Once a pivotal point

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The municipality of Jemgum lies in the Rheiderland, the borderland between the Ems in the east and the Netherlands in the west. The main town of Jemgum, the basic centre of today's municipality, was already an important market town with urban structures in the 15th century. Goods produced in the hinterland and in the town itself could be shipped via the harbour to the rest of East Frisia, to the East Frisian islands and also to the Netherlands. Due to the cultivation of the moorland in north-western Germany, brickmaking in Rheiderland became very important. The increase in shipping traffic even led to the establishment of a shipyard in Jemgum in the middle of the 18th century, where ships were built and also repaired. Barges mainly brought peat to heat the brick kilns and they further brought sand, which was needed for the production of stones. When they set sail, the barges were usually fully loaded with hard-baked clinker bricks, which in turn were used to cultivate the moorland.

However, the expansion of the road networks, shipping traffic, and with it Jemgum's economic power, became less and less important. Due to dyke construction measures in the 1970s, the formerly flourishing harbour lost its connection to the Ems, and today's harbour was built directly on the river. And when the last brickyard directly in Jemgum ceased operations in the early 2000s, this was also the end for brickmaking at the Ems.

The municipality of Jemgum would like to develop the former brickyard site for residential purposes and also design the market square in such a way that the old harbour is at least vaguely recognisable again. So far, however, there is a lack of funds for these plans.