Nysted

Nysted
Nysted
Basic data
State :	Denmark
Region :	Sjælland
Municipality (since 2007) :	Guldborgsund
Municipality / Office : (until the end of 2006)	Nysted Kommune Storstrøms Amt
Harde / Amt: (until March 1970)	Must Herred Maribo Office
Sogn :	Nysted Sogn
Coordinates :	54 ° 40 ′  N , 11 ° 44 ′  E Coordinates: 54 ° 40 ′  N , 11 ° 44 ′  E
Founded:	around 1200
Population : (2020)	1.312
Postal code :	4880 Nysted
The church on the old market (Gl.Torv)

Nysted is a town on the Baltic Sea in Denmark at the southeast end of the island of Lolland . The city forms its own parish municipality ( Danish : Sogn ) Nysted Sogn , which belonged to Harde Musse Herred in what was then Maribo Amt until the Danish municipal reform of 1970 , after which the city was the administrative seat of Nysted Kommune in Storstrøms Amt , which was part of the next Danish municipal reform 2007 in Guldborgsund municipality in region Zealand has risen. The city had 1,312 inhabitants on January 1, 2020.

Nysted was founded in the Middle Ages very close to the royal castle Aalholm and a Franciscan monastery as a port. Throughout the centuries Nysted has been a center of trade and traffic because the harbor was the only natural harbor on the southern coast of Lolland. A railway connection was set as early as the 1960s.

Geology / topography

During the last Ice Age, there was such a heavy layer of ice on Scandinavia that the land subsided. When the ice melted, Lolland was only separated from Central Europe by a water-rich river. This river later became the Fehmarnbelt .

At the same time, the ice had left a landscape of moraine deposits containing earth and stones . Most of Lolland and Falster became a flat plain, in other places moraine landscapes with hills and ravines emerged. Under the moraine lie thick layers of limestone that were formed in earlier periods when Denmark was below sea level. At Nysted, the limestone layer is close to the surface.

Nysted is at the southeast end of a system of hills and lakes that stretches from Nysted to Maribo in interior Lolland and on to Ravnsborg. The cluster of small islands on Lolland's north coast is the other end of the hill system. In the years after the ice melted, Scandinavia rose again and the area near Nysted subsided. This is also clearly shown by the fact that Stone Age settlements can be found underwater off the coast. The landscape south of Nysted sank into the sea, leaving behind the landscape we now know.

and display information about the image

Nysted panorama

history

antiquity

The Guldhøj store

The area around Nysted

Finds from the Mesolithic are rather rare here, as the first inhabitants of Denmark (hunters, fishermen and gatherers) settled on the sandy soils in Jutland . The finds in the Nysted area are several thousand years younger, Neolithic and are concentrated in Frejlev Skov (5 to 6 km from Nysted on Guldborg Sound ). There are 18 megalithic complexes ( Kong Grøns Høj ) as well as two hills with large curbs to the north: Store and Lille Guldhøj next to about 100 burial mounds from the Bronze Age .

The bay near Nysted, together with a fairway, provided good protection for ships from ancient times and the Middle Ages. There is no other safe haven on the south coast of Lolland or Falster. Today the port of Nysted has to admit defeat, because nowadays the ships are so huge that they never get into the port. There is also a headland off the coast that stretches from Rødbyhavn to Gedser , and this headland makes the waterway to Nysted difficult.

middle Ages

We know from the “ Gesta Danorum ” written by Saxo around the year 1210 that the inhabitants of Lolland and Falster did not always obey the Danish king. They lived far from the centers of power in Jelling in Jutland or Roskilde on Zealand and close to the Wends in northern Germany. The connection between the Lollands and the Wends was perhaps better and more cordial than the connection with the Danish king. In any case, it turns out that many place names on Lolland are of Wendish origin.

Ramps were built in at least three different places on Lolland-Falster. One wall was near Virket on Falster, a second wall was near the lakes near Maribo and a third was near Vesterborg in western Lolland. Apparently they were supposed to protect the population from attacks from the north (or south?).

The oldest parts of Aalholm Castle are from the beginning of the 14th century. King Christoph II is said to have lived in the castle as a prisoner of Count Johann von Holstein . The king was deeply in debt and therefore had to hand over the castle to the count. Presumably the king was later released and died a few years later in Sakskøbing .

By 1300 at the latest, Nysted was the natural center of the area and the center of the royal fief, later in the parish of Nysted. Nysted is bordered by moorland, and these moorland form a natural border to the north and west. Land transport was difficult until the age of the railroad and later the automobile. Therefore, the port contributed to the trade and export / import of goods. There are several sources describing the grain and livestock trade. Goods such as B. Beer, wine, woven fabrics and other goods not produced on Lolland. In 1409 the town of Nysted got its town charter from King Erik of Pomerania .

Franciscan monastery

Nysted is not particularly big, but the city was so important that a royal castle and a monastery were built by the Franciscan Order , founded in Italy in 1210 . At that time, Franciscan monasteries were preferably founded in cities of a certain size and importance. It is therefore likely that the city was there earlier than the monastery.

The monastery was first mentioned in historical sources in 1286. It belonged to the Dacia order and existed until 1538 as one of the last monasteries in Denmark after the Reformation . The last remains of the convent were demolished around 1800.

1500-1900

During this period, Nysted was still as important as many other Danish cities. Back then, most cities were small and adapted to local needs. Nysted still had a large stake in the import / export business. The most important trading partners were Northern Germany, Norway and Sweden . Goods such as iron, wine, alcohol, hops, coffee, tea, cotton, silk, rice, salt, sugar and wood were imported. The main exports were cattle and grain.

The Latin School

Until 1740 there was a Latin school in Nysted. She was quite short, and the only known student at the school was Niels Hemmingsen (1513–1600). He was born in Herritslev, west of Nysted. He studied theology at the University of Wittenberg as a student of Philipp Melanchthon . From 1553 Hemmingsen was professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen and a well-known figure in the current academic milieu. When the Latin school was closed, the school building served as the "School of Christian Faith". Later a new school was set up in Nysted, right next to the town hall.

The wars against Great Britain

Nysted 1859

Although the harbor is well protected, nature is a capricious opponent. During the wars against Napoleon , Denmark was at war with Great Britain in 1811. In October the British had gathered a fleet of 120 merchant ships in the bay near Hanø in southern Sweden. They were to be escorted through the inner Danish waters by eight ships of the line and a few other warships.

The British had bitter experiences with Danish privateer ships, which attacked at lightning speed and exploited the ships. The British fleet began its voyage on November 9th. 10 cargo ships sank in a storm between Falster and Rügen . On November 15, the British fleet was at Rødsand south of Nysted. Then the storm intensified again. Two more ships sank, and another 12 ships stranded and became Danish spoils of war. The British liner “St. George “went aground too, but she came back afloat. Although she had lost the rudder and masts, she dragged herself to Thorsminde on the west coast of Jutland, where she and a second ship of the line "Defense" split up on the coast on December 24, 1811. Between 1300 and 1400 seamen were killed, only 17 seamen were able to save themselves on land. In 2002 the helm of the “St. George ”at Rødsand off the coast when the wind farm was being built.

During the wars against Great Britain two entrenchments were built. The large ski jump is close to the bay and can be seen from the harbor. It's still called "Skansen". The other ski jump is at the beginning of the port area. As far as we know, these structures were never contested, but in 1864, during the German-Danish War , the ski jumps became topical again for a short time.

Nysted and the traffic

Although Lolland-Falster has always been - and is - viewed as a peripheral area, Nysted used to have an important function in connection with traffic to Holstein , which was part of Denmark until 1864. In 1797 the Danish adjutant general Løvenørn investigated whether it might be worthwhile to create a ferry connection between Nysted and Holstein. The investigations led to a ferry connection being established in 1804. In 1807 it was discontinued because of the war with England and never resumed. The ferry connection was still under discussion and was resumed in 1962 with the Vogelfluglinie , but now between Rødby and Puttgarden . Rødsand was an obstacle again.

The 20th century

If you compare maps from the years 1677 and 1763 with the descriptions in the standard work Statistisk-topografisk Beskrivelse af Kongeriget Danmark ("Statistical-topographical description of the Kingdom of Denmark") founded by Jens Peter Trap , you can clearly see that Nysted has been since the Middle Ages has hardly grown. It was not until 1960 that the city area expanded, and now Nysted is about twice as large as it was in the Middle Ages.

Nysted's story is like that of many other Danish cities, but development stopped in the 20th century. The ships got bigger and no longer came to Nysted, the main roads and the railway went to Nykøbing, and Nysted was in the shade. Industrial development passed Nysted by.

economy

Most of the citizens live from agriculture or tourism or work in other cities, such as Nykøbing or Maribo.

Nysted is a quiet place to live and a popular holiday home area. Further holiday homes are already planned.

The Nysted Maersk in March 2017

In the sea in front of the city there are 162 (90 + 72) huge wind turbines from Nysted Havmøllepark , which generate environmentally friendly electricity.

Others

• In 2001 a container ship of the Danish shipping company Maersk was christened: "Nysted Maersk". The ship's home port is Nysted.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Statistics Banks -> Befolkning og valg -> BY1: Folketal January 1st efter byområde, alder og køn (Danish)
2. ↑ JP Trap: Kongeriget Danmark ; 3. Udgave 3. Bind: Bornholms, Maribo, Odense and Svendborg Amter; Kjøbenhavn 1899 ; s. 143 f. (Danish), accessed April 9, 2020

Web links

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

• Website of the municipality (Danish)
• City website (Danish and German)