Hille () is a community in the Kreis Minden-Lübbecke in the north of East Westphalia, Germany, with approximately 16,000 inhabitants. It was created in 1973 in the framework of the community restructuring of North Rhine-Westphalia through the combining of nine communities of the Minden countryside. The community is named after Hille its largest village. The geography of the community belongs to that of the North German Plain, from its lowest altitude of 45 metres it rises to 251 metres on the ridge of the Wiehengebirge at its southern border.
Geography Hille is located in the northeast of the Detmold (region), in the middle of the Minden Land. Hille has portions of the ecologic areas of the Wiehen Hills, the Lübbecke Loess Country and the Rahden-Diepenauer Sandy Moorlands (boglands). The southern portion of the community is located in the transition zone from the North Germain Plain to the Central Uplands (piedmont). This especially apparent with the ridgelike structure of the Wiehengebirge, which closes Hille like a bolt from the Ravensberg hill country. The main part of the northerly bench of the community is clearly a component of the plain, which received its endmoraine character from the Ice Age. The Great Peatbog (Grosses Torfmoor) provides Hille with a wet ecosystem of glacial origin which has been a designated nature reserve since 1980. This is where rare plants and animals such as white storks are found. Hille is the source of the Ösper, a tributary of the River Weser. The Mittelland Canal crosses Hille at its geographic middle in an east–west orientation. Several settlements adhere to the canal's adjacent dry northern plateau. To the north are a large raised bog and the Minden Forest (Mindener Wald). The River Weser presents a geographic border 10 km east of Hille. To the west the same landscape continues all the way to Osnabrück. The varied farmland is characterized by scattered settlements and single farms that are bordered by copses and hedges. Forests are found on higher ground, while meadows are found at low ground and in bogs.
Neighbouring municipalities Petershagen Minden Bad Oeynhausen Hüllhorst Lübbecke Espelkamp Uchte in Lower Saxony
Subdivisions of the municipality After the local government reforms of 1973, Hille consists of 9 districts: Hille-Dorf Hartum Nordhemmern Holzhausen II Südhemmern Eickhorst Rothenuffeln Oberlübbe Unterlübbe
Geology The community land formation was primary influenced by the Saalian Stage (Wolstonian Stage and Illinoian Stage are Equivalents) ice age, as well as pre and post glacial process. At the time the area was covered with ice, the flow of water had an opposite direction to that of the present, that is it flowed from the ice to the south, collected in a riverine environment north of the Wiehengebirge and flowed to the west to reach the sea. Extensive wet bogs were created in this historic river valley, that remained impassable for humans for a long time. Remains of this exist in the Great Peat Bog (Große Torfmoor) that is now a protected nature preserve.
Soils The mentioned glacial conditions created various fertilities of soil, with varying impact on the structure of settlement. As a result, there is fertile soil in the south between the Wiehengebirge and the Bastau lowland, which is referred to as Lübbecke Loessland. Besides the settlement of Rothenuffeln, the villages of Oberlübbe, Unterlübbe and Eickhorst developed here. The Bastau lowland connects to the north, in which there can be no significant agriculture. Because of this the Mittellandkanal is located at its northern edge. The Hartume loess plate lies to the Northeast of the Bastau lowland, where there are good opportunities for agriculture. The villages of Hartum, Nordhemmern, Südhemmern and Holzhausen II are located here. The farmsteads are of middling size with 100 morgen(1 morgen = 3 acres) not being uncommon. This loess plate continues to the westward beyond the stream Flöthe, where the village of Hille is the center of settlement. The northeast of the community of Hille has poor soil that allows only forestry( Mindener Wald) to exist.
Fauna The white stork nests in and around the Bastau lowland, with assistance provided for its recovering population.
Extent and utilization of the Community Area Hille is classified as a "large rural community" that lies in the North German Plain, it rises to the ridge of the Wiehengebirge in the south. The Lübber Berg (mountain) is its highest point at an altitude of 251m over sea level. The lowest point is in the Bastau lowland meadows or bogs near Hartum with an altitude of only 47.7m. Hille extends 11.8 km from east to west and 15.4 km from north to south.
Areaby UtilizationLandesamt für Datenverarbeitung und Statistik Nordrhein-Westfalen: Kommunalprofil Hille Agriculture-Area Forest-Area Building-,Open- andCommerce Area Transportation-Area Water-Area Sport- andGreenspace Area Other-Use Area in km2 76.05 7.76 8.82 6.31 2.25 0.65 1.15 Part of Total Area 73.84% 7.53% 8.56% 6.13% 2.18% 0.63% 1.12%
History Hille was and is influenced by its agricultural character. Besides the large farms, which grew because of the good loess soil of the Hartumer Loess Plate, there were many small homes for contract workers into the 19th century. The contract workers earned a supplemental income through manual labor such as the weaving of linen. Cigarmaking arrived in Hille at the end of the 19th century. Especially toward the end of the 19th century many residents of the Hille villages emigrated to the USA. Their goal was mostly the state of New York and especially the city of Schenectady. Men from Hille also travelled by foot to the Netherlands for seasonal work such as mowing grass. Many of them remained there.
Around the middle of the 19th century, the transportation infrastructure became significantly enhanced by road construction under the leadership of Carl von Schlotheim who was Land Councilor in the Prussian Kreis Minden. While the primary goal of this program was job creation, it served to boost the economy of the Kreis. The railroad reached this rural region in the early 20th century. The Mindener Kreisbahnen opened a stretch of narrow gauge line to Eickhorst in 1903. The line was extended to Lübbecke in 1907. It was converted to standard gauge at a later time. The objective of this Prussian improvement was rural area development: transport of chemical fertilizer, transport of agricultural products to Minden and Lübbecke and further transport from there to other cities by the State railway. The construction of the Mindener Kreisbahn was also a good job creator, with thousands of workers earning their bread and keep. The stretch from Hille to Lübbecke was shut down in 1967 and subsequently demolished. Freight service still exists between the harbour at the village of Hille and the city of Minden. Even Oberlübbe had a narrow gauge railway connection from 1897 to 1937. The so-called "Wallücker Willem" connected the quarry mine near Wallücke in the Wiehengebirge with Löhne and Kirchlengern to the south. It transported passengers as well as iron ore over the mountain ridge.
Hiller Platt, a dialect of Low German, was spoken by most residents into recent times. It had considerable variation from village to village. The use of this language has declined significantly.
Community restructuring The larger community of Hille was created on January 1, 1973, as a response to the Bielefeld-Gezetz(law) in the framework of the community reform of North Rhine-Westfalia. This united the heretofore independent communities of Eickhorst, Hartum, Hille, Holzhausen II, Nordhemmern und Südhemmern from the old Amt Hartum as well as the communities of Oberlübbe, Rothenuffeln und Unterlübbe from the old Amt Dützen. In contrast several peripheral sections of Holzhausen II and Hartum were shifted to the city of Minden while corridor sections of the old community Hahlen were added to larger Hille. Amt Hartum and Amt Dützen were dissolved; the community of Hille is the legal successor of Amt Hartum. The community town hall is the building formerly housing Amt Hartum, which has a reasonably accessible location to the larger community.
Demographics The following overview shows the population of the community of Hille according to the contemporary extent of borders.
Religion All villages in Hille became Lutheran with the introduction of the Reformation along with the city of Minden in 1550. The parishes exist to the present day. When the area was ceded to Prussia, the regional church became the Evangelical Church in Prussia in 1817 (Evangelical Church of Westphalia since 1945), which considers itself united in administration, that is to say comprising Lutheran, Reformed and congregations of united belief. The parishes are now partly combined with one parish serving several villages. A part of the old church owned buildings was transferred to other uses and replaced by newer buildings, for example the parsonage of the village of Hille. The acceptance of the refugees of World War II resulted in the formation of Catholic parishes, which is slowly changing the milieu to one of multiple beliefs.
Governance
Community Council (Gemeinderat) Since the community elections of 1999 the town council of Hille has 32 seats besides the mayor. The representatives of the FWG Party and the Green Party(Grünen)have joined into one coalition.
The members of the community council are elected for a term of 5 years. The next election will take place in 2014. Until the community elections of 1999, the office of mayor was honorary but was a member of the community council, with a Community Administrator (Gemeindedirector) leading the community administration.
The following table shows the community election results since 1975:
Landesdatenbank NRW; Wahlergebnisse zum Gemeindecode 05770012Landesbetrieb Information und Technik NRW: KommunalwahlenKommunales Rechenzentrum Minden-Ravensberg/ Lippe Wahl des Rates 1999 2009 2004 1999 1994 1989 1984 1979 1975 Party Seats % Seats % Seats % Seats % Seats % Seats % Seats % Seats % CDU 12 39.76 15 45.14 14 44.74 12 37.81 n/v 32.35 n/v 41.10 n/v 42.01 n/v 41.03 SPD 12 36.73 11 35.15 12 35.81 14 41.85 n/v 44.63 n/v 39.27 n/v 38.83 n/v 39.83 FDP 4 12.89 3 10.52 3 10.19 3 8.41 n/v 9.80 n/v 10.99 n/v 17.17 n/v 19.13 FWG 1 2 5.87 2 4.74 2 5.18 2 5.85 n/v n/v n/v n/v n/v n/v n/v n/v Grüne 2 4.84 1 4.45 1 4.08 2 6.08 n/v 4.72 n/v 6,54 - - - - Sonstige 2 - - - - - - - - n/v 8.50 n/v 2.09 n/v 1.99 - -Total 3 32 100 32 100 32 100 33 100 n/v 100 n/v 100 n/v 100 n/v 100 Election Participation 67.15 68.44 66.36 85.13 75.56 78.73 82.65 88.84
Mayor (Bürgermeister)
1973–1979 Walter Rohde (FDP) 1979–1989 Kurt Riechmann (CDU / heute FWG) 1989–1999 Günter Grannemann (SPD) 1999–2008 Reinhard Jasper (CDU) 2009– Michael Schweiß (SPD) The former Community Administrator (Gemeindedirector) Reinhard Jasper was elected mayor in a 1999 runoff election with 52.44% of the vote versus Friedrich Meyer of the SPD Party. He succeeded former mayor Günter Grannemann (SPD). In the 2004 Community election, Reinhard Jasper was re-elected on the first ballot against the First Councilmember Klaus-Herman Pörtner (SPD) with 53.88% of the vote. Reinhard Jasper retired from his duties as mayor of Hille on September 30, 2008. He reached this decision in response to allegations that he had utilized community workers in his own home during their work-hours. The criminal court in Minden levied a fine of 9600 Euros against the mayor, which he has appealed. Since October 1, 2008 the administrative leadership has been provided by the mayoral representative, Helmut Spilker.
Community Administrators (Gemeindedirektoren)