Baltic storm flood 1872

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Destroyed hall house in Niendorf on the Baltic Sea after the storm flood

The Baltic storm flood in 1872 is the heaviest known Baltic storm flood . It struck the Baltic coast from Denmark to Pomerania on the night of November 12th to 13th, 1872 . The highest measured peak water level was about 3.3 m above sea ​​level .

Collapse of a farmhouse in Niendorf, illustration from Die Gartenlaube

course

Destruction in the port of Flensburg , 1872
Storm surge 1872, Eckernförde

In the days before the storm floods, a storm blew from the southwest across the Baltic Sea, driving the water towards Finland and the Baltic States . The result was high water there and extremely low water on the Danish-German coasts. This enabled large amounts of water to flow from the North Sea into the western Baltic Sea. Suddenly the storm , which had meanwhile turned into a hurricane , turned to the northeast and drove the water masses back towards the southwest. Since the water could only flow back slowly into the North Sea, on the morning of November 13, 1872, large waves surprised the coastal residents and led to meter-high floods in the coastal towns.

Short term effects

Of all German coastal towns, Eckernförde suffered the most severe damage due to its location on the Eckernförde Bay, which is open far to the northeast . The entire urban area was flooded, 78 houses were destroyed, 138 damaged and 112 families were left homeless. In Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania, 32 people were killed on land by the storm floods. The Danish island of Lolland , which today still has diked areas that are below sea level, was badly hit and 28 people died. 52 people died on Falster . The island of Vilm was broken through in two places in its central part. The Habernis peninsula briefly became an island. In the Greifswald district of Wieck , almost all buildings were destroyed and nine people drowned. The rubble of the houses drifted into the center of Greifswald. Peenemünde was completely flooded.

Overall, the storm floods along the entire Baltic Sea coast cost at least 271 lives, 2,850 houses were destroyed or at least badly damaged, leaving 15,160 people homeless.

Long term effects

During this storm flood, which also flooded Prerow on the Darß , silted up the Prerower Strom , which until then had separated the island of Zingst from the Darß. In 1874 the Prerow river was finally filled in and secured with a dike; This made Zingst a peninsula.

The Koserower Vorwerk Damerow was destroyed and the island of Usedom near Koserow was divided into two parts. After another storm flood in February 1874 destroyed the remains of the building and left a layer of sand up to 60 cm thick, Damerow was abandoned.

classification

This storm flood is statistically to be assessed as a millennium event. A storm flood of similar magnitude would cause much greater damage today, as the coastal areas were not as densely populated back then as they are today.

Since the storm flood of 1872 brought with it by far the highest water level ever measured in the German Baltic Sea, this water level is used as a basis for assessment for coastal protection structures , with the exception of some Bodden areas.

Individual high water marks

In 2013 in Lübeck-Schlutup , a small memorial stone to the flood of 1872 with water level markings was erected in the front garden of the house at Küterstrasse 4, almost 200 meters from the Trave.

  • High water mark
    at the Glambek castle ruins , Fehmarn

  • High water mark
    in Dahme / Baltic Sea

  • High water mark
    on the old
    Travemünde lighthouse


  • Maasholm (Schlei) Hafen high water mark

  • High water mark at the Wieck port authority

  • High water marks
    from 1625 and 1872
    Travemünde
    Alte Vogtei

  • High water mark on the building of the port authority Wieck (Greifswald) (right of the door)

  • Memorial stone and water level oak in the Kellenhusener Forest

literature

Web links

Commons : Ostseesturmhochwasser 1872  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norbert Buske , Vilm - The story of an island , thomasius Verlag 1994, page 13
  2. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Habernis: Von der Huk in die Grüfft , from: August 12, 2011; Retrieved on: August 9, 2018
  3. ↑ Habernis, directions , accessed on: March 14, 2015
  4. ↑ Recommendations for the implementation of coastal protection works (EAK), 1993
  5. ↑ Memorial stone for the Baltic Sea storm surge of 1872. In: Lübecker Nachrichten of November 16, 2013, p. 12.