Ballum Sogn
| Ballum | |||||
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| Basic data | |||||
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| State : |
 Denmark
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| Region : | Syddanmark | ||||
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Municipality (since 2007) : |
Tønder | ||||
| Municipality / Office : (until the end of 2006) |
Bredebro Kommune Sønderjyllands Amt |
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Harde / Amt: (until March 1970) |
Tønder, Højer og Lø Herred Tønder Amt |
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| Coordinates : | 55 ° 5 ' N , 8 ° 39' E | ||||
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Population : (2020) |
497 | ||||
| Area : | 52 km² | ||||
| Population density : | 10 inhabitants per km² | ||||
| Postal code : | 6261 Ballum | ||||
 Location of the parish of Ballum Sogn in Tønder municipality |
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Ballum Sogn is a parish municipality (Danish Sogn ) in North Schleswig , Denmark . It is located northwest of the city of Tønder (dt. Tondern ) directly on the coast of the North Sea opposite the island of Rømø (dt. Röm ). Since 1970 it has belonged to the municipality of Bredebro and in 2007 it became part of the greater municipality of Tønder .
Municipal area
The parish of Ballum covers almost 52 km² of land. It extends about 18 km in north-south orientation along the coast of the North Sea, while it is nowhere wider than six kilometers in east-west direction. Most of the area consists of a small ridge , which is seldom higher than twelve meters. The rest of the country is very flat and partly consists of marshland . While the ridge, on which the main part of the church village lies, seals off the southern part of the municipality from the sea, the lower northern part is completely diked. The Brede Å (dt. Breder Au ), one of the largest watercourses in North Schleswig , which flows into the North Sea here, is regulated via the Ballum lock.
The community is sparsely populated and has 497 inhabitants, 311 of whom live in the town itself (as of January 1, 2020). Three main areas of settlement can be identified, which were even independent rural communities from 1867 to 1880, but were then combined again to form a single parish community, which existed until 1970.
- Ballum , divided into Osterende (also the name of the rural community at the time) and Westerende, whereby the Westerende is also the old church village. In the north lie the Ballum lock and the almost uninhabited wide marshland.
- Husum , with Bådsbøl (dt. Bosbüll ), Husum and Harknag, which today have grown together to form a street village in an east-west direction.
- Reisby , with Buntje, Nörrehus and Reisby, who have grown together in a north-south direction to form a street village. Most of the parish is called Reisby-Ballum, because there is a parish Rejsby 20 km further north .
history
Ballum was originally the northernmost part of the old Harde Hoyer. At the beginning of the 13th century, the bishop of Ribe (dt. Ripen ) built the main courtyard Brink in the northeast of the parish, which became one of the most important bishop's castles and soon also became the center for a large area in episcopal ownership. Ballum was detached from the Harde and from then on formed its own Birk. Since the Ripener bishop was a Danish imperial prelate, the area belonged to the Kingdom of Denmark and not, like the surrounding area, to the Duchy of Schleswig .
After the Reformation , Ballum retained its status as an independent Birk and belonged to the Ripen monastery . It was next to Amrum and the parishes of the city Ribe south of the only parish Kongeå (dt. Königsau ), which completely belonged to the kingdom, while all other possessions of the Kingdom were in Schleswig to smaller or larger parts of communities. In 1634 the Burchardi flood destroyed part of the parish. In 1661 Ballum, like most of the Danish enclaves in West Schleswig, came to the newly established county of Schackenburg.
In 1807 the county was given up as a legal district, but the Birk Ballum initially remained. Three years later it was united with the Birk Møgeltønder (German Mögeltondern ), in 1844 with the other enclaves of the kingdom in this area also with the Loharde.
With the conquest of the Duchy of Schleswig and the subsequent exchange of territory between the now Prussian Duchy of Schleswig and the Kingdom of Denmark , Ballum came into the German state association for the first time. In 1867 the newly created Tondern district came into being . However, the population remained Danish-speaking . In the referendum on national membership on February 10, 1920, 708 residents voted for Denmark and only 30 for Germany. Ballum then formed a parish in the Tondern district until 1970.
Attractions
Particularly worth seeing is the austere beauty of nature, which is directly exposed to the forces of the sea. The Ballum lock was built during the First World War and is an interesting technical monument. The Nikolaikirche in Ballum is a beautifully preserved Romanesque building, consisting of a nave, choir and apse, as well as a tower from the Gothic period with the Törninglehn peak typical of northwestern Schleswig. Noteworthy are the Romanesque frescoes of the apostles in the apse, a richly carved pulpit (1600) and a Romanesque baptismal font also decorated with reliefs. The church still has a lead roof and consists largely of Rhenish tuff . There are also numerous farmhouses and cottages in the community that are well worth seeing, especially in the church village that is still quite closed.
traffic
Ballum is quite remote, but the main road, which partly runs along the dike, is an important local north-south connection from the dam to Rømø in the direction of Højer Sogn and Tønder .
