When the first Marcellus flood raged on the North Sea coast

A good 800 years ago, the first Marcellus flood on the North Sea coast in 1219 claimed the lives of thousands of people. It is the first storm surge of which there is an eyewitness account.

by Irene Altenmüller

The Frisian North Sea coast in January 1219. A light breeze has been blowing from the southwest for days. On January 16, the day of St. Marcellus, the light wind turns into a heavy hailstorm around noon. It is the prelude to one of the most devastating storm surges in the history of the North Sea coast - and the first of which there is a traditional eyewitness report:

"Armed with these projectiles (meaning hailstones, editor's note) the bloodthirsty south-west wind tore the wretched mortals on the sea and on land cruelly to their destruction."

This is how the clergyman Emo von Wittewierum describes the beginning of the first Marcellus flood in his chronicle about Friesland.

"The sea poured out like boiling water"

But the hail is only the harbinger of a greater catastrophe:in the evening the storm turns to the northwest, at the same time the full moon creates a spring tide. A severe storm surge is the result. Where there are dykes at all, they have nothing to oppose the force of nature and break. "The sea poured out like boiling water and flooded the Frisian coast, which was attacked as if by sudden death. It took the homes of the poor and raided the houses of the rich," Emo describes the events. The masses of water raged "until the supporting beams of the houses were torn out by washing away and breaking".

Keyword:Riptide

The term spring tide is used on the coast when the tide is particularly high. This happens at full moon and new moon. Then the moon and sun, which affect the tides, and the earth are in a straight line. The tidal peak that the moon releases then coincides with that of the sun. In all other constellations of the celestial bodies, the tide peaks weaken each other.

People flee to house roofs

The people are helpless at the mercy of the floods. They take refuge on the roofs of their houses and watch as others drown trying to save their livestock or their belongings. Others cling to beams or bales of straw and are "tossed about by the tide as if they were sea creatures."

According to estimates, the Marcellus flood claimed the lives of 10,000 people on the west coast of what is now Schleswig-Holstein alone. West Friesland, in what is now the Netherlands, was particularly badly affected. A total of up to 40,000 other people could have fallen victim to the floods here. However, the figures of the chroniclers are relatively unreliable.

Marcellus flood interpreted as a punishment from God

Historians assume that Emo, the chronicler and later abbot of the Wittewierum monastery, experienced the storm surge near Groningen himself. This is suggested by his lively, detailed description. Like probably most of his contemporaries, Emo interprets the catastrophe in his chronicle primarily as a punishment from God. This interpretation of natural disasters is common in the Middle Ages.

Exactly 143 years to the day later, the Second Marcellus Flood has even more devastating effects. People also see them as a deluge that hits them because of their sinful behavior. This second flood also goes down in history as the Grote Mandränke. According to unsecured sources, it claims around 100,000 lives:Entire islands and cities, including the legendary Rungholt, sink into the floods forever.