Cuxhaven Treaty
The Cuxhaven Treaty is a state treaty between the federal states of Lower Saxony and Hamburg to swap port areas in Cuxhaven and the mudflat area to Neuwerk from October 3, 1961. It enabled the expansion of the fishing port of Cuxhaven and Hamburg the "provision" for a possible outer port / deep water port in Wadden area of the islands of Neuwerk and Scharhörn . The new plant in Hamburg until 1937 returned to Hamburg on October 1, 1969. The port facilities in Cuxhaven concerned the Amerikahafen and the Steubenhöft , which were in front of the new fishing port. Hamburg then ceded the port facilities to the state of Lower Saxony in 1993.
The impetus for this contract was Cuxhaven's need to expand its sea fishing industry after the Second World War. However, with the fourth implementing regulation for the Greater Hamburg Act of March 22, 1937, Hamburg had secured the America port in the Cuxhaven urban area as an exclave. This severely restricted Cuxhaven's plans. In the course of long-term negotiations, increasingly detailed planning, changing economic and shipping technology developments, Hamburg's counterclaims for an exchange of space to secure a Hamburg outer port in the Elbe estuary increased considerably. In the end there was an exchange of parts of the America Port for state territory in the Watt around Neuwerk for a deep water port in Hamburg in the Outer Elbe , which has not yet been implemented. At that time Paul Nevermann was Hamburg's first mayor.
There were voices who doubted that the contract was legal. On the one hand, the Watt is federal waterway and is therefore not owned by the state; on the other hand, changes to state borders must be regulated by a federal law.
Creation of the contract
Safeguarding shipping has always been a central economic and political interest for Hamburg. This particularly included the protection of the Lower and Outer Elbe. Hamburg's rights to areas around Neuwerk go back to the 13th century. At the end of the 14th century, these extended to the Hamburg office of Ritzebüttel , which in the 19th century became Cuxhaven as Hamburg's national territory at the mouth of the Elbe.
With the Greater Hamburg Law of 1937, however, Hamburg ceded this to Prussia and expanded the Hamburg state to include the neighboring cities of Altona, Wandsbek and Harburg-Wilhelmsburg. With the fourth implementing regulation of the Greater Hamburg Act , however, it secured the America Harbor (227 hectares) as an exclave in the Cuxhaven city area and Hamburg's outpost at the mouth of the Elbe.
After the Second World War, the share of sea fishing in the food base for a denser population in Germany increased significantly. Cuxhaven's fishing port facilities could not be modernized and expanded for this purpose, as this would only have been possible via the Hamburg administrative and interest area in the city of Cuxhaven. The city of Cuxhaven then sought to have Hamburg surrender these facilities, which were largely idle at the time, to Cuxhaven. The marine facilities leased from Hamburg to the federal government were also unused at the time.
For the first meeting in Cuxhaven on June 28, 1948, representatives of the city of Cuxhaven, the states of Lower Saxony and Hamburg and the industry concerned met in Cuxhaven. Participants included Karl Olfers (Lord Mayor of Cuxhaven), Wilhelm Drexelius (Hamburg Senate Syndicate) and Friedrich Mühlradt (Hamburg Port Construction Director ). Hamburg referred to the uncertainty at the time and so the negotiations dragged on for the next 12 years.
In the 1950s, the fear in Hamburg increased that other German or European ports would gain in importance if future generations of cargo ships would no longer call at Hamburg's port due to the shallow depth and tide dependence of the Elbe between Cuxhaven and Hamburg. As a solution, a Hamburg outer port was to be built in the mouth of the Elbe, which would allow for a corresponding draft.
While alternative areas for a Hamburg outer harbor of around 500 hectares were initially considered a little further upstream, as was already the case in the considerations between Prussia and Hamburg in 1939, these rose to 1,500 to 2,000 hectares in 1958.
The often stalled negotiations were repeatedly re-initiated by Cuxhaven, as the port renovation was not possible without Hamburg's consent. Karl Olfers fought, among other things, against resistance from Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf , who did not want to cede any territory to Hamburg. It was not until 1959 that a letter from Friedrich Mühlradt confirmed Hamburg's approval of the negotiated master plan. Hannover's approval was only granted indirectly through the release of funds for the New Fisheries Harbor in the 1960 budget.
In the meantime, doubts had arisen about the planned alternative areas for the Hamburg outer harbor between the estuary and Freiburg. These mainly concerned the considerable effort involved in maintaining the necessary depth there. Only the natural depth of 15 meters in the Outer Elbe in front of Scharhörn met the ideas of the planners working with Hans Laucht . The undeveloped tidal flats led to a considerable increase in the land requirement to around 5000 hectares. A first general plan for the exchange of space came into being at the end of 1960 and was included in the negotiations until spring 1961.
Lower Saxony's decision on the State Treaty was passed on April 25th and Hamburg's on May 9th, 1961. Hamburg attached importance to the long-term precautionary nature of the treaty, which did not anticipate any concrete implementation of a deep-water port project in order not to endanger the upcoming Elbe deepening measures. Nevertheless, Hamburg will very soon do everything in its power to research this area more precisely than almost any other for its properties for such a project.
Hamburg deep water port
Since the 1950s, Hamburg has been planning its own deep-water port in the area of the Outer Elbe in front of Cuxhaven on the Scharhörnplate with its own rail connection. For this purpose, Hamburg acquired its former state territory, which went to Prussia as part of a regional reform in 1937, and returned from Lower Saxony in 1961. The detailed research and planning for this took place from 1962 onwards, including from the station on Scharhörn, by the Neuwerk research group . In the mid-1980s, however, Hamburg abandoned the construction and used the findings in 1989 to flush out the artificial island of Nigehörn at the planned location. The Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park was established shortly afterwards . The deep water port project was not implemented due to numerous protests, high costs and little support from industry; but it is still included in the Hamburg zoning plan .
See also
- Chronology of hydraulic engineering on the Hamburg Lower Elbe
- Elbe deepening
- History of the Port of Hamburg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Law on the State Treaty with the State of Lower Saxony on the reorganization of legal relationships in Cuxhaven and in the area of the Elbe estuary of October 3, 1961, ratified on October 5, 1962, entered into force on October 1, 1969 ( nds-voris.de ).
- ^ State treaty with the state of Lower Saxony on the reorganization of the legal relationships in Cuxhaven and in the area of the Elbe estuary dated October 3, 1961 (HmbGVBl. 1961, p. 317).
- ↑ Law on the Implementation Agreement of June 14 / August 7, 1967 to the State Treaty with the State of Lower Saxony on the reorganization of legal relationships in Cuxhaven and in the area of the Elbe estuary of September 22, 1967, (HmbGVBl. 1967, p. 285).
- ^ City Archives Cuxhaven : City History Cuxhaven
- ↑ Law on the State Treaty with the State of Lower Saxony amending the Cuxhaven State Treaty of December 16, 1991 (HmbGVBl. 1991, p. 457).
- ^ History of the HAPAG halls 1993 to 1999 ( memento of January 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) accessed January 13, 2014
- ↑ Elbe-Vorhafen - The Hole . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , 1961 ( online - May 24, 1961 ).
- ^ Fourth implementing ordinance to the law on Greater Hamburg and other territorial consolidations (Greater Hamburg Act) of March 22, 1937.
- ^ Hans Laucht: Scharhörn harbor project: a plan in the mirror of the times: 1948–1980. P. 22.
- ^ Manfred Temme: Planning a replacement bird sanctuary near Scharhörn. In: Scharhörn bird sanctuary. Jordsand Association, 1974.
Coordinates: 53 ° 52 ' N , 8 ° 43' E