Mellum
| Mellum | ||
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| Waters | North Sea | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 43 '16 " N , 8 ° 8' 58" E | |
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| length | 3 km | |
| width | 1.8 km | |
| surface | 3 km² | |
| Highest elevation | (White dunes) 3 m above sea level NN |
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| Residents | uninhabited | |
| main place | Mellum nature conservation station | |
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Mellum (also Alte Mellum ) is a relatively young dune island in the North Sea , nine kilometers east of Horumersiel in the state of Lower Saxony . The island developed from a high sand , it is located on the northern tip of the Hohe Weg Wadden, the North Sea coastal towns of Horumersiel and Schillig . It was not formed until the last quarter of the 19th century on the mud flats between Jade and Weser . It is one of three uninhabited islands in the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park , all of which are subject to strict nature conservation conditions. Whether Mellum is one of the East Frisian Islands is controversial, as the island is east of Wangerooge and the Outer Jade . After the delimitation by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the Mellum no longer belongs to the East Frisian Islands, but to the mud flats in the Elbe-Weser triangle . Almost seven kilometers northeast is the occasional dry falling , around 0.4 square kilometers large sandbank West Eversand. Another nine kilometers to the northeast is the Hohe Knechtsand .
geography
The island has a southwest-northeast extension of about three kilometers. The island stretches for around 1.8 kilometers in a north-west-south-east direction. Today it mainly consists of dunes and salt marshes . Their shape is constantly changing due to currents and wind. The grassland with the salt marsh is growing and expanding. This island area is cut through by troughs up to 2 meters deep .
The area of the grassland was ten hectares in 1903 and has been growing since then:
- 1913: 13 hectares
- 1924: 23 hectares
- 1932: 38 hectares
- 2006: 75 hectares
The supply of sand at Mellum, and with it the enlargement of the island, takes place through reefs and plateaus that merge with the island from the sea. But sand dumping of dredged material in the Mellum reef complex can also be responsible for this in recent times. The island growth did not always proceed so smoothly. In 1937, for example, it was noted in the minutes of the Mellum Council that the winter storms had completely flooded the island and that the dune was about 10 meters wide over a length of 50 meters.
After finding a freshwater lens in 1983, the sometimes difficult transport of freshwater to supply the stationed nature conservation station was no longer necessary . As an emergency reserve, rainwater is also collected on the roof of the station building and fed into a cistern .
Natural allocation
Mellum belongs to the Wadden high way in the main natural unit group Ems- and Wesermarschen (No. 61) to the natural area Watten in the Elbe-Weser triangle Jadebusen . At the upper level, it belongs as part of the marshland to the greater region of the North German Lowlands .
Affiliation
According to the LSKN (as of October 28, 2009) , the island is not incommunalized, which means that Mellum does not belong to any municipality, to any district and is also not a municipality-free area . According to the LSKN, Mellum therefore does not have a community key . Other presumed current or former affiliations of Mellum are also expressly contradicted by the Landesbetrieb Landesvergabe und Geobasisinformation Niedersachsen (LGN).
Most of the land is owned by the State of Lower Saxony. A small part (formerly parcel 1 of corridor 23 of the Langwarden district with a size of 4522 square meters, built since 1950 with the Mellum nature conservation station) belongs to the Oldenburg State Association for History, Natural History and Local History.
history
Emergence
The island emerged at the end of the 19th century at the slack water in the Wadden Sea between Jadestrom and Weser before the peninsula Butjadingen . The tidal current, which flows in from the northwest, transports sand, from which beach reefs build up. The surf pushes up the sand and forms a beach wall, which is called "Hochdünkirchen" on old nautical charts .
Human interference in the island's nature took place only to a limited extent. In the south there is a ring dike that was built during World War II when an anti-aircraft battery was stationed there. This is the only flood-proof area on the island. The size of the diked area is around four hectares . A path runs from the ring dike in a south-westerly direction to the south beach of the island. There is a memorial stone for the 312nd Marine Fortress Engineer Battalion along this path .
Scientific discovery
The year 1903 is considered to be the “discovery” of the island of Mellum in the Jade-Weser estuary. Heinrich Schütte and Karl Sartorius from Oldenburg followed the development closely, noted all changes and laid the foundations for today's scientific work. As late as 1906, the Mellum was not entered as an island at the location of the island in a map of the mouths of the Jade, Weser and Elbe (see the illustration on the right).
The first report on the newly created island in the Wadden Sea was provided by the rector Heinrich Schütte, the “discoverer” of Mellum and founding father of the Mellum Council, who was later awarded an honorary doctorate for his pioneering coastal geological research . He wrote in 1924:
- “In the summer of 1903 I learned from residents of the Jeverland Jade Coast that a green island was being formed on the Alte Mellum, the high sandy mud flats between the Jade and Weser estuaries. No measuring table or general staff sheet , no admiralty card reported the location of this new territory, no local history document knew anything about it. I had to see that at the next opportunity. "
This "discovery" of the island can also be seen as the birth of nature conservation on Mellum. In 1905 Schütte, Wilhelm Olbers Focke and the Oldenburg teacher and ornithologist Karl Sartorius went to the island. The three scientists recognized the importance of this island as a breeding area for terns and other beach bird species. In contrast to the other East Frisian islands , where coastal protection measures have intervened in the dynamics of island development, the coastal geological processes on Mellum can be observed undisturbed. In 1912, the Kiel branch of the Federation for Bird Protection leased the island from the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg for 12 years and employed a bird keeper in the summer months to look after and guard them.
Mellum was part of the Wilhelmshaven fortress area as early as the First World War . No bird protection could be exercised during the war . Unauthorized entry to the island was strictly forbidden, but the prohibition was hardly successful. In the 1920s the Mellum-Plate was often ravaged by egg collectors and shooters.
Alleged Mellum Castle
In old chronicles a Mellum Castle or even a Mellum Castle is often mentioned. Even Wilhelm Olbers Focke wrote in 1901 in the essays published by the Natural Science Association in Bremen : “... former island in the mouth of the Weser, is said to have owned a permanent castle in the 9th century, which supposedly in 1066, but probably, if it existed at all, already was previously destroyed by floods. The island is said to have almost completely disappeared in 1086, but according to maps from the 17th century it seems that even then there was still an insignificant remnant. Now (note: end of the 19th century) a sandbank with a lighthouse. Foundations, which were found northwest of the lighthouse, were taken to be the remains of the castle. ”In a comprehensive article Mellum Castle - Legend or History? by Alfred Führböter in Mellum - Portrait of an island (Ed .: Gisela Gerdes, Wolfgang E. Crookshanks, Hans-Erich Reineck (1987)) are an in-depth research into the existence of a castle Mellum stated results. With reference to the importance of an earlier Mellum castle in the context of the historical territorial disputes between Oldenburg and Bremen, reference is made to the strategic value of a permanent structure on Mellum in connection with the raids of the Normans at that time. In conclusion, Mellum Castle remains in the no man's land between legend and history.
There are no archaeological findings about a castle. A beacon erected in 1457 is secured , the remains of which may have been interpreted as the foundation of a lighthouse or a castle.
Second World War - Mellum Flak Battery
→ Main article: Flak battery Mellum
During the Second World War, the only artificial intervention in the natural development of the island took place in 1940–1942: a ring dike was built on the southern half by flushing sand. The 1st and 3rd companies of the 312nd Marine Fortress Engineer Battalion set up an anti-aircraft battery with gun and searchlight positions here. An asphalt parade ground was also one of the changes. The north side of the diked area accommodated the largest bunker and the main flak. Further flak and searchlight batteries were located in the northwest, southeast and south of the ring dike. All positions are still visible today through the ruins of bunkers and concrete foundations of the guns.
After the war, the British military administration had most of the bunkers blown up. However, this was only partially successful, as the large bunker with viewing platform still shows today. The bunker failed and the ceiling panel of the building unfolded like an upside-down "V". In 1955, the ornithological station built a viewing platform from alluvial wood on the side of the bunker ceiling. Today it is the highest accessible point on the island.
2009 - conflagration on Mellum
On June 17, 2009, a wildfire broke out on Mellum for an unknown reason. Because there is no water to extinguish the island, the fire could only be fought with fire boots from the volunteer fire brigades and water from fire-fighting helicopters and was only extinguished three days later. Ten hectares were burned, including the breeding areas of a herring gull and an oyster fishing colony. According to the Naturschutzbund Deutschland, around 2,000 young birds died in the fire.
Flora and fauna
vegetation
The vegetation development was continuous. In 1906 only 27 plant species were identified, today there are more than 200 species, although a considerable part of them came to the island through human intervention during the Second World War.
In 1946, in addition to typical garden weeds , kitchen onions , parsley , broad beans , peas and red cabbage were documented on the island. To this day, for example, chives and black salsify have been preserved in the eastern part of the diked area, and the daffodils in spring still bear witness to human interventions in the Second World War.
Today, in addition to dune grasses, beach asters and springs, the following larger plants can be found (mainly in "diked" areas):
- Hawthorns
- Willows (near the pond and the station house, the tallest plant on the island at around 10 m)
- elder
- Sea buckthorn
- Apple trees (a handful, more pronounced as bushes , but bearing fruit)
- a big jaw
The pond next to the station house was originally the extinguishing water pond for the flak battery in World War II and is now a biotope with bird watching houses.
In August 2002, mycological studies were carried out on Mellum. 38 different types of mushrooms were found on the island. Five species are classified as “endangered” in the Lower Saxony Red List , one is considered “critically endangered” and is also listed as “endangered” throughout Germany. A species of fungus was first detected in Lower Saxony.
Birds
At first Mellum was an island of the terns . In the 1920s a population of around 7,000 animals was breeding there . With the change in vegetation in the 1930s, the composition of the breeding bird species changed . The number of breeding herring gulls increased steadily, that of the terns decreased.
The main causes for the changes in the species spectrum are likely to have been changes in the biotope (increase in high and dense vegetation), competition for nesting sites, breeding losses of the terns due to flooding and the predation of eggs and chicks by gulls . For decades, particular attention was paid to the spread of the herring gull and the decline of the tern.
As a measure of the herring gull population control, breeding birds were killed. Herring gull control reached its peak in 1939, when around 12,000 eggs were collected, 4,500 young and 150 adult birds were shot.
Today Mellum is an island of seagulls. A few years ago the peak was exceeded with about 13,000 breeding pairs, so currently about 7000 pairs of black and white gulls breed on Mellum . In addition, the oystercatcher is represented with around 400 breeding pairs.
Today over 30 species of birds breed on Mellum. The cormorant was added as a new breeding bird in 1991, the spoonbill in 1996 , the black-headed gull in 1997 and the black-headed gull in 1998 . There are also rarer species such as hen harrier , little tern and merlin falcon .
In autumn and spring, other species of waders and water birds visit the island and the surrounding sand plateaus and mud flats. Here they can rest and eat undisturbed - crucial prerequisites for being able to create the necessary fat pads for their onward flight to their winter quarters or to the breeding area.
Mammals
Besides common seals , gray seals and humans, wood mice are the only mammals on Mellum. They were brought in during the Second World War with planting material that was needed to build the ring dike.
Mellum and the neighboring Hohe Weg Watt with its numerous sandbanks is one of the most important seal habitats in the national park.
natural reserve
Protection status
The entire island and the surrounding plateaus, sands and mud flats belong to protection zone I (quiet zone) in the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park and may therefore only be entered with a special permit.
Mellum can also be entered as part of an excursion . The Mellumrat excursions take place outside the breeding season from August to October.
In 1909, the Oldenburg Ministry of the Interior issued the first order for the protection of sea birds on Mellum. In 1938 the nature reserve “Vogelfreistätte Insel Mellum” was designated with a size of 25 hectares. In 1953 the protection area was expanded to 3,500 hectares. In 1983, 6,500 hectares were redesignated under the name “Mellum Nature Reserve”. When the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park was founded in 1986, the nature reserve was integrated into the national park with the "Hohe-Weg-Watt" nature reserve immediately to the south.
Mellumrat
On February 28, 1925, under the chairmanship of Heinrich Schütte, the “Administrative Council for the Alte Mellum Nature Reserve” - or “ Mellumrat ” for short - was founded. The following organizations were founding members:
- the Oldenburg federal state group for bird protection
- the Heimat-, Natur- und Vogelschutzverein Wilhelmshaven
- the Society for the Protection of Native Birds in Bremen
- the Reichsbund Vogelschutz
- the Heligoland ornithological station
The Mellumrat e. V. has looked after the island since 1925 and ensures continuous nature conservation work. The association maintains stations on Mellum, Wangerooge , Minsener Oog and in other protected areas in Lower Saxony. They are the starting point for support, research and public relations work by the voluntary nature conservation association.
Living conditions of the nature reserve
In the first decades, the birdwatcher's accommodation was the residential beacon from 1907 in the north of the island, later the Spitzbake erected in 1922 about 600 meters southwest of the grassland in the sand floodplain. The beacon was 22 meters high and was about two meters in the water at medium high tide. Entry was only possible via a steep, nine-meter-long ladder. All loads, food, driftwood, coal and water had to be hoisted up using a pulley . It was always necessary to heat, even in midsummer, because despite the double, insulated walls, it was cold in the lofty heights. A small cannon stove was ready for cooking. The beacon had two rooms: a living / sleeping and cooking area with two beds for the ornithological station and another room for emergency storage. The supply of the ornithological station was very laborious - the drinking water had to be carried in 40 liter cans.
A permanent shelter on Mellum is mentioned for the first time in 1933 , which was used by the bird watchdogs primarily as protection during target practice. After the Second World War, the ornithological stations lived in emergency shelters under difficult conditions. In 1950 the Mellumrat had a brick building erected as a permanent station on the foundation of the former flak building. The station building with its seven rooms, today plastered and painted white, offers the nature conservation officers and visiting researchers living and working space. Up to ten people can be accommodated here at the same time. The roof of the building was re-covered in 2004. In the course of time, two sheds were built at the station house to expand the work opportunities. In 1972 the connection to the power grid followed and later a small brick transformer house was built in the eastern part of the diked area. In addition to the station house, some lighthouses in the area are also supplied with electricity via the power line to the mainland . Today the ornithological station is connected to the outside world by mobile means. A direct telephone line existed until 2009.
The nature conservation watchdogs are usually on Mellum from March to October.
rubbish
Several tons of garbage are found on the island every year. Since it is uninhabited, it has an indicator function for civilization. According to random samples, around three quarters of the garbage is plastic, which is traced back to plastic waste in the oceans .
literature
- W. Janssen: Mellum diary - In: Nature and environmental protection (magazine of the Mellum Council ), issue 2/2007
- Th. Clemens: One hundred years of Mellum - an island in transition In: Nature and environmental protection (Mellumrat magazine), Issue 2/2003 ( Online , PDF file, 140 kB)
- F. Goethe: An old "Mellumer" remembers In: Nature and environmental protection (magazine of the Mellumrat), issue 1/2003
- PH Becker: Can the common tern on Mellum protect itself from breeding losses by the herring gull? - In: Mellum. Portrait of an island. Senckenberg Book 63; Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main: 281-292, 1987
- P. Blaszyk: History and task of nature conservation on Mellum. In: Mellum. Portrait of an island. Senckenberg Book 63; Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main: 9-16, 1987
- F. Goethe: The bird island Mellum (contributions to the monograph of a German sea bird sanctuary). Ornithological Area 4: 1–110, 1939
- F. Goethe: The bird life on Mellum . In: Mellum. Portrait of an island. Senckenberg Book 63; Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main: 293-309, 1989
- S. u. H. Janssen, TABKEN: Plant inventory of Mellum 1946 . To the Mellumrat (reproduced in the manuscript).
- H. Kuhbier: The vegetation of the island of Mellum . In: Nature reserves in the Oldenburgerland. Holzberg-Verlag, 1975.
- W. Leopold: Mellum. The importance of plant communities for the island's growth . Senckenbergiana, Vol. 14/6: 410-427, 1932
- J. u. L. Leyrer, Nolsson: Annual Report Mellum. (Unpublished; Mellumrat archive), 1996.
- Hartwig Prange: Mellum - a bird island in the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea . In: Albrecht GmbH (Ed.): Fachpraxis . No. 52 . Aulendorf December 2007, p. 34-37 .
- H.-E. Reineck: Morphological development of the island of Mellum. In: Mellum - Portrait of an Island. Senckenberg Book 63; Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main: 87-99, 1987.
- W. Schäfer: Island development and biotope change . - Treatises of the Natural Science Association Bremen 33: 391–406, 1954.
- Heinrich Schütte : Mellum as new territory . - The Jade Territory 1: 12-15, 1924.
- P. and B. Südbeck, Hältlein: Breeding bird populations on the German North Sea coast in 1997 - 11th survey by the “Seevogelschutz” working group. - Seevögel 20/1: 9-16, 1999.
- R. Tantzen: Mellum - A contribution to the history of the nature reserve in the Oldenburger Land . Ed .: W. Hartung, Oldenburg, 1950.
- K. Taux: The Oldenburg nature reserves . Heinz Holzberg Verlag, Oldenburg, 1986.
- Christoph Heilscher: Mellum - The lonely island next door . 1st edition. Carl Schünemann, Bremen 2014, ISBN 978-3-944552-21-7 .
- Volker Haeseler : Origin and current state of the young dune islands Memmert and Mellum as well as research program on colonization by insects and other arthropods. In: Drosera '88 (1/2). Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 1988, ISBN 3-920557-80-8 .
Web links
- The Mellumrat e. V. . Mellumrat e. V .. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
- The Mellumrat e. V .: History of the bird island Mellum . Retrieved September 2, 2013.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Landscape profile: Wadden in the Elbe-Weser triangle Jadebusen ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, accessed on November 4, 2014.
- ↑ Information from the State Office for Statistics and Communication Technology Lower Saxony (LSKN) ( website ) to user: DW18 of October 28, 2009. Note: Mellum therefore does not appear in the LSKN online database and does not appear in any official statistics. Wording of the information from the LSKN: “The island of Mellum is not listed as an area free of municipalities in the official statistics. That is why Mellum cannot be found in our LSKN-ONLINE database. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you where the key comes from in the publication of the LGN "03461501" [...]. As you probably know, there are still a number of islands (sandbanks) in the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea that do not have an official community key. B. Minsener Oog , Hoher Knechtsand and others. "
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↑ Note on information to the contrary: According to the information provided by the GDI-NI coordination office at the Landesbetrieb Landesvergabe und Geobasisinformation Niedersachsen (LGN) in the Lower Saxony geoportal (official maps etc.), the island (as of May 28, 2008) was a municipality-free area ( municipality key 03461501) of the district Wesermarsch in Lower Saxony. Source: GDI-NI coordination office at the State Surveying Office and Geobasis Information Lower Saxony: Information on the place directory ( memento of the original from December 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Geoportal Niedersachsen. Query: October 2009. Original source: Local directory of the State of Lower Saxony (as of May 28, 2008). Note on the query: Layer “Administrative boundaries and Activate Places → Place names “. Query via Tool Info (toolbar above) and click in the outline of the bird keeper's house. Link has meanwhile been deactivated (as of November 2009).) On request, however, the LGN contradicted this representation and rejected this information as incorrect. According to the clarification of the LGN to users: DW18 of November 6, 2009, the island of Mellum is not a community-free area. The trigger for the incorrect encryption in the Lower Saxony geoportal (see above) as a "community-free area" can no longer be determined. The information mentioned in the Lower Saxony geoportal was then corrected. Wording of the information from the LGN: "Thank you for your email in which you addressed the encryption of the bird protection island" Alte Mellum "as a" community-free area ". After much research, u. a. also with the department responsible for local affairs at the Ministry of the Interior, I can tell you that you are right. Why and on the basis of which documents the encryption was carried out at that time could no longer be reconstructed. Efforts were made as early as the 1990s to u. a. also to incommunalize the bird protection island "Alte Mellum" [...], but the interest of all those involved seems to have more or less extinguished, so that the "island" as a "better sandbank" is directly subordinate to the state of Lower Saxony. A new "place directory" has been sent to the responsible office that looks after the internet presentation "geodaten.geoportal.niedersachsen" with the request for an exchange. Sincerely, Martin Bremer, LGN - Land surveying + geographic base information Lower Saxony Topographical information procurement - geographic base information management (GIM) ”. In older maps, the island was partly noted as belonging to the (then) municipality of Langwarden (since 1974 part of Butjadingen ) in the Lower Saxony district of Wesermarsch (Source: Land surveying and geographic base information Lower Saxony: Official map TK 1: 50,000 (L 2314 Hooksiel) . Status 1966. The "Lower Saxony Atlas" from 1967 also contains an overview map of the municipal boundaries (as of April 1, 1967) on which the island of Mellum is assigned to the former municipality of Langwarden. The LGN also expressly excludes this former affiliation, which results from the latter cited maps According to the LGN, the island was never incommunalized (information from LGN from November 13, 2009 to user: DW18), but at least not since the local government reform in 1974 (information from LGN from November 25, 2009 to user: DW18).
- ^ Submerged localities on the German North Sea coast In: Abhandlungen edited by the Natural Science Association in Bremen. Volume 15, Contributions to Northwest German Folklore and Regional Studies. Issue 1, Bremen 1901, p. 66.
- ↑ Volker Haeseler : Origin and current condition of the young dune islands Memmert and Mellum as well as research program on colonization by insects and other arthropods . In: Drosera '88 (1/2) . 1st edition. Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 1988, ISBN 3-920557-80-8 , p. 18 .
- ↑ Fire brigade fights embers on Mellum . Northern German Radio. June 19, 2009. Archived from the original on June 21, 2009. Retrieved on November 7, 2009.
- ↑ Conflagration on the bird island Mellum ( Memento from March 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The Mellumrat e. V .: Flora from Mellum . Retrieved September 2, 2013.
- ↑ The Mellumrat e. V .: Fauna of Mellum . Retrieved September 2, 2013.
- ↑ mellumrat.de
- ↑ Klaus Taux: The Oldenburg nature reserves. Oldenburg. Heinz Holzberg Publishing House. 1986, pp. 263-273.
- ↑ The Mellumrat e. V .: Nature Conservation Office . Retrieved September 2, 2013.
- ↑ Clemens, Thomas: Investigation of the garbage pollution of the island Mellum 1991. - Seevögel. Vol. 13, 1992, pp. 55-60.
Schleswig-Holstein: Heligoland | Dune | Blauort | Trischen - Hamburg: Scharhörn | Niger horns | Neuwerk - Lower Saxony: Hoher Knechtsand | Mellum
West Frisian Islands - East Frisian Islands - North Frisian Islands
Borkum | Bant | Lütje Hörn | Brauerplate | Tile plate | Memmert | Juist | Norderney | Baltrum | Langeoog | Spiekeroog | Wangerooge | Minsener Oog | Mellum
|
The next island to the west: Minsener Oog |
East Frisian Islands |
The next island to the east: Nigehörn |