Fischerstadt

This, incidentally, had its origins in the fishing town, which you can see on the left-hand side downstream on the Weser behind the remains of the old fortress wall. In the Middle Ages, the people of Fischerstadt owned the rights to the river between Stolzenau in the north and Rinteln in the south.

As already mentioned, the name Fischerstadt is a reference to the inhabitants, most of whom were fishermen and ship millers. They settled directly on the Weser, while the actual town of Minden developed around the cathedral district and the town hall.

The fishing town is one of the three medieval suburbs of Minden. Alongside Marienvorstadt and Simeonsvorstadt, it is one of the settlement centers and is still preserved today as a self-contained area. This quarter was probably settled in the 12th century, as building research shows.
The fishing town was probably already settled in the 12th century. Fishermen and ship millers lived here.

The fishermen settled south of the ford across the Weser directly on the western bank of the river. Minden's first port was located on the Schlagde between the settlement and the town of Minden.

In the 19th century, the fishing town was included in the defense system of the Minden fortress. Today, only the former fortress wall built in 1830 facing the Weser with embrasures for rifle and cannon defense remains. During the so-called defortification in 1878, this wall was dismantled down to chest height and today has more the function of a flood wall with the Schlagde in front of it.
The fishing town is built on a small scale with half-timbered houses from the 16th and 17th centuries. In the middle of it all, hidden between narrow alleyways, is the mayor's house of the fishing town. And if you are interested in the floods that the Weser has caused in recent years, you should walk carefully along the row of houses on Weserstraße. You can see a wooden post with the flood marks carved into it. On February 10, 1946, for example, the fishing town was under water at first floor level after a thaw and heavy rain caused the Weser to rise unstoppably.