Oluf Samson gang

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Street sign with the words Oluf-Samson-Gang
(photo taken on June 25, 2014)

The Oluf-Samson-Gang (also ( Petuh ): Oluf-Samsons-Gang ; popularly / Petuh shortened as Oluf ; Danish : Oluf Samsons Gang as well as Oluf-Samson-Gang ) is a street in the northern old town of Flensburg , which on Flensburg harbor flows into it. The alley between Norderstrasse and Schiffbrücke became known nationwide as the “ Sin Mile ”, which is characterized by picturesque fishermen's houses.

Origin and naming

View from the harbor on the Oluf-Samson-Gang. At the end of the day, the Danish Central Library for South Schleswig is in Norderstrasse , above this the HLA's Schloss-Duburg-Schule, where the Duburg was located.

The north of the four original Flensburg settlement centers, the so-called Ramsharde , was originally a fishermen's and small people's quarter , like the Johannisviertel . With the emergence of Flensburg as the most important port city under the Danish crown in the 16th century, however , more and more merchants settled on the waterfront of the main street, today's Norderstrasse (Nørregade) . Here, too, they built the elongated merchants' courtyards so characteristic of Flensburg, which ended with a granary near the port. The house was at the west end on the higher main street.

In 1582 the merchant Oluf Samson took his citizenship oath in the Fördestadt. Its name has nothing to do with the biblical figure Samson , but refers to the origin of the island of Samsø in the Kattegat . Obviously, Oluf Samson quickly gained wealth and reputation as a merchant and ship owner. He married the daughter of the clerk of the Flensburg office , whose official seat was near Duburg and came into possession of his property. Between these two properties there was a small corridor to the port, which was first mentioned in 1593. On this, Oluf Samson built several small apartment buildings, in which mainly socially disadvantaged people found a home. In the course of the economic crisis that spread from 1610 onwards, Oluf Samson had to sell ever larger parts of his property. From 1617 he only owned the two houses on Norderstrasse. The south side of the corridor in particular was now densely populated with small houses.

The corridor was open to the public and only served many Flensburg residents as a short connection from the city ​​center to the ship bridge . The name of the Ganges is attested for the first time in the said year 1617, at that time apparently still as "Oluff Sambsos Hof". Soon after, Oluf Samson also had to sell the rest of the property. In 1618 or 1622, the now impoverished Oluf Samson died. The whereabouts of his seven children are not known. None of them were listed as homeowners in Flensburg.

Redevelopment of Hafengasse

After King Christian IV dragged the countries of the Danish crown into the Thirty Years' War , Flensburg experienced the most serious setbacks in its history when it was occupied by the troops of the Catholic League from 1627 to 1629 and a few years later by the Swedes. The buildings on the Oluf-Samson-Gang were also largely destroyed. Only in the 18th century did the city flourish again. At that time the street, still named after Oluf Samson, was completely built on. Almost all of the houses that are preserved today, usually smaller plastered half-timbered buildings, date from this time.

The Oluf-Samson-Gang remained a street of the common people. In the 19th century, it was mainly boatmen and craftsmen who lived here. Since the nickname for "Oluf" is "wool", the gang was popularly nicknamed "Wollesgang" or "Wolmsgang" at the beginning of the 19th century. A similar phenomenon can still be found today in Wollesgyde, also reminiscent of an Oluf, in the neighboring town of Aabenraa . In the course of advancing industrialization around 1840, workers made up the largest number of residents in the following period.

During the national disputes between Germans and Danes from the middle of the 19th century, the northern old town was one of the districts with the highest proportion of Danish-minded people. A well-known picture from the time immediately before the referendum in Schleswig on nationality on March 14, 1920 in accordance with the provisions of the Versailles Treaty shows an almost continuous flagging of the street with the Danebrog .

The well-preserved historical building fabric also attracted more and more admirers. The most famous depiction of the street from that time is an expressionist painting by Erich Heckel , which shows the street to the east towards the Jürgenkirche .

The Oluf-Samson-Gang in the entertainment district

The Oluf in the (former) entertainment district between Norderstrasse and Schiffbrücke . In the foreground the Kayser's Hof, which has been converted into the Hotel Hafen Flensburg (2016)

Due to the First World War and the economic crisis in the course of the new border drawing in 1920, many Flensburg residents suffered economic hardship. Numerous houses had to be sold, and the social status of the harbor area declined. In 1918 the first prostitutes were found in the street. Beyond that, however, there was apparently prostitution in Flensburg even before this time . On October 18, 1889, the Washington Evening Star reported under the headline: Jack the Ripper: Has he left England to continue his crimes in Germany? (translated: Jack the Ripper : Did he leave England to continue his crimes in Germany?), about the murder of a prostitute in Flensburg, in which the corpse was mutilated. In the course of the economic crisis from 1929 onwards, the Oluf-Samson-Gang, whose new homeowners mostly rented the apartments cheaply, developed into an almost closed brothel mile. While the Second World War and its aftermath initially did not change the status of the street, prostitution reached its peak during the economic miracle and into the 1970s. Up to 70 women worked in the "horizontal trade" in the small street. At that time, the Oluf-Samson-Gang, which was followed by an extensive entertainment and nightlife district on the ship bridge and in the other side streets , was probably the most famous brothel street between Hamburg-Sankt Pauli and Copenhagen's Istedgade . In 2015, "the last representative of the horizontal trade " moved out.

From the beginning of the renovation until today

Oluf-Samson-Gang 3–5, one of the old houses on the street

In the 1950s, plans arose to demolish the entire northern old town , to build on Norderstraße with modern terraced houses and to straighten and widen it to make it car-friendly . For financial reasons, these plans were not implemented , apart from individual buildings such as the Danish library from 1959. Many of the old houses were falling into disrepair.

In the 1970s, a rethink began with regard to the value of the historic buildings in the old town . The houses on the Oluf-Samson-Gangs, some of which were already badly dilapidated, were placed under monument protection. The city wanted the prostitutes to have left the street by the mid-1980s. From then on, the old houses were sold to private individuals with the aim of getting them ready for their own residential purposes. This process happened to more and more houses from the beginning of the 1980s. At the same time prostitution migrated to Kayser's court .

Today most of the houses on the street are in a restored condition. However, some of the small buildings were already so badly dilapidated that they practically had to be rebuilt from scratch. As part of the restoration, prostitution was pushed back. Some houses have not been restored to this day. Nowadays there are only two women who have lived there for a long time, doing business. This last brothel operation is to be closed with the completion of the renovation. The Oluf-Samson-Gang is today one of the best preserved and most beautiful old town streets in all of Schleswig-Holstein.

various

  • At the lower end of the Oluf-Samson-Gang towards the harbor is a very old harbor bar with Uncle Jule .

literature

  • Wolfgang Raube, Siegfried Kerscheck: The Oluf-Samsons-Gang. A street with a past. Husum and Freienwill 1984.
  • Lutz Wilde u. a. (Arrangement): Art monuments in Schleswig-Holstein. Volume 2: City of Flensburg. Neumünster 2001, pp. 234-237.
  • Klaus Ove Kahrmann, Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Flensburg around the turn of the century and today. Husum 1984.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to street sign as well as graphic institute Eckmann (mediaprint): City map of Flensburg with Harrislee and Glücksburg (center) from, status 2011 and Flensburg, The city map, Flensburg Fjord Tourismus GmbH, status 2012 and city publishers: City map Flensburg, 14th edition 2013 like also Falk-Verlag City Map Extra Standard Folding, Flensburg + Umgebung, 7th edition 2014 and publications of the Society for Flensburg City History (publisher): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, section: Explanation of street names, page 446 and Flensburg street names . Society for Flensburg City History, Flensburg 2005, ISBN 3-925856-50-1 , article: Oluf-Samson-Gang
  2. ↑ City Archives Flensburg : Council minutes 1981 , accessed on: May 29, 2015 and Wolfgang Raube & Siegfried Kerscheck: Der Oluf-Samsons-Gang. A street with a past. Husum and Freienwill 1984 and Falk-Verlag GmbH (Hrsg.): Falk-Plan Flensburg - city map patent-folded . With Glücksburg, Harrislee and Padborg (=  Falk plans ). 12th edition. Falk-Verlag , Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-88445-169-3 . (Also in the booklet of the 17th edition from 2000; on the map of the 17th edition the street is abbreviated with "O.-Sams.-G.")
  3. ^ A b W. L. Christiansen : Petuh-ABC . 1st edition. Mohland Verlag D. Peters. Nachf., Goldebek 2003, ISBN 3-936120-46-3 , back down inne tal, p. 25-26 (in Petuh ).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Flensburg streets and districts: Oluf-Samson-Gang: The story. In: Flensburg Journal. October 1, 2012, accessed May 28, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Active pensioners, torsdagsholdet (Ed.): Flensborgs gadenavne . Flensburg 1995, p. 18 .
  6. ↑ Oluf Samsons Gang, Gade i Flensborg. Grænseforeningen , accessed May 28, 2015 .
  7. ↑ A search for “Samsons-Gang” and “Samson-Gang” in the Flensborg Avis article inventory shows that the newspaper (the so-called mouthpiece of the Danish minority) uses both name variants in Danish and German articles. "Oluf-Samson-Gang" is obviously used much more frequently. See for example: Flensborg Avis : Ringenes kvinde bor i Oluf-Samson-Gang , accessed on: 29 May 2015 and Med en romantikers briller , from: 12 November 2013, accessed on: 29 May 2015 and Arkitekt slår et slag for flere turister , of: October 7, 2013; Retrieved on: May 29, 2015
  8. ↑ Active pensioners, torsdagsholdet (Ed.): Flensborgs gadenavne . Flensburg 1995, p. 18 .
  9. ↑ a b c Flensburg street names . Society for Flensburg City History, Flensburg 2005, ISBN 3-925856-50-1 , article: Oluf-Samson-Gang
  10. ↑ Evening Star : [1] , in: Evening Star , page 1, of: October 18, 1889; accessed on May 28, 2015
  11. ↑ Mark Honey Tree : Jack the Ripper 'may have killed abroad' , in: The Guardian , page 10, from 3 May 2005; accessed on May 31, 2014
  12. ^ GEO Special London, October 5, 2005
  13. ↑ See crime, Was Jack the Ripper a Flensburger? ; accessed on May 31, 2014
  14. ^ Joachim Pohl: Former brothel street in Flensburg: The pioneers of the Oluf-Samson-Gang. In: Flensburger Tageblatt . January 27, 2017. Retrieved January 27, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt: Flensburg's “Mile of Sins” Oluf-Samson-Gang: Tote Hose in Flensburger Liebesgasse, November 1, 2015 , accessed on November 1, 2015
  16. ↑ Flensburg streets and districts, Oluf-Samson-Gang: The story ; Retrieved on: May 31, 2014

Web links

Commons : Oluf-Samson-Gang  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 54 ° 47 '31.2 "  N , 9 ° 25' 57"  E