Every design for Delmenhorst

Delmenhorst grew up around a moated castle beside the little river Delme, built to guard land the counts of Oldenburg had won. The castle has gone, but its island remains as the Burginsel in den Graftanlagen, a green ring of water and trees in the middle of town, and the river still winds through the streets as it did when the settlement first appeared in a charter.

The town lies just west of Bremen, so close that the two form one continuous urban area, while Oldenburg sits further off to the northwest. That position shaped everything. Bremen's merchants faced heavy customs duties to send goods beyond their city, so they built their mills here instead: a jute works, a linoleum factory and the huge Nordwolle spinning works. The red-brick halls now house the Fabrikmuseum Nordwolle, and the Wasserturm Delmenhorst still stands above the rooftops as the town's landmark. To the east, the Ochtum and smaller streams mark the edge of the town and open onto flat, watery countryside.

Come back after time away and you notice it straight away: the water tower on the skyline, the quiet of the Graft, the feeling that this is where you belong.