Varsseveld

At the start of the twelfth century, Varsseveld was part of the County of Lohn, a county within the Holy Roman Empire with its seat in Stadtlohn, nowadays Germany. Count Godschalk I of Lohn's son Goldschalk built an estate in the village. In 2009, during the reconstruction of the village core, archeologists found out that the village probably had a town canal at that time, similar to that of neighbouring estates and towns such as Bredevoort.[3]

After the Battle for Bredevoort between 1326 and 1326, the village was conquered by Reginald II, Duke of Guelders and became under influence of the Duchy of Guelders. In 1723, a fire hit the village, burning down all the buildings, including the church.[4] Until 1794, when Napoleon invaded the Netherlands and abolished the feudal system, the Guelders village was under the administration of the County of Zutphen and the smaller district of Wisch.

Upon the formation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands after the French rule had ended, Varsseveld was a separate municipality between 1812 and 1818, when it was merged with Wisch.[5]

War memorial to the mass execution on Rademakersbroek.

On 2 March 1945, when the village was still under control of the Nazi Forces, a mass execution of 46 people took place on Rademakersbroek, a road just outside of the town.[6] The victims had been chosen at random and had been taken from the Kruisberg prison in Doetinchem, where they had been imprisoned for numerous reasons, ranging from taking part in Resistance activities to unknowingly buying a stolen bike.[7] The mass execution was a revenge attack in response to the earlier discovery of four dead Nazi officers in a semi-burnt vehicle near the village.[8]

Four weeks later, on 31 March 1945, the village was liberated by the English Allied Forces.[9]

In the 1950s and 1960s, the village industrialised and became a regional leader in the production of wooden products such as doors, clogs, drawers and closets. This made the village relatively affluent during that time.[10]