New Hamburg | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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New Hamburg

New Hamburg, Ont, urban area, population 11 953 (2011c), 10 315 (2006c). New Hamburg is a community located midway between Kitchener and Stratford in the Township of Wilmot.

New Hamburg, Ont, urban area, population 11 953 (2011c), 10 315 (2006c). New Hamburg is a community located midway between Kitchener and Stratford in the Township of Wilmot. The community lies in the midst of a prosperous rural countryside (populated partly by Old Order Mennonite and Amish, who settled the area in the 1830s).

At first called simply Hamburg, after the port of departure of many German emigrants in the 19th century, it grew as a result of the railway boom created by the expansion of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1857 and the influx of German and Amish immigrants in the mid-19th century. Nearby, the sixth generation of pioneer farmers of German origin remain on the land, and the settlement today is primarily an agricultural service centre. Population growth after the 1850s was slow until after World War II. In 1966 the population was large enough that New Hamburg received town status. In 1973 it was reorganized within the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and reverted to the status of a settlement within the Township of Wilmot.

New Hamburg is known widely for its annual Mennonite Relief Sale in May of traditional handicrafts, and especially Mennonite quilts.