Picture a Reichsmusterdorf a ‘model village of Germany’. That’s Dötlingen for you. During the Nazi era Dötlingen was awarded this title in 1936. It became a popular destination for delegations from home and abroad.
Today Dötlingen is a municipality in the district of Oldenburg. It sits in Lower Saxony Germany. You will find it approximately 6 km northeast of Wildeshausen and 25 km southeast of Oldenburg. The Hunte river also flows nearby.
Let’s step back in time. The first recorded mention of Dötlingen as Thutelingen dates back to 1203. It lay on the old Frisian military road. This road connected all the major towns between Wildeshausen and Jever. Wildeshausen had a connection to the Flemish road. That ran between Flanders and Lübeck.
The name Dötlingen comes from the personal names Dodilo and Tutilo. The suffix ‘-ing-‘ means “settlement”. So Dötlingen means settlement of Dodilo or Tutilo.
Dötlingen’s history involves various rulers. These included the Oldenburg counts the Archbishop of Bremen the Bishop of Münster and the King of Denmark. French Swedish and Luneburg troops caused trouble. For 20 years Dötlingen belonged to Kurhannover. It even belonged to Russia for four days under Catherine II. During the Oldenburg French era under Napoléon Bonaparte Dötlingen was part of the French Empire.
What’s fascinating is how Dötlingen transformed in 1933. Then in 1936 the Nazis declared Dötlingen a ‘Reichsmusterdorf’. This made it a showcase village. A large erratic boulder bearing a swastika stood on Gierenberg hill. The stone has since been overturned. Near the end of World War II a bomb destroyed the Tabkenhof. But it was rebuilt after the war.
A tragic event occurred on April 14 1945. Farmer Willi Rogge was murdered by Werwolf members. Rogge was seen as a troublemaker who wouldn’t conform. In 2009 a memorial was dedicated to Willi Rogge. It commemorates all civilian victims of the Third Reich.
Dötlingen has received awards in the “Our Village Has a Future” competition. In 2011 it won the gold medal for 2010. Dötlingen entered the Entente Florale Europe competition. It won a silver medal in 2012.
Dötlingen has a partnership with De Marne in the Netherlands. The municipality of Dötlingen has been debt-free since 2001.
The Dötlingen coat of arms includes historical symbols. The chevron comes from the coat of arms of Otto von Dötlingen. The roses are from the Oldenburg-Wildeshausen counts. The stone cross is from the Wale family who had an estate in Dötlingen.
In Dötlingen’s village center you can find the medieval fieldstone church of St. Firminus. There are also thatched-roof timber-framed houses. Among them is the Tabkenhof. It is Northwest Germany’s largest timber-framed hall house. Its roof area covers 1600 square meters.
Don’t miss the over 1000-year-old village oak in Dötlingen. It is one of Lower Saxony’s oldest oaks. Lightning split it. But it survived.
In the early 20th century Dötlingen became an artists’ colony. Artists like Georg Müller vom Siel August Kaufhold and Otto Pankok lived and worked here. They were known for their landscape paintings.
The Dötlingen Foundation was established in 1999. It preserves the cultural heritage and protects landmarks in Dötlingen.
Around Dötlingen are several megalithic tombs. These include the Dötlingen Stone Tomb the Steingrab Egypten and the Großeingrab Gerichsstätte.
At the beginning of autumn Dötlingen hosts a harvest festival. There are decorated floats in a parade. ExxonMobil operates one of Europe’s largest underground natural gas storage facilities in Dötlingen. It has a capacity of over two billion cubic meters of natural gas.