Stadt and Amt Verden

Verden became the seat of a Bishopric in the middle of the 9th century and it began exerting secular control over portions of its territory in the 10th century. Verden was granted city rights in 1259; the surrounding territory became Amt Verden. In the 15th century, Stadt Verden left the Bishopric altogether and became an Imperial City with the same status as Bremen. The subdivisions of the Amt generally corresponded to parishes and were characterized as “Vogteien”. The Wittlohe subdivision, however, was under the jurisdiction of the Verden Cathedral Chapter and was characterized as a “Strukturgericht”.

 

In 1575, a long-standing dispute over the parishes of Dörverden and Westen was settled in favor of the Bishop of Verden and they formally joined Amt Verden. Then, after the Thirty-Years War, the parish of Thedinghausen was transferred to Amt Verden from the Archbishopric of Bremen. In 1679, however, all of those parishes were transferred to Lüneberg-Celle (although the town of Thedinghausen itself was transferred to Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel shortly thereafter). (The transferred parishes will be processed as part of the Hoya/Diepholz region.) Also in 1679, the Daverden parish was transferred from Amt Achim in the Duchy of Bremen to Amt Verden.