etween the estuary of the Elbe River and the mouth of the Oste River you will find
a small area with great history: Land Hadeln. Its Old Saxon name is Gau Haduloha and today it is a part of the so-called Cuxland-Region.
It belongs to the extended regions of both the cities of Hamburg and Bremen but
is distant enough from them (about a good hundred kilometres from both) to
escape
the “blessings” of a modern metropolis. Another name for the area is the Elbe-Weser-Dreieck (the triangle of rivers Elbe and Weser), or, a little tauntingly, Das nasse Dreieck (“the wet triangle”). (Don’t forget your rubber boots!).
The points of this triangle are Hamburg to the southeast, Bremen to the southwest
and Cuxhaven to the north. Between Hamburg and Cuxhaven, the Elbe River is
the natural border with the ancient Saxon region of Dithmarschen, and between
Cuxhaven and Bremen (Bremerhaven being situated in between them) the Weser
River is the natural border to the Frisian-influenced west.
Symbols
of Old Saxony, horses graze near new wind
turbines
at Bülkau. Land Hadeln has a tradition of breeding
fine
Hanoverians.
(Courtesy RaBoe and Wikimedia Commons)
Just three words are necessary to describe the landscape: Marsch, Geest,
Moor; in English: very fertile clay land near the sea, some sandy hills (glacial
end moraines) in the inner region and large areas of moor land between the
two.
This combination constituted ideal conditions for early settlement: fish
from the sea, grass and cereals on the clay land, timber on and around the
sandy hills, and turf of the moor land for fuel.
So it might not surprise anyone that the region has always been a very
coveted spot on the European continent—and no one really knows why so many
Saxons left it westbound to hop onto that rainy island named Britannia.
History
To those among you able to cope with German I like to recommend two links in
the German Wikipedia:
As for those that are not familiar with that “weird” language, I invite
them on a short trip through the remarkable history of the land. (See also
below under „Bad Bederkesa”.)
Early
Saxon migration
First proof of human settlement dates back in the Neolithic Age (e.g.
excavations in Flögeln), from about 4000 BCE. You find graves, stone tools
and indications of camp sites nearly all over the region.
The next time period about which we have some knowledge is that of the Roman
Empire or even before that. Although probably no Roman soldier had had set
foot on this
soil,
a good number of places of discovery show Roman, Phoenician and Greek coins
and trade goods. Presumably, Mediterranean traders sailed past Gibraltar,
circumnavigated the Iberian Peninsula, crossed the Bay of Biscay and passed
through the English Channel bound for Scandinavia’s west coast to buy amber,
the so-called
“gold of the north.” Since this voyage would have taken longer than one year,
the traders are presumed to have spent the typically stormy, icy winters at
places along the coast of the North Sea and the estuaries of the great rivers,
the Elbe and Weser in this case.
Idyllic
touches everywhere—
Sankt Nicolai (St. Nicholas) in Nordleda (Low Saxon Lee)
(Courtesy Geoz
and Wikimedia
Commons)
Although we do not know much about local Germanic or Celtic inhabitants
of the time around the beginning of the Christian era, there is an old, never
disproved theory that Germanic divisions of the Chaucian and Thuringian tribes
had inhabited the region prior to the arrival of the Saxons. Saxons came from
some area north of there, crossed the Elbe River and spread southward around
200 CE. They are not believed to have come as aggressive conquerors. (This happened
during the Great Migration Period, which means that they came with women and
children.) Much rather, there are indications that they had reached more advanced
of social, agricultural and technological levels than those of the previous
inhabitants. All archaeological relics suggest that they melted with the original
inhabitants as they may have done with the Angles prior to that.
Altenbruch
(Low Saxon Ooldenbrook) with its
paternal twin spires
(Courtesy RaBoe and Wikimedia
Commons)
One
fine day—by now we have reached the 5th century CE—some seafarers from the
Saxon region brought home tales about a very large island in the west,
where Roman influence was declining and large tracts of fertile soil lay
ownerless. This appears to have triggered some sort of land rush. Within the
following two or three centuries many people abandoned their homes and sailed
across the wild and dangerous North Sea to the British Isles. The vacuum they
left attracted some “poor and starving” Frisians. These settled in small
groups along the coast, mostly with but sometimes without Saxon permission.
It must have been a relatively peaceful time then, until he came—he, the
great Frankish king, butcher of Saxons, suppressor of freedom, augmenter and
spreader of Christianity: Charles “the Great,” better known as “Charlemagne”
(742/747–814).
After long, bloody battles during the end of the 8th and beginning of the
9th century he finally defeated the Continental Saxons and established his
power and the influence of the (his?) church by enthroning numerous beholden
and reliable vassals all over the Saxon region. Farewell, Saxon freedom! Farewell,
heathen goddesses and gods!
Yet the Saxons remained the most powerful tribe of Northern Continental
Europe, and meanwhile the Ascomannes, Danes or Vikings stood ante portas. The
area on both sides of the Elbe River as well as along the Weser River became
favourite destinations of these northerners’ forays. These uninvited guests
had a great time plundering not only the new yet already wealthy monasteries
but then newly founded and thriving trading posts such as Bremen and Stade
as well. (It was also during this era that a small fortified settlement called
Hammaburg was founded—the beginning of what is now Hamburg.)
The Saxon warriors had to defend their region all by themselves. This
and their still working social class system may well have enabled them to retain
more liberty along the coasts than deeper in the southern hinterland.
Serfdom never developed anywhere in the region. Instead, the area was under
the more or less brutal sway of clerical and secular rulers, specifically under
that of the Archbishop of Bremen and the Earls of Stade.
Not so in Land Hadeln, though. Due to certain circumstances
the area came to be assigned to the domain of the Earl of Lauenburg whose
main domicile lay east
of
Hamburg,
far away from his little “gem” (German Kleinod) up there by the sea.
Rivalry between the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Bremen with the Archbishop
of Bremen as the third player led to an extraordinary (maybe even
unique) situation: the Hadelners were able to run their own show
in a democratic system with elected leaders out of their own midst rather
than
under the tutelage of privileged aristocrats. And this turned out to be a
very handy situation for the Earl of Lauenburg: milk and honey were flowing,
which meant that
a good
deal of money was flowing into his otherwise virtually empty coffers.
And here is a curious twist: for a few decades Land Hadeln was owned by
the mighty city of Hamburg, because the earl owed loan repayments to the
wealthy Hanseatic merchants. But eventually he managed to repay his debt
and became the owner of Hadeln once again.
Language
The dominant language in the region today is of course Standard German.
The
Latin School at Otterndorf (Low Saxon Ooterndörp) was
founded in 1614. (Courtesy RaBoe and Wikimedia
Commons)
In earlier times, the dominant language of the region was Low Saxon, more
or less influenced by the language of Frisian settlers (especially in Land
Wursten—See below). Already in the 13th century, the first Dutch settlers arrived
in the region and brought with them their superior knowledge of dike building.
This was followed by further waves of Dutch settlers “encroaching” upon the
region and especially influencing the Low Saxon of the Sietland. (See below)
Aside from some limitations within the city of Cuxhaven, older people
living in the region are well able to understand Low Saxon. The more isolated
villages are the higher is the percentage of native Low Saxon speakers in them.
Nearly everyone in Northern Germany below the age of 50 is able to understand
at least a little English, and particularly in the larger towns and cities
with tourist scenes this language will help you get by.
A
note for North American readers:
When Europeans say “village” they
tend
to mean what you call “town,” and
when they
say “town” they tend to mean what to you is
a smaller or medium-size “city.”
Travel
Guide
Getting there
By aircraft and train:
International Airport Bremen
shuttle bus to railway station Bremen-Hauptbahnhof
train to Bremerhaven and then look for ...
train connection (and you might actually find
one) to Cuxhaven
or:
International Airport Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel
shuttle bus to railway station Hamburg-Hauptbahnhof
train to Cuxhaven via Stade
By motorcar:
If you come via Bremen (from southern and western directions) you’ll
find a comfortable Autobahn A27 (with low traffic density) leading straight
to Bremerhaven and Cuxhaven.
If you enter Germany from the north or east you probably should take a
route via Hamburg, then try to find the stub of Autobahn A26 (which is still under construction at the moment), or at least follow the yellow
signs along Bundesstrasse B73 that direct you to Cuxhaven via Stade.
Until about two years ago we still had regular ferry
service between Harwich (England) and Cuxhaven—the last relict of the Saxon’s
exodus ... The Canal Tunnel put it out of business.
I am not aware of any current regularly running public cars
and passenger ferry service between the United Kingdom and Germany. If there
is none, you would have to travel across in your own boat. In that case I
strongly advise you to seek more reliable information about navigation regulations
and routes to Cuxhaven than I am able to provide. Sailing
up the
Elbe estuary is a very tricky undertaking and should only be attempted by experienced
people and with
excellent equipment.
Accommodation
If you like to travel off-season you shouldn’t have any trouble finding comfortable
rooms (in hotels, pensions, etc.) anywhere in the area. If you want to
stay for more than three days I’d suggest you rent an apartment. You’ll find them everywhere,
even
at the farthest end of the deepest countryside.
The
historical Saxons — and we’re talking about the real Saxons, not about the inhabitants of today’s German state of Saxony — spoke Old Saxon, one of the ancestral languages of English. It developed into
Middle Saxon in the Middle Ages, when it served as a
language of international commerce. Today’s descendants are the Low Saxon dialects of Northern Germany and the Eastern
Netherlands. At one point, as part and parcel of creating the impression
that Low Saxon is a German dialect group, most German institutions
renamed these language varieties while erasing
references to “Saxon.” Old Saxon became Altniederdeutsch (“Old Low German”), Middle Saxon Mittelniederdeutsch (“Middle Low German”) and Low Saxon Niederdeutsch or Plattdeutsch (“Low German”).
Being the centre, Cuxhaven offers the largest range of options of course.
The lower rate range starts off very reasonably. (I believe Northern Germany
is at the lowest level in Central, Northern and Western Europe, with the
exception of Spain and
Portugal.). However, you always have the option of going for higher standards
if you are willing and able to spend more money.
Things are different if you pick the main season (ca. June to
September) for your trip. In that case I’d recommend having a travel agency
organise it
or
just contacting me by mail or phone for specific information.
Sightseeing
Generally speaking, I recommend visiting either in the spring, from the
end of April to the end of May, or on the last sunny autumn days from end
of
September
until the middle of October. There is little tourism during these times of
the year, especially in Cuxhaven. As a result of reduced pressure, locals
tend to be friendlier then, as do the prices.
A virtual tour in and around Land Hadeln
Cuxhaven
The largest town at Hadeln’s northern end is Cuxhaven (formerly Ritzebüttel),
having been part of the City of Hamburg until 1937 CE. Cuxhaven isn’t a beautiful
town at all but famous as a seaside resort with the greatest tidelands at the
coast of the whole North Sea. Because of this you’ll find all kinds of tourist
accommodation.
Old Name: Koogshave (preceded by Ritzebüttel)
Low Saxon: Cuxhoben
Missingsch: Cuxendorf
Established/first mentioned: 1872 (1394 as Ritzebüttel)
Inhabitants: 52,000
Climate: moderate, mostly cool and windy
The
historic HAPAG Halls at Cuxhaven—
This is one of the centers
at which emigrants used
to be processed under Hamburg’s
jurisdiction.
(Courtesy RaBoe and Wikimedia
Commons)
Places you must visit:
the extensive tidelands
Alte Liebe (Ancient Love)
bathing area Strandbad Duhnen in summer- and wintertime
Inside
the historic HAPAG Halls at
Cuxhaven in 1904
(Courtesy Wikimedia
Commons)
Places you might visit:
Wrackmuseum—theship
wreck museum
Fort Kugelbake—an
old navy fortress
Fischereihafen—the
fishing harbour
Neuwerk—a
small island near the shore, getting there in horse-drawn carriages at
low tide, and suddenly you’ll be on Hamburg soil, because this is a territorial
enclave
Places you should avoid:
The tidelands outside of the marked and supervised areas
If you go (and I recommend hiring bikes) some kilometres up along the Elbe
river, always in sight of the huge dikes protecting the land and next to one
of the most frequented waterways in the world, you’ll reach Otterndorf, the
real and historical centre of Land Hadeln. It’s a beautiful little village.
Not only tourist attractions but its historic facilities are worth
looking at. If you feel like it you can stand on usually submerged soil at
low tide even here and watch big ships going to and coming from Hamburg
just some
hundred
meters
away. But be careful and aware of the dangerous
swell at all times!
Places you must visit:
the Elbe tidelands
the historic Amtsgericht (district court house)
Places you might visit:
Kranichhaus (a
building that began in 1585, now a museum)
the old church
Schöpfwerk
and Schleuse (Europe’s largest coastal pumping station) at the
dike
Event you should avoid:
Altstadtfest (Old Town Festival, always on the last weekend
of July)
Places to eat:
Ratskeller in
the historic Rathaus (townhall)—excellent and expensive
Restaurant Leuchtfeuer—modern
and good; semi-international
Restaurant Elbterrassen—panoramic
view over the river
Places for drinks:
Haduloha in
the village centre—a type of pub to meet people and tourists
Neuhaus on Oste, and Balje
Neuhaus: Old name: Slickborgh, Dat Nyge Huus
Low Saxon: Neyhuus (Neehuus)
Established/first mentioned: (1371 Slickborgh) 1404
Inhabitants: 1,266
Climate: moderate, mostly cool and windy
Balje:
Old name: Balko, Balgha, Balge
Low Saxon: Balje
Established/first mentioned: 13th century
Inhabitants: 1,108
Climate: moderate, mostly cool and windy
If you’re an experienced bicyclist and the winds are friendly you may
want continue your trip from Cuxhaven via Otterndorf to this “rotten” little village called Neuhaus/Oste. (On your return trip to Cuxhaven you might
catch a train from neighbouring
Cadenberge—bike transport included in the fare.)
Although Neuhaus and Balje are not officially connected, they are de facto so by virtue of a project
built in the 1960s: the Ostesperrwerk (Oste Dam), which is to protect
the
area
along the Oste River against storm tides.
History has it that there used to be fights between the inhabitants of Nordkehdingen
and the authorities of the Archbishop of Bremen who had their base in the
above-mentioned Slickborgh.
Places you must visit:
the historic Deichstraße (Dike Street) in Neuhaus where many
houses are connected with the dike and are equipped with a device (a reception
slit
in which
coamings
may be used
if required) that stops water from escaping from a building in case of flood
and, as
a matter of homage to the author ... Natureum—not a part of Neuhaus but of Balje, the “Queen of Nordkehdingen” as well as the village where a certain J. Meibohm spent the greater part of
his life—an interesting museum with much information about the region (water,
land, flora, fauna). Enjoy the view of the Oste
River mouth and, on the other side, the unique
Nordkehdinger Aussendeich (Outer Dike) with the Hullen international airport (for
birds only) www.natureum-niederelbe.de/ (German only)
Places you might visit:
Neuhaus Harbour
Places you should avoid:
Neuhaus Railway
Station—where no
train will ever stop
Places to eat:
Restaurant Zwei Linden in Balje-Hörne (cheap, modern and good)
Restaurant Armer
Ritter in Balje-Süderdeich (moderate prizes,
good meals and nice ambience)
The entire region around Cadenberge is very different from the marshlands you
have ever seen. A large forest—also called the Dobrock—protects the hills,
which arose during the last glacier period. Settlement—I had better
say, history—of the immediate neighbourhood began from here, as “tons” of archaeological relics and some Neolithic giant’s graves prove (find out
more at Burg Bederkesa).
So it’s no surprise that the name Cadenberge means “hill at the border.” (We can find this Caden−, also Keden−, with this meaning as a part of other place names of the areas: Altkehdingen,
Kehdingbruch, Kehdingen [formerly Kadingen], Cadewisch. Perhaps one of our
interested “Lowlanners” will be the very first to find linguistic proof for relations
with other Germanic words.) And the name Wingst (vingist) denotes something
like “battle field.”
If you don’t want to visit The Wingst in person now you should
at least have a look on the corresponding pictures of Google Earth. I think
they’re fascinating.
Places you must visit:
Deutscher Olymp,
a lookout point facing one of the hills in The Wingst. You’ll have a wonderful
view of the whole region and, under good weather conditions, you
can even see far across the Elbe River
Places you might visit:
the old
church in
Cadenberge
Gutshof im Park in Cadenberge
the Babyzoo in The Wingst
Places you should avoid:
the woods during a storm
Places to eat:
Hotel
Peter at the Bundesstraße B73/railway station Wingst—very
good at medium prices
Butt’s
Gasthof in Wingst-Zollbaum—cheap, generous and good
Marc5 in the centre of Cadenberge—modern
(international?)
The area called Sietland (Low Saxon for “lowland,” usually
denoting a low-lying wet area) is, as its name suggests, the lowest-lying part
of Hadeln.
It covers an area including the region that begins about 8 km south
of Otterndorf, going to it’s southern border down to Bad Bederkesa and
west to Wanna. Until the middle of the 20th century it was badly drained,
and in wintertimes the houses used to be regularly cut off or flooded with
water. (You might be even better informed about this than I am after you
visit the Schöpfwerk at Otterndorf as I recommended.)
Because of its relative isolation, the Sietland is the area with the largest
number of native Low Saxon speakers. If you have an ear for it you’ll
probably find out that their vocabulary is influenced by Dutch and Frisian,
because many of the settlers that had enough courage to settle and to cultivate
this poor, wet soil came from the west, namely from (Eastern) Friesland,
The Netherlands and Flanders. That probably occurred, in various waves,
between the 13th and 17th century.
The landscape is dominated by water ditches and moor land, still partly preserved
as natural high moor.
Places you must visit:
I find it difficult to recommend any specific place here. I suggest you
allow yourself to take in and be impressed by the entire area. Nevertheless,
I suppose a two-hours trip
by Moorbahn (moor train)
should be obligatory.
Places you should avoid:
The moor by night. It’s where evil spirits roam about with
their “friar’s
lanterns” ...
Bad (“Bath”) Bederkesa, as it is called these days, has always been an important
place in the regional history. The Borough of Bederkesa at the junction of
the Archbishop of Bremen on one and the Earl of Lauenburg on the other side
often changed its owner, even up to the present.
Having been private property in the 70s of the 20th century it nearly
was a ruin before the local government bought and then restored it.
Today it is the home of both—an interesting museum with a lot of regional history material and at the same
time the domicile of
two official archaeological organisations. I believe that this is the
place to
familiarise oneself with the history of the entire region.
If your visit of the museum in Bad Bederkesa kindles your curiosity for
some more historical stuff about Saxons and Frisians you now should take a
trip
to Land Wursten.
Some people consider Hadeln and Wursten one unit, but I don’t agree with that
at all. The region of Wursten, too, had been settled by Saxons but had been
left
by them during their exodus to England. Then it became occupied by Frisian
settlers who called themselves Wurtfriesen, this being the origin of
today’s name. The native inhabitants still consider themselves Frisians
and remain members of the international Frisian organisation with
different
names depending on their nationality (Friesenrat in Standard German).
Further “compelling” proof for a significant difference between Land Hadeln and
Land Wursten may be the fact that my own feeling of being at home abruptly
stops at the border between those two regions ... I’m not familiar
with
places around there, so I’m just able to give you some links that might
help you get sufficiently informed. I hope this prevents your
getting lost in the terra incognita of the wild Frisians ...
www.dorum.de/ (official
site of Dorum, the “capital” of Land Wursten)
Meinen Dank richte ich auch an meinen Nachbarn Amandus Ahlf, der mich
in vielen Gesprächen und mit Hilfe seiner umfangreichen Bibliothek in die Geschichte
des Landes Hadeln eingeführt hat sowie an Reinhard “Ron” Hahn for his support as well as for “Anglicising” this text by purging it of my most egregious linguistic transgressions,
and also for formatting this page, including
making maps and selecting and processing images.
Contents
etween the estuary of the Elbe River and the mouth of the Oste River you will find
a small area with great history: Land Hadeln. Its Old Saxon name is Gau Haduloha and today it is a part of the so-called Cuxland-Region.
The
historical Saxons — and we’re talking about the real Saxons, not about the inhabitants of today’s German state of Saxony — spoke Old Saxon, one of the ancestral languages of English. It developed into
Middle Saxon in the Middle Ages, when it served as a
language of international commerce. Today’s descendants are the Low Saxon dialects of Northern Germany and the Eastern
Netherlands. At one point, as part and parcel of creating the impression
that Low Saxon is a German dialect group, most German institutions
renamed these language varieties while erasing
references to “Saxon.” Old Saxon became Altniederdeutsch (“Old Low German”), Middle Saxon Mittelniederdeutsch (“Middle Low German”) and Low Saxon Niederdeutsch or Plattdeutsch (“Low German”).
... Natureum—not a part of Neuhaus but of Balje, the “Queen of Nordkehdingen” as well as the village where a certain J. Meibohm spent the greater part of
his life—an interesting museum with much information about the region (water,
land, flora, fauna). Enjoy the view of the Oste
River mouth and, on the other side, the unique
Nordkehdinger Aussendeich (Outer Dike) with the Hullen international airport (for
birds only)
Resources
and acknowledgements:
