Cloppenburg

Town in Lower Saxony, Germany

Flag

Coat of arms

Location of Cloppenburg within Cloppenburg district

(2021–26) Neidhard Varnhorn^[1] (CDU)Area

• Total70.86 km² (27.36 sq mi)Elevation

39 m (128 ft)Population

(2022-12-31)^[2]

• Total37,056 • Density520/km² (1,400/sq mi)Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)Postal codes

49661

Dialling codes04471Vehicle registrationCLPWebsitewww.cloppenburg.de

Cloppenburg (German: [ˈklɔpm̩ˌbʊʁk] ^ⓘ; Low German: Cloppenborg; Saterland Frisian: Kloppenbuurich [ˈklɔpənˌbuːrɪx]) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, capital of Cloppenburg District and part of Oldenburg Münsterland. It lies 38 km south-south-west of Oldenburg in the Weser-Ems region between Bremen and the Dutch border. Cloppenburg is not far from the A1, the major motorway connecting the Ruhr area to Bremen and Hamburg. Another major road is the federal highway B213 being the shortest link from the Netherlands to the A1 and thus to Bremen and Hamburg.

The town had strong cultural links with St Munchins Parish in Limerick, Ireland from the 1970s to the 1990s. During this period many groups of teens/young adults from both areas visited and were hosted by families from the other area.

Economy

The town is a centre for the largely agricultural region of southern Oldenburg. It is the administrative centre of the district and there are many schools.

However, there is also some industry in town: e.g. Lumberg, (connector systems) and Derby Cycle (bikes).

Tourism

One of Cloppenburg's main tourist attractions is the Cloppenburg Museum Village, a collection of old buildings from the region that were dismantled and reassembled in the museum.

Sport

MSC Cloppenburg are a German motorcycle speedway team who race at the MSC Arena Cloppenburg on Boschstraße.^[3]^[4]

Twin town

Cloppenburg is twinned with:^[5]

Bernay, France

Mayors

Ignatz Feigel (1855–1922)
Bernhard Heukamp (1884–1946)
Georg Wessling (1889–1974)
Wolfgang Wiese (2014–2021)
Neidhard Varnhorn (2021–incumbent)

Notable people

Fanny Moran-Olden (1855–1905), opera singer (soprano)
Georg Wessling, (DE Wiki) (1889–1974), mayor of Cloppenburg and member of parliament
Werner Baumbach (1916–1953), bomber pilot in World War II
Jupp Derwall (1927–2007), football player and coach, played over 275 games
Manfred Zapatka (born 1942), actor, graduated from the Clemens-August-Gymnasium Cloppenburg in 1962
Günter Dreyer (1943–2019), an Egyptologist at the German Archaeological Institute.
Heinrich Timmerevers (born 1952), prelate, the 50th Bishop of Dresden-Meissen since 2016.
Laurenz Berges (born 1966), photographer, work focuses on transience
Lena Gercke (born 1988), model, grew up locally
Bernd Gerdes (born 1989), footballer, played 350 games

References

^ "Direktwahlen in Niedersachsen vom 12. September 2021" (PDF). Landesamt für Statistik Niedersachsen. 13 October 2021.
^ "LSN-Online Regionaldatenbank, Tabelle A100001G: Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes, Stand 31. Dezember 2022" (in German). Landesamt für Statistik Niedersachsen.
^ "Home". MSC Cloppenburg. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
^ "Cloppenburg Germany". Speedway Plus. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
^ "Partnerstadt". cloppenburg.de (in German). Cloppenburg. Archived from the original on 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2021-03-03.