Lehde (Lübbenau / Spreewald)

Lehde Lědy City of Lübbenau / Spreewald Coordinates: 51 ° 51 ′ 48 ″  N , 13 ° 59 ′ 25 ″  E
Height :	50 m above sea level NHN
Residents :	150  (Jul 17, 2017)
Incorporation :	May 1st 1974
Postal code :	03222
Area code :	03542

Historic house in Lehde

Lehde , Lědy in Lower Sorbian , is a village in the Spreewald , today part of the town of Lübbenau / Spreewald in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district . The entire village complex is a listed building .

location

While in 1929 Lehde still had 298 inhabitants, only around 130 to 150 people live here (as of 2010). The place is an island village , consisting of many Kaupen . For centuries Lehde could only be reached by water. Even today, practically all properties have their own access to one of the many streams between 0.8 and 1 meter deep , which largely function as roads. Mail delivery and rubbish collection still take place today by water. In the winter months, however, mail is delivered to letter boxes that the residents have set up on the land side, by mail bike or car.

Due to the unusual location of Lehde and some preserved historical Spreewald houses , Lehde , which is completely under monument protection , is a popular destination for tourists. From the Lübbenau Great Harbor , visitors are punted to Lehde in traditional Spreewald barges in around 1 to 1.5 hours . However, Lehde can also be reached on foot, by bike or by car, whereby the beauty and specialty of the place can be experienced mainly from the waterfront. The Gurkenradweg leads south past Lehde .

history

Lehde was first mentioned in a document in 1315 in a sales document for Lübbenau. The name is likely to be derived from the Sorbian lědo and means deserted or undeveloped spot . Originally Lehde was inhabited exclusively by Sorbs .

Flow in Lehde

At first the most important branch of business and probably the reason for the settlement was fishing in the fish-rich arms of the Spree that cross the local area . Even today, many properties have fishing rights entered in the land register , although fishing is only carried out on a part-time basis. Declining fish abundance later led to a stronger shift towards growing vegetables , for which the Spreewald also became known nationwide. Above all cucumbers , but also onions , horseradish , pumpkins , turnips and potatoes were grown on the small artificially raised eyrie . Both growing vegetables and keeping livestock were very laborious. Cultivation and pasture areas were often only accessible by boat. Another line of business was the cultivation of linen and weaving with looms as well as the weaving of baskets.

After the end of the Thirty Years' War , the village of Lehde, built entirely of wood in log construction, is said to have fallen victim to a major fire.

Woodhouse

In 1818 Lehde had 13 houses and 70 residents. Three worked as gardeners , ten were considered cottagers . The village tavern formed the center of the place. The number of properties increased significantly in the course of the 19th century, primarily due to the division of inheritance. In 1840 184 people lived in the village, then 195 in 1846. The number of livestock in 1839 is given as 18 oxen and 76 cows. Around 1900 there were 43 farmsteads in Lehde. The basis of growth was more intensive animal husbandry, increased vegetable cultivation and good sales of the hay produced. Spatially, Lehde expanded to the north to the Dolzke- Fliess. There were 266 inhabitants in 1882 and 298 in 1929. The community area was given as 366 hectares. Ecclesiastically, Lehde belongs to the parish of Lübbenau, where the churchgoers went with the boats.

In 1832 and 1849, cholera broke out. In Lehde, 20% of the population died. The changing water levels of the Spree proved to be a constant problem in the history of Lehde. Extreme floods as well as the drying up of rivers led to existential crises. There were heavy floods after a heavy thunderstorm on August 12, 1875. Worse still were several storms on June 24, 1907. In addition to large floods, hail also set in, with hailstones the size of chicken eggs.

Theodor Fontane visited Lehde in August 1859 and mentions it in his hikes through the Mark Brandenburg . Fontane compares Lehde there with a miniature Venice . Several well-known painters also devoted their works to the place and its surroundings. Works by Christian Gottlob Hammer date back to the first half of the 19th century . The works of the Lübbenau painter Max Carl Krüger are also known . Organized tourism began in 1882. The Gasthof Zum Fröhlichen Hecht became a meeting point for many painters fascinated by the Spreewald. Lehde also became an artists' village. In 1911 the silent film The Stranger Bird , with Asta Nielsen in one of the leading roles, was shot in Lehde. Parts of the film were made on the house at An der Lischka 7, which still exists today .

Building of the volunteer fire brigade with stork's nest

In 1871 a new school building was built. Like the old log house previously used as a school, the new building only had one classroom in which all children from first to eighth grade were taught at the same time. Up to 60 students, 20 girls and 40 boys, were taught this way. In 1952 the village school was closed. The children have been going to school in Lübbenau ever since.

For the Lehdes volunteer fire brigade, founded in 1904, a two-wheeled spray gun (portable fire engine on a limber ) was purchased in 1915 as the first larger extinguishing device . In the event of an emergency, it was placed on a boat, driven to the site and unloaded there again. A lighter syringe purchased later could be put into operation from the boat. In the winter of 1915, the fire brigade actually had to put out a major house fire. Another major fire broke out in the 1930s.

Only in 1929 was a land connection to the neighboring Lübbenau created; Until then, the Spreewald boat was the only possible means of transport. The Lehder community leader August Koal had campaigned for a long time for the path, which was initially only a footpath. The Lehder property owners provided the required property free of charge. In one case, however, expropriation proceedings were necessary. The necessary construction costs were borne by an innkeeper in the amount of 2,500 Reichsmarks and a further 2,500 RM by the district with the votes of Social Democrats, Communists, Democrats and the economic party against the votes of the Conservatives. There has been a power supply in Lehde since November 21, 1921, after a corresponding Stromversorgungsgenossenschaft GmbH Lehde was founded in 1920 . In the First and Second World Wars, 43 Lehde residents lost their lives as soldiers. A memorial stone in the village reminds of this.

Entrance to the open air museum

In 1957, an open air museum , the Spreewaldmuseum Lehde , was opened. Three farmsteads from the Spreewald are now shown with their original furnishings. In July 1984 Lehde was included in the central list for the preservation of monuments in the GDR because of its many historic log buildings . From 1962 to 1965 craftsmen built a new syringe house; it was renovated in 2001.

Small areas and difficult-to-use agricultural machines meant that commercial agriculture was practically no longer practiced in the core of the Spreewald and traditional cultivation was only continued on a small scale. Today's Spreewald products, which are sold nationwide, come from the fringes of the Spreewald that can be managed with normal production methods. Since the late 1990s, Lehde has lived mainly from tourism . On May 1, 1974 it was incorporated into Lübbenau.

Language and costume

As early as 1430, the lordship of Lübbenau, to which Lehde belonged, forbade the use of Wendish, i.e. Lower Sorbian, as the language of court. At that time, Lehde was still speaking only in Wendish. In practice, however, Wendish was mostly tolerated in the population due to a lack of knowledge of German, and official demands were also made in Wendish if necessary.

In 1719 Martin Müller was employed as a village school teacher; previously the Lehder had the right to attend the school in Lübbenau. Müller announced that he was the only one in the village who could speak German . There was now regular German lessons. Learning the German language also corresponded to the wish of the Wendish population, since with the better possible communication in markets and offices, the personal chances were significantly better. The village school teacher was at times threatened with dismissal because he did not teach German sufficiently. The German authorities repeatedly pursued Germanization and tried to ban the Wendish language from schools, churches and offices. The last service in Wendish took place in the Sankt Nikolai Church in Lübbenau, responsible for Lehde, in 1867. Nevertheless, Sorbian remained a colloquial language in Lehde for a relatively long time.

In 1884 Arnošt Muka had 266 inhabitants in Lehde, 196 of them spoke Sorbian (74%) and 70 inhabitants spoke German. In 1956 Ernst Tschernik had only one Sorbian-speaking resident.

Around 1880 the traditional Sorbian costume disappeared and was no longer worn. Already around 1900 hardly any Lehder schoolchild could speak the Sorbian language. In 1976, Marie Poppschötz, the last resident to use the Wendish language in Lehde and wear the Sorbian costume, died. However, even in the 21st century, individual residents still understand Sorbian and use words and idioms. Wendish terms have also been retained in the field names.

economy

Wooden guest house in Lehde

There are many restaurants and small pensions in Lehde, which is characterized by tourism. There is also a craft business that has been making Spreewald barges since 1884 . 21 residents of Lehde (as of 1995) work part-time as fishermen.

Attractions

Several block buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries have been preserved in Lehde . The Spreewaldmuseum Lehde with three historic Spreewald farmsteads is also of particular importance . It is the oldest open-air museum in Brandenburg.

The historic Wotschofska restaurant is located northeast of the village . Other well-known institutions are the cucumber museum on the subject of Spreewald cucumbers and the Spreewald aquarium at the Zum Fröhlichen Hecht restaurant , in which local fish species can be seen in several aquariums.

Personalities

The Berlin painter Albrecht Gutjahr (1880–1956) lived in Lehde until his death.

literature

• Christel Lehmann-Enders, Ute Henschel: The Spreewalddorf Lehde . Spreewald-Museum (Ed.), Lübbenau / Lehde 1996
• Theodor Fontane : Walks through the Mark Brandenburg , Volume 4 ( Spreeland ) "In the Spreewald" - In the Spreewald, Lehde
  also briefly in Volume 2 ( Oderland ) "The Oderbruch and its surroundings" - The Oderbruch, the old residents

Web links

Commons : Lehde / Lědy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Friends of Lehde

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Spreewalddorf Lehde ( Memento of the original from June 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Lehmann-Enders, Henschel: Spreewalddorf Lehde
3. ^ Lehmann-Enders, Henschel: Spreewalddorf Lehde . P. 15
4. ↑ Wolfgang Ader: A city makes school . In: History of the City of Lübbenau - 20th Century . 2004, p. 211
5. ^ Fritz Heese: From a small agricultural town to an industrial location . In: History of the City of Lübbenau - 20th Century . 2004, p. 146
6. ↑ Ernst Tschernik: The development of the Sorbian population . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1954.
7. ^ Ludwig Elle: Language policy in the Lausitz . Domowina-Verlag, Bautzen 1995.
8. ↑ Spreewald information Lübbenau (ed.): Lübbenauer Viertel - Spreewalddorf Lehde , flyer, without date, p. 6.