Paamiut district

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Paamiut communiate
Paamiut district
location
Symbols
coat of arms
coat of arms
Basic data
Country Greenland
Commune Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq
Seat Paamiut
surface 51,000 km²
Residents 1417 (January 1, 2019)
density 0 inhabitants per km²

Paamiut has been a district in western Greenland since 2009 .

location

The Paamiut District is located in southern West Greenland. It is bordered by the Nuuk district in the north and the Qaqortoq district in the south . In the southern part of the district there is also the Ivittuut district as an enclave within the Paamiut district.

history

Before the colonial era

In the Middle Ages, the northern border of the Eystribyggð was located in today's district near Tissaluk , where the remains of four farms were found. It can also be assumed that the Arnlaugsfjǫrðr mentioned in the Landnámabók is the Ilorput (Arsukfjord).

The coast of the district was known to the Dutch whalers who operated in Greenland. They named the Sioqqap Sermia (Frederikshaab Isblink) as Witteblink and the bay in front of Tissaluk as Joris Bay (after the seafarer Joris Carolus ). At that time it was still assumed that Greenland was cut by two hours, connecting the west and east coasts. The more southerly of this Sunde was marked on the maps of the time as Frobisherstraße , which is to be equated with the Sermilik .

In 1612, James Hall passed Mount Kingittoq , whose headland he called Cape Comfort and the surrounding area the Land of Comfort because of the friendly appearance of the landscape .

18th and 19th centuries

When Hans Egede was investigating Greenland in 1723, he met people at Kangilineq . On August 14, he also reached Kuannit , where there were so many residents that over 40 boats were lying on the bank. On August 17th he reached Torsukattak Sound just south of the district border , where he met three Greenlanders in a tent, whose dialect he already perceived as different. On the way back it passed Paamiut on September 8th (later) .

Eight years later he proposed to build a colony on the site of Paamiut. However, this plan was only implemented by Jacob Severin in 1742 and so the Frederikshaab colony came into being. Due to major problems with sails and supplies to the colony, it threatened to have to be abandoned in 1748, but the situation soon improved.

In 1774 Egill Þórhallsson described the residents of the colonial district as good housekeepers, but also reported that the hunting grounds were so good that the Greenlanders lived in large groups in one place for convenience. At that time there were already 350 baptized people living in the colonial district, of whom 68 were men, 151 women and 131 were children. In 1799, 265 of 597 residents were still unbaptized, while four years later there were only 129. In 1813 there were still 22 pagans in the colonial district and around 1820 the last Greenlander was baptized.

During the great epidemic from 1784 to 1787 half of the population died, 150 people alone in 1784. In 1803, 589 people lived in the district again, but in 1813 the number had dropped back to 479. Then the population increased again. Only a short time later 500 inhabitants were reached, in the 1840s the number of inhabitants rose to 600, around 1850 to 700, around 1900 to 800 and in 1918 there were already 902 people living in the colonial district. In 1803 only nine people had European ancestors, in 1820 there were 54 and in 1850 114. In 1921 the majority of the population was pure Inuit .

In 1803/05 Arsuk was founded as the first udsted in the colonial district. The Udsteder Avigaat and around 1840 Narsalik were added later. The Udsted in Avigaat was 1868 Kuannit added.

Carl Ludwig Giesecke described the Greenlanders in Toornaarsuk , Kangaarsuk and Arsuk at the beginning of the 19th century as "the wildest and worst" in all of South Greenland.

By 1860 around which arose at Arsuk Kryolithbruch of Ivittuut .

20th century

From 1911 the colonial district Frederikshaab was divided into the four parishes Avigait , Frederikshaab , Narssalik and Arsuk . In 1918, a total of six residential spaces were subordinate to these communities. Most of the colonial district belonged to the 6th regional electoral district of South Greenland, only the municipality of Avigait was part of the 7th regional electoral district, which mainly belonged to the colonial district of Godthaab.

The colonial district formed its own parish. In 1918 this comprised a church, six school chapels and a school. A pastor, ten catechists (five seminary graduates, one with a degree in catechism, three privately trained and one unskilled) worked there.

The colonial district did not have its own doctor, as the medical district comprised the colonial districts Godthaab and Frederikshaab together and the doctor was based in Nuuk . There were especially two hospitals for this, as a hospital was built next to the colony in Arsuk in the 1880s after the mine workers from Ivittuut brought in a syphilis epidemic, which ultimately led to Arsuk being sealed off from the rest of the country.

During the administrative reform in 1950, the colony district became the Paamiut municipality. Only Ivittuut was spun off as the municipality of Ivittuut . During the administrative reform in 2009, the municipality of Paamiut was incorporated into the Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq .

places

In addition to the town of Paamiut, there is only the village of Arsuk in the Paamiut district.

In addition, the following abandoned settlements are in what is now the district area:

coat of arms

Blazon : Two sea ​​eagles .

literature

Coordinates: 62 ° 0 ′  N , 49 ° 0 ′  W