Knivsberg

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Knivsberg
Bismarck Tower on the Knivsberg (1905)

Bismarck Tower on the Knivsberg (1905)

height 97  m
location Aabenraa municipality , North Schleswig , Denmark
Mountains Eastern hill country
Coordinates 55 ° 8 '6 "  N , 9 ° 26' 31"  E Coordinates: 55 ° 8 '6 "  N , 9 ° 26' 31"  E
Knivsberg (Syddanmark)
Knivsberg

The Knivsberg ( Danish Knivsbjerg ) near Aabenraa is a 97  moh high ice age elevation in Northern Schleswig ( Danish Nordslesvig or Sønderjylland ) in the south of Denmark . From here there is a good all-round view of the Baltic Sea . The name Knivsberg has nothing to do with the Danish word "kniv" ( German  knife ). The original name was "Knuvbjerre", which means a "solid mass with a rounded tip" rising from the plain.

The Knivsberg is at 97 meters above sea ​​level (today 100 meters due to backfilling) the highest point in North Schleswig.

history

It is assumed that the mountain was used as a thing place or place of worship in prehistoric times because of its height. However, these are only assumptions, excavations did not take place.

Knivsbergfeste - Knivsbergspiele

The history of the Knivsbergfeste began in 1893 with a proposal from Pastor Jessen, Süderwilstrup. On the occasion of a folk festival on the island of Kalvø in Genner Bucht ( Danish Genner Bugt or Fjord ) in 1893, he suggested that German folk festivals be held on Knivsberg in the future. This was intended to emphasize the German sense of community. The majority of the Danish population were opposed to the Germanization policy of the German Empire. This was expressed in the fact that in 1888 the only language of instruction - apart from the subject religion - was determined to be German in schools. The Danes organized against it. It all started in 1880 with the founding of the Association for the Preservation of the Danish Language in North Schleswig. In 1888 the electoral association for North Schleswig followed and in 1892 the South Jutian school association. Jessen's proposal was soon put into practice, the mountain and the surrounding area were bought for 6,750 marks, and the Knivsberg Society, which still exists today, was founded on October 11, 1893.

The ship owner and Senator Michael Jebsen from Aabenraa was elected as the first chairman . The first structures to be built were a horse stable at the foot of the mountain and a pavilion on the site of today's campground. The inauguration of the mountain took place on July 15, 1894.

The Knivsbergfeste - Kivsbergspiele began in the summer of 1895 and have taken place every year since then, with interruptions during the two world wars. At first hitball , fistball , border ball and the like were played, later athletics and handball came to the fore. From 1922, the German youth leagues took up the games again. After the Second World War, it was the still existing German Youth Association for North Schleswig that was able to organize the first post-war Knivsberg Festival on June 29, 1947. Today the festival is divided into two parts: on the one hand there is a large handball tournament with teams from North Schleswig and Germany , on the other hand there is a three-day colorful cultural program with family offers and offers for children all over the mountain. In the "Mulde", which has been converted into an open-air stage , a festival program will be held with performances of music, dance, singing, gymnastics and a celebratory speech, alternating every year with speakers from North Schleswig and Germany.

While the handball tournament had less and less demand in recent years, the summer festival continued to develop. Around 4,000 visitors were present in 2018. The organized youth association could no longer cope with the costs alone. From 2019 the Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger will increase the budget of the Knivsbergfest with funds from the Nordschleswig pot by 251,000 to 566,000 crowns. In 2019 and 2020 up to 500,000 crowns will be invested in the renovation of the "Mulde" every year. The money comes from the state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Bismarck tower and monument

Postcard, 1905

The Bismarck National Monument , built from 1895 to 1901, was one of the largest monuments in the German Empire at the time. The monument was supposed to document the claims of the German Empire on North Schleswig. The first chairman of the board of the Knivsberggesellschaft, Senator Michael Jebsen, a member of the Reichstag from Apenrad, had promoted the construction in particular. He made sure that four applicants chose the site of the Knivsberg by informing them that 10,000 marks had already been collected for such a monument. The foundation stone was laid on August 4, 1895, but it took almost six years to complete.

The nephew of the initiator and sponsor, the Hamburg-based “(sic) Rheder Max Jebsen / Hamburg was able to open the inauguration ceremony for the tower on August 4, 1901 in front of 7,000 guests with an imperial celebration”.

This 46 meter high Bismarck tower, designed by the architect Friedrich Möller (1864–1904), carried a seven meter high Bismarck statue carved in copper by Adolf Brütt . Below the statue, the German imperial eagle and the coat of arms of Schleswig-Holstein with the inscription Up eternally ungeled were attached. Above the Bismarck picture was the inscription We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world , a quote from Bismarck from a speech at the German Reichstag, and the year of the German-Danish War won in 1864.

The statue was dismantled on May 13, 1919, as a decision for Denmark was expected in the referendum in Schleswig for this area. Aabenraa and other places came to Denmark in 1920. It has been on the Aschberg near Ascheffel in the Hüttener Mountains in Schleswig-Holstein since 1930 . The memorial should be returned to the Knivsberg Society "if the circumstances allow it to be re-erected" .

The tower was blown up three months after the end of the war on August 28, 1945 by the former Danish resistance movement with 850 kg of explosives in the presence of 40 men and two women. The relief portrait of Senator Michael Jebsen created by Adolf Brütt for the memorial hall of the tower in 1901 was saved.

The imposing complex could not be completely blown up. After the Bonn-Copenhagen declarations in March 1955, an agreement was reached between representatives of the German minority, the Knivsberg Society and the Danish State Ministry on the evacuation of the site. The rubble was removed as far as possible and the base of the former monument was filled with soil. As a result, the Knivsberg has increased by the famous three meters to 100 meters above sea level. The memorial wall was built from some rock remnants from the Bismarck Tower, with a plaque with the names of the members of the founding board of the Knivsberg Society on one side and a relief depicting the former Bismarck Tower on the other.

Langbehnhaus

With the inauguration of the youth hostel at Easter 1931, another branch of work began on the Knivsberg. The building bears the name of the nationalist and anti-Semitic cultural critic August Julius Langbehn (1851–1907) , who was born in Hadersleben . He was called the Rembrandt German because of a book he wrote ( Rembrandt als Erzieher, Von einer Deutschen ) . During the time of National Socialism, he was considered the founder of art education in Germany .

The Hamburg merchant Alfred Toepfer had secretly donated the money for the construction so that the accusation of German interference in Danish matters could not be raised. The Knivsberggesellschaft made the land available for the construction free of charge. The interior is decorated with oil paintings by the German artist A. Paul Weber , who is known for his caricatures and graphics and who often worked for Toepfer. Today the house serves as a conference building for the Knivsberg educational institution.

Fallen memorial

In January 1960, a collection was started in favor of the so-called Ehrenhains , a memorial for the fallen of the minority in the two world wars. On August 18, 1962, the simple memorial was inaugurated and adapted to the natural surroundings. It consists of twelve panels, corresponding to the years of the war, on which the year and, for those who volunteered in the Second World War, the names of the fallen and missing are recorded. The names of those who died in World War I are on memorial stones and plaques in the villages and towns of Northern Schleswig. Furthermore, the complex consists of a relief depicting the map of North Schleswig and a large, vertical memorial stone made of granite.

Michael-Jebsen-Haus - Knivsberg educational institution

With the completion of the Michael Jebsen House, built with funds from the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Youth Brand Foundation in 1970, a fundamental change in the purpose of the Knivsberg took place. The Jugendhof Knivsberg, which has been an educational facility in Knivsberg since 2011, has since been working as the music and cultural center of the German Youth Association for North Schleswig. In addition, it sees itself as a meeting, leisure and educational center for the German minority in Denmark . The educational institution publishes the wide-ranging program of courses, seminars and activities for children, young people and adults in the “Bridge” it publishes. The facility, with its accommodation options and meeting rooms, is available to guests from Germany and Denmark as well as groups from other European minorities. The Michael-Jebsen-Haus underwent structural expansion and renovation in 1985–1987 and 2006–2007, financed from German funds, half of the most recent measure from funds from the non-profit Hermann Niermann Foundation .

See also

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Jürgen Festersen: Nordschleswig 1840 - 1920. In: geschichte-sh.de. Accessed January 31, 2019 .
  2. ^ Gwyn Nissen: Knivsbergfest: All pay with. Der Nordschleswiger , November 21, 2018, accessed on January 31, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Altonaer Nachrichten, pp. 2 and 3, August 5, 1901
  4. ↑ Danish vandals attack German monument (1945)