Badens in the Old Country

From where in Germany did the Baden family come?  How did the surname come into being?  When one speaks of 'Baden' and Germany within family conversations, usually we hear references to Baden-Baden in southern Germany, or Baden-Wurttemberg, its province, though no records are known of relatives from that region.

I, for one, hold to a different theory...

We understand that Carl Baden's father, Johann, came to America from the German region of Visselhövede.  This is a town in Lower Saxony through which many local roads intersect (see image, left, in the middle-right of the map).  We still have much to learn of our family history there.

But less then twenty miles away, in the same region of Lower Saxony between Bremen and Hannover, lies the town of Baden.  A much closer connection to Visselhovede than Baden-Baden!

Much more research is called for.  But I believe that most of the answers we find will pertain to the area in and between Visselhövede and Baden.  Time will tell.

Some basic info of the area...

Baden, Lower Saxony

Baden is a town near Bremen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is known to Africanists and Phoneticians as the place where Diedrich Hermann Westermann was born and died.

Coordinates: 53°00′N 9°05′E

Badener Mountains

The Badener Mountains are located in the town of Baden, which is a locality within Achim. The location is shaped by the Weser-Marsh to the west, and the collection of sand dunes of up to 40m high and the Badener-Moorland to the east. Until the 19th Century the area was only sparsely settled; the people lived by cultivating potatoes, breeding sheep, and working at the outlying factories in Bremen. Hans Höppner observed about 200 of the 250 types of bees in Germany in Badener Mountains from 1898 until 1900. Possibly, only 130 types live there today.

Oil Camp

The Badener Oil Camp is a part of a bunker from the first World War. It was erected in 1917. It served as a shipping station for raw oil, heating oil, and fuel. It was put into 14 subterranean containers; the last containers have been scrapped, however. During the Weimar Republic, the oil camp was rented to an oil company. As part of the re-militarization of Germany in preparation for the second World War, the oil camp was built up and extended (to 36 containers). Although the camp got through the war intact, it was blown up by english occupying troops in 1956. The Area remained in military use, and was made into a military practice ground for the German Federal Armed Forces. The numerous combat practices and tank drives have had a grave impact on the vegetation. Other similar military practice grounds were developed in typically sandy, heath landscapes, for example on the Lüneburger Heide.

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