<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 19 May 2008 - Volume 01<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(91, 16, 148);">jonny</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:jonny.meibohm@arcor.de">jonny.meibohm@arcor.de</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "History" 2008.05.18 (02) [E]<br><br></span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span>Beste
Reinhard,</span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">Du
schreyvst:</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font color="#008080" face="Arial">At any rate,
they are based on what you and I seem to consider a fact: that in the land of
the <i>Nordliudi </i>(today's Dithmarschen, Stedingen, Hadeln and Kehdingen)
there is a long tradition of what outsiders tend to consider conservatism. Even
if you do not subscribe to this you must admit that, as in the cases of Dat Ole
Land (Das Alte Land) and Veerlannen<i> (Vierlanden</i>) and even Finkwarder
(Finkenwerder), it is remarkable that people in those parts have retained their
identity so long considering the close proximity of at least three cities:
Hamburg, Cuxhaven and Bremerhaven.</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">A short trip into
our local (i.e. Elbe-Weser-triangle) historical background might
be useful and could partly be an answer to your
questions:</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">Going back into
medieval history of this region I at first should mention the cities Bremen,
Hamburg and Stade- later all of them members of the Hanse- which stood in
contest to each other but had a good reason for common interests
as well: to keep the mouthes of the rivers Elbe and Weser safe, at first
against the Vikings, later against wreckers and pirates, to enable security
for their inhabitants and expanding trading.</font></span></div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">Stade soon lost its
status as an important trading post but became the administrative center of the
Archbisdom of Bremen (not identical with the city of Bremen but a suffragat, a
part of the Archbisdom of Cologne), whose holder also was Bishop of
Hamburg.</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">So we have three
main parties (*) playing the regional game: the big and rich cities
of Bremen and Hamburg and the Archbishop who roughly ruled the region
between Hamburg and Bremen south of the Elbe river and west of the Weser
river. Each single party always had an eye on the two others that they
shouldn't become too mighty; one could say that for some hundred years there was
a balance of power between them which enabled the 'system' to
run.</font></span></div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New"><span><font face="Courier New">*(I shouldn't forget to
mention the Duke of Lauenburg who also had some rights in Hamburg as well
as in Hadeln- he sometimes turned the
scale.)</font></span></font></span></div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">A result of
these different influences and different shapes of interests might have been a
certain smell of freedom and liberality for all the people living in the region.
There probably was no additional space for any considerable influence from the
side of the Archbishop of Cologne (and not to forget the Archbishop of
Mainz who also claimed his part) whome Charlemagne 'admeasured' the
region after the Saxons were defeated.</font></span> </div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">And another fact
might have played a role: different from East- and Westphalia you won't find any
mighty monasteries here as well as big aristocratic landowners (Kehdingen is the
exception, but all the noble families came not until AD 1306, and then as
liegemen of and with the archbishop). </font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">But much
mightier than worldly or clerical power was the water! <u>It</u> was and is the
true dominator of the deep areas along the rivers Elbe and Weser, and
people who wanted to live there primarily had to build and to take care for the
dikes and draining-system. This wasn't a job just for slaves or bondmen- every
human being who wanted to live in the marshlands had to be aware of
the threat caused by storm and flood. Just last week there was a
public annunciation from our local adminmistration remembering that every man
between the age of 18 and 60(?) still has to serve at the dikes in case of
danger.</font></span></div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">To this
especialness along the whole continental coast of the North Sea even the
Franconian rulers had to give tribute if they didn't want to get loss of human
lifes, great areas of fertile land and prospering cities. By and large
they met and later assisted a 'naturally' grown social
and oeconomical system of the native inhabitants- Saxons as well as
Frisians.</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">Last but not least
I guess the flair of the wide world which came into this region by
sailors and tradesmen did do its bit to a certain liberality and
'open-mindness' which you probably wouldn't have found as well in
the deep inland.</font></span> </div>
<div> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">Don't take the
above as results of any educated historian but just as my very own
thoughts. </font></span></div>
<div> </div><div align="left">Allerbest!</div>
<div align="left"> </div>
Jonny Meibohm<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br>----------<br><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: History<br><br>Thank you very much, Jonny, for sharing your interesting overview.<br><br>Doesn't immigration from what are now the Netherlands figure into this at some point too?<br>
<br>What about a possible Frisian element? Erstwhile Frisian-speaking presence is definitely attested all the way from what is now Belgium to Land Wursten at the southern end of the mouth of the Elbe, on the island of Heligoland off the mouth of the Elbe and then again north of Dithmarschen into the southwest of what is now the Danish part of the Jutland Peninsula. Going by a place name like Büsum, I wonder if there used to be some Frisian presence in Dithmarschen as well.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br>
<br>