Natural disaster in Holstein
The natural disaster of Holstein also Fastelabendsflut (Fastnachtsflut) in 1648 or the earthquake in Holstein on February 14, 1648 (according to other sources February 15, 1648) was an extremely unusual combination of two natural events in the Holstein Elbe marshes .
course
The natural event, which is unusual for this region, stretched from Freiburg / Elbe in Lower Saxony via Glückstadt along the Geestrand to Hamburg. On the late evening of February 13, 1648, “violent storm winds” came up, which developed into a hurricane overnight , accompanied by showers of rain and hail. Various ships sank or were pushed ashore in the Elbe estuary and on the Elbe . The hurricane blew the church towers of Glückstadt , Krempe , Wewelsfleth , Brokdorf , Kollmar , Horst , Uetersen , Rellingen , Wedel and the Katharinenkirche in Hamburg . At the same time he destroyed countless buildings and lands, and bent and uprooted hundreds of thousands of trees. Thousands of people were in dire straits and danger. This was followed within hours by a devastating storm surge and - allegedly - an earthquake that set off fires. During the storm surge, parts of the low-lying Elbmarschen were flooded meters high. Due to the simultaneous earthquake, other church towers and buildings collapsed and also went up in flames. Countless people and animals were killed, the area was completely flooded and devastated for several months, "great and varied misery" followed.
Damage and reports
The main source of the storm is the poem Holstein don’t forget eß! by the Wedel pastor and poet Johann Rist and the reports from several eyewitnesses attached to it, who describe the devastation that the storm wreaked in their parish . Most of these eyewitnesses were pastors from the neighborhood who were friends with Rist; other friends of Rist, such as Georg Greflinger , also contributed their own eyewitness accounts, some of which were also in poetry.
In Krempe, the church with the altar, preacher's chair and baptism was so destroyed that the organ work and the pipes had to be sold in order to raise the money needed for the reconstruction. In Wedel, entire houses were washed up in the higher districts. The steeple of the Katharinenkirche in Hamburg was "lifted from its initial stone and fell on one side of the church roof with such a horrible crackling and pattering that it was thought that heaven and earth were collapsed or mixed up". In Drage “the tower of the time was stood several steps from the church ... with an indefatigable tremor firmly attached to the walls of the church ...”. Also reported from Bad Bramstedt : “On Monday after Esto mihi in the night at 11 o'clock, a large earthquake originated from storm winds, which knocked down the church tower and suffered great damage to the church, so that 6 Nye beams had to be sampled again be brought to the rafters. "
A chronicler reported about this disaster:
“Between Monday and Tuesday in the Shrovetide week such a terrible storm arose that the earth, including all the largest buildings, shook and trembled, and such cruel thunder and lightning were seen and heard that there might not be a person under the sky like that I experienced: Yes, large pieces or lumpy fire should have fallen on Freiburg or other ears of the same area. "
The Rellingen pastor also reported:
“So I haven't found a single one that can actually be compared with what we have experienced. Where did you see that such a storm wind and earthquake occurred at the same time, which in such a short period of time, within three hours, did such unbelievable damage, crushing so many buildings, towers, peaks, churches, houses, mills, and the like destroyed, so many hundreds of thousands of trees torn from the earth, indeed brought people into such fear and distress that, if it were possible, they would have liked to see themselves in the abyss of the earth. "
Rist's poem itself consists of 800 alexandrines with extensive annotations. Rist understood this storm as well as the death of King Christian IV, which took place only a few days later, as a sign of divine anger, especially because of the excesses of Shrovetide . In his book he not only described the catastrophe itself, but above all called on his community and readers to repent. The book also contains a long penitential song with 16 eight-line stanzas. Since this song was accompanied by notes, it should probably also be sung in the service.
swell
Johann Rist : Holstein don't forget to eat! . [Description of the natural disaster in Holstein]. Hamburg 1648 ( online )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christian Kuß : Yearbook of memorable natural events in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein from the 11th to 19th centuries , p. 168 (1825/26)
- ↑ Johann Rist: Holstein don't forget to eat! P. 1: “ With the crushing of a large number of people and cattle ”; P. 83 “ Should we now bring the number of drowned people together across the whole country, would the compassionate reader know how high the wol would be? "
- ^ Astrid Dröse: Georg Greflinger and the secular song in the 17th century . De Gruyter 201, pp. 135-137
- ^ Gerhard Dünnhaupt: Bibliographisches Handbuch der Barockliteratur: one hundred personal bibliographies of German authors of the seventeenth century. Part 3 RZ., P. 1577