Editing Verden, Aller (section)

==History==
In the Early Middle Ages (year 782) there was a massacre of allegedly 4,500 [[Saxons]], by order of Charlemagne because of their involvement in a preceding uprising. Verden was then within the [[Duchy of Saxony]].

After in 1180 a coalition of Emperor [[Frederick I Barbarossa]] and his allies had defeated the then Saxo-Bavarian Duke [[Henry the Lion]]. Henry was subsequently stripped of his duchies. Saxony was divided among the imperial coalitionaries and so the Catholic Bishop of Verden gained [[imperial immediacy]] for parts of his diocesan territory, thus establishing the [[Prince-Bishopric of Verden]].

On 12 March 1259 Prince-Bishop Gerhard of Verden granted the place [[town privileges]] following the Bremian version of [[German town law]]. In the 15th century Verden gained considerable independence as a [[Free Imperial City]], immediately under the emperors (imperial immediacy), circumventing its former overlords the prince-bishops, who still held the cathedral and pertaining premises in town as a [[cathedral immunity district]].

By the [[Peace of Westphalia]] the city of Verden was [[German mediatisation|mediatised]] as regular city again within the Prince-Bishopric of Verden, which was transformed by the same contract into the [[Principality of Verden]] in May 1648. The northern city (with the town hall and St. John's church) and the southern town (with the [[proto-cathedral]]) were then united to form one city.

In 1675, during the [[Swedish-Brandenburg War]], Verden was conquered by several states of the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark following the [[Bremen-Verden Campaign]] and remained in allied hands until the end of the war in 1679. In the wake of the [[Treaty of Saint-Germain]] in 1679, Verden was returned to Sweden.

The Principality of Verden was first ruled in [[personal union]] by the Swedish Crown – interrupted by a Danish occupation (1712–1715) – and from 1715 on by the [[House of Hanover|Hanoverian]] Crown. The [[Kingdom of Hanover]] incorporated the principality in a [[real union]] and the princely territory, including Verden upon Aller, became part of the new [[Stade (region)|Stade Region]], established in 1823.

Until the [[Second World War]], Verden was renowned for its trade and crafts and also its mounted division. During the Nazi regime forced-labourers were used in a furniture factory in Verden. Between 1945 and 1949 Verden was part of the British zone of occupation. Refugees from the former [[Provinces of Prussia|Prussian provinces]] of [[Province of East Prussia|East Prussia]], [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Pomerania]] and [[Province of Silesia|Silesia]], settled in and around the town.

With the labour immigration from the East [[German Democratic Republic]] inhibited by the [[Berlin Wall]] foreign workers ([[Gastarbeiter]]) started to arrive from southern Europe and [[Anatolia]] in the 1960s. After the fall of [[Communism]] more immigrants arrived from Eastern Europe.

From 1945 until 1960, the [[5th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)|5th Division]], of the [[British Army of the Rhine]], was stationed in Verden. In 1960, the division was renamed as the [[1st (United Kingdom) Division|1st Division]] (later 1st Armoured Division). One of the former British barracks is now used to house the ''Kreisverwaltung'' (district administration) and a new sporting stadium has been erected opposite. The second barracks has been demolished to make way for a new residential estate.