Strohauser Plate

View of the Strohauser Plate from the jetty in Rodenkirchen

The Strohauser Plate is a river island in the Lower Weser in Lower Saxony , it belongs as a farming community to Rodenkirchen in the municipality of Stadland .

It is located at the level of Rodenkirchen and belongs to the municipality of Stadland in the Wesermarsch district . To the east, the island is bounded by the course of the Weser . To the west, the island borders the Schweiburg , a tributary of the Weser. The northern and southern tip of the island lie at the confluence of the Weser and Schweiburg; it is thus completely separated from the mainland. The extension is about 6 km in north-south direction and about 1.3 km in east-west direction at the widest point. The total area is about 470 hectares . Of the 470 hectares, 197 hectares are grassland protected by summer dykes , which is used extensively by a farmer in the form of suckler cow husbandry and which is flooded during storm surges; The capacity of the diked grassland polders is around 3.3 million cubic meters, which flow in in less than an hour in very severe storm surges .

The few buildings are now on the east side of the island and are built on sausages, also called terps . The only connection from the mainland to the island is a boat landing stage that can be reached by rowing boat from Rodenkirchen . Vehicle transport to the island is ensured by a non-public motor ferry.

use

The Strohauser Plate has been part of the NSG WE 260 " Strohauser Vorländer und Plate " nature reserve since December 2007 . The Strohauser Plate nature reserve is part of the Lower Weser FFH area with Strohauser Plate and Juliusplate . Today there is a leased farm on the island , which operates suckler cows on 197 hectares of diked grassland on the basis of organic farming.

An economic use of the reeds , as it was still common in the Wesermarsch until the 1960s, takes place on the Strohauser Plate only to a very limited extent and with strict requirements.

The remaining previously seven farms were given up in 1986; the buildings of three courtyards have since been demolished. Entering the island is - with the exception of a bivouac area for canoeists at the level of the northern courtyard on the Weser - prohibited and only possible as part of guided tours that are regularly offered in summer.

history

The island was created in the 16th and 17th centuries by sandbanks . These included the so-called Reiherplate in the north, the Strohauser Plate and the Schlickplate in the south. As part of the Weser correction by Ludwig Franzius and further expansions of the Lower Weser, these islands were connected to one another by extensive washouts on the left bank of today's main waterway of the Weser.

The first settlement took place in 1836. The Strohauser Plate was used for agriculture, in addition to livestock farming specifically for thatch extraction , which was used in the traditional construction industry of the Wesermarsch as a material for roofing, but also for thermal insulation.

Starting in 1934, a total of six more farms were built on the so-called bank wall in the east of the island on the main Weser fairway, which had been washed up from dredged material as part of the Lower Weser expansion. As part of the autarky policy in the Third Reich, additional areas along the Schweiburg were provided with summer dykes, so that a further polder , the so-called “outer dike”, was added; However, parts of the newly diked area had to be abandoned after the severe storm surges in February and October 1949. It is the last major loss of cultivated land on the Lower Saxony coast to date.

Since the end of the 1950s, the non-dammed areas north of the so-called Fährpriel, which had previously been leased to Rodenkirchen farmers as hay meadows, were gradually abandoned as grassland. In their place, reed beds spread after the management was abandoned.

The difficult living conditions, due to the lack of a fixed road connection, but also the declining importance of agriculture, led from the beginning of the 1980s to the progressive abandonment of the farms that had existed on the island and to the emigration of the island's population, including The lack of storm surge protection, but also the lack of possible sources of secondary income, especially after the officially decreed abandonment of the previously tolerated use of the Weser-side areas as a recreational area, contributed to a considerable extent. The Kleinensieler Sand near Rodenkirchen served as a replacement from the 1990s.

The mounds on the east side are from today's perspective, with a height of NHN ceases to + 4.50 m as storm surge safely. After the very severe storm surge of January 3, 1976, when the previous maximum water level of 1962 was reached again, the buildings on the east side were provided with flood gates and dam bar locks in 1978 after the stable and residential buildings had been devastated several times by very severe storm surges . In the south and in the north, escape chords were also built, on which the inhabitants of the island can get to safety in the event of storm surges with a water level of more than sea level + 5.65 m.

The experiences from the storm surge of 16./17. February 1962 made it necessary to rebuild the outdated buildings in the area of the old Strohauser Plate domain. As part of the construction work, the Hofwurt was also adapted to the changing circumstances. The building erected in 1972 fell victim to a major fire in 2005. A reconstruction at the old site was abandoned and a new, modern stable system was built in the area of the courtyards on the Weser.

Protected area

The island has been a landscape protection area and a European bird sanctuary since 1984 . At the end of 2007 the island became part of the "Strohauser Vorländer und Plate" nature reserve, the area of which includes the outer dyke foreland between the access to the Brake / Golzwarden ferry terminal and the Abbehauser Sieltief, the Weser tributary Schweiburg and the entire Strohauser Plate up to the MTHW line includes its east bank.

Of particular importance are the breeding occurrences of the reed warbler , the water rail and the marsh harrier . In the grassland areas, breeding occurrences of the lapwing , the godwit, the shoveler and the redshank are significant. During the winter months, the island is an important resting area for wild geese , wigeons and white-tailed eagles .

Since 1990 the island has been looked after by the Mellumrat , who initially only ran a research station here during the summer months, and since 2005 all year round. In 2001 a webcam was installed that enabled observations via the Internet and automatically updated the images every 10 minutes. The contract with the Mellumrat expired at the end of 2014.

Demographics


year	Residents
1855	5
1925	5
1939	39
1946	57
1950	51
1961	38
1970	27

literature

Reinhold Schütte: Strohauser Plate: Development, administration and use of the Weser Island . Domain Office, Oldenburg 1998.
Philipp Fürst: Around the Strohauser Plate: a description of the Weser island, the people on the river and the sluice ports . Wilhelm Böning, Nordenham 2000.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ New concept takes more time , accessed on July 18, 2015
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g A. Eckhardt: Oldenburgisches Ortlexikon. LZ . Ed .: Albrecht Eckhardt. tape 2 . Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2011, p. 960 .

53.383333333333 8.4833333333333Coordinates: 53 ° 23 ' N , 8 ° 29' E

[1] New concept takes more time , accessed on July 18, 2015

[:02-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g A. Eckhardt: Oldenburgisches Ortlexikon. LZ . Ed .: Albrecht Eckhardt. tape 2 . Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2011, p. 960 .