Flensburg , where two cultures meet

By Rasha Almaqaleh

I love old towns! They always fascinate me as I wander around and listen to the many wonderful stories they have to tell. That’s why choosing Flensburg for a destination in the fall holidays was a no-brainer! The gorgeous town is almost in Denmark. Although it is German , Flensburg was basically founded in the 13^th century by Danish settlers, basically fishermen. With its location near the German-Danish border (directly on the Baltic Sea) along with  its 700- year history, Flensburg brings the two cultures and two peoples together: the German and Danish. In Flensburg, you can definitely see and ‘hear’ something different!

The Danish minority

I was shopping in Flensburg Galerie when I first heard the Danish language. A mother was talking to her little daughter and the language sounded so different to me. I was listening and watching, and when she looked at me, I told her in German with obvious astonishment: "Sie sprechen dänish!" (You speak Danish!) She chuckled at the astonishment on my face and said : "Yes!" 

Apparently, the Danish people living in Flensburg know for sure that their minority adds to the appeal of their city. The Scandinavian flair makes Flensburg culturally distinguished and that brings in a lot of out-of-towners and tourists. 

Impressively, the settling Danes have established their community in the town which is a thriving one! In Flensburg, there are Danish kindergartens, schools, shops, libraries, cultural centers, etc.Moreover, in all the tourist attractions such as the historical harbor,
Phänommenta, etc there are descriptive signs in three languages: German, Danish, and English.  

The Isted Lion

Flensburg is not only geographically connected to Denmark but historically too; it was under the Danish rule for more than 400 years. On 25th July 1850, one of the biggest battles in the Scandinavian history took place: the battle of Isted. It was a war over who should control Schleswig, which ended with a Danish victory over the German Schleswig-Holstein forces.

 To commemorate this victory along with the Danish soldiers who died in this battle, a war monument, the Istedt Lion, was created in 1862 and placed in Flensburg's old cemetery. Two years later, the war broke out and the Prussians came back to Schleswig-Holstein and defeated the Danes. The Prussian authorities moved the bronze lion to Berlin where it remained for more than 80 years.

 In 1945, the monument was sent as a gift to Denmark by the United States army. It stayed in Copenhagen until 2011, when it returned home to Flensburg at the request of Germans. Impressively, what was once a monument of the Danish victory over the German troops is today a monument of the German-Danish friendship. Yesterday's enemies, today's friends!  

Flensburg Firth

The charming city is connected to the Baltic Sea with a firth, which is around 35 km long. Situated on the firth, the historical harbor is one of Flensburg’s best attractions. When I strolled along the docks and saw the old sailing vessels, it felt as if I went back in time.

One cannot walk through the picturesque port without meeting the princess Alexandra, the oldest German passenger steamer which is still in operation. She was built in Hamburg in 1908. Back then it belonged to a shipping company and was placed in the liner shipping. During the First World War she was used as an outpost boat. After the war, the steamer was back in the liner shipping service. In 1975, the steam ship was put out of service because of its unprofitable nature. It was hardly used and then it was left without maintenance. 

Luckily, Alexandra was officially recognized as a cultural monument in 1982.  A couple of years later, and after a lot of expensive renovation and rehabilitation work, the old steamer was back in service but this time as a regular ferry. In the season which runs from May to September, Alexandra offers public cruises. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t take a tour on the floating landmark of Flensburg as she was off-season during our visit. 

Museumwerft

At the end of the docks, there is a historic shipyard museum where old tools, boats and ships from the 18th and 19th centuries are exhibited. The shipyard provides a great experience especially for kids. The entrance fees are really reasonable , one euro for a person. The nice thing is that paying the fees was a matter of self-control. At the door to the museum, there was a sign that says : " Just put the money in the box and come in!" 

Flensburg city center

This scenic part of the town is full of vitality! It exhibits history through its alleys, courtyards, antique buildings and gates. There is a car-free zone that runs between Norderstraße, Große Straße and Holm. So, the best way to get around in here is walking. There are hundreds of  shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, etc. It is such a delight to wander around in a strange town and look at the shop windows. 

There are also two open-air markets that are held on a regualr base: the Southern Market 'Südmarkt' and the Northern Market 'Nordermarket'. We deliberately got lost here, and each time our feet would take us somewhere special.

To our surprise, when we entered the Norderstraße, we saw hundreds of shoes dangling from the power lines and other cables between house facades! It was something weird that we had never seen before. Surprisingly, many of the dangling shoes aren't even old. They are in a very good condition. We went to the tourist information center to inquire about the story behind the dangling shoes. 

The lady there told us that no one really knows the story behind this practice. She also said that there are two popular theories that explain the shoes, the first is that this is a danish practice, in Denmark when students finish school, they toss the shoes on the cables as a sign for finishing a stage and wishing good luck for the next step. The second theory states that when people buy new shoes and want to get rid of the old pairs, the shoe stores refuse to take the old shoes, so people go out and toss their shoes on the power lines. 

However, the hanging shoes have given the street a tremendous attraction, making  the travel magazine based in New York City  Travel +Leisure  include the Norderstraße  with its list of the World's Strangest Streets  .

Nordertor and Phänomenta, unwise combination?

After walking in the freakish street under the dangling shoes, we arrived at the Nordertor:  the oldest existing town gate in Flensburg. the name means the north gate as it was built as a control gate on the northern side of the old town. The structure is more than 400 years old (built in 1595) yet it is in such a good shape which suggests it has been renovated and taken care of. The gate is made of red bricks and consists of stepped gables. the gate has two sides, on the north side of the gate, the south north of the gate

To my surprise, there was a modern blue building on the right side of the gate. This is the Phänomenta which is an experimental museum for kids. I didn't really appreciate this combination as it doesn't fit the historical surroundings. 

However, the museum itself is amazing. We went inside and spent more than there hours. and it was such a great experience especially for our child!

Overall, old towns have always their own mixture of old and new. A town like Flensburg does not only provide that charming mixture but also presents two cultures! Walking down its streets, you hear the wonderful stories the town has to tell, stories about war and peace and how the two peoples could get over the conflicts of the past to coexist today in peace and harmony. 

A city of four tales...

By Anis Albasha

As a person who loves history, I was a little bit disappointed about the fact that the city where I live was recently founded, which means it has no long history. But I have discovered later that not only this small young city in the north of Germany doesn't have only one history, but four! 

Officially, the city of Norderstedt was established by merging four towns, which are Garstedt, Harksheide, Glashütte and Friedrichsgabe into one city. This formation took place on the first of January, 1970. So, technically, the age of Norderstedt is only 47 years. However, the four small towns that formed the city are very old. Though those four towns were -and are still- geographically close to each other, each town has its own different and independent history. It was after 1920 when the development of the four towns has become fairly similar. The City Museum of Norderstedt, which began as a small farm bought by a farmer from the Danish King Christian VII in 1805, and then was turned into a Museum opened in 2008, shows the story of each town in a simple and yet attractive way. 

The City Museum’s complex itself consists of two parts, the City Museum “Stadtmuseum” and the Fire Department’s Museum “Feuerwehrmuseum”. The City Museum is smaller than the Fire Department’s one and it consists of two floors. The first floor begins with a gallery where pictures of a number of celebrities from different regions of the country are displayed. To the right of that gallery there is a spacious hall divided into two parts: one part is devoted for different activities throughout the year in fields like painting or sculpture.

The other part contains different things such as samples of very old stones and tools that found in different parts of the State. The age of some of these tools is thousands of years. There are some old maps of the areas which formed the city later. There are also a number of primitive tools and machinery which were used in transportation and harvesting. On the second floor there are models of living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms which belong to the 1950s. There is also a model of refugee shelters ‘Nissenhütte‘ that housed the Germans who fled the war. In this floor there are also some pictures from the Nazi era.

Samples of stones and primitive tools

An old map of the region 

Picture from the Nazi era

Refugees' shelter from inside 

Typical living room from the 1950s

Peat briquettes

Machines to compress, cut and transport the peat

Potato sorting machine

Kitchen from the fifties

Old-fashioned Bathroom

Back to the big hall in the first floor. One of the interesting things there is information about the extraction of the peat. This brown material consisting of partly decomposed vegetable matter played a major role in the history of this part of Germany. The process of extracting, drying and selling this material was long and exhausting, especially when using such primitive tools. Regrettably, according to the pictures displayed in the hall, women and children were the main working force in this field. In the middle of this hall there are four pillars; each one represents one of the four towns which were merged later into one city. And here comes the most interesting part which displays the story of each town. 

The First Tale: the town of Garstedt ‘The Bulls way’

Situated on the western edge of the Harksheidemoor, the town of Garstedt is the oldest and the most economic district of the four municipalities. The first documented mentioning of Garstedt was found in the archives of Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and dates back to the year of 1370. The first mention of Garstedt on a map was made in 1588 by the painter Daniel Freses who described the forest area, which was then very extensive in Garstedt, as "Garstedter Hagen".  In 1887, the first windmill in Garstedt was built. Garstedt was the place where a number of poor villagers who used to work in peat extraction settled and began working as craftsmen or as day laborers. Consequently, Garstedt started to be known as the town of the handymen. 

Up to the 19th century, Garstedt had a certain importance as a customs station with the connection of what was called Ochsenweg ‘the Bulls Street’. At the end of this very long road, a tax-collecting station called ‘Ochsenzoll’ was established in Garstedt at the border between Hamburg “Germany” and the Duchy of Holstein “Denmark”. From the 15^th century to the mid-19^th century, oxen were driven through a trade route starting from the Peninsula of Jutland in the north and ending at the Harksheide in the south. All oxen had to be cleared at the border of Hamburg in Ochsenzoll tax station. When Schleswig-Holstein got the states of a Prussian province in 1867, the customs station in Garstedt was closed. The Ochsenweg, known now as Ulzburger Street, had been the border line between Garstedt/Friedrichsgabe and Harksheide/ Glashütte until the foundation of Norderstedt in 1970.

The second Tale: the town of Harksheide ‘The SPD’

The name Harksheide was mentioned for the first time in 1374. This mentioining was also documneted in the archives of Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. Until 1876, Harksheide belonged to a municipality called Tangstedt. In 1639, Harksheide became a separate estate and was considered a Prussian rural community in the county of Stormarn. In the middle of the 19th century, Harksheide was referred to as a "district". Up to 19th centry, Harksheide was the largest heathland and moorland area of ​​Holsteins. In addition to agriculture, peat extraction was a main source of livelihood for the inhabitants of the area.

At the end of the 19th century and during the period of industrialization, the number of inhabitants in Harksheide declined steadily. After the Second World War, the population doubled by the influx of refugees and displaced people. Harksheide was also known as the place where many members of the Social Democratic Party ‘SPD’ had settled. The reason behind this choice for Harksheide by the party members was the cheap prices of the lands there comparing to Hamburg.

The Third Tale: Friedrichsgabe ‘The gift of the king’

Friedrichsgabe is the youngest town of the four districts which formed the city of Norderstedt. Its name means “the Frederick’s gift”. It was founded in 1821 by Johann Daniel Lawaetz, a trader from Hamburg who wanted to help some poor families in the area. The Danish King Frederick VI, who was also the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein at that time, donated a piece of land in Harksheide for this project. In recognition of his generosity, the area donated by the Danish King was named Friedrichsgabe, which means ‘Fredrick’s gift’.   

Lawaetz started with 20 poor families. According to Lawaetz’ project, those families should be able to make a living from agriculture and should no longer depend on alms or had to work in peat extraction. In 1872, with about 300 inhabitants, Friedrichsgabe gained the status of an independent municipality. Unfortunately, the soil of Friedrichsgabe was not fertile and as a result, the families who lived there had to rely on other sources of livelihood such as peat extraction! As a result, Lawaetz’ project was declared a failure and officially ended in 1873. Around 1900, only about 400 people lived in Friedrichsgabe. In 1971, the 150th anniversary of the founding of Friedrichsgabe was celebrated.

  

The Fourth Tale: Glashütte ‘The Glass Industry’

First know as Tangstedter Heide, Glashütte originally belonged to the city of Tangstedt. In 1839 the Tangstedter Heide became an independent municipality. The name ‘Glashütte’ was given to the district by the Prussian king in 1896. In 1853 there were about 300 inhabitants in Glashütte. in1869, the number increased to 900 inhabitants. Around 1740, there have been attempts to invest in glass industry but this business stopped in 1774.

Glashütte had some individual good farms and until after the First World War, Glashütte remained a farming village. However, peat extraction became an important commercial activity in the area since peat could be sold as a coveted cheap heating material in the near Hamburg, particularly in the bakeries. This business was so hard, especially when people had to transport the peat from Glashütte to Hamburg using the wheelbarrows. Later the dog-carts were used and at the turn of the century the two-wheeled vehicles were used.  

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So, some may argue that history is boring. But when we have 'four' different histories of one place, history then would be so interesting. It is said that history is boring, unless you see it from the right perspective. Well, I am glad that I found more than one right perspective to look at the history of this city.