Otter life

Ottersleben district of Magdeburg
Basic data
Surface:	16.5292  km²
Residents :	10,583
Population density :	640 inhabitants per km²
(Information as of December 31, 2016)
Coordinates :	52 ° 5 '  N , 11 ° 34'  E Coordinates: 52 ° 5 '21 "  N , 11 ° 34' 7"  E
Districts / Districts:	Alt Ottersleben Benneckenbeck Osterweddinger settlement Frankefelde Klein Ottersleben Thauberg Halberstädter Chaussee Werner-von-Siemens-Ring Eulegraben
Postal code :	39116
Bus routes :	53 54 602 603 ( BördeBus )

The Magdeburg district of Ottersleben consists of the former villages of Groß Ottersleben, Klein-Ottersleben and Benneckenbeck.

location

It used to be the largest village in the GDR with 15,700 inhabitants before it was incorporated into the "Southwest" district in 1952. Today, 10,583 people live in an area of ​​16.5292 km² (as of December 31, 2016), a significant increase in earlier times, due to the number of new housing estates.

The district is bounded in the west and south by the city limits, in the north by Ballenstedter / Gernröder Straße, and further west by Osterweddinger Chaussee between the city limits and Magdeburger Ring .

history

Local history

In 937 King Otto I gave the Magdeburg Monastery a. a. the villages of Liemuntesdorf ( Lemsdorf ) and Otteresleba with 100 families. Monasteries founded later then also took possession of the lands of today's Ottersleber area. Ottersleben was first mentioned in a document in 1245. In the years that followed, O. often changed hands, was destroyed and rebuilt. In 1547 Duke Alba besieged the Lutheran Magdeburg unsuccessfully and plundered the rich life of the otter when he withdrew to replace it. During the siege of Magdeburg in 1550 there was a memorable attack by Magdeburg city soldiers on December 19 against the monastery squires encamped in Ottersleben, who had fled the city with cathedral treasures and who were cooperating with the enemy. During the Thirty Years' War the place was so badly destroyed that no one lived here between 1639 and 1647. After a few other occupations and looting, the 18th century was relatively quiet and the reconstruction of the farms began. At that time the idea of ​​a coat of arms arose. Since the name Ottersleben had become common, people stuck to the otter, which - with a fish in its mouth - leaps over water.

In 1806 the road to Magdeburg was laid, but the French arrived in the same year. In 1815 Ottersleben came to the Wanzleben office through the Prussian regional reform. When the ottersleben fortifications no longer protected against the long-range cannons, they were gradually torn down. Many people now settled outside the former walls, and so Groß-Ottersleben and Benneckenbeck slowly grew together. Little by little , industry moved in: the sugar factory and chicory kiln were the first to be built, working-class families moved in, apartment buildings were built, and the town expanded noticeably. In 1850 the last cholera epidemic killed 42 citizens. The paving of the street began in 1851, first on Breitestrasse . In the next few years all the old and new village streets followed (although hardly changed to this day).

For a long time Ottersleben was far outside of its large neighbor Magdeburg. A connection was only made when a new southern castle was built in the south on the so-called "Straße nach Ottersleben" - after the destruction of the old southern castle in 1812. The place soon expanded so quickly beyond the borders of the Feldmark that the first Ottersleber house was right next to the “Zur Linde” inn, which belonged to Magdeburg. From here there were only a few houses between the villages, the rest was fields. With the erection of a water tank in 1858 on the Kroatenberg (today Georgshöhe) there was no change in terms of settlement. A path led to this acacia-planted height, which was called "Kanonenweg" because of the artillery fort built here ten years later.

Around the turn of the century, the first craftsmen's houses and rental apartments with an urban character were built on the outskirts and in the center of the village. They formed streets and enclosed the old farmhouses. The main reason for the move was the expansion of Magdeburg's industry and the associated increased demand for living space. Most of the newcomers came from a little further away, found work in Magdeburg and an apartment in Ottersleben. As early as 1910, around 2,000 industrial workers from Ottersleben came to work in Magdeburg. The three villages Groß-Ottersleben, Klein-Ottersleben and Benneckenbeck, which formed a community since 1921, had about 10,000 inhabitants at that time, which was called the largest village in Europe. The Georgshöhe and Elisengrund housing estates were built in 1932. From 1899 to 1941 Ottersleben had its own newspaper, the Otterslebener Zeitung , which was published regularly. On July 25, 1952, Groß-Ottersleben, with a population of 15,683 at that time, was incorporated into the city of Magdeburg as a new south-west district.

To the place name

The old German word ending leva, liba, leba or leiba led to today's life and at that time meant something like possession, belongings, also inheritance or legacy. It was usually tied to a proper name and indicated that a nobleman, suitor or follower of the respective ruler was enfeoffed with real estate. In the case of “Oteresleva”, however, it is not possible to prove exactly who the name bearer was - it may have been a person named Otto or Odo.

Ottersleber Schlope

In earlier years at least one pig was slaughtered in every household in the Magdeburg Börde in winter. For breakfast there was stinging meat and meat freshly turned through the meat grinder for the sausage (bratwurst). But since raw meat was not everyone's taste, the butcher formed small rolls or dumplings and cooked them in the stove or in the frying pan.

In order to keep the meat mass soft and to bond, eggs were also added. Then it was started to refine this mass with spices such as nutmeg, caraway or marjoram and fill it into the intestine. Every house butcher had his own recipe for it. Since this meat mass in the intestine was soft (sloppy - flabby) the expression "Schlope" arose.

An otter liver, Mr. Lothar Röpke, remembered that his grandfather had made Ottersleber Schlopen. Mr. Röpke has modified this recipe in accordance with today's regulations for sausage production.

Since 1999 the Heimatverein Ottersleben eV has been selling the Ottersleber Schlope at the festivals in Ottersleben.

Villages around Ottersleben

As around Magdeburg, there were also several smaller villages around Ottersleben. We find a ring of small villages with the names Niendorf , Stemmern , Abbendorf , Apendorf , Camersdorf and Erpitz. While the first four moved around west and south, Camersdorf was to the southeast and Erpitz to the east, roughly in the middle of today's Stadtweg. Erpitz was originally founded and owned by a Christianized Slavic noble named Erp, who lived in the time of Otto I. One of his descendants, Heidenreich von Erpitz , was Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1326-1327 . Around this time the name disappears from the documents, which suggests that the village had also become desolate.

House boards

Apart from a few manor houses, the rest of the houses were rather simple and functional. It was customary, however, to put house signs on the houses that gave information about when the house was built and by whom. Some of these tablets were marked with wishes for blessings or indicated an accident. It was also common to design the externally visible parts of the wall anchors from forged letters and numbers in the form of the initials of the builder and the year of construction. The following are preserved:

• A plaque at Alt Ottersleben House No. 22. It commemorates the owner's losses in the war in 1806 and a fire accident in 1810 in which four farms with their entire harvest were destroyed in one night. Another plaque - recovered from the demolition of the Alt Ottersleben site No. 20 - reminds of this.
• At the house at Am Dorfteich No. 5 there is a "blessing panel". Such boards should protect the house and yard.
• On the building of the former Dorfkrug (today "Schwarzer Adler") Alt Ottersleben No. 46, there is a plaque with a partial image of the village seal from 1602. An otter with a fish in its mouth is easy to recognize.
• Above the front door of the former farmhouse Old Benneckenbeck no. 17 is still a coat of arms of the family von Alemann, who once owner of the free goods were. Unfortunately the coat of arms has been painted over.

Megalithic tomb

The Hünengrab Ottersleben district is located right on the border with the Hohendodelebener Feldmark, near the former Hängelsbergen . It is a hill (121.6 above sea level) of glacial origin, like other elevations in the Börde. In the late Neolithic Age , a large stone grave was built here, but it was largely destroyed in past centuries in order to use the stone chamber as curbstones in the village. The clay pots were also lost. Only a stone ax was preserved and is now in the Magdeburg Museum.

The barn was always sheep pasture (anger), but in this century it was used for arable farming in the western part. In World War II, one was on the hill Flakbatterie stationed. Many young people who were supposed to stop the advancing Americans at the end of the war were killed.

After the war the barrow became a " wild rubbish dump ". In 1971 members of the Magdeburg-Südwest hunting society, some nature conservation workers and beekeepers cleared out the area and in the following years redesigned it into a field, so that the hill is barely recognizable today.

Water supply

It was only after the Middle Ages that common wells were built in Ottersleben for general use. The well shafts were artfully set from quarry stones and provided with a wooden loop around the top. The water was drawn off with a bucket attached to a chain or rope. The bucket was lifted with a seesaw or winch.

Such wells were mostly in central places and were maintained by the community. Little by little the residents built their own wells on the farmsteads (mostly draw wells). The first pumps appeared in the 18th century, first made of wood, then of cast iron. The wells were only covered with planks and were naturally exposed to all kinds of contamination. In many cases the manure pit was not far enough away, which significantly deteriorated the water quality. A community rocking fountain formerly stood in front of the former forged gate on today's Eichplatz . A working well is still standing today on a property in Karlstrasse .

In Klein-Ottersleben there was a special feature: the water extraction point (source) could be reached from all sides through the "water passage". This stretched over 300 m through the village. Such wells were the starting point for residents whose own water point did not provide good drinking water. The water was transported in buckets, which were hung on a special stretcher, which was carried on the shoulders, to make it easier to carry. A wooden cross was placed in the filled bucket so that the water would not spill out when walking.

In the kitchen the buckets were on the water bank, on the wall hung a scoop (measure) with which the water was taken from the bucket. The water consumption was of course quite economical due to the hardship of getting there. Rainwater has always been collected and used for washing clothes and for the “family bath” on Saturday. It was not until the 1950s that Ottersleben was gradually connected to the Magdeburg water supply.

Transport links

In earlier centuries there was hardly any need for the otter liver to visit Magdeburg. If this was the case, however, the journey was made on foot or on horseback, and officials or officials drove in a carriage. Deliveries of goods were made on foot in the box, larger quantities by horse and cart. If you had enough money, you could use the Karriolpost (Wanzleben / Magdeburg).

Magdeburg's industry, which flourished in the second half of the 19th century, attracted a large number of workers from the surrounding villages. Therefore, the people who had settled in Ottersleben in the meantime had to walk long walks to work in wind and weather, or take the horse-drawn bus or bike. The “Niederrad”, which came into circulation in 1879, soon found a lot of friends and became the number one means of transport after the First World War , which was promoted by the city through an exemplary network of cycle paths. The horse-drawn bus ran for years from Ottersleben to Sudenburg and was a tarpaulin-covered wagon with a rear entry. The terminus were the restaurants "Zur Post" and "Zur Linde" in Sudenburg. When enough passengers were collected, the coachman was fetched from the restaurant.

Before the First World War there was even a bus route. An AG had been founded which operated the route to Sudenburg with an iron-tire "Dürkop" bus. This monster drove from the town center through the street Im Frankefelde to the "Sonne" (corner of Halberstädter Str./Leipziger Str.). The haunted did not last very long because neither the roads could withstand the iron wheels nor the residents. An attempt by the Reichspost to travel the route with large 3-axle buses also failed due to the poor road conditions.

Shortly before the Second World War, the Ottersleber entrepreneur Petzerling founded a bus company and drove the route to Sudenburg. The war put an end to this project. After 1945, the traffic was resumed with old-timers that were ready for scrap, and the Ottersleber entrepreneur became active again.

After the incorporation Otter lives in 1952 were directed MVB a trolley bus a -line, the latest on 25 October 1953 as the time O bus line of the GDR was inaugurated. In 1959 there was an extension to Buckau (second line to Porsestrasse ). Both trolleybus lines were replaced by buses (KOM) in 1969. In the last few years, the bus service has been expanded considerably and also opens up the newly created residential estates in Sonnenanger and Birnengarten.

Agricultural industry

In addition to sugar production, there was another plant that brought a temporary prosperity to Ottersleben, the chicory . Bred from the common chicory, the cultivated form found ideal growing conditions in the Magdeburger Börde . After the autumn harvest, the fleshy root was washed, chopped and then kilned . In the kilns, of which there were four in Ottersleben, the schnitzel lay on kiln floors and were coated from below with hot air from a coke fire. The water escaped as water vapor and a dark brown mass remained. This product contained water-soluble bitterness, flavor and color and was shipped to factories where it was ground, pressed into sticks and packaged. Chicory was used as a coffee substitute or to improve the taste of malt or bean coffee. When the demand for chicory continued to decline at the turn of the century, the last kiln in Ottersleben also ceased operations around 1930.

Village pond in Groß-Ottersleben

Ottersleben has had a village pond for centuries . The area around the "village or bridal pond" was formerly called "The Song of Birds", in the middle of which was the tree-lined village pond. At this lower point, springs emerge that fed the pond and whose water then flowed into the owl (formerly known as Beke). In the 19th century the pond was converted into a horse pond . It was bordered by two quarry stone walls and its subsoil was paved.

St. Stephen's Church (Groß-Ottersleben)

The church of St. Stephani is at Kirchstrasse 1. The westwork of the church is from the 12th / 13th centuries. Century. The pastor of Ottersleben was first mentioned in 1205. After 1250 the tower was raised when the new three-aisled nave was built, and the lower-lying Romanesque sound openings were walled up. In 1556 the nave was rebuilt to its present condition after being destroyed several times. The flat wooden ceiling dates from 1774, the pulpit is from the 17th century, the altar is a work by Helmstedt and Halberstadt artists from 1704. In the tower hall there is a crucifixion relief from 1510 Gothic west portal received. Nevertheless, it is a good example of simple “village church romance”.

In the period that followed, little was done on the church, so that today it is in a poor structural condition. Although it was placed under monument protection in 1981 , neither the Protestant church nor the state was able to raise the reconstruction costs. In the mid-80s, the south side had to be closed by the building police. It was not until 1990 that the federal government, the state and the church made funds available to secure the church. Since sponge and rot have now also reached the north side, the organ from 1806 and the altar from 1704 are now also endangered. The parish today numbers around 600 people.

Benneckenbeck

As early as the middle of the 13th century, the name Bonicke, the name of a knight family resident in Magdeburg, appeared in some writings. The Bonickes had acquired a lot of land between the villages of Erpitz and Camersdorf, and now built and settled there. Gradually, the Erpitzer and Camersdorfer parcels were added. One of the numerous small streams, known today as Eulegraben , flowed through the property, and so the name "Bonikenbeke" (Bonickes Bach) became established for this area.

The property remained in the Bonickes' possession until 1376, when it fell into separate hands for 200 years. In 1594, Heinrich Albrecht Mynsinger von Frundeck, who had moved in from Helmstedt, was given most of the property as inheritance. The Mynsingers were a Swiss noble family who had to leave their homeland for reasons of faith. Sponsored by the Kaiser, they settled in Helmstedt, where the legal scholar Joachim Mynsinger was the first chancellor of the university there. His grandson Heinrich Albrecht moved to Magdeburg and was given "Bonickenbeck", where he immediately built various residential and commercial buildings, including a chapel and a tower. Mynsinger also set up a school for boys from the wealthy Ottersleber bourgeois families. In 1609, however, he bought the Möckern castle and property and moved with his wife and son there, where he died in 1613.

"Bönickenbeck", as they now say, was badly devastated in the Thirty Years' War. In 1661 the mayor of Magdeburg, Stefan Lentke, acquired the property and managed it very successfully. The three Lentke sons then divided the property into Ober-, Mittel- and Unterhof, as well as the land in equal parts.

When the fortifications of Groß-Ottersleben no longer offered any protection against the new guns, the walls were gradually torn down. Many people now also settled outside the former walls, so that Benneckenbeck and Ottersleben slowly grew together.

Benneckenbeck residential tower

Residential tower

Böckelmann villa

The Benneckenbeck residential tower , built around 1500 ( Christian Peicke ascribes its construction to the then owner Benneckenbecks, Heinrich Mynsinger von Frundeck, only for 1594) has a square floor plan of 6.50 mx 6.50 m. Above the 4.50 m (other source 5.50 m) high ground floor with groined vaults there are three flat-roofed upper floors, which were covered with a tent roof. The masonry consists of sandstone and roe stone and has a corner connection of shell limestone blocks. The upper floors had no connection to the ground floor, could only be reached from the outside and were connected to one another by a continuous wooden staircase. The wall thickness is 1.30 m on the ground floor and 1.00 m on the upper floors. A lower arched portal bears the year 1594. Up until the Second World War the tower had a roof and was used as a pigeon tower. As a result of fire damage, the wooden ceilings on the upper floors and the roof are currently missing.

Little Ottersleben

Klein-Ottersleben was first mentioned in a document on March 21, 1289 in a deed of gift to the Teutonic Knights Order , but the place is just as old as Groß-Ottersleben. The massive Johanniskirche dates from the turn of the 12th to the 13th century. At the same time, people settled behind a wooded bump in the north of the greater otter life. The place also received a large influx of Christianized Slavs and other immigrants. Klein Ottersleben is a typical Slavic-Wendish village with a continuous street on which the farms are aligned to the street. In the deed of donation mentioned, Klein Ottersleben and Großottersleben are clearly separated from one another, which suggests disputes. In the 13th century the place consisted of three estates - a manor and two other estates.

As in Groß-Ottersleben, here you will also find farms of the former large farmers that indicate prosperity. In the 17th / 18th In the 19th century, some noble families even lived here. On June 25, 1480, "Ludiger von Klein-Ottersleben" is mentioned for the first time with a courtyard and tower. A map from 1684 shows a place with the name "Lattorf'sches gut mit Turm", which probably existed until 1725. Three other names are mentioned as the owner of this property: Legant, Prince Heinrich of Prussia and Steinkopf.

After that, the owners changed even more frequently. The longest - from 1597 to 1735 - the Wüstenhoff family had the say in the village. Klein-Ottersleben had only 80 inhabitants in 1563, 170 in 1685, 339 in 1800 and even 1885 in 1890.

In the course of history, Klein Ottersleben essentially shared the fate of Groß Ottersleben. Since it was outside the solid walls, it was more often devastated by wars. During the Thirty Years' War Pappenheim is said to have had its base camp here, and later Tilly placed his batteries here in order to slowly advance towards Magdeburg.

The two villages on the western edge of Niendorf and Stemmern had already been devastated in this century of war. Klein-Ottersleben, on the other hand, held its own and was always rebuilt. After multiple sales of the manor and the barracks, the Böckelmann family acquired the manor after the French era at the beginning of the 19th century. Associated with this was the church patronage of Klein-Ottersleben. In the period that followed, the Böckelmann / Köhne family ruled the place. In 1874 WABöckelmann laid out the Ottersleben district garden . In 1922, Klein-Ottersleben was merged with Groß-Ottersleben. The Böckelmann / Köhne brothers also built a sugar factory in 1836, which, in addition to growing sugar beet and chicory, brought prosperity and increased the population (sugar factory closed in 1907). From 1948 the " MTS " and then the " MEBAU " then used the factory premises.

Buildings and facilities

• Ottersleben district garden
• Otter liver pond
• Saint Mary Help Church
• St. Stephen's Church
• Benneckenbeck residential tower

The cultural monuments in the district are listed in the local monument register .

Personalities

People born in Ottersleben of supraregional importance.

• Christian August Peicke (1846–1939), Ottersleber local researcher
• Julius Koch (1867–1934), social democratic trade unionist and politician
• Albert Dankert (1877–1933), worker sportsman
• Gustav Ferl (1890–1970), social democratic politician
• Erich Brose (1894–1974), Ottersleber local history researcher (born in Klein Ottersleben)
• Ernst Wille (1894–1944), SPD politician and resistance fighter against National Socialism ; At times also chairman of the SPD local group Groß Ottersleben
• Adolf Jentzen (1899–1943), resistance fighter against National Socialism (born in Klein Ottersleben)
• Kurt Hirschfeld (1902–1994), civil engineer, professor at RWTH Aachen University
• Günter Bust (1930–2005), music teacher and composer
• Norbert Kühne (* 1941), writer and psychologist, pseudonym: Ossip Ottersleben; lives in Marl (Westphalia)
• Lutz-Michael Häder (* 1947), football player (born in Groß Ottersleben)
• Gerd Eversberg (* 1947), Professor of Modern German Literature, Director of the Storm Archive, Husum (1989–2011) (born in Groß Ottersleben)

Not born in Ottersleben, but people connected with Ottersleben.

• Albert Fischer (1829-1896), Protestant pastor and hymnologist , was from 1877 to 1896 Protestant pastor in Ottersleben.
• Wilhelm Diek (1846–1926), Catholic pastor, was from 1872 to 1891 Catholic pastor in Ottersleben.

Web links

Commons : Ottersleben  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Heimatverein Ottersleben eV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ District catalog of the Office for Statistics
2. ↑ Municipalities 1994 and their changes since January 1, 1948 in the new federal states , Metzler-Poeschel publishing house, Stuttgart, 1995, ISBN 3-8246-0321-7 , publisher: Federal Statistical Office
3. ^ Theodor Günther: The von Wüstenhoff family in the Archdiocese of Magdeburg. In: Mitteldeutsche Familienkunde Volume 5, Neustadt an der Aisch 1976–78, pp. 465–478.