Wittdün on Amrum

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 54 ° 38 '  N , 8 ° 23'  E
Basic data
State :	Schleswig-Holstein
Circle :	North Friesland
Office :	Foehr-Amrum
Height :	0 m above sea level NHN
Area :	2.6 km 2
Residents:	788 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	303 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	25946
Area code :	04682
License plate :	NF
Community key :	01 0 54 160
Office administration address:	Hafenstrasse 23 25938 Wyk auf Föhr
Website :	www.amt-foehr-amrum.de
Mayor :	Heiko Müller (WBB)
Location of the community Wittdün on Amrum in the district of North Friesland

Wittdün auf Amrum ( Frisian : Witjdün , Danish : Vitdyn ) is one of the three communities on the North Sea island of Amrum . The name means "white dune " - which indicates that the south of Amrum was an uninhabited dune landscape until the end of the 1880s.

geography

Wittdün was built in the dune area and is a few meters higher on the south side than on the north side. The place extends along the state road 215, the "Inselstraße", from the southeastern tip of Amrum about one kilometer to the west. With its many commercial buildings, it sometimes has a small-town character. The “southern tip” facing east is surrounded by a double “ walkway ”. There are two campsites to the west of the village and several dune lakes to the southwest, including the Wriakhörnsee. To the north of the main road, west of the town, is a former bird's bunk . There is a sea ​​mark harbor to the north of the village .

history

View of Wittdün in 1895 with the characteristic silhouette of the Kurhaus as the largest building on the southern tip of Amrum

Unlike the other places on the island, Wittdün is a relatively young place. It was founded in 1890 at a new ferry terminal to the mainland as a vacation spot. The background to this was the fear of many Amrum residents that the island Frisian culture would deteriorate due to bathers from the south. At that time, many islanders believed that by concentrating the beginning spa tourism on one place in the south of the island, they could protect the local village communities from “new fashions” and “luxury”. A first application by a spa guest from Wyk auf Föhr to establish a seaside resort on Amrum was rejected by the Amrum municipality in September 1885, "because one has to fear that bathers will spoil the local customs [...]."

In 1889, the Amrum captain and beach bailiff Volkert Martin Quedens , who lived in Süddorf , acquired several hectares of dune land on the southern tip of the island, had an accommodation made of prefabricated corrugated iron with 29 guest rooms and opened the first bathing season. Shortly afterwards, the Helgoland captain Paul Köhn had a beach hotel built. A footpath in the village leading to the Wandelbahn is named after him - Köhn's crossing . The provincial government in Schleswig issued a bathing concession on May 10, 1890. Two years later, the specially founded company Wittdün-Amrum (AGWA) of the hotelier Heinrich Andresen from Tondern realized several large construction projects on the southern tip of the island, including the Kurhaus and Kaiserhof houses as well as other hotels, villas and lodging houses.

Historical representation of the bathing resort Wittdün, view from the west. Watercolor by Fritz Stoltenberg, around 1895

During the bathing season, four shipping lines went to the growing seaside resort from the mainland, and a forerunner of the later Amrum Island Railway was built in 1893 to transport bathers to the beach on the Kniepsand . The first wooden promenade was built on Wittdün's south beach, which was replaced by a brick promenade in 1914 after being damaged by storm surges . In the summer season of 1895 about 2,600 guests were counted; The seaside resort of Wittdün lived exclusively from tourism and offered its guests a feudal social life similar to that of other Wilhelmine seaside resorts. Wittdün was run as a colony for a long time . On October 13, 1912, the place was spun off from the previously the entire island of Amrum municipality and thus an independent municipality.

As early as 1906, AGWA had to file for bankruptcy due to a drop in sales. The spa tourism, which was geared towards Wilhelmine society, completely collapsed in Wittdün a few years later as a result of the First World War ; the period up to the early 1920s was marked by bankruptcies and property speculation. After a short period of stabilizing tourism, the collapse of the tourism business repeated itself with the Second World War ; the island railway was discontinued in 1939. After the war, refugees and displaced persons were accommodated in many of the local hotels. A number of other houses were converted into children's homes, so that the number of beds was about twice as high as the number of beds for spa guests until the 1960s. Beginning after 1950, however, tourism had developed positively, and in 1956 Wittdün received the status of a spa with the construction of a spa center.

Wittdüns Hauptstrasse in the town center, view from the east (2010)

Investor in the Wittdün ferry port (2004). On the right in the background residential houses on the southern tip of Amrum

In the 1970s, the importance of the children's homes in Wittdün decreased; many of them were demolished and in their place apartment houses with condominiums for sale to outsiders were built. The Kurhaus , built in 1892 , whose outlines had shaped the silhouette of the southern tip of Amrum since then, was also demolished in 1974. The area remained in the possession of the municipality and was later built on with houses for locals along the Südspitze road . During this time, Wittdün developed into the center of business life in Amrum. In 1976 the wooden jetty was replaced by an asphalt concrete bridge.

The municipality of Wittdün, together with the municipalities of Nebel and Norddorf , formed the Amrum office until December 31, 2006 , which was merged into the Föhr-Amrum office .

On April 27, 2009, the community received the addition to Amrum and has been called Wittdün in Amrum since then .

politics

The Wittdüner voter community (WWG) has held all nine seats in the municipal council since the local elections in 2018 . For the 2018 election, the CDU, SPD and Wittdüner Bürgerblock (WBB) merged to form the WWG.

Heiko Müller has been mayor since 2018. Jürgen Jungclaus previously held this position from 2007.

religion

The Protestant chapel Wittdün was built in 1903 according to plans by the Hamburg architect Hugo Groothoff . A Roman Catholic chapel built in 1905 was later demolished in favor of a drugstore.

Economy and Transport

Wittdün is a seaside spa . Tourism is the main source of income. In 2012, 343,872 overnight stays were counted (excluding overnight stays in children's homes and the youth hostel ). In 1971 the place had a sea water swimming pool, the outdoor pool of which had to be closed in 1984 due to lack of profitability. In 1988 a new spa center was built. Today Wittdün has a sea water wave pool and a thalasso center.

The only Amrum ferry port is located in Wittdün ; it has two pier for the ferries of the Wyker Dampfschiffs-Reederei Föhr-Amrum (WDR) and one pier for passenger ships of other lines such as the Sylter Reederei Adler-Schiff . Dagebüll , Wyk auf Föhr , Schlüttsiel , Hörnum , Nordstrand , Hooge and Langeneß are served by scheduled services from the ferry port . Since it was rebuilt in 1976, the port had three pier for ferries; however, the third ferry bridge was dismantled in 2013 due to its age and the restricted traffic on the WDR Hallig line. The sea sign harbor is home to the Amrumbank buoy laying machine of the Tönning Waterways and Shipping Authority , the rescue cruiser Ernst Meier-Hedde and the excursion ship Eilun .

WDR buses run to all island villages except Steenodde .

literature

• Otto Krahmer (Hrsg.): The North Sea Baths on the island of Amrum together with instructive appendices about the effect and use of the North Sea baths in general. Edited by Kurt Schlutius. Facsimile print of the edition from 1893, Wittdün 1981.
• Georg Quedens : Amrum . Breklumer Verlag 1971, 15th revised edition, Breklum 1990, ISBN 3-7793-1110-0 .

Web links

Commons : Wittdün  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Wittdün municipality on Amrum at the Föhr-Amrum office
• AmrumTouristik Wittdün

Individual evidence

1. ↑ North Statistics Office - Population of the municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein 4th quarter 2019 (XLSX file) (update based on the 2011 census) ( help on this ).
2. ↑ Quedens: Amrum. 1971, p. 61
3. ↑ Quedens: Amrum. 1971, p. 62
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Quedens, Hingst, piece, Wilts: Amrum - landscape, history, nature. In it: Chapter Wittdün - a bathing resort on sand dunes. Pp. 189-193. Jens Quedens publishing house, Insel Amrum 1991, ISBN 3-924422-24-9 .
5. ↑ State Statistical Office Schleswig-Holstein (Ed.): The population of the communities in Schleswig-Holstein 1867-1970 . State Statistical Office Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel 1972, p. 104 f .
6. ↑ Quedens: Amrum. 1971, p. 67
7. ↑ Georg Quedens , Hans Hingst, Gerhard piece, Ommo Wilts: Amrum - landscape, history, nature. Jens Quedens, Amrum 1991, ISBN 3-924422-24-9 , p. 208.
8. ↑ StBA: Area changes from January 2nd to December 31st, 2009
9. ↑ The Wittdün counted the fastest. In: Der Inselbote from May 7, 2018, accessed on May 7, 2018
10. ↑ http://www.amrum-news.de/2013/06/24/jurgen-jungclaus-wird-als-wittduns-burgermeister-bestatigt-to/
11. ↑ Quedens, Hingst, piece, Wilts: Amrum - landscape, history, nature. Jens Quedens Verlag, Insel Amrum 1991, ISBN 3-924422-24-9 , p. 85.
12. ↑ Georg Quedens : Amrum 2012. Quedens, Amrum 2013, ISBN 978-3-94330-710-8 , p. 49.
13. ↑ Amrum ferry bridge ready for the junkyard , Der Insel-Bote