Arsuk

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Arsuk (The Lovable)
Arssuk
Arsuk in front of Mount Kuunnaat
Arsuk in front of Mount Kuunnaat
Commune Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq
District Paamiut
Geographical location 61 ° 10 '29 "  N , 48 ° 26' 57"  W Coordinates: 61 ° 10 '29 "  N , 48 ° 26' 57"  W.
Arsuk (Greenland)
Arsuk
Residents 73
(January 1, 2020)
founding 1803/05
Time zone UTC-3

Arsuk [ ˈɑsːuk ] (according to the old spelling Arsuk ) is a Greenlandic settlement in the Paamiut district in the Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq .

location

Arsuk lies on the south bank of a larger fjord-rich foothill of mainland Greenland. To the north is the landmark, the 1418 m high mountain Kuunnaat , to the west is the Paatusoq bay , to the east is the Eqaluit bay and to the south is the Torsukattak fjord . On the other bank of the fjord is the large island of Arsuutaa ( Danish Arsuk Ø ). The only 70 meters wide strait Ikerasaarsuk ( Danish Karsakken ) separates the Ilorput (Arsukfjord), on the banks of which Ivittuut and Kangilinnguit lie. The only other town in the district, Paamiut is about 110 kilometers to the northwest. Arsuk is the southernmost place in the municipality.

history

19th century

At the end of the 18th century, 136 people lived in the fjord. Arsuk was officially founded as Udsted on September 1, 1805 by Jonas Jansen Berglund . According to other sources, it was founded as early as 1803. Originally the place name was Putugoq ( German  Big Toe ), but was renamed Arsuk ( German  the lovable ) in 1810 , as the inhabitants of the opposite island took their place name here with them.

In 1812 the population in Arsuk was described by Carl Ludwig Giesecke as one of the wildest in South Greenland.

In 1864 Ivittuut was founded east of Arsuk . Many Europeans worked in the mine there, with whom the residents of Arsuk (Arsummiut) frequented. As a result, venereal diseases such as syphilis became too common , so that a hospital was built in 1882, which was extremely unusual for the time. Until 1892 there was a permanent doctor in Arsuk. The problems improved only slowly and in 1912 it was decided that Arsuk could not be entered from the outside and that the Arsummiut were also not allowed to leave the place. Men were allowed to stay in Ivittuut for a maximum of one day in order to trade. The workers there were not allowed to leave Ivittuut either.

20th century

From 1911 Arsuk was a separate community in the colonial district of Frederikshaab, which still belonged to Ivittuut. It was part of the 6th Provincial Council constituency of South Greenland.

In 1918 a European and 121 Greenlanders lived in Arsuk, who lived in 15 houses. As a result of the frequent gatherings of women from Arsuk and the workers from Ivittuut, an above-average number of residents of Arsuk were of European descent. The houses were relatively well built because the Arsummiut apparently had the financial means to procure building materials. The Udsteds administrator's apartment was also quite large at 112 m². It was a timber-framed building from 1883, with five rooms on the first floor, two of which were intended for the doctor. There was a shop in the attic. There was a bacon house and provisions store that was built in 1885 and included a coal shed and goat barn. The school chapel dates from 1891. It was made of wood and was 46 m² in size with a ceiling height of 2.6 m. It contained an altar, a kneeling bench, a sermon desk, and an organ. The classroom was in the attic and was 24 square meters. The chapel was directed by a trained catechist. There was also a midwife in town. Because of the limited trade opportunities, kayak hunting was rarely practiced in Arsuk, but fish were caught and birds and reindeer were hunted. From the trade data it can be concluded that the people of Arsuk were three times as wealthy as those in Kuannit and more than twice as much as those in Narsalik .

Around 1920 several packing houses and a salt factory were built in Arsuk. A church was built in 1930 and a school in 1934. It was not until 1931 that the barrier rules around Arsuk and Ivittuut were relaxed. Ivittuut was now allowed to be entered by the Arsummiut for one day, but by no one else for no good reason. Women were still not allowed to visit Ivittuut at all. The workers in Ivittuut were now allowed to move freely and Arsuk was also accessible to everyone again. In 1942 some workers from Ivittuut built a few houses for their Greenland families 1.8 km east of Arsuk. This place of residence was not official and was called Suffi ( Danish Fortunahavn ). In 1942 there were 20 residents and in 1943 23rd. Suffi was then considered to be part of Arsuk.

In 1950 Arsuk was incorporated into the Paamiut community . By 1950 the population had risen to 328 people, which was a lot for the conditions at the time and almost corresponded to a city. In 1960 there were 358 people in Arsuk and in 1970 376. During the fish boom, Arsuk was one of the wealthiest villages in the world. The school was enlarged in 1980, 1992 and 2001, even though the population had long since fallen sharply because the cod and salmon had disappeared. In 2009 Arsuk became part of the Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq .

In the vicinity of Arsuk, remains of the Grænlendingar can still be found in the form of settlements and other buildings that came here in the late Middle Ages and later became extinct again under unknown circumstances.

List of colonial employees

Arsuk was temporarily the seat of its own doctor, although the colonial district of Frederikshaab belonged to the doctor's district of Godthaab .

  • 1882–1885: Baldwin Fernando Sørensen
  • 1886–1887: Carl Lorentzen
  • 1887–1888: Poul Johannes Østerbye
  • 1889–1890: Thomas Neergaard Krabbe
  • 1891–1892: Waldemar Nielsen-Seest
  • 1893: -0000Otto Helms

economy

Arsuk lives from fishing. There is a fish factory for this. In addition, Arsuk is the northernmost sheep breeding place in Greenland. Other sources of income are tourism and handicrafts. There are two motels in Arsuk.

Infrastructure and supply

Transport is done on foot or by quads and snowmobiles .

Garbage is dumped and incinerated in the incinerator, which opened in 1999, while sewage is discharged into the sea. Nukissiorfiit supplies the residents with electricity and water. TELE Greenland supplies the place with telecommunication means.

Development

There is a nursing home in Arsuk, a kindergarten since 1990 and a service building since 1987 as well as a branch of Pilersuisoq . There is an Arsuup Atuarfia school , built in 1934 , which houses the library and teaches students up to 10th grade. The church dates from 1930. The assembly building and the infirmary were built in 1958. There is a soccer field and the opportunity to play badminton.

Sons and daughters

Population development

After the fish boom ended, the population began to decline steadily. Arsuk is one of the places with the greatest decline in population.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map with all official place names confirmed by Oqaasileriffik , provided by Asiaq
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Jens Christian Madsen: Udsteder and bopladser i Grønland 1901–2000 . Atuagkat, 2009, ISBN 978-87-90133-76-4 , pp. 67 ff .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Arsuk at sermersooq2028.gl (.pdf)
  4. ↑ a b Louis Bobé : Beskrivelse af Distrikterne i Sydgrønland: Frederikshaab District. History. Grand localites . In: Georg Carl Amdrup , Louis Bobé , Adolf Severin Jensen , Hans Peder Steensby (eds.): Grønland i tohundredeaaret for Hans Egedes landing (=  Meddelelser om Grønland . Volume 60-61 ). tape 2 . C. A. Reitzel Boghandel, Copenhagen 1921, p. 372 ( digitized version in the Internet Archive ).
  5. ↑ Ole Bendixen : Beskrivelse af Distrikterne i Sydgrønland: Frederikshaab District. Bopladser i Frederikshaab district. Udstedet Arsuk . In: Georg Carl Amdrup , Louis Bobé , Adolf Severin Jensen , Hans Peder Steensby (eds.): Grønland i tohundredeaaret for Hans Egedes landing (=  Meddelelser om Grønland . Volume 60-61 ). tape 2 . C. A. Reitzel Boghandel, Copenhagen 1921, p. 365 ff . ( Digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  6. ↑ a b arsukfjorden.gl
  7. ↑ Arsuk in Den Store Danske
  8. ↑ Sabine Barth: DuMont travel paperback travel guide Greenland . 4th edition. MairDumont , 2016, ISBN 978-3-616-42061-5 , pp. 115 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ^ Hother Ostermann : Beskrivelse af Distrikterne i Sydgrønland: Frederikshaab district. History . In: Georg Carl Amdrup , Louis Bobé , Adolf Severin Jensen , Hans Peder Steensby (eds.): Grønland i tohundredeaaret for Hans Egedes landing (=  Meddelelser om Grønland . Volume 60-61 ). tape 2 . C. A. Reitzel Boghandel, Copenhagen 1921, p. 372 f . ( Digitized in the Internet Archive ).
  10. ↑ Population of Arsuk 1977–2020 at bank.stat.gl