Vogelkoje Meeram
The Vogelkoje Meeram was one of two systems on the North Sea island of Amrum ( North Friesland district , Schleswig-Holstein ) that was used to catch wild ducks . Today it is considered a cultural monument from the times of self-sufficiency on the islands.
The Vogelkoje Meeram is located east of the Amrum Dunes nature reserve and about 2 kilometers south of Norddorf in the northernmost tip of the municipality of Nebel , about 2.5 kilometers from the center of the village.
The historic trapping system was in operation from 1866 to 1936. Since 2011 the area with the adjoining biotopes and the archaeological area has been a " natural experience space ". According to the definition in the State Nature Conservation Act, this should "enable visitors to experience nature, the interrelationships of nature and the direct influence of humans on nature".
The second Amrumer Vogelkoje was in Süddorf (today in the area of Wittdün on Amrum ) and was set up in 1883. It was never profitable and was closed after a few years.
Construction and fishing technique
The Vogelkoje Meeram consists of a square, approximately 3,000 square meter freshwater pond. From this, four curved side channels, so-called pipes, branch off at the corners. With the exception of the exit to the pond, they are all covered with nets and taper towards the end. There they flow into fish traps or catch boxes.
The sides of the pond as well as the pipes were planted with tall reeds with observation holes cut into them in some places. These were about stalking ways of berths man or berths waiting to reach who could thus move unnoticed by the ducks. In a special duck house, the so-called Tammkuhle , the bunk man kept tamed and docked wild ducks, which he used as decoys . On the area of the bunk there is also the house of the bunk keeper, in which he lived during the fishing season. The whole complex was surrounded by a wide moat that could only be crossed by means of a drawbridge. However, this was raised during the fishing season so that no one could enter the bird bunk without authorization.
The whistle from which the wind was blowing was used to catch the wind, as wild ducks always land against the wind. There the bunk man sprinkled floating feed (mostly barley ) into the water during the fishing season . The bait ducks pulled their conspecifics who had landed on the open water to feed and thus deeper and deeper into the pipe. Because of their curved shape, the wild ducks could not see its end. Once they swam far enough into the tentacles, the bunk man finally shooed them into the traps or catch boxes at the end, where he then took them out one by one and "curled" or "curled" them, killing them by turning their necks. In the evening, a supervisor appointed by the operating company drove to the bunk, took the catch of the day and distributed the ducks as dividends to the shareholders. He compensated for fluctuating catches with a sophisticated system, so that he considered each shareholder according to his shares. Later he also delivered the ducks en masse to a canning factory .
Many bird beds were operated all year round. In Meeram, however, the fishing season was only during the bird migration (mostly from late August to late October or early November). During this time there was a large quiet zone around the bird's bunk. Between 1867 and 1935 the bunk men caught a total of 417,569 ducks in the Vogelkoje Meeram, mainly pintail ducks (about 90 percent of the catch), wigeons (about six percent), teals (2.2 percent) and, to a lesser extent, mallards , shovelers and some other kinds.
history
Duck berths have existed in the Netherlands since the 13th century. In Amrum, on the other hand, people were limited to collecting sea bird eggs, fishing and hunting in the wild, especially wild rabbits, well into the 19th century. In order to improve the supply situation on the small island, the people of Amrum decided to build a bird bunk. After a first attempt to do this failed in 1806, Nickels Johann Schmidt from Nebel took the initiative. In 1863 he received a license to catch wild ducks on a massive scale from the Danish administration, which was still in office at the time. In 1866 he invited to a meeting of interested parties. There, eight “main interested parties”, all men from long-established Amrum families under the leadership of Pastor Mechlenburg, formed a cooperative and received ten shares (so-called lots ) from them that they could sell. It was stipulated that the residents of the island had a right of first refusal and that each interested party could buy a maximum of two tickets. The islanders apparently wanted to prevent foreign investors from buying into their fishing facility.
On the marshy heath of Meeram on the edge of the dune between Norddorf and Nebel, the people of Amrum began building the bird's bunk in the spring of 1866. It originated in a glacial trough of water ponded boulder clay . In the surrounding sandy dune landscape, this is one of the few places where the water can be held. The people of Amrum supplied more water via ditches from neighboring dune valleys. Especially during the summer months, the level of the pond sank considerably - a problem that was finally solved with a wind-powered pump. In the autumn of 1866, the work was completed so that the system could start operating during the fishing season during the bird migration. The first bunk man employed by the company was Cornelius Peters, who looked after the facility from 1867 to 1890. He left a diary in which he recorded the duck catches. The bunk men received a bonus for their work, which was based on the number of ducks hunted.
At first the yield was moderate. But it gradually increased to between 10,000 and 20,000 ducks annually. This went far beyond the needs of the island's population, which at the end of the 19th century comprised around 600 people. In 1896 a canning factory was established in Nebel. It delivered the canned wild ducks to a number of cities in the German Empire , but mainly to the hotels and guesthouses that were created in the course of developing tourism.
At the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, the number of catches dropped significantly and finally collapsed. In 1930 the canning factory closed its doors and finally in 1937 Vogelkoje Meeram also had to stop fishing. In 1952 the municipality of Nebel took over the Vogelkoje in order to design it as a display object.
The Öömrang Ferian Association , Amrum Touristik, Amrum Hunters' Association and the Nebel municipality gave in 2009 with funds from the Bingo! Umweltlotterie commissioned the development of a framework concept for the “Vogelkoje Meeram” nature experience area, which was finally implemented with the help of funds from the Uthlande Active Region and the European Union .
In June 2011, the then mayor of Nebel, Bernd Dell-Missier, received the certificate of appointment for the natural experience area “Vogelkoje Meeram” from Hans-Adolf Wrage. At the time, the biologist was responsible for nature discovery areas and nature parks in the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas in Schleswig-Holstein.
The first fast-growing trees such as alder, poplar and birch, which were planted to camouflage the stalking paths of the bunk man, grew on the almost treeless island in the vicinity of the Vogelkoje. They soon formed the first contiguous tree population on the island. Today the bird's bunk is overgrown with broken forest. As a bird sanctuary, it is a breeding and resting place for many birds, including the greylag goose.
The "Vogelkoje Meeram" nature experience area
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The “Vogelkoje Meeram” nature experience area is divided into several areas. In 2014, the cooperation partners had a playground renewed and a service pavilion set up on the 1,700 m² open space in front of the Vogelkoje. They invested around 100,000 euros for this.
The entrance to the Vogelkoje is located directly on the forecourt. It is considered a cultural monument from the times of self-sufficiency on the islands. Up to 300 people visit the facility every day in the summer months. You move along a barrier-free boardwalk that also leads through the adjacent biotopes (dunes, heather, forest and wetlands) through the bird's bunk. On various boards and elements you can find out about details and backgrounds to the bird bunk, the nature around the bird bunk with its animals and biotopes and the influence of humans on nature. In the “bird bunk keeper's house”, which has also been modeled on the inside since 2014, is an exhibition about the life and housing of the bunk keeper.
Part of the Vogelkoje Meeram nature experience area is also the archaeological area that adjoins the dunes and cross- brand fire . There are extensive excavation sites in the area with finds from the Stone Age to the Iron Age . A Stone Age grave site (“long bed”) and individual house floor plans can be seen in the ground, and since 2014 the reconstruction of an Iron Age house has made living conditions in early history understandable. Visitors can also access this area via various plank paths that lead them to the most important find and observation points, where further information can be found on boards. The “Amrum Nature Center” regularly offers guided tours in the Vogelkoje Meeram nature experience area.
The aim of the “Vogelkoje Meeram Amrum” nature experience area is “to make the natural and cultural space of the area tangible for visitors, to provide clear information and to sensitize the guests to the natural processes and history of the island of Amrum”.
Ducks, geese and other wild birds can move freely over the entire area, fallow deer live in an enclosure.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Amrum nature center of Öömrang Ferian: Vogelkoje Meeram nature experience area on Amrum. In: State Office for Coastal Protection, National Park and Marine Protection Schleswig-Holstein : Experience nature on the North Sea , p. 26. Accessed on September 30, 2016.
- ↑ Law for the protection of nature (State Nature Conservation Act - LNatSchG) of February 24, 2010: § 38: Nature experience spaces . Retrieved September 30, 2016.
- ↑ a b Thomas Oelers: Meeram nature experience area - community reacts to changed weather conditions . In: Amrum News. May 29, 2015. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d e f Georg Quedens, Hans Hingst, Gerhard Stück, Ommo Wilts: Amrum. Landscape, history, nature. Amrum 1991, p. 235.
- ↑ Georg Quedens : Amrum. 15th, revised edition. Breklumer Verlag, Breklum 1990, ISBN 3-7793-1110-0 , p. 47.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Frank Christian Today: Death in the bunk . Retrieved September 30, 2016.
- ↑ Martin Rheinheimer: Der Kojenmann: Man and Nature in the Wadden Sea 1860-1900 . Kiel 2007, ISBN 978-3-529-02776-5 , p. 126.
- ↑ Peter Lückel: Official opening of the Vogelkoje Meeram nature experience area . In: Amrum News. June 10, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
- ↑ Thomas Oelers: Vogelkoje is now a natural experience space . In: Insel-Bote . June 21, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
- ↑ Amrum.de: Amrum AZ . Retrieved September 30, 2016.
- ↑ a b c Thomas Chrobock: Nature experience space Vogelkoje Meeram. In: The little Amrumer . Edition 2014, p. 16.
- ↑ Thomas Oelers: Vogelkoje becomes a nature experience center . In: Insel-Bote . August 21, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
- ^ Peter Lückel: Service pavilion opened at Vogelkoje . In: Amrum News. May 17, 2013. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
Coordinates: 54 ° 39 ′ 50.1 ″ N , 8 ° 19 ′ 28 ″ E