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Soest is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It's located east of Dortmund along the Hellweg. Neighbouring towns are Hamm, Lippstadt, Erwitte, Werl. It is the capital of the Soest district.
History
Due to the fertile soil the area around Soest was long occupied before in 836 the first official paper mentions a village ("Dagobertsche Schenkung": the origin of this document is historically uncertain). But there is no doubt that Soest is a very old place of living: Excavations in the last two decades showed that the tradition of settling in the Soest area reaches for more than 4.000 years. In the 11th and 12th century Soest did grow a lot, making it one of the biggest cities in Westphalia with about 10,000 citizens. It was also an important member of the Hanseatic League at that time until 1609.
Being always very self-confident, Soest in the so-called Soester Fehde from 1444 to 1449 liberated itself from the bishop of Cologne, the owner of Westphalia. No longer capital of Westphalia, the city aligned itself with the duke of Cleves. This victory was a Pyrrhus-alike victory: The city had been strong enough to withstand the powerful archbishop of cologne, but, as an important place of international trade at the time the victory caused the end of far-trade also - the "liberated" town was surrounded by two third with territories of other interest. When the last duke of Cleves died in 1609 that dukedom was inherited by Brandenburg; after a short siege Soest was also part of it. During and after the Thirty Years' War Soest suffered a tremendous loss of both population and influence; at the lowest point in 1756 it only had 3,600 citizens.
With the creation of the Soest district in 1817 its influence slowly rose. However, the industrialization of the Ruhr area did not reach Soest, thus keeping it a small city.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms shows a key, which is the symbol for Saint Peter, the patron of Cologne. The coat wasn't changed even after Soest no longer belonged to the Cologne area.
Twinning
Soest is twinned with Bangor, Wales.
External links
- Official Website (in German)
- Articles about "Aldegrever and the Protestant Reformation in Soest" / virtual exhibition "Iconoclastic Controversy and sensual pleasure - Heinrich Aldegrever" with introductory texts and about 170 commented copperplate engravings
"Soest, Germany"