Vineta (sometimes ''Wineta'') is the name of a mythical city at the southern coast of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. The myth evolved around the tradition about the medieval emporium called Jumne,

Jomsborg Jomsborg or Jómsborg (german: Jomsburg) was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea (medieval Wendland, modern Pomerania), that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants were known as Jomsvikings. Jom ...

(with which Vineta is sometimes identified), Julin or similar names by the chronicles.

Myth

There are several Vineta myths – all of them portray the Vinetans as having an excessive, voluptuous or blasphemous way of life and then being punished in a flood that took the city to the bottom of the Baltic. In some variants of the myth, the city or parts thereof reappear on certain days or can be seen from a boat, making the warning conveyed by the myth more tangible for the audience.

Primary sources

* About 965,

Ibrahim ibn Jaqub Ibrahim ibn Yaqub ( ar, إبراهيم بن يعقوب ''Ibrâhîm ibn Ya'qûb al-Ṭarṭûshi'' or ''al-Ṭurṭûshî''; he, אברהם בן יעקב, ''Avraham ben Yaʿakov''; 961–62) was a tenth-century Hispano-Arabic, Sephardi Jewish t ...

wrote in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

letters about this city. The transcription might be ''Weltaba'', which corresponds to modern Polish "Wełtawa" meaning roughly a place among waves. * 1075/80,

Adam of Bremen Adam of Bremen ( la, Adamus Bremensis; german: Adam von Bremen) (before 1050 – 12 October 1081/1085) was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. Adam is most famous for his chronicle ''Gest ...

wrote about an emporium on an island in the

Oder The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows ...

estuary, east of his Diocese, where Slavs, Barbarians and Greeks were supposed to live and Saxon merchants stayed for trade.

Harald Bluetooth Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson ( non, Haraldr Blátǫnn Gormsson; da, Harald Blåtand Gormsen, died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway. He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 958 ...

had once found refuge there. The oldest preserved manuscript, from the 11th century, has the spelling ''vimne'' or , and the second oldest manuscript, from around 1200, has and ''iumne'' or ''jumne'' ( there is no distinction between v and u or i and j in the written Latin of that time). More recent copies of the manuscript primarily use ''Jumne;'' in an early modern print the name is spelled ''Julinum'' and ''Juminem.''Schmidt, Roderich: Das historische Pommern. Personen, Orte, Ereignisse (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Pommern, Reihe V, Forschungen Bd. 41), Köln / Weimar 2007, S. 70-72. * Between 1140 and 1159, three vitae of

Otto of Bamberg Otto of Bamberg (1060 or 1061 – 30 June 1139) was a German missionary and papal legate who converted much of medieval Pomerania to Christianity. He was the bishop of Bamberg from 1102 until his death. He was canonized in 1189. Early life T ...

were written using the name ''Julin'' for the medieval place located at the site of the later town of

Wolin Wolin (; formerly german: Wollin ) is the name both of a Polish island in the Baltic Sea, just off the Polish coast, and a town on that island. Administratively, the island belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Wolin is separated from th ...

. * 1163/1168,

Helmold of Bosau Helmold of Bosau (ca. 1120 – after 1177) was a Saxon historian of the 12th century and a priest at Bosau near Plön. He was a friend of the two bishops of Oldenburg in Holstein, Vicelinus (died 1154) and Gerold (died 1163), who did much to ...

copied almost word for word the respective sentences written by Adam of Bremen. The oldest preserved handwriting of Helmolds chronicle (ca. 1300) has the place spelled , corrected by the copyist to ''iuḿta'' (abbreviation of ''iumenta'' or ''iumneta''). Younger copies use ''Jumneta'' in the text, yet in the header of the respective chapter all copies use ''Vinneta.'' * About 1170, the Nordic Knytlinga saga reported a siege of ''Jomsborg'' by the Dano-Norwegian king Magnus (1043) and a campaign against that place by the Danish king Valdemar I (1170). * About 1190,

Saxo Grammaticus Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark ...

reported the same campaign (1170) and Harald Bluetooth's earlier stay there, but called the place ''Julin m''

Geographical place

Vineta Reef off Koserow / Damerow

Some variants of the myth have Vineta sunken off Koserow (on the isle of

Usedom Usedom (german: Usedom , pl, Uznam ) is a Baltic Sea island in Pomerania, divided between Germany and Poland. It is the second largest Pomeranian island after Rügen, and the most populous island in the Baltic Sea. It is north of the Szczeci ...

). The historian Wilhelm Ferdinand Gadebusch from Swinemünde (Świnoujście) made this and other observations the basis for his thesis of Vineta's location. According to Gadebusch, Wolin did not have the deep water port that Vineta must have had, and thus discarded the Wolin thesis (see below). David Chyträus in his 16th century ''Chronicon Saxoniae'' had Vineta "beyond the

Peene The Peene () is a river in Germany. Geography The Westpeene, with the Ostpeene as its longer tributary, and the Kleine Peene/Teterower Peene (with a ''Peene '' without specification (or ''Nordpeene'') as its smaller and shorter affluent) flo ...

river near the village of " which was a

Vorwerk Vorwerk may refer to: *Vorwerk, Lower Saxony, a municipality in the Rotenburg district, Lower Saxony *a locality of Altenmedingen, in the Uelzen district, Lower Saxony *a subdivision of Celle, Lower Saxony *a Vorwerk (fortification), an advanced fo ...

of Koserow. For Chyträus, Usedom was the land of the Vinetans, while Julin on the neighboring island of

was inhabited by Pomoranians. Since no traces of Slavic settlement have been found on northwest Usedom, this thesis is no longer accepted.

Ruden

Several maps published between 1633 and 1700 have the sunken "Wineta" east of the island of Ruden northwest of

. About 1700, reported it in the same spot. The origin of this thesis is the All Saints flood of 1306 that reduced Ruden and other small islands from a much larger landmass that prior to the flood had existed between

Mönchgut Mönchgut (''Monk's Estates'' in German) is a peninsula of 29.44 square kilometers with 6600 inhabitants in the southeast of Rügen island in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It lies just between the Greifswalder Bodden and the rest of ...

and Usedom.

Wolin

Rudolf Virchow Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...

said: "Vineta is Wollin!" Based on the primary sources outlined above, in 1931/32 formulated the thesis that Vineta, Jumne, Julin, Jomsborg etc. are all different spellings used for the same place on the site of today's town of Wolin. Beginning in the 1930s, and continued after the annexation of Wolin to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, archaeologists unearthed the remains of a large settlement there. Hofmeister's thesis is the only mainstream thesis regarding the location of Vineta in today's historiography.

Barth

A thesis formulated by Goldmann und Wermusch placed Vineta near Barth, pointing to a possibly different course of the Oder in the Middle Ages and a creative reading of the primary sources outlined above.

In popular culture

Poems and music

*''Vineta''. poem by

Wilhelm Müller Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Müller (7 October 1794 – 30 September 1827) was a German lyric poet, best known as the author of ''Die schöne Müllerin'' (1823) and ''Winterreise'' (1828), which Franz Schubert later set to music as song cycles. Life ...

(1794-1827), in ''Muscheln von der Insel Rügen'' (1825) **Intonation by

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

for Chor a cappella in six voices, op. 42 Nr. 2 (1860) **Intonation by

Achim Reichel Achim Reichel (born 28 January 1944) is a musician, producer, and songwriter from Hamburg, Germany. He is known for his 1991 hit single ''Aloha Heja He'', and serving as the frontman for the 1960s beat group The Rattles, who, among other achieve ...

, for the album ''Wilder Wassermann'' (2002) *''Seegespenst''. Poem by

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

(1797-1856), in ''Die Nordsee. 1. Abteilung'' (1826) *Two texts by

Ferdinand Freiligrath Ferdinand Freiligrath (17 June 1810 – 18 March 1876) was a German poet, translator and liberal agitator, who is considered part of the Young Germany movement. Life Freiligrath was born in Detmold, Principality of Lippe. His father was a teacher. ...

(1810-1876): Poem ''Meerfahrt'' (1838); ''Wilhelm Müller. Eine Geisterstimme'' (1872) *''Vineta-Glocken. Valse boston'' (1920er Jahre) by (Pseudonym of the Carynthian Johann Theimer) *''Vineta'' (1994). Concert piece and suite for Zither solo by

Peter Kiesewetter Peter Kiesewetter (1 May 1945 – 4 December 2012) was a modern classical composer, born in Marktheidenfeld Marktheidenfeld () is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, ...

*''Vineta'' (2001). Sinfonical poem by *''Vineta''. Song of the band

Puhdys The Puhdys () were a German rock band, formed in Oranienburg (Brandenburg), GDR, in 1969, although by then they had been performing together—with various lineups—as the Puhdys since 1965. Although they are especially popular in their native ...

(''Puhdys 1'', 4. Titel) *''Vineta''. Song by

Michael Heck Captain (OF-2), Captain Michael John Heck (born July 12, 1942) was an Americans, American B-52 Stratofortress Aviator, pilot in the Vietnam War best known for becoming a conscientious objector and refusing to continue flying bombing missions over ...

*''Vineta''. Song from the De Plattfööt album Ierst mol ganz langsam *''Vineta''. Planned 3. volume of the long poem ''Nautilus'' by Uwe Tellkamp *''Vineta''. poetry collection by , 1998 * „Vineta“, Song by Josef Seiler (text) and (music) * „Vineta“ (2011). Song of the band (album „Übers Meer“, title 6)

Plays, festivals and opera

*''Vineta'' (1863). Opera by Jan Nepomuk Škroup. First 1870 in Prague ( Vineta; Czech) *''Vineta. Schauspiel.'' In: ''Zu spät.'' Vier Einakter (1902) by Marie Eugenie delle Grazie. *''Vineta. Die versunkene Stadt'' (1937). Play by Jura Soyfer *''Vineta'' (1960–67). Opera by Rudolf Mors(text und music). First 1968 in Bielefeld *''Vineta-Festspiele'' (since 1997). Open air theater festival of the in Ostseebühne Zinnowitz *''Republik Vineta'' (2000). Play by *''Vineta (Oderwassersucht)''. Play by (under the pseudonym Fritz Kater). First 2001 in Leipzig

In prosaic literature

* Elisabeth Bürstenbinder (pen name E. Werner): ''Vineta''. Novel (1877) *

Theodor Fontane Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known to ...

: ''Effi Briest''. Novel (1895; c. 17: alluding

's ''Seegespenst'') *

Selma Lagerlöf Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish author. She published her first novel, '' Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she wa ...

: ''

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils ''The Wonderful Adventures of Nils'' ( sv, Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, literally ''Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey across Sweden'') is a work of fiction by the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, the first woman to receive t ...

''. Novel (1906/07; contains a retelling of the myth) *

Oskar Loerke Oskar Loerke (13 March 1884, Jungen – 24 February 1941, Berlin) was a German poet, prose writer, literary critic and essayist. Loerke was a prominent representative of Expressionism and magic realism in Germany. Life and career Loerke was ...

: ''Vineta''. Essay(1907) *: ''Vineta. Ein Gegenwartsroman aus künftiger Sicht'' (1955) * Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, Zygmunt Szatkowski: ''Troja północy'' (''Troy of North''), Pax (1960) *

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (born Graß; ; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of D ...

: '' Der Butt''. Novel (1977); '' Die Rättin''. Novel (1986) *

Lawrence Norfolk Lawrence Norfolk (born 1963) is a British novelist known for historical works with complex plots and intricate detail. Biography Though born in London, Norfolk lived in Iraq until 1967 and then in the West Country of England. He read Engli ...

: ''The Pope's Rhinoceros''. Novel (1996) *: ''Das Mädchen aus Vineta''. Essay (2000; tells the story of an unsuccessful attempt to deliver Vineta from its curse.) * Uwe Tellkamp: '. Essay (2004; draws parallels between Dresden and Vineta) *: ''Die Glocken von Vineta''. Novel (2007) * Toni Glenn: ''Mappa Ordica'', Adventure/Novel (2008) * / (Oleg Yuriev): ''Винета''. Novel (2007, Russian) / ''Die russische Fracht''. Novel (2009, German translation) *: ''Vinetas Träume fliegen'', Historical fantasy novel, Otto-Johann-Verlag, Lubmin 2009 * Rolf Kahl: ''Rauher Wind am Birkhuhnsee'', contains a travel to Jumne *: ''Vineta'', Literaturverlag Droschl 2013,

Movies

*'' Vineta, the Sunken City'' (1923) by

Werner Funck Werner Funck (4 February 1881 – 6 October 1951) was a German stage and film actor, singer and film director.Grange p.159 Selected filmography Actor * ''The Heiress of the Count of Monte Cristo'' (1919) * ''The Girl from Acker Street'' (1920) * ...

*''

.''

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

(1980): Episode 15 – Die versunkene Stadt *' (2006) by , with Peter Lohmeyer

TV-series

*''

Küstenwache The German Federal Coast Guard (german: Küstenwache des Bundes) is a civilian law enforcement organisation whose primary missions are border protection, maritime environmental protection, shipping safety, fishery protection and customs enforcem ...

(ZDF), 21. Dezember 2011:'' „Der Fluch von Vineta“.

Board games

*'' Vineta''

Video games

*The name of a moon in '' Signalis''.

Place names

* In Berlin there is a Vineta Street (Vinetastraße) and a U-Bahn station. * In Berlin there is also a Vineta square (Vinetaplatz) in Wedding, next to Swinemünder Straße and Wolliner Straße. * The German Empire's navy had the vessels ''Vineta'' ( of 1863, of 1897, of 1915, and SMS ''Möwe'', briefly renamed ''Vineta'' in 1915) * In 1903 a square in the center of ,

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

was named Vinetaplatz after SMS Vineta I. * The (West) German navy from 1961 to 1992 had a mine sweeper „Vineta“ (M2652, Ariadne-class) in 3. Minensuchgeschwader. * An artwork installation in near Leipzig is called „Vineta.“ * A rare German Empire stamp is called " Vineta provisional". * In

Swakopmund Swakopmund (german: Mouth of the Swakop) is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inhabitants and covers ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, there is a neighborhood Vineta. * In

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

there is a student fraternity "Vineta" since 1879. * In Schleswig-Holstein there is a sports club named TSV Vineta Audorf. * In Schleswig Holstein (Busdorf) there is a club called Disco-Vineta. * In

Europa-Park Europa-Park is the largest theme park in Germany, and the second most popular theme park in Europe, after Disneyland Paris. Europa-Park is located in Rust, Baden-Württemberg, Rust, south-western Germany, between Freiburg im Breisgau and Strasbo ...

Rust (Baden) Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO ...

, in the themed land 'Scandinavia' there was an attraction 'Sunken city "Vineta"'. It was destroyed in a fire in 2018 and may never be rebuilt.

References

Bibliography

* : "Vineta," die quellenkritische Lösung eines vielberufenen Problems, in Forschungen und Fortschritte, vol. 8 (1932), pp. 341–343. *

Carl Friedrich von Rumohr Carl Friedrich von Rumohr (6 January 1785, Reinhardtsgrimma – 25 July 1843) was a German art historian, writer, draughtsman and painter, agricultural historian, connoisseur of and writer about the culinary arts, art collector and patron of arti ...

: ''Über das Verhältnis der seit lange gewöhnlichen Vorstellungen of einer prachtvollen Wineta zu unsrer positiven Kenntniß der Kultur und Kunst der deutschen Ostseeslaven.'' In: ''Sammlung für Kunst und Historie.'' Perthes & Besser, Hamburg, Erster Band Erstes Heft. 1816.
Digitalisat der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek
* : ''Geheimnis um Vineta. Legende und Wirklichkeit einer versunkenen Stadt.'' Der Kinderbuchverlag Berlin, 4. Auflage 1969. * Ingrid Lange, P. Werner Lange: ''Vineta, Atlantis des Nordens.'' Urania-Verlag, Leipzig 1988, * , : ''Vineta. Die Wiederentdeckung einer versunkenen Stadt.'' Bergisch Gladbach 1999. * Franz Wegener: ''Neu-Vineta. Die Rassesiedlungspläne der Ariosophen für die Halbinseln Darß und Zingst.'' KFVR 2010, * , ''Das Vineta Rätsel''. Boddin 2011. . * Albert Burkhardt von Hinstorff, ''Vineta. Sagen und Märchen vom Ostseestrand''

External links

Vineta-Festspiele
in Zinnowitz auf Usedom
Vineta-Museum
in Barth

auf den Seiten der Vinetastadt Barth Mythological populated places