marched into the Netherlands, as a military road. Some of the townsfolk lived through this time with very mixed feelings – were they not, they thought, bound to their Dutch neighbours by friendship and blood? These bonds were something upon which those seeking to fight persecution and the Nazi régime itself could build. Adolf Pazdera and Ferdinand Kobitzki, Nordhorn KPD functionaries and trade union secretaries, were persecuted many times and in 1943 and 1944 respectively, they were murdered in concentration camps. After the World War II ended, nearly ten thousand people from Germany's lost eastern territories poured into Nordhorn, where they found a new home, soon bringing the town's population to more than 40,000. There arose a new community within the town housing 13,000 inhabitants, called die Blanke. Non-commercial housing building companies and private initiatives made Nordhorn into "the town of the privately owned home". The enormous building accomplishments called for the municipal administration to be expanded and modernized. Thus, Nordhorn built itself a new town hall, and buildings for district administration, the employment office and the Amt court arose on the town's ring road. The court now stands on Seilerbahn. Northwest Germany's first indoor swimming pool after 1945 could be dedicated, new schools, sport halls and fields, the concert and theatre hall and the town park led to the townscape's revival. Religion When the first church was built in Nordhorn is unknown. The story goes, however, that it stood at the guildfield and was named after Saint Ludger. Ludger was one of the first Christian missionaries in the area, and in 804 he became the first Bishop of Münster. In 809 he died near Billerbeck. In the municipal area's northwest, a monastery of Augustinian Canons (Chorherrenstift) was founded in Frenswegen, earlier known as Marienwolde, in 1394. Its church, consecrated in 1444, was destroyed in 1881 by a lightning strike. The monastery was of great importance to Nordhorn and to places far beyond. Bit by bit the monastery building arose, and in the early 15th century, so did a church. Also in Nordhorn, a bigger church was needed. On 6 July 1445, both churches were consecrated by an auxiliary bishop from Münster. The new Nordhorn church's patron was once again Saint Ludger. The three-naved Late Gothic market church was built out of Bentheim sandstone and with its 71-m-high steeple, it dominated the town's skyline. After the Reformation (1517), Count Arnold