Osterwall

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Course of the Osterwall west of Eckernförde
Remains of the Osterwall in the village of Kochendorf. An information board in the foreground.
The Osterwall west of Kochendorf, east of the wall (left of the viewer), the landscape slopes slightly towards Osterbek and offered a correspondingly good overview
Filled earth at a transit point in Osterwall, approx. One kilometer east of Kochendorf. An army route led through the passage. It was probably secured by a pincer gate.

The Osterwall ( Danish : Østervold ) is a listed section of the Danewerk between the Windebyer Noor near Eckernförde and the lower reaches of the Osterbek, which drains to the Schlei . The Osterwall was built between 700 and 737 to protect the Schwansen peninsula on the eastern Schleswig isthmus. With the erection of the Osterwall a bypassing of the main walls of the Danewerk between Haithabu and Hollingstedt was prevented.

history

The Osterwall extended east-west over a length of 3.5 km, had a width of about 7.5 m, a height of up to 3.5 m and protected the Schwansen peninsula, where there were several Viking Age settlements. Immediately to the west and east of the Osterwall, the Schlei and Eckernförde Bay offered further protection. The first archaeological excavations took place on the Wall between 1972 and 1981. These showed that the wall was probably built in two phases and consists of two sections. The eastern section to Windebyer Noor was covered with sod and still had a trench . This section was probably created around 700 and must be seen as the primary section of the Osterwall. Possibly the Osterwall was here in connection with side walls in Schnaap and Christianshöh and a possible Viking Age port on Windebyer Noor, which at that time was not cut off from Eckernförde Bay . A side wall running parallel to the Osterwall north of the Bültsee measures around 1,400 m.

The western section of the Osterwall to Osterbek was secured with a wooden palisade and can be dated to the year 737. Near the brook, the wall crosses a regional military route, which suggests a pincer gate . From Dürwade ( Dyrvad ) to the Schlei, the Osterbek valley offered adequate protection against attacking armies. As a part of the Danewerk, the Osterwall was part of several defenses on the Jutland isthmus .

Today the wall is difficult to make out in the area in many places. In particular, the sections between Kochendorf and Möhlhorst and Dürwade, where heights of up to three meters have been preserved, and remains in a forest in Dürwade are still visible. Today the wall runs on the grounds of the municipalities of Windeby and Fleckeby . In the village of Kochendorf, which was later built on the wall, the wall is partially built over. Together with the other sections of the Danewerk, the Viking town of Haithabu and other Viking Age sites in Northern Europe , the Easter Wall was nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the transnational project “Viking Age Sites in Northern Europe” . After this motion failed on June 30, 2018 a new amended motion below were jointly by UNESCO and the Danewerk Haithabu as Archaeological border complex Haithabu and Danewerk the UNESCO World Heritage declared.

Recent research

Historical maps such as von Geerz (1850) and Dreyer (1860) still show the course of the ramparts at that time. The course of the wall documented in this way was confirmed in 2014/2015 on the basis of a geomatic method developed by Olaf Söth with the detection of geomagnetic anomalies in connection with positioning measured by GPS in 2014/15. The thesis was confirmed that there was a gate where the Heerweg crossed the Wall. The undulating do not run towards each other, but run alongside each other for a while, creating an offset. This lapping caused a narrowing of the passage, which required a special gate - a so-called pincer gate . At the same time, the archaeo-geomatic method confirmed that the cartographers Geerz and Dreyer were right with the course on the contour line towards Windebyer Noor , which was previously disputed among experts . At the intersection of Schnaaper Weg and Wiesenredder at the time, there must have been a gate. An ancient royal route ran from the Eider via Missunde and Wellspang to northern Denmark.

literature

  • Norbert Biermann: News from Osterwall . In: Yearbook of the home community Eckernförde , Volume 74, 2016, pp. 167–174
  • Matthias Maluck: The Osterwall - The easternmost part of the Danewerk . In: Yearbook of the home community Eckernförde , Volume 69, 2011, p. 105
  • Olaf Söth: Osterwall and old main ways in Kochendorf-an archaeo-radiesthesia investigation . In: Yearbook of the home community Eckernförde , Volume 73, 2015, pp. 201–214

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Windebyer Noor had not landed at that time
  2. ↑ Danewerk. In the footsteps of the Vikings in Denmark, accessed January 3, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Prospecting in Windebyer Noor. Working group for maritime and lemn archeology at Kiel University, accessed on January 3, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Free view of the Osterwall. In: Eckernförder Zeitung. Retrieved January 3, 2015 .
  5. ↑ In the footsteps of the Vikings. In: Eckernförder Zeitung. Retrieved January 3, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Claus von Carnap-Bornheim, Martin Segschneider (Ed.): The Schleiregion. Land - Water - History (=  guide to archaeological monuments in Germany . Volume 49 ). Theiss, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2702-4 , pp. 218 .
  7. ↑ Free view of the Osterwall. Eckernförder Zeitung, accessed on January 3, 2015 .
  8. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Site. Project office World Heritage Haithabu and Danewerk, accessed on January 3, 2015 .
  9. ^ N. Biermann: News from Osterwall . Ed .: Heimatgemeinschaft Eckernförde 2016. Volume 74, p. 173 .
  10. ↑ Gottfried Schäfer: The investigation of a long bed in the Kochendorf district 1972/73 . In: Yearbook of the home community Eckernförde 1973 . 31 year pp. 135–139.

Coordinates: 54 ° 28 ′ 42.4 "  N , 9 ° 45 ′ 28.8"  E