History of Wageningen
Located on the north bank of the Nederrijn river, between the Gelderse valley and the Veluwe, a wooded, hilly, glacial moraine, by the 12th century it was part of the Duchy of Guelders, in the Holy Roman Empire.
At the beginning of the Middle Ages the settlement moved to higher ground, what today is known as Wageningse Berg (Wageningen hill).
A quay was constructed at the west edge of town, with an elevated road, the current Hoogstraat (High Street), connecting it to the base of the hill to the east.
[4] For the counts and dukes of Guelders, in addition to being a trading port, Wageningen was important as a stronghold against the Bishopric of Utrecht and later the Duchy of Burgundy.
In 1526–27, Charles von Egmond, the last Duke of Guelders, gave permission for the building of a fortified castle in Wageningen.
In 1722 Lubbert Torck Adolph married the wealthy widow Petronella van Hoorn, daughter of a governor-general of the Dutch East Indies.
He invested in the city, building mansions which he leased to pensioners of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and other wealthy people.
The Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) was founded in 1932 as the Dutch Ship Model Basin (NSMB).
By 1942, most Jews, residents and refugees alike, had been deported to meet their fate at the Sobibor and Auschwitz death camps.
[2] Under heavy military pressure, on April 7, 1945, retreating German forces blew up the town's church towers.
On May 4, 1945, after almost five years of German occupation, at a farm in the Nude district, on the west side of Wageningen, I Canadian Corps commander Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes negotiated with Oberbefehlshaber Niederlande supreme commander Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz regarding the way the German soldiers were obliged to act after the Nazi capitulation.
On May 5, the two commanders finalized the capitulation agreement at the Hotel de Wereld, near the center of the city (now celebrated every May 5 as Netherlands' Liberation Day national holiday).
[2] Until 2005, the capitulation was commemorated annually with a grand parade of former American, British and Canadian soldiers who had participated in the liberation of the Netherlands.
