Meppen

Meppen grew near the meeting of the Ems and Hase rivers. A missionary establishment there was given to Corvey Abbey in 834, and the settlement gained market rights in 946. In 1252 it passed into the territory of the bishop of Münster. Bishop Adolf granted town rights and permission to build fortifications in 1360; their development continued over the following centuries.

The fortifications were demolished during the Seven Years' War. Following the secularisation of ecclesiastical territories in 1803, Meppen became the capital of the Duchy of Arenberg. It passed to France in 1811 and, after the Napoleonic Wars, to the Kingdom of Hanover.