Steinhagen - origin and growth

A  first historical reference of Steinhagen as "Hagen" can be found in a Paderborn document from the year 1258.

The name Steinhagen probably derives from the middle age word 'Hag' =farmyard.  Settlers created clearings by cutting down trees and woods around their farm-steads.  Hagen is the plural for Hag, thereby meaning a group of farmyards.

The rural settlement of Steinhagen was allowed to be situated as a 'Hagen' - a settlement with a beginning in the period of the big interior colonisation (12th and 13th centuries). Steinhagen as such probably developed as a group of single clearing farms (Hagen).  In 1147 Kaiser Konrad III confirmed the rights of ownership with the monastery of Herford for different farms, Schabbehardt and Burde.  They must have been the roots for two Hagen communities.  One of these hagens, Burde, had 12 farms and became liable for tax to the monastery in 1300.  In later records this Hagen became known as Nienhagen.

The Count of Ravensberg founded a Hagen community in the neighbourhood of this settlement from 11 free farms and called it Steinhagen.

Both of the free Hagens were united through a church land reform in 1334.  The names of Burde and Nienhagen slowly disappeared more and more in favour of the united 'Steinhagen'.

Since the middle of the 1960s, Steinhagen has continuously and purposefully worked on the reform of its village centre.

The old village character, a historical round village centred around the church, is surrounded by houses, most of them with gables.  This has been included in the modern town planning style, which is still further developing into a recognisable small town atmosphere.  The market place has the town hall, service companies, shops, restaurants and practices.  Most daily requirements can be fulfilled with ease in the village centre.