History of East Frisia

The history of East Frisia developed rather independently from the rest of Germany because the region was relatively isolated for centuries by large stretches of bog to the south, while at the same time its people were oriented towards the sea.

Thus in East Frisia[1] in the Middle Ages there was little feudalism, instead a system of fellowship under the so-called Friesian Freedom emerged.

Following the Vienna Congress of 1815, it was transferred to the Kingdom of Hanover, in 1866 it went back to Prussia and, from 1946, it has been part of the German state of Lower Saxony.

Man began to settle in the lowlands on the coast around the year 1000 A.D., laying out warfts and dykes as protection against flooding.

Thus the town of Emden was one of the leading ports in Europe by around 1600, and at the same time developed into a stronghold of Calvinism.