the 1940 Vinkt Massacre in Belgium.

Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, it was the location of the Oflag X-A prisoner-of-war camp for Polish officers, which was eventually relocated to Sandbostel in 1941. During the war, Itzehoe was not initially a primary target for the Allied strategic bombing campaign, but was hit by an Allied bombing raid very late in the war, when Allied carpet bombing on 2 May 1945 (just two days before the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath) caused 22 fatalities in the city.

Until it was filled in with around 110,000 m3 of sand in 1974, a bend in the River Stör had a decisive influence on the appearance of Itzehoe town centre. The bend was the original course of the river. The Stör crossing (low german ‘Delf’, from which the names “Delftor” and “Delftorbrücke” of the town exit and the Störbrücke bridge originate) turned Itzehoe's castle complex into an island. There are said to have been sluices in the delta that closed when the water ran out, forcing the water to flow through and clean the bend. After their removal, the river increasingly silted up and developed into an almost stagnant, foul-smelling body of water. The old town centre, the ‘Neustadt’ (new town), could only be reached via bridges. In the course of the redevelopment of the ‘Neustadt’, during which almost all the houses on this former island were demolished and replaced by new buildings and new streets were laid out, this element that characterised the town became extinct. Only a few artificially created water basins between the new theatre and Salzstraße are reminders of the original course of the loop.

In order to improve the cityscape again, an initiative was launched in 2011 with the aim of promoting the reopening of the filled-in Störschleife in the centre of Itzehoe. In 2017, the entire city centre was declared a redevelopment area. The restoration of the Störschleife was explicitly named as a goal. On 26 September 2021, the residents of Itzehoe voted by 7707 votes in favour of restoring the Stör bend. Concrete plans for implementation have been underway since August 2022. In February 2023, the winning design was to be presented by one of nine planning teams.

In the 1990s, the Fraunhofer Institute  for Silicon Technology ISIT was established on the northern edge of Itzehoe. Many chip research and high-tech companies have since settled around this institute on the InnoQuarter Itzehoe industrial estate. As a result, Itzehoe is increasingly developing into a centre of high technology in northern Germany.

Climate
Itzehoe has an oceanic climate (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification).

Sights
The Church of St. Laurentii and the building in which the Holstein estates formerly met are noteworthy. The town has a convent founded in 1256, many schools, a hospital and other benevolent institutions.

Itzehoe is also the location of the Wenzel Hablik Museum which is dedicated to the work of the utopian and expressionist artist architect Wenzel Hablik, who settled in Itzehoe in 1907, where he pursued architectural and interior design projects. Hablik produced designs for furniture, textiles, tapestries, jewellery, cutlery and wallpaper. In 1917, he married the German weaver and textile designer Elisabeth Lindemann (1879-1960). They shared a workshop and a studio in Itzehoe.

Transport
Itzehoe is situated at the Marsh Railway and offers connections to Hamburg and the island of Sylt.

During the period up to and including the Wacken Open Air festival many festival goers depart for the festival from Itzehoe using the 'Metal Shuttle Bus’, which leaves from near Itzehoe station. During this time the town can become very overcrowded and inundated with traffic.

Twin towns – sister cities
Itzehoe is twinned with:
 * Cirencester, England, United Kingdom
 * 🇫🇷 La Couronne, France
 * 🇵🇱 Pasłęk, Poland

Notable people

 * Adolf IV of Holstein (before 1205–1261), a Count of Schauenburg (1225–1238)
 * Johannes Loccenius (1598–1677), a German jurist and historian
 * Joachim Irgens von Westervick (1611–1675), Dano-Norwegian official and estate owner, important financial magnate and entrepreneur
 * Bendix Grodtschilling (ca 1620 – 1690), a Danish painter and carpenter.
 * Werner Fabricius (1633–1679), organist and composer
 * Bendix Grodtschilling the Younger (1655–1707), a Danish painter.
 * Ludvig Nicolaus von Scheele (1796–1874), a Danish statesman, Danish Foreign Minister, 1855 to 1857.
 * Carl Julian (von) Graba (1799–1874), German lawyer and ornithologist who visited and studied the Faroe Islands
 * Peter Christoph Hagemann (1810–1853), neoclassical Danish architect
 * Hans Peder Pedersen-Dan (1859–1939), a Danish sculptor.
 * Elisabeth Lindemann (1879–1960), weaver, textile designer and photographer; lived locally from 1917.
 * Bruno Adler, (DE Wiki) (1896–1954), Bishop of the German Christians
 * Erika Thimey (1910–2006), dancer and dance educator, mainly based in Washington, D.C.
 * Sabine Sinjen (1942–1995), film actress
 * Jerzy Janeczek (1944–2021), Polish theater and film actor.
 * Antje Blumenthal (born 1947), politician
 * Sylvia Convey (born 1948), Latvian-Australian artist
 * Olaf Berner (born 1949), teacher and handball player
 * Heiger Ostertag (born 1953), historian and novelist.
 * Thomas Gerull (born 1962), fencer, team silver medalist at the 1988 Summer Olympics
 * Sven Butenschön (born 1976), ice hockey player
 * Lisa Tomaschewsky (born 1988), film and TV actress.