Storm surges have always accompanied the history of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1362 and 1634, two devastating storm surges devastated the North Sea coast, known as the Grote Mandränke - the great drowning. They reshape the coastline.
by Susanne Abolins-Aufderheide
"If you don't want to dike, you have to give way". This knowledge has been valid on the North Sea for centuries. Storm surges, caused by pronounced storm depressions and strong northwesterly storms, continue to threaten the coast.
Several hundred years ago, the torn landscape of the North Frisian Islands did not exist. Husum is an insignificant inland settlement. A natural wall of sand dunes, washed up after the last ice age, stretches from Sylt to the height of the mouth of the Eider, separating the low-lying marshland from the North Sea. Since the turn of the millennium, people who settle here have also protected themselves with dikes.
North Friesland's coastline gets its current appearance
The North Sea coast has only looked like this since the Middle Ages, when two storm surges changed the coastline.But since the late Middle Ages, the sea level has been rising continuously. Not a century goes by without catastrophic floods. The storm surges of 1362 and 1634, which devastated the North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein, were particularly devastating. They change the course of the coast fundamentally - today's coastline is formed.
January 1362:Second Marcellus flood destroys country and life
The first Grote Mandränke, also known as the second Marcellus flood, occurs on January 16, 1362. The waves beat more than two meters over the top of the dyke. According to the chronicler Anton Heimreich, 21 dykes break on the North Frisian coast. 100,000 people are said to have died - a number that is probably an exaggeration.
The floods are gnawing destructively, especially at Alt-Nordstrand. The Rungholt settlement goes under together with seven other communities in the North Frisian Wadden Sea. Over time, Rungholt became a mythical place, until the sea washed up the remains of mounds, buildings and cisterns in the mudflats at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Marcellus Flood separates Southfall as the first Hallig from Old Northstrand. Husum is now on the coast and has access to the wide world. A market is built and a harbor is laid out. Within decades, Husum blossomed into a busy trading town.
Deichbau is reorganized
But the marsh farmers have problems:large areas of cultivated land are lost in the flood. People are now trying to wrest back the lost land from the sea through organized dike construction. So far, only low, so-called summer dikes had been built, which were sufficient for the usually less severe storm surges in summer. Warfts are the primary protection against the forces of the sea - mostly circular mounds of settlement artificially heaped up out of earth.
October 1634:Burchardi flood destroys the island of Strand
The effect of the Marcellus flood is remembered as so devastating that the storm surge on October 11 and 12, 1634 is called the second Grote Mandränke. The storm surge, also known as the Burchardi flood, devastates the coast down to the mouth of the Elbe. According to the chroniclers of the time, the sea reached a level of about four meters above the mean high tide - for comparison:during the great January flood in January 1976, which went down in history as one of the highest storm surges at almost all gauges on the German North Sea coast, in Husum Measured 4.11 meters.
Although the dikes have already been significantly improved, this time they are breaking in several hundred places. According to historical evidence, 8,000 people die in North Friesland, and there are probably even twice as many victims. Thousands of cattle die in the water masses. The island of Strand (Alt-Nordstrand) is torn into Pellworm, the peninsula of Nordstrand and the Hallig Nordstrandischmoor. The Norderhever is created, a large tidal creek - a river buried up to 30 meters deep in the mud flats. The Halligen Nübbel and Nieland sink into the sea.
Dutch people help with the embankment
Duke Friedrich III. orders the islanders to rebuild the dikes as soon as possible. On Pellworm, this succeeds in 1637. On Nordstrand, many farmers continue to live on mounds, but numerous survivors leave their homes after the second Grote Mandränke and move to the mainland. The duke gets help from the Netherlands for the dike. A third of the area of Old North Beach will soon be reclaimed.