A ''koog'' (plural: ''köge'') or ''groden'' is a type of

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...

found on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

that is established by the construction of dykes enclosing the land which is then drained to form

marshland In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in general ...

. This type of land reclamation is also used along rivers. In general, a ''koog'' is protected by embankments known as dykes (''Deiche''). Westerkoog feb

Etymology

Unlike the meaning in modern German,

Ingvaeonic North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic ( ), is a subgrouping of West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants. These languages share a number of commonalities, such as a single pl ...

''*kāg'',

Old Dutch In linguistics, Old Dutch ( Modern Dutch: ') or Old Low Franconian (Modern Dutch: ') is the set of dialects that evolved from Frankish spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 6th Page 55: "''Uit de zesde eeu ...

''*kōg'', modern Dutch ''koog'' and

West Frisian Dutch The West Frisian dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, ...

''kaag'' all designate "land outside the dike". In the Netherlands, it primarily survives in place names (e.g. De Koog, Koog aan de Zaan,

Kaag Kaag is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Kaag en Braassem, and lies about northeast of Leiden. The village of Kaag lies on an island called Kagereiland in the Kager Lakes (Kagerpl ...

). From the

Dithmarschen Dithmarschen (, ; archaic English: ''Ditmarsh''; ; ) is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, and Steinburg, by the ...

word ''koch'' (15th and 16th centuries), it went into Danish as ''kog''. In North Frisian it is ''kuch''. The spelling ''koog'' was used by the poet Michael Richey in 1755 and around 1700, what is now the port of

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...

was still called ''Koogshaven''.

Polders

In the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and in the adjacent regions of

East Frisia East Frisia () or East Friesland (; ; ; ) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisia (peninsula), East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia and to the ...

the word

(Low German: ''Poller'') is used for land enclosed by embankments from where the water is artificially drained. The etymology of the word polder/poller is unclear but it is probably related to English ''pool''.

''Groden''

The term ''groden'' (cf. the English verb "to grow") used in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, particularly in the eastern part of East Frisia and in the

Oldenburg Land Oldenburg Land () is a region and regional association in the German state of Lower Saxony in the area of the former Grand Duchy of Oldenburg (1815–1918), the later Free State of Oldenburg (1918–1946) and administrative district of Oldenburg ...

, refers to new areas of land washed up by the sea. Sediments are deposited by the sea on

mud flat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...

s when the

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

s change. After reaching a certain height, the land is dyked. Dyked land becomes ''innengroden''. As a result of draining the fertile soil compacts and, over time, can sink until it is below sea level. The rising sea level in front of the dyke and the sinking of the old, now drained, sea areas behind the dyke leads to further dykes being built at an ever-higher level to enclose the newly dyked areas of marsh. In this way a so-called "polder staircase" is formed.Klimapfad Sande, Seite 22
(pdf; 1.5 MB), retrieved 20 May 2013 The name ''groden'' is found for example in the borough of

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsha ...

in the villages of Altengroden, Neuengroden and Fedderwardergroden, the Heppenser, Voslapper and Rüstersieler Groden, and in the surrounding area are the Cäciliengroden, Petersgroden and Adelheidsgroden. All these areas, whether they emerged more recently (i.e. in the 20th century) or in older times, were formed as a result of dyke enclosure and ''Aufspülung'', as is often the case with polders. : → ''See also

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

Drainage

Because a ''koog'' often lies below the level of the adjacent sea or river, it has to be continually drained. This is carried out with the aid of soakaways, sluices,

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses, are public utility buildings containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are critical in a variety of infrastructure systems, such as water supply, Land reclamation, ...

s and

water pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic or pneumatic energy. Mechanical pumps serve in a wide range of applications such ...

s.Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt, Ortwin Pelc: ''Schleswig-Holstein Lexikon''. Wachholtz, Neumunster, 2006, Lemma Koog. Today the pumps are powered by engines, in pre-industrial times and sometimes even into the period of intense industrialisation, they were driven by

wind power Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ge ...

( wind pumps). The groups of

wind mill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern periods; ...

s on the dykes of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

delta - a symbol of the Netherlands - are old water pumps.

Riparian ''köge''

As well land reclaimed from the sea, a ''koog'' may also refer to land reclaimed alongside rivers. These are usually wet areas that are now used for agriculture. This entails creating a completely new ecosystem from a river meadow or a carr. Often its name will recall its original situation, for example, the

Oderbruch The Oderbruch () is a landscape located at the Oder river in eastern Germany on the Polish border, with a small part also in Poland. It extends from the towns Oderberg and Bad Freienwalde in the north to Lebus in the south, in the county of Märkisc ...

. On the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

and

Oder The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through wes ...

rivers these areas are also used for flood protection. Once the flooding has subsided, water is pumped out again and the land can be used for farming until the next flood. Until the 1950s, ''köge'' were mainly created to reclaim land for farming; since then coastal defence has been the main aim.

North German ''köge''

On the western coast of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

and on the shores of the Lower

over 230 ''koogs'' have been created over the centuries. The oldest ones are in the borough of Eiderstedt; they date to the 11th century. After the

Burchardi flood The Burchardi flood (also known as the second Grote Mandrenke) was a storm tide that struck the North Sea coast of North Frisia, Dithmarschen (in modern-day Germany) and southwest Jutland (in modern-day Denmark) on the night between 11 and 12 ...

of 1634, an increasing number of "

octroi Octroi (; , to grant, authorize; Lat. ''auctor'') is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption. Antiquity The word itself is of French origin. Octroi taxes have a respectable antiquity, being known in R ...

" ''koogs'' were built.
Well known ''koogs'' include: * County of

** Christianskoog ** Delver Koog ** Dieksanderkoog (formerly Adolf Hitler Koog) ** Friedrichsgabekoog ** Friedrichskoog ** Hedwigenkoog ** Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog **

Karolinenkoog Karolinenkoog is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. In 1800 the municipality was named after the polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological ...

** Kronprinzenkoog ** Neufelderkoog ** Preiler Koog ** Speicherkoog in the Bay of Meldorf ** Wesselburenerkoog ** Westerkoog * County of

Nordfriesland Nordfriesland (; ; Low German: Noordfreesland), also known as North Frisia, is the northernmost Districts of Germany, district of Germany, part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. It includes almost all of traditional North Frisia (with the e ...

** Augustenkoog ** Beltringharder Koog ** Hauke-Haien-Koog (named after the lead character of the novella '' The Rider on the White Horse'' by Theodor Storm) ** Friedrich-Wilhelm-Lübke-Koog – in 1954 the last ''koog'' reclaimed for settlement in Schleswig-Holstein. ** Gotteskoog ** Tümlauer-Koog (formerly Hermann Göring Koog) ** Norderheverkoog (formerly Horst Wessel Koog) ** Bottschlotter Koog ( Dagebüll) ** Kleiseerkoog ( Galmsbüll) ** Herrenkoog ** Former island of Nordstrand *** Elisabeth-Sophien-Koog *** Alter Koog *** Osterkoog *** Trendermarschkoog *** Neukoog *** Morsumkoog *** Pohnshalligkoog ** Municipality of Reußenköge *** Cecilienkoog *** Desmerciereskoog *** Louisen-Reußen-Koog *** Reußenkoog *** Sönke-Nissen-Koog *** Sophien-Magdalenen-Koog * County of Pinneberg ** Hetlinger Neuerkoog

Literature

* Harry Kunz, Albert Panten: ''Die Köge Nordfrieslands.'' Mit Karte. Nordfriisk Instituut, Bräist/Bredstedt, 1997, (''Nordfriisk Instituut'' 144).

External links

Salzderhelden

References

{{Reflist Landforms !