Dithmarschen
Dithmarschen | |
|---|---|
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| Country | Germany |
| State | Schleswig-Holstein |
| Capital | Heide |
| Area | |
• Total | 1,405 km2 (542 sq mi) |
| Population (2002) | |
• Total | 137,500 |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Vehicle registration | HEI |
| Website | http://www.dithmarschen.de |
Dithmarschen is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Rendsburg-Eckernförde and Steinburg, by the state of Lower Saxony (district of Stade, from which it is separated by the Elbe river), and by the North Sea.
Geography
The district is located at the North Sea, embraced by the Elbe estuary in the south and the Eider estuary in the north. Today it forms a kind of artificial island, surrounded by the Eider river in the north and the Kiel Canal in either east and southeast. It is a rather flat countryside that was once full of fens and swamps.
To the north it borders on Nordfriesland and Schleswig-Flensburg, to the east on Rendsburg-Eckernförde and in the southeast on Steinburg. Its boundaries towards the land side have remained basically the same since the times of Charlemagne. Land reclamation, however, almost doubled the size of Dithmarschen as land was won out of the sea.
Important towns are Hamburg and Itzehoe in the south, Husum in the north and Kiel and Rendsburg in the east. The main infrastructure in Schleswig-Holstein follows a north-south direction, making Hamburg the best accessible city.
The district has a maximum north-south length of 54 Kilometers and an east-west length of 41 Kilometers. The highest point is close to Schrum in the Geestland at 78 Meters above sea-level, the lowest close to Burg at half a meter below sea level.
Dithmarschen's landscape owes its character to the North Sea. From West to East it consists of the Wadden Sea, Marsh, Bog and the Geestland. 6.500 years ago when the North Sea had a higher sea level than today, the coastline was running along the Geestland. About 4.500 years ago Geestland-structures became connected by sand and gravel depositions that formed Spits. Bogs, lakes and swamps emerged as the area behind the spits was no longer flooded. After the first plants (Glasswort) began to settle, the land transformed to Saltmarshes and finally marshes. The marshes rank among the most fertile Germany's soils, vegetable farming n Dithmarschen carries the highest yield of Schleswig-Holstein.
Since about the 8th century men have been living on Terps to have some protection from the sea. Since the 12th century men began to build Dikes to protect also pastures and fields. Since about the 15th century men have been expanding the land into the sea.
History
In medieval times the marshland villages of Dithmarschen enjoyed remarkable autonomy. In the 15th century they confederated in a peasants' republic. Several times nobles and their mercenaries tried to subdue the independent mini state, but without any success. In 1500 the greatest of these battles took place at Hemmingstedt, where the outnumbered peasants defeated the army of Holstein and the Kalmar Union. It was not until 1559 that the peasants had to give up their autonomy in the "last feud" because of the invasion of count Rantzau from Steinburg, one of the best strategists of the time. Since then the coat of arms of Dithmarschen shows a warrior on horseback, representing a knight of Rantzau. Later this Rider has been called St. Georg, the patron of Dithmarschen.
The conquerors divided Dithmarschen in two parts: the south became a part of Holstein in personal union with Denmark, the north came in the possession of the other Duke of Holstein. From 1773 all of Holstein was united in personal union with Denmark and remained so until 1864, when Schleswig-Holstein was annexed by Prussia.
The Middle Ages in Dithmarschen are held not to have ended until the 19th century, when the Kiel Canal was completed, fens began to be drained and agricultural reforms took place. Within the Bundesland Schleswig-Holstein the area was divided into the districts of Norderdithmarschen (North Dithmarschen) and Süderdithmarschen (South Dithmarschen), before it was united in 1970 in the district of Dithmarschen.
Culture
Traditions
While the people in Dithmarschen were always displayed great proud about their history, in the last decades many traditions were revitalized or new events in a traditional fashion were created. It is hard to draw a distinguishing line between those activities that are mainly inspired by traditionalism and those that mainly happen to foster tourism into the region.
Traditional happenings in many smaler villages are rolandreiten, ringreiten, children's vogelschießen and klootschieten. In Heide the traditional is "Hohnbeer", in Nordhastedt it is "Frunsbeer". During the last decades the tourism promotion focused on the Dithmarschen Cabbage Days, that begin when the cabbage harvest begins. The medieval festival in Heide tries to connect itself to the markets that happened in Heide in the middle ages but actually is a new creation from the late 20th century. In Friedrichstadt and Büsum there are annual trawler regattas.
Traditional dishes are dithmarscher mehlbeutel, and schwarzsauer, buttermilk soup with klüten, kale soup or bread pudding with common shrimps. Since the late 19th century cabbage has become an important dish as well. In norther Germany Dithmarschen is well known for its Dithmarscher beer from the brewery Karl Hintz in Marne.
Language
High German is by now the dominant language but Low German in its Holsteinisch version still has a place in informal conversation. Until the 1960s Low German was the prevailing language in everday-communication, most people born in this time cosider Low German their mothertongue. It is more common in rural regions than in urban regions, the older one is the more likely he will speak Low German.
The best known author of "high literature" in Low German was Klaus Groth from Heide. The best known Low German speaker of Germany today is probably Wilhelm Wieben, former anchorman of the popular German news Tagesschau, who now is mainly producing low german audio books. One of only two episodes of the popular crime televsion series Tatort which had subtitles in its German version, had its plot centered in Dithmarschen - the amount of Low German in the dialogues was considered to be too high for an all German audience.
Architecture
The Dithmarschen landscape was long dominated by churches. Palaces were never build in the farmers' republic, the few castles played even in the time of their construction only minor rules and have since then long been reduced to some groundworks. The churches were symbols not only spiritual but also worldly power. The medieval republic organised itself into Parishes ("Kirchspiele"), the church was not only a sacral building but also the central political meeting place, administration of spiritual and political matters was done by the same body. So there arose any need for representative secular buildung. Only through the integration into Prussia in 1867 the political and the religious spheres were divided.
In the flat Marshland church towers can often be seen from more than 10 kilometres. In villages as Wesselburen, Marne or Wöhrden they are build on the hightes point of the Terpen in the center of the village. The streets run toward the churches, the villages have a distinct medieval character. Probably older houses had to be removed to make place for these churches. In the Geest, the sacral buildings stand in the mediavel rim of the village or with the other houses - the settlements were already established and there was no special need to protect the churches from possible floods.
Most important church was the so-called Meldorf Cathedral. Between the 9th and 11th century it was the only church in Dithmarschen and one of the few north of the Elbe River. In the middle ages the place around the church was the most important meeting place, Meldorf itself was the only settlement that development a distinct urban structure. Even after the political center changed to Heide, the Meldorf cathedral remained the most important religious place. The Reformation in Dithmarschen began there in 1524.
Today's church was build in the 14th century. While the outside was mainly rebuild in the 19th centiry in its inside one can still see the Gothic archictecture from the years 1250 to 1300. The paintings belong to the most magnificent in Schleswig-Holstein, giving an impression in the former wealth of the farmers' republic.
St. Jürgen in Heide comes from the 15th century. Due to conflicts in Dithmarschen Meldorf lost its place as central meeting point, the people from Northern Dithmarschen met since 1447 "auf der Heide" ("on the heath"), in later times the council of the 48 - the central decision body of Dithmarschen - met here. The core of the long single-nave hall church still consists of the 15th-century-building, its outer appearance is dominated by the 1724 late renaissance three-story-tower of Johann Georg Schott.
St. Bartholomäus in Wesselburen was also build in 1737/1738 by Johann Georg Schott. He constructed the baroque building from the remains of older churches after Wesselburen burned down in 1736. Its onion dome is highly unusual for Northern Germany. Also notable are the church in Tellingstedt from the 12th century and the churches in Hemme and Büsum, that display the traditional coat of arms of the "Geschlechter" in their inside.
Education
In 1993 Schleswig-Holstein's latest Fachhochschule (comparable to a Polytechnics) was established in Heide. There are 800 students studying economics, electrical engineering, information technology, international tourism management and law at the Fachhochschule Westküste (Fachhochschule West Coast). The Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel has an outpost in the Büsum based Forschungs- und Technologiezentrum Westküste (Research and technology center West Coast) which researches coastal geology, coastal geography and coastal protection.
In 2004 17.900 students were studying in Dithmarschen schools. In the district there are six Gymnasiums, three Fachgymnasiusms, two vocational schools and 44 schools for primary education.
Economy
The Dithmarschen economy consists mainly of Tourism, Agriculture, and Energy. Tourism is concentrated in the north in Büsum in the south in Friedrichskoog. Most of the people come with their families to enjoy the north sea beaches, a significant number also comes for bicycle trekking. Almost all of the ca. two million tourists/year come from Germany.
Unemployment rate was at 11,6% in September 2004, after the Hartz concept was implemented and new statistical methods used it rose to 17,4% in January 2005. Unemployment rate was far above the average in Schleswig-Holstein (12,7%) and in Germany. The most important employers in the district are Bayer in Brunsbüttel (1.000 employees), the Sparkasse Westholstein (600), the Royal Dutch Shell owned refinery in Hemmingstedt (570), the Sasol chemistry works in Brunsbüttel (570), the printing company Evers in Meldorf (560) and Beyschlag machine building in Heide. The Bundeswehr has a school for non-commissioned officers in Heide.
In the last years the number of people steadily rose who live in Dithmarschen who work in Hamburg and its surroundings. In 2002 9.200 people drove to work outside of the district, 1.700 of those to Hamburg.
Tourism
Main attractions of tourism in Dithmarschen are the North Sea and the Wadden Sea National Park. The district owns about 10 Kilometers of green beaches, Büsum also some artificial sandy beach. In 2003 205.382 tourists spent 1.173.205 nights in Dithmarschen, most of them in Büsum (756.630 nights), which is ranked before Friedrichskoog (75.654) and Büsumer Deichhausen (33.811). Tourism has decreased slightly over the last years, but not as much as at the Schleswig-Holstein Baltic coast. The newfound competition of the former Warsaw Pact states and their Baltic coasts has had less impact on Dithmarschen because the coastal formations are quite different.
Heated controversy inside the district raises the question of an entrance fee for the beaches. Büsum (around 1.000.000 people coming to the beach/year) and Friedrichskoog (300.000) require a fee, most smaller villages nearby don't.
The tourism industry in Dithmarschen try to diversify their tourist attractions. Fitness and Health play an increasing role. Hence tracks and roads for bicycles and inline skates are being built. Part of the North Sea Cycle Route crosses through Dithmarschen. In the east of Dithmarschen ecological travel by Canoe oder Kayak along the Eider River is promoted. Policy makers and tourism agencies also emphasize the cultural and historcial roots of the District.
Coat of arms
| Coat of arms | The district displays a knight of Holstein. This coat of arms was for a long time unpopular in Dithmarschen, because it was the sign of the conquerors. The arms were used by the governors, but not accepted by the population. In 1930, when these ancient hostilities had become irrelevant, it was introduced in slightly different forms by South Dithmarschen and North Dithmarschen. When both districts were united in 1970, the arms of South Dithmarschen became the symbol of the newly merged district. |
Towns and municipalities
Towns and munipalities in Dithmarschen developed from the old Parishwa that were independent political divisions in times of the farmers' republic and that existed as primary political divisions until the 19th century. Only Meldorf was able to develop an urban structure during the Middle Ages. In newer times Heide became a rival for Meldorf. Wesselburen and Wöhrden had some importance as central villages of the rich northern marshland. After Schleswig-Holstein was annexed by Prussia in 1867, some villages became towns and therefore left administratively their old parishes: Meldorf in 1869, Heide in 1878, Marne in 1891 and Wesselburen in 1899. The old village of Brunsbüttel and the new founded Brunsbüttelkoog united in 1970 into the town of Brunsbüttel.
In the Nazi period the parishes were finally dissolved, the single villages became independent. For an efficient administration the single municipalities are united in Ämtern, that for historical reasons are named Amt Kirchspielslandgemeinden (Amt Parish's Country Municipalties).
The largest town by population is Heide. Büsum has a special role as tourist resort. Although a member of an Amt, in summer its population swells to become the largest in the district.
In socio-geographics the difference between marshland and the higher and dryer uplands has played an important role. The fertile marshland was historically rich, the uplands were poor but less prone to floods. The two most important towns, Heide and Meldorf, were build on the safe geest but directly adjacent to marshland were the people could have their fields.
(Population on September, 30 2005)
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Ämter mit amtsangehörigen Gemeinden/Städten
Twinning
Dithmarschen is currently twinned with Restormel - a borough in the british county of Cornwall. The main link is between St Austell and Newquay and Heide, however there is a lot more people who also take use of the twinning!
External links
- Official Restormel Dithmarschen Twinning Homepage (English)
- Official website (German)
- The Dithmarschen Wars (English)
- Battle of Hemmingstedt, image
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