Ems

Ems or Bad Ems, town (1994 pop. 10,130), Rhineland-Palatinate, W Germany, on the Lahn River. Chartered in 1324 as an important lead and silver mining center, it has been one of Europe's most famous spas since the late 17th cent. It was the site of the Congress of Ems (1786), which acted to reduce papal influence in the German Catholic Church. Bismarck drew up (1870) the Ems dispatch there.

Ems, river, 208 mi (335 km) long, rising in the Teutoburger Wald, NW Germany, and flowing NW into the North Sea near Emden. Its wide mouth is called the Dollart. The Ems is paralleled for much of its course by the Dortmund-Ems Canal. The Emsland is a swampy region between the lower course of the Ems and the Dutch border. Extensive drainage projects (begun 1928) have reduced the moors and swamps. Oil and natural-gas fields were developed in the region after 1940.

Weser-Ems was the most westerly of the four Regierungsbezirke of Lower Saxony, Germany, bordering the Dutch provinces of Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel. It was created in 1978 by merging the former regions Osnabrück, Aurich and Oldenburg.

The Regierungsbezirke in Lower Saxony have been dissolved since the end of 2004.

Kreise (districts)	Kreisfreie Städte (district-free towns)
Ammerland Aurich Bentheim Cloppenburg Emsland Friesland Leer Oldenburg Osnabrück Vechta Wesermarsch Wittmund	Delmenhorst Emden Oldenburg Osnabrück Wilhelmshaven