Dithmarschen (, ; archaic English: Ditmarsh; ; ) 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.
From the 13th century up to 1559 Dithmarschen was an independent peasant republic within the Holy Roman Empire and a member of the Hanseatic League. It repulsed attempts by larger fiefs to annex it, whether physically (as with the invasions by Holstein in 1319 and 1404 or Denmark in 1500) or legally (as with their successful court battle against Holstein in 1474–1481). Dithmarschen was recognized as an imperial fief by the emperor, who summoned the peasants to send representatives to royal assemblies and the Imperial Diet. Its heyday was from the consolidation of its government in 1447 to its final conquest by the King of Denmark in 1559, though the Danish were still compelled to leave Dithmarschen with a considerable degree of autonomy.Wilson, Peter H. (2016). "Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire." Belknap Press. Pages 580-582.
Geography
The district is located on the North Sea. It is embraced by the Elbe estuary to the south and the Eider estuary to the north. Today it forms a kind of artificial island, surrounded by the Eider river in the north and the Kiel Canal in both the 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 landward boundaries have remained basically the same since the times of Charlemagne. Land reclamation, however, has almost doubled the size of Dithmarschen as land has been wrested from the sea.
The main roads and rail lines in Schleswig-Holstein follow a north–south direction, making Hamburg its most accessible city. Exemplary is the most important railway line in the district, the Marsh Railway, and the main roads, Bundesautobahn 23 and Bundesstraße 5
The district has a maximum north–south length of 54 kilometers and an east–west length of 41 kilometers. The highest point, near Schrum in the geestland, is above sea level and the lowest point, near Burg, is below sea level.
Dithmarschen's landscape owes its character to the North Sea. From west to east Dithmarschen consists of the Wadden Sea, marshes, bogs, and the geestland. The North Sea had a higher sea level 6,500 years ago than today and the coastline then ran along the geestland. About 4,500 years ago, geestland structures were connected by sand and gravel depositions that formed spits. Bogs, lakes, and swamps emerged as the area behind the spits no longer flooded. After the first plants (glasswort) took root, the land transformed first to salt marshes and finally to marshes. These marshes rank among the most fertile of Germany's soils. Vegetable farming in Dithmarschen produces the highest yields in Schleswig-Holstein.
Since about the 8th century, the people of Dithmarschen have been living on warfts for protection from the sea. In the 12th century, they began building dikes to protect their pastures and fields. Since about the 15th century, they have been reclaiming land from the sea.
Flora and fauna
While the Geest has some woods, trees are found in marshlands only in the form of wind protection around houses or villages. Traditional are the : tree rows with strong undergrowth to protect agricultural land from the wind.
Several bogs are present in Dithmarschen. A special position is taken by the "Weißes Moor" (White bog), the only bog still existing in a quite-natural shape in the Schleswig-Holstein marsh land.
Part of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park is in Dithmarschen. It is the most important natural habitat in the district. Many molluscs can be found here, including bivalves, gastropods, worms and crustaceans, which provide food for larger animals. Fish use the Wadden Sea as a "kindergarten" where they can raise their offspring in a protected environment. Although many species of birds settle permanently in the Wadden Sea, many others use it only as a winter habitat or as a resting place. Typical birds in Dithmarschen are dunlins, red knots, bar-tailed godwits, northern lapwings, ringed plovers, Eurasian oystercatchers, many species of duck and gull, sandwich terns, pied avocets, brent geese and barnacle geese. 200,000 common shelducks alone come in August. The shelducks lose their feathers in the Wadden Sea and therefore are unable to fly for around three weeks. The majority of common shelducks in Northwestern Europe travel to the area at this time. Large salt marshes are located along the Friedrichskoog coast and in the Neufeld Bay.
Three sand banks, Trischen, Tertius and Blauort are in the sea. They are some of only a few still-natural habitats along the German coast, and they are of importance to sea birds and seals. After futile attempts in the 1930s to make them habitable to humans, they are now part of the national park, closed to public access. Many birds preferring wet grasslands live in the Eider-Treene Valley.
History High Middle Ages
In medieval times the marshland villages of Dithmarschen enjoyed remarkable autonomy. Neighbouring princes often tried to bring Dithmarschen under their control.
After 1180 Prince-Archbishop Siegfried ceded Dithmarschen, which was supposed to belong to his Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, to his brother Bernhard III, Duke of the younger Duchy of Saxony. In his new position of Duke of Saxony he held the Land of Hadeln, opposite of Dithmarschen on the southern bank of the river Elbe. Adolf III of Schauenburg, Count of Holstein, at enmity with the Ascanians, had de facto taken a loose possession of Dithmarschen. It fell to Bernhard to regain the territory, but he failed, only forcing Adolf to accept his overlordship of Dithmarschen.
Prince-Archbishop Hartwig II prepared a campaign into Dithmarschen, which, while religiously belonging to the Archdiocese of Bremen, and represented by its subsidiary chapter at Hamburg Concathedral, rejected secular overlordship from Bremen. He persuaded Adolf III to waive his claim to Dithmarschen, in return for being paid regular dues to be levied from the Ditmarsians after subjugation. In 1187 and 1188 Hartwig and his ally Maurice I, Count of Oldenburg, heading their troops, invaded Dithmarschen. The free peasants promised to pay him dues, only to ridicule and renounce Hartwig, once he and his soldiers had left. The Ditmarsians gained support from Valdemar, steward of the Duchy of Schleswig and Bishop of Schleswig. Hartwig, owing dues to Adolf III and the soldiers' pay to Maurice I, was trapped and could not afford to wage a second war.
In 1192 the Bremian Chapter elected Valdemar as its new Prince-Archbishop. Valdemar welcomed his election, hoping his new position could be helpful in his dispute with Duke Valdemar of Schleswig and his elder brother Canute VI of Denmark. Before entering the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen he won the support of Dithmarschen.
Late Middle Ages In the 15th century the Ditmarsians confederated in a peasant republic. Though several times neighbouring princely rulers, accompanied by their knights and mercenaries, attempted to subjugate the independent peasants to feudalism, they were unsuccessful. In 1319 Gerhard III was repelled in the . After Eric IV, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg had raided Dithmarschen, the Ditmarsians blamed his son-in-law, Albert II, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg, for complicity, who then used this as a pretext for his own unsuccessful conquest attempt in 1403, dying during the campaign from inflicted injuries. In 1468 Dithmarschen allied with Lübeck to protect their common interest as to commerce and containing the spreading feudalism in the region.Die Hanse [La Hanse (XIIe-XVIIe siècles); German], in Dollinger 1964, p. 124. Based on the Hanseatic obligations and privileges from the pact signed with Lübeck, Ditmarsians had established trade with Livonia and neighbouring Baltic destinations in the 15th century. Both parties renewed their alliance several times and it thus lasted until Dithmarschen's final defeat and Dano-Holsatian annexation in 1559.
In 1484 Magnus of Saxe-Lauenburg,Magnus was a successor of Duke Bernhard III in the eighth generation. then vicegerent of the Land of Hadeln, failed to subjugate the free Frisian peasants in the Land of Wursten, a de facto autonomous region in a North Sea marsh at the Weser estuary, which was under the loose overlordship of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen."Johann III., Erzbischof von Bremen", in Krause 1881, vol. 14, pp. 183–185, here p. 184."Die Konsolidierung des Erzstiftes unter Johann Rode", in Schütz 1995, vol. II, pp. 263–278, here p. 266. This foreshadowed a series of feudal attempts to subdue regions of free peasants, an alarming signal for the Ditmarsians and the free peasants in other marshes in the area.Such as Altes Land, Land of Hadeln, Haseldorfer Marsch, Kehdingen, and Wilstermarsch, also known as the Elbe Marshes, Land of Wursten, Butjadingen and Stadland (both part of today's Weser Marsh), as well as Stedingen, the Land of Würden, both marshes of free peasants also located on the banks of the Weser. Cf. "Johann III., Erzbischof von Bremen", in Krause 1881, vol. 14, pp. 183–185, here p. 184.
In April 1499 Count John XIV of Oldenburg invaded the Weser and North Sea marshes of Stadland and Butjadingen, both of which the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen claimed overlordship over, in order to subject their free peasants. Bremen's prince-archbishop Johann Rode tried to form a military alliance to repel these invasions, and prevent further ones, first rallying the cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Stade, as they considered the areas downstream of the rivers Elbe and Weser their own front yard: essential for their free maritime trade connections. Rode won the Ditmarsians too, for a defensive alliance to protect Wursten, concluded on 1 May 1499."Das Land Hadeln bis zum Beginn der frühen Neuzeit", in Boeselager 1995, vol. II, pp. 321–388, here p. 332. On 1 August the alliance, now also including Buxtehude, committed themselves to supply 1,300 warriors and equipment to defend Wursten and/or invade Hadeln.
Conversely, John V and his son Magnus of Saxe-Lauenburg had already allied with Henry IV the Elder of Brunswick and Lunenburg, Prince of Wolfenbüttel, on 24 November 1498, to conquer Wursten. Henry IV obliged to send 3,000 landsknechts, who should gain their payment by ravaging and plundering the free peasants of Wursten, once successfully subjugated.
Rode then waged feud against John V of Saxe-Lauenburg on 9 September 1499."Die Konsolidierung des Erzstiftes unter Johann Rode", in Schütz 1995, vol. II, pp. 263–278, here p. 267. The allied forces, with the Ditmarsians invading by crossing the Elbe, easily conquered the Land of Hadeln, and defeated Magnus.Heinz-Joachim Schulze, "Johann III. Rode", in: see references for bibliographical details, vol. 10, pp. 480seq., here p. 480.