Stade

Stade is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (Metropolregion Hamburg). It is the seat of the district named after it. The city was first mentioned in a document from 994.It includes the urban districts of Bützfleth, Hagen, Haddorf and Wiepenkathen which have a district council ("Ortsrat") of their own with some autonomous decision making rights.Stade is located on the lower Elbe river (Lower Elbe) and the German Timber-Frame Road.HistoryThe first human settlers came to the Stade area in 30,000 BC.Since 1180 Stade belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. In early 1208 King Valdemar II of Denmark and his troops conquered Stade. In August Valdemar II's cousin being in enmity with the king, the then Prince-Archbishop Valdemar reconquered the city only to lose it soon after again to Valdemar II. In 1209 Emperor Otto IV persuaded his ally Valdemar II to withdraw into the north of the Elbe, and the deposed Prince-Archbishop Valdemar took Stade.On 2 May 1209 Otto IV granted important town privileges ("Stadtrecht") to Stade. Otto IV confirmed the burghers to be personally free and recognised them constituting a political entity of their own law, the burgenses and optimi cives of Stade. Property within the municipal boundaries could not be subjected to feudal overlordship and was to be freely inherited without feudal claims to reversion. Fair juridical procedures were constituted and maximal fines fixed. Otto IV obliged himself to prevent burghers from being taken as hostages and to liberate captured burghers.