As (Denmark)

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As
The island of Als in Denmark
The island of Als in Denmark
Waters Baltic Sea
Geographical location 54 ° 58 ′  N , 9 ° 54 ′  E Coordinates: 54 ° 58 ′  N , 9 ° 54 ′  E
length approx. 35 kmdep1
width approx. 16 kmdep1
surface 312 km²
Highest elevation 81  m
Residents 49,476 (January 1, 2020)
159 inhabitants / km²
main place Sønderborg

Als ([ alʔs ], German  Alsen ) is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea . It is surrounded by the Little Belt in the east and north, the Als Sund and the Als Fjord in the west and the Flensburg Fjord in the south. Als, with an area of ​​312.22 km², is Denmark's eighth largest island in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the Sønderborg municipality in the Syddanmark region . The population of 49,476 residents (January 1, 2020) lives mostly from agriculture (wheat, fruit and vegetable growing) and fishing . The most important industrial company is Danfoss in Nordborg . Als has good beaches and is located in the popular sailing area of ​​the Danish South Pacific .

history

Nordborg Castle

Although the island is only separated from the mainland by the narrow Als Sound, its political and administrative development was often independent in the Middle Ages. The island did not belong to the diocese of Schleswig , but to the diocese of Odense . When the Duchy of Schleswig established itself towards the end of the twelfth century, Als became part of it. The administrative centers were the two sovereign castles at the ends of the island in Nordborg and Sønderborg . Administratively, the island was divided into two Harden . Sønderborg received city ​​rights in the 14th century and formed an independent district.

In the war between the Danish King Erik VII of Pomerania and the Holstein Count Adolf VIII. 1410–1435, the island was one of the king's last bastions in the Duchy of Schleswig until it came under the rule of the Schauenburgers . When Adolf died childless in 1459, the estates of the Duchy of Schleswig and the County of Holstein elected the Danish King Christian I, who had ruled since 1448, as their common ruler, which was documented in the Treaty of Ribe (Danish: Ribe ) 1460. When the country was divided in 1490, 1523 and 1544, Als stayed with the royal part. The possessions of the nobility, the Schleswig bishop and the Schleswig cathedral chapter were excluded from the division of states, and despite the fact that the island was part of Odense on Fyn ( Fyn ), they owned several farms here.

A new chapter in the history of Als began when the younger brother of King Frederick II of Denmark, John the Younger , became ruler of the island when the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were again divided up. Since the estates did not want to accept any other rulers, the divided duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg was created , which in addition to Als the upstream landscape of Sundeved (German: Sundewitt ), the island of Ærø and, from 1581, the area around Plön and that of the Rudekloster south of the Flensburg Fjord . Johann bought all of the aristocratic estates on the island and had numerous farm positions laid down.

After Johann's death in 1622, the duchy was divided between five of his sons. After that, Als also consisted of two duchies. These had a difficult financial situation, especially after the chaos of war in the 17th century. The southern Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg went bankrupt in 1667, and two years later the northern Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Norburg too . The former fell to the king, the latter was left to the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön . After the division of Norburg and Plön, the Plön-Norburg line became extinct in 1729, after which the entire island was again in royal Danish hands. The individual Lehnesdistricts were combined into two offices with Nordborg and Sønderborg as centers.

Augustenborg Castle

In the middle of the 18th century, the descendants of the Sonderburger family line, which went bankrupt in 1667, succeeded in receiving substantial funds from the crown in exchange for their claim to the throne, with which they acquired large estates in southern Als. The center of the district was Augustenborg Castle , which had been built from 1651 on the area of ​​the former bishopric and has now been expanded into a magnificent ducal residence. Thus, Als was divided into four: In addition to the Augustburg goods district, there was the Nordborg Office, to which rø also belonged from 1729 and 1749. The city of Sønderborg still formed its own district. The Sønderborg Amt made up only a few possessions in the extreme south of the island, but they were united with most of the Sundeved in 1779 when the last of the Sønderborg duchies with the older Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg line had expired and fell to the king . In 1819 the two provosts on Als (the provost's Sønderborg with the town, the remains of the office of the same name and Sundeved belonged to the district of the Schleswig General Superintendent ), were ecclesiastically separated from Odense and converted into a separate monastery with Ærø, which existed until 1864.

When the conflict between Germany and Denmark broke out around 1840, the Alsen population largely joined the Danish side. Duke Christian August of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenborg , however, supported the Schleswig-Holstein side, because in the event of the foreseeable extinction of the Oldenburg royal family, which had ruled since 1460, he could make inheritance claims at least on the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. In the Schleswig-Holstein uprising , the island was the only part of the Duchy of Schleswig, besides vomrø, to be spared the war. The Augustenburger were expelled from the country and had to sell their property to the Danish state. As a result, the Augustenburg goods district came back to the Office of Sonderburg.

During the German-Danish War , the Prussian troops crossed to the island near Arnkiel on June 29, 1864 and brought about the final decision. Sønderborg had previously been severely damaged by artillery fire. Gottfried Piefke composed the march “Der Alsenströmer” in 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory. From 1864 to 1920 the island belonged to Prussia and thus from 1871 to the German Empire . Within the province of Schleswig-Holstein , it formed together with the Sundewitt the district of Sonderburg . Alsen was opened up by a circular path. The city of Sønderborg grew steadily after the Imperial Navy opened a base. On November 8, 1918, even before the republic was proclaimed in other parts of Germany, a soldiers' council proclaimed an Alsen republic and the starving population, most of whom were Danish-minded, were given access to the supply stores, which is why the population continued for decades later commemorates the chairman of the soldiers' council Bruno Topff . After the referendum in 1920 , the island belonged to Denmark . Despite its peripheral location, the island experienced a significant economic boom. With the Danish municipal reform of 1970 , the Sønderborg Amt became the successor of the district in Sønderjyllands Amt . At the same time, the parishes were merged into four municipalities : Sønderborg Kommune , Sydals Kommune , Augustenborg Kommune and Nordborg Kommune . With the next municipal reform in 2007 , these and some municipalities on the Sundeved peninsula ( German  Sundewitt ) were merged to form the expanded Sønderborg municipality in the Syddanmark region .

Prehistoric monuments

Sønderskoven
Sønderskoven

Als is particularly rich in dolmens (250), passage graves , shell stones and ship settlements from prehistory.

Cities

Sønderborg harbor

Sønderborg , with 30,000 inhabitants, is the largest town on the island by Als Sound . At the beginning of the 12th century, a castle was built at the southern entrance to the sound to protect against the Wends , which was converted into a four-winged Renaissance castle in the middle of the 16th century . The castle became famous because King Christian II was imprisoned here.

About 7 km northeast of Sønderborg is the small town of Augustenborg (German: Augustenburg ) with the rococo castle built in 1770 with stucco work by the Italian Michelangelo Taddei . The font is a gift from the Russian Tsar Alexander I.

The town of Nordborg (German: Norburg ) is dominated by Nordborg Castle and is located in a nature area on Lake Norburg , an inland lake. The original castle was built in 1159 by Svend III. Grathe erected as protection against the turns coming from Rügen . During the Swedish Wars, the castle was destroyed and rebuilt in 1165–1670. The Lindewerft , which shows a reconstruction of the Hjortspringboat , is located near Norburg . The original boat dates from 350 BC. BC and was found in Hjortspring Moor near Guderup . The island's largest industrial company, Danfoss, is also located in Nordborg .

On the north bank of the Danish island of Als: Nordborg lighthouse, Augustenhof

geography

The northern part of the island shows clear traces of the Ice Age . Here hills and valleys have formed due to the movement of the glaciers. The oldest surviving farm in Als - Lundsbjerggård - is located in Holm on the northern tip of the island and dates back to the 18th century. It is the only square courtyard that still exists. Another large farm complex a few kilometers to the southeast is Alsingergården , built in 1863 . This is a so-called Bol , a name for larger courtyards. Havnbjerg's thatched roof mill was built in 1835 and recently restored. Not far away is the last Danish mill of the Galerieholländer type in Elstrup . It has been out of service since 1970.

The southern tip of the island is dominated by the Kegnæs Fyr lighthouse . It is located near the southwestern end of the Drejet natural dam , which connects the Kegnæs peninsula with Als and separates Hørup Hav from the Baltic Sea. Kegnæs Sogn Church in Sonderby is the smallest on the island. Duke Hans the Younger had it built in 1615 as a means of penance, as he had mistakenly executed ten innocent peasants the previous winter.

Every year in summer traditional ring rider festivals take place on the island , otherwise Augustenborg Castle is also a well-known organizer of classical and modern concerts as well as a rock festival beyond the island's borders.

traffic

The island is connected to the Danish mainland by the two bridges Alssundbroen and Kong Christian den X's Bro , as well as the ferry between Ballebro and Hardeshøj . It is crossed by the Danish national road 8 from Sønderborg to Fynshav in a west-east direction, with a short section in the area of ​​the Sønderborg bypass being developed like a motorway.

From Fynshav there are ferry connections to the islands of Fyn (Fyn) with 6–10 crossings per day and Ærø with 2–5 crossings per day. A fixed connection (bridge) to Funen is being discussed. The former Mommark ferry port was closed in 2009 and has only been used as a marina since then.

Sønderborg has a terminus station with a single-track electrified railway line to Kolding and on to Copenhagen , there are direct intercity connections several times a day with a journey time of around 3:40 hours. There is a small national airport in the north of Sønderborg, which is served several times a day by regular service from Copenhagen.

Several long-distance cycle paths lead across the island, u. a. the Baltic Sea Cycle Route , which as a European EuroVelo route leads around the entire Baltic Sea.

From 1898 on, the meter-gauge circular path existed on Als , which was partially switched to standard gauge in 1933 and shut down in 1962.

literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Als  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b statistics banks -> Befolkning og valg -> BEF4: Folketal pr. January 1st demands på øer (Danish)
  2. ↑ Danmarks Statistics : Statistical Yearbook 2009 - Geography and climate, Table 3 Area and population. Regions and inhabited islands (English; PDF; 39 kB)
  3. ↑ Foreningen Als-Fyn Broen (Alsen-Fyn Bridge Association)
  4. ↑ translator2: Denmark - EuroVelo. Retrieved May 18, 2017 .