Old country

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Welcome sign in Francop

The Alte Land is part of the Elbmarsch south of the Elbe in Hamburg and Lower Saxony . It includes the municipality of Jork , the joint municipality of Lühe and the Neu Wulmstorfer district of Rübke in Lower Saxony as well as the Hamburg districts of Neuenfelde , Cranz and Francop .

In 2012, the state of Lower Saxony nominated the Altes Land cultural landscape for the German tentative list for future UNESCO World Heritage applications . The Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs rejected this application the following year, so that the Alte Land will not receive the title in the foreseeable future.

history

Monument of priest Heinrich in Steinkirchen
With the Hogendiekbrücke built in 1975 over the Lühe in Steinkirchen , the influence of the Dutch settlement is evident here
Richly decorated two-column house in the typical style of the Old Country
Grand gate “Grot Dor” as a sign of prosperity
The valuable old organs of the old country, here the organ by St. Martini et Nicolai (stone churches) by Arp Schnitger
The old country as a popular local recreation destination, here the Elbe dike with three lighthouses

The name Altes Land indicates the history of settlement. In Low German the area is called Olland (high. "Altland"). This name goes back to the colonization by Dutch colonists between 1130 and 1230. The name of the Altland community Hollern also goes back to the Dutch. The Altes Land has had self-government since the Middle Ages, most recently since 1885 in the form of the Prussian district of Jork , which, in addition to the Altes Land, also included the city of Buxtehude and the municipality of Neuland. The dissolution of the district in 1932 meant the end of this self-government; the part west of the Este was connected to the district of Stade, the east of it to the district of Harburg . Through the Greater Hamburg Law in 1937, the municipalities of Cranz, Neuenfelde and Francop Hamburg were incorporated and incorporated in 1938. In 1972 the towns of Hove and Moorende from the Harburg district were joined to the Jork community and have been part of the Stade district ever since. The village of Rübke - today part of the Neu Wulmstorf community - remained in the Harburg district as the only part of the Old Country.

Since 1993 a memorial in front of the St. Martini et Nicolai Church in Steinkirchen has been commemorating the priest Heinrich mentioned in the first colonization document of Dutch settlers in the Elbe-Weser triangle around 1113 .

geography

structure

The Old Country is along the banks of the Elbe into three " miles divided", which also reflect the history of settlement: The First Mile , between the rivers Schwinge and Lühe , was in 1140 by dikes and populated. The second mile covers the area to the east between Lühe and Este , the dike was completed at the end of the 12th century. The embankment of the third mile between the Este and the Süderelbe was not completed until the end of the 15th century, as the area was particularly endangered and affected by storm surges . The Alte Land is the largest closed fruit-growing area in Europe.

The focus of settlement is the areas near the Elbe. They include the most fertile marshland, while a moor belt adjoins the Geest . Due to the fertility of the soil, a special rural culture developed. The villages are Marschhufendörfer , where the farms are on the road and the land begins just behind the farms. Characteristic are richly decorated farmhouses and especially the typical magnificent gates .

Natural allocation

The Alte Land (No. 670.02) belongs in the natural spatial main unit Harburger Elbmarschen (670) to the Lower Saxon Elbmarschen , in which the Winsener and Lüneburg Elbmarsch join upstream from Hamburg and the Kehdingen state west of Stade . Together with the Holstein Elbe Marshes, these form the main unit group of the Lower Elbe Lowlands (Elbmarsch) (67).

To the southeast, the Alte Land borders on the Harburg Mountains as part of the Black Mountains (640.00) in the natural spatial main unit group Lüneburg Heath (64). To the southwest, the Zevener Geest (634) joins the main unit group Stader Geest (63).

Fruit growing

Fruit growing on the Lower Elbe is mentioned for the first time in writing in the town register of Stade , where, on March 25, 1312, there is talk of a pomarium (orchard) belonging to the lords of the St. George monastery within the town . In the 17th century, fruit was already being grown on 200 hectares . In the second half of the 19th century, fruit growing developed into the dominant use in the area and has therefore dominated the area for over 150 years. Today apples, cherries, pears and other fruits ripen on 10,700 hectares. 77 percent of the fruit trees in the Altes Land fruit-growing region are apples and 12.7 percent are cherries .

A custom was widespread throughout the Altes Land: in order to protect the widespread cherry trees from predatory birds, mainly from starlings (in Low German "Spreen"), farmers put propane gas-powered crackers (also "Kirschböller", "Spreenkanone") in the summer months. or called "Spreenhüter") in the fruit yards. Since the end of the 1980s, these gradually replaced the "rattle mills" (small windmills on long poles that made loud clattering noises) and the hatching of the Spreen with hand rattles and shouts (the shouts were common, for example) "Hoi hoi hoi" and "Schu schu"). These cannon-like devices cause explosions that could be heard for up to 15 hours a day, depending on the wind direction. Today this technology is being replaced more and more by bird protection nets, which are pulled over the rows of trees shortly before the beginning of the cherry season.

Effects of climate change

The warming of the earth's climate system leads to far-reaching changes in the context of man-made climate change, including in the old country. The average temperature in the Altes Land has risen by 1.7 degrees since 1975. This has far-reaching consequences for the fruit flowering, which now begins several weeks earlier for the Roter Boskop apple variety than in 1975. Fruit growing experts point out that the entire fruit growing system is very susceptible to changes, for example in terms of the intensity and duration of the sun, and This complexity leads to the fact that knowledge and experience in fruit growing are devalued by climate change. In the future, due to the climate-related shift in vegetation zones, apple cultivation could be replaced by the cultivation of peaches and apricots.

Application for the tentative list as a world heritage site

In 2012 the state of Lower Saxony nominated the Alte Land as a cultural landscape for the German tentative list for future UNESCO World Heritage applications. On June 18, 2012, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture announced its decision after a selection process that began in 2011. If it had been included in the tentative list, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee would have discussed inclusion in the list from 2017. In 2013, however, the Conference of Ministers of Education decided against the application to put the old country on the German tentative list.

The candidacy of the Old Country was justified by the fact that the landscape was an outstanding example of high medieval colonization through drainage of the marshland by Dutch settlers. The linear structures of the landscape created at that time are well preserved and the associated settlement structures are supplemented by a rich and dense rural building stock. Fruit cultivation, which is predominant today, also shows continuity since the late Middle Ages. The state of Lower Saxony hoped for a chance of success in the candidacy because the old state belonged to the under-represented categories of cultural landscapes and rural architecture within the world heritage.

Flower queen

Flower Queen 2014/15

Every year for the flower festival, a flower queen is chosen who wears the traditional Altland wedding costume.

literature

  • Michael Ehrhardt: "A guldten bandt of the country". On the history of the dikes in the Altes Land. Stade 2003, ISBN 3-931 879-11-9 .
  • Oliver Falkenberg, Linda Sundmaeker: The Old Country - A Portrait. 2nd edition Edition Temmen, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86108-957-5 .
  • Oliver Falkenberg, Linda Sundmaeker: Das Alte Land - An illustrated travel guide. 3rd edition Edition Temmen, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86108-957-5 .
  • Birgit Haustedt: In the old country. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2020 ( Insel-Bücherei 1478), ISBN 978-3-458-19478-1 .
  • Wolfgang Kaiser: Fruit Country in the North. The history of the fruit trade in the Altes Land. Publications of the Altes Land Cultural Foundation, Vol. 3, Husum Verlag, Husum 2009, ISBN 978-3-89876-421-6 .
  • Hans-Cord Sarnighausen: Hanover local lawyer families from 1715 to 1866 in Jork, Altes Land. Yearbook of the Altländer Archive, contributions to local history, Jork 2012, pp. 53–80.
  • Gertrud Schauber: Childhood under the cherry tree. Everyday life in the old country on the Elbe, 1940 to 1958. Zeitgut Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-933336-85-6 .
  • Outi Tuomi-Nikula: The Altländer Hof in transition. Changes in social structures and everyday life in the Altes Land near Hamburg in the 20th century. Publications of the Altes Land Cultural Foundation, Vol. 1, Husum Verlag, Husum 2006, ISBN 978-3-89876-288-5 .
  • The old country from A to Z. Lexicon of an Elbmarsch. In collaboration with Robert Gahde and Susanne Höft-Schorpp ed. by Horst Dippel and Claus Ropers. Publications of the Altes Land Cultural Foundation, vol. 6. Husum Verlag, Husum 2018, ISBN 978-3-89876-919-8 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Altes Land  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Old Land  Travel Guide

Individual evidence

  1. Who will be World Heritage? in: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from June 18, 2012
  2. Article Altes Land bei Hamburg: A heart for apples. In: Spiegel online from August 15, 2014, accessed on October 22, 2014.
  3. n-tv.de: Pforten-Prunk im Alten-Land ( Memento from September 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on July 6, 2017.
  4. ^ Karl-Heinz Tiemann (author), Kulturstiftung Altes Land (ed.): Commercial horticulture on the Lower Elbe with the Altes Land center. Publications of the Kulturstiftung Altes Land, Volume 5, Verlag des Obstbauversuchsringes des Alten Land, Jork 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-037230-8 .
  5. a b c d e https://www.ndr.de/ratgeber/klimawandel/Wie-der-Klimawandel-die-Obstbauern-heraus sucht,obstanbau102.html
  6. http://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/veroeffnahmungen_beschluesse/2013/2013_07_23-Tentativliste.pdf
  7. Press release: "Altes Land" and "Rundlingsdörfer des Hannoversche Wendlandes" are registered for the German tentative list of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture on June 18, 2012
  8. Tourism Association: The Altland Flower Queen ( Memento from February 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 '  N , 9 ° 40'  E