Emden, city, Lower Saxony Land (state), northwestern Germany. It lies near the Ems River estuary and the North Sea coast of Ostfriesland (East Frisia). Founded about 800, it developed as a port for trade with the Baltic countries. It became the capital of the county of Ostfriesland in the 15th century and received storage and customs rights, by which it dominated the Ems trade. During the 16th-century Dutch wars of independence, it gained much of Holland’s trade and became for a time the most important northwestern European port and a centre of Calvinism for Dutch refugees. Their return to the Netherlands and the development of a new course of the Ems farther from the town led to its decline in the 17th century. It passed to Prussia in 1744, to France in 1810–14, and to Hanover in 1815.
After the port was improved and connected to the Ruhr by the Dortmund-Ems Canal in 1899, Emden became the German seaport for Westphalia. Despite severe destruction of the city in World War II, the harbour installations escaped damage, and Emden became one of the busiest ports in Germany. Shipping, shipbuilding, automobile assembly, and the manufacture of construction products are economically important. The city is connected with the natural-gas pipeline from the North Sea Ekofisk field. Remains of ramparts from 1616 and of the late Gothic Great Church (1648) survived World War II. The Johannes à Lasco Library opened in 1995. The East Friesland Museum and the town armoury from the 16th and 17th centuries are also notable. Pop. (2003 est.) 51,445.