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Papenburg

File:Papenburg_Rathaus_2.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Papenburg (; East Frisian Low Saxon: Papenbörg) is a city in the district of Emsland, Lower Saxony, Germany, situated at the river Ems. It is known for its large shipyard, the Meyer-Werft, which specializes in building cruise liners.

OverviewAI-generated

Papenburg is a city in Germany, located in the Emsland district of Lower Saxony. It was established in 1631 and has a population of 38,841. The city covers an area of 118.44 square kilometers and sits at an elevation of 6 meters above sea level. Its postal code is 26871, and it uses the license plate code EL.

The city is situated next to the Ems river and the Dortmund–Ems Canal. It shares borders with Neulehe, Lehe, Surwold, and Rhede (Ems). Papenburg contains the administrative entities of Aschendorf and Tunxdorf. It is a member of the Climate Alliance and is twinned with Ruda Śląska. The local dialing codes include 04961, 04962, 04965, and 04968.

Synthesized by Vinony from 51 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Meteo, Openweathermap, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Weather now

cached 11h ago
18°overcast clouds
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7-day forecast

via Open-Meteo

Place details

Locality
Papenburg
Region
Niedersachsen
Country
Deutschland
Population
0

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

49US AQIGood
PM2.5
4.2 µg/m³
PM10
12.4 µg/m³
As of 2026-08-11 03:00 · Open-Meteo

Key facts

German location.type
Stadt
German location.image_flag
DEU Papenburg Flag.svg
German location.image_coa
DEU Papenburg COA.svg
German location.image_photo
Papenburg Rathaus 2.jpg
German location.image_caption
City hall in 2004
German location.image_plan
Papenburg in EL.svg
German location.state
Niedersachsen
German location.district
Emsland
German location.elevation
6
German location.postal_code
26871
German location.area_code
04961, 04962, 04965
German location.licence
EL
German location.Gemeindeschlüssel
03 4 54 041
German location.divisions
6 subdivisions
German location.website
www.papenburg.de
German location.mayor
Vanessa Gattung
German location.leader_term
2021–26
German location.party
SPD

via Wikipedia infobox

Travel guide

Understand

thumb|Thekla von Papenburg, one of the sailship replicas you may see moored in the canals or harbour

Papenburg, in the middle of the peat landscape of the Dutch-German borderland is a city of canals and the southernmost seaport of Germany. Starting as a "peat colony" in medieval times (comparable to the Dutch Veenkoloniën across the border), its history is closely related to the Ems river, peat extraction, seafaring and industrialization.

The city is really composed of several towns: in the north, in the east and in the southwest. Moreover the districts of , , and form part of the city. This has historical reasons; e.g. Aschendorf was a separate city until 1973, and at that one of the oldest known settlements in Lower Saxony.

Each of the districts has its own character, offering nature, nightlife, historical or living industrial culture, tradition or high-tech.

See

thumb|Stiefelknechthaus in the Gut Altenkamp park thumb|The large hall of the Meyer shipyard

Buy

There are shops in the districts of Untenende, Obenende and Aschendorf that are suitable both for buying things and window shopping. In all of these you can also find supermarkets. Along you can find shops in a "maritime environment".

Sleep

thumb|St. Antonius church and the Arkadenhaus building

In addition to the hotels, the tourist office can help with booking different homestays.

Connect

Many businesses offer free Wi-Fi.

If you travel west of the town (e.g. hiking or biking) it's possible that your mobile devices will connect to Dutch networks.

The German postal service (Deutsche Post) has offices in Untenende, Obenende and in Aschendorf.

Go next

Aurich 62 km Cloppenburg 65 km Emden 50 km Leer 32 km Saterland 30 km The "thick linden", in Heede, some 16 km south of Papenburg is one of the most impressive trees in Europe. With an age of 600-800 years, its circumference is about 17.5 m.

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~3 min read

Encyclopedic overview

9 sections
Contents
  • Geography
  • Districts
  • History
  • Population
  • Transport
  • Twin towns – sister cities
  • Gallery
  • References
  • External links

Papenburg (; East Frisian Low Saxon: Papenbörg) is a city in the district of Emsland, Lower Saxony, Germany, situated at the river Ems. It is known for its large shipyard, the Meyer-Werft, which specializes in building cruise liners.

==Geography==

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Papenburg” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (11)

On the map

2 mapped locations