Editing Minden (section)

=== From the Napoleonic Wars to World War I ===
[[File:Minden6.jpg|thumb|Barracks (''Defensionskaserne'') dating to 1829 on Simeon Square, now site of the Prussia Museum, and the starting point of the Minden planet path in front]]
[[File:2010-05-21 Minden Reihenhäuser Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße.jpg|thumb|Workers' housing estate in the railway quarter dating to 1899]]
[[File:MI Weserbruecke - Blick auf die Porta.jpg|thumb|Weser with Glacisbridge, looking towards [[Porta Westfalica (gorge)|Porta Westfalica]] and the [[Emperor William Monument (Porta Westfalica)|Emperor William Monument]] from 1896]]
In course of the [[War of the Fourth Coalition]], French troops occupied the town on 13 November 1806. In the following year [[Napoleon]] founded the [[Kingdom of Westphalia]], governed by his brother [[Jerome Bonaparte]] as king, and Minden became part of this [[client state]] until 1810 as district capital in the Weser department. On 1 January 1811 Napoleon moved Minden to the department [[Ems-Supérieur]] of the [[First French Empire|French Empire]]; now the Weser formed the eastern frontier between France and Westphalia. The rights of the [[Cathedral chapter]] in the cathedral close were abolished, the still existing convents were dissolved, and some ecclesiastical buildings like St John's church were secularized and used for military purposes. Before the French troops abandoned Minden on 3 November 1813 after the disastrous [[Battle of Leipzig]], they blew up some of the arches of the Weser bridge, with the damage replaced for decades by a wooden auxiliary construction only.{{sfn|Nordsiek |1979|p=74}}

Minden became part of the Kingdom of Prussia again as capital both of the District of Minden and the [[Minden region|government region]] ({{lang|de|Regierungsbezirk Minden}}) in the new formed [[Province of Westphalia]]. By royal order it was declared a fortress once more. The fortress regulations ordered a {{convert|600|m|adj=on}} area in front of the wall being free of any buildings, not even vertical gravestones were allowed.{{sfn|Nordsiek |1979|p=84}} The refortification had severe consequences, hindering any extension of the town area and thus economic development. The {{lang|de|Infanterie-Regiment "Prinz Friedrich der Niederlande" (2. Westfälisches) Nr. 15}} was stationed in the garrison from 1820 to 1919, when it was dissolved; the naming [[Colonel-in-chief]] was [[Prince Frederick of the Netherlands]] and after his death [[Queen Emma of the Netherlands]]. Frederick's wife [[Princess Louise of Prussia (1808–1870)|Princess Louise of Prussia]] was Colonel-in-chief of the {{lang|de|Infanterie-Regiment "[[Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow|Graf Bülow von Dennewitz]]" (6. Westfälisches) Nr. 55}}, that was partly stationed in Minden, too. Since 1999, the {{lang|de|Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 58}} encamped a new barracks area in the nordwest of the town centre. The ''Hanoveran Pionier-Battalion No. 10'' was part of the [[X Corps (German Empire)|X Corps]], that was incorporated into the Prussian Army after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and had its barracks near to Minden station. The main [[military training area]] was a large location in today's quarter of Minderheide at the very northwest edge of the town, an area that had already been part of the main fighting during the Battle of Minden in 1759.{{sfn|Dallmeier |1998 |p=8–17}}

After the [[Congress of Vienna]] of 1815 had passed general principles of free traffic on the main rivers, the six Weser-states of the [[German Confederation]] annulated all restrictions and most of the financial burdens for shipping on the river by the Weser Shipping Act ({{lang|de|Weserschifffahrtsakte}}) of 1823.<ref>{{cite conference
 | first = Hans-Joachim 
 | last = Behr
 | title = Das Ende des Mindener Stapels
 | book-title = Zwischen Dom und Rathaus.
 | place = Minden
 | pages = 233–247
 | date = 1977}}</ref>
The first steam ship was put in operation in 1836, and a first harbour basin was built in 1859 on the east side of the river, connected with the railway in 1863. In the following decades, the great majority of transferred goods were imported goods, as export was of low importance. Inland shipment grew enormously after the completion of the ''Mittelland Canal'' and its connection to the Weser by the [[Lock (water navigation)#Shaft lock|shaft lock]] in 1915.<ref name="Korinth" />

The [[Cologne-Minden trunk line|trunk line]] of the [[Cologne-Minden Railway Company]] was opened in 1847 with a solidly fortified station and connected with the [[Hanover–Minden railway]].{{sfn|Nordsiek |1979|p=79}} After defortification,{{explain |date=September 2024}} the railway got an important momentum for economic growth in Minden.

The spatial narrowness in the fortress restricted the development of industrial firms of different branches to a certain degree, but did not prevent it.<ref>{{cite conference
 | first = Philipp
 | last = Koch
 | title = Rückständigkeit in einer industriellen Pionierregion? Die Wirtschaft der Festung Minden 1815 bis 1873
 | book-title = Die etwas andere Industrialisierung.
 | place = Essen
 | pages = 85–110
 | date = 1999}}</ref> 
The dominant industry, as well as in the whole district, was the manufacture of [[cigar]]s; this branch decreased after World War I and finally vanished, because the growing market share of [[cigarette]]s had been ignored. Minden was seat of a [[Chamber of commerce]] from 1849 to 1932, when it was merged with those of Bielefeld.<ref>{{cite conference
 | first = Monika
 | last = Dickhaus
 | title = Die 'Tabakkammer der Nation': Die Handelskammer zu Minden 1949 bis 1932
 | book-title = Die etwas andere Industrialisierung.
 | place = Essen
 | pages = 137–156
 | date = 1999}}</ref>

Overpopulation and unemployment were the reasons for an enormous emigration from the [[Minden Land]]; various emigration agencies had their location in Minden.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Riechmann |first1=Wolfgang |title=Zweihundert Jahre Auswanderung aus dem Mindener Land |journal=Mitteilungen des Mindener Geschichtsvereins |date=1992 |volume=64 |pages=81–113 |url=https://sammlungen.ulb.uni-muenster.de/hd/periodical/titleinfo/4627747 |access-date=20 February 2022}}</ref>

The town remained a Prussian fortress until 1873, when Germany's [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Imperial Diet]] ({{lang|de|Reichstag}}) passed the law to remove the fortress status of several fortified places, among them Minden. The fortress walls were razed by 1880{{snd}}the town had to pay for it{{snd}}and a new Weser bridge was constructed, permitting the town to catch up economically. However, it was never able to regain its former political and economic importance.{{sfn|Nordsiek |1979|p=88–89, 95}}

The upper class used the new conditions for construction of a new town quarter in a half-circle to the north and west of the old centre with prestigious buildings on spacious plots, but the urgent narrowness inside the centre maintained.<ref>{{cite web | last1 = Schulte | first1 = Monika | url = http://www.minden.de/internet/page.php?typ=2&site=7000044 |title=Promenieren im Grünen und Wohnen in Villen | website = minden.de | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100724234353/http://www.minden.de/internet/page.php?typ=2&site=7000044 | access-date = 16 December 2021| archive-date = 24 July 2010}}</ref> A lot of buildings in the style of historicism replaced older ones at the market place and in the main streets.{{sfn|Nordsiek |1979|p=95}}
The lack of buildings outside the fortifications was favourable for planning a road network in the outer areas of the town. Since the 1890s, a sequence of six ring roads in the west and north of the town has formed the backbone of the road network.{{sfn|Nordsiek |1979|p=90}}

Grandiose festivities took place when Emperor [[William II, German Emperor|William II]] and Empress [[Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein|Auguste Victoria]] visited Minden and the southern village of Barkhausen for inauguration of the [[Emperor William Monument (Porta Westfalica)|Emperor William Monument]] on the [[Wittekindsberg]] above the [[Porta Westfalica (gap)|Porta Westfalica gap]] on 18 October 1896. Since then the monument has been a visible element of the southern view from Minden.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe |title=Das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal |url=https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/portal/Internet/finde/langDatensatz.php?urlID=619&url_tabelle=tab_websegmente |website=www.lwl.org |date=25 March 2014 |access-date=27 January 2022}}</ref> The first line of the Minden tramway has connected the primary site of the memorial with Minden since 1893 when the memorial was still under construction.<ref name="SchütteTram">{{cite book |last1=Schütte |first1=Ingrid und Werner |title=Minden und seine Straßenbahn |date=1986 |publisher=Uhle und Kleimann |location=Lübbecke |isbn=3-922657-47-8}} p. 187.</ref>

The Minden District Railways ({{lang|de|Mindener Kreisbahnen}}), founded in 1898, built up a [[narrow-gauge railway]] net with three lines until World War I.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schütte |first1=Ingrid und Werner |title=Die Mindener Kreisbahnen |date=1989 |publisher=Uhle und Kleimann |location=Lübbecke |isbn=3-922657-77-X}} p. 10, 29, 40.</ref> Minden got a municipal water supply system in the 1880s{{sfn|Nordsiek |1979|p=96}} and an electric power station in 1902.{{sfn|Nordsiek |1979|p=326}}