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The Wendland is a region in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
on the borders of the present states of
Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
,
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...
,
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
and
Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...
. Its heart is the
Hanoverian Wendland The adjective Hanoverian is used to describe: * British monarchs or supporters of the House of Hanover, the dynasty which ruled the United Kingdom from 1714 to 1901 * things relating to; ** Electorate of Hanover ** Kingdom of Hanover ** Province o ...
in the county of
Lüchow-Dannenberg Lüchow-Dannenberg is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany, which is usually referred to as Hanoverian Wendland (''Hannoversches Wendland'') or Wendland. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Uelzen and Lüneburg and the s ...
in
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
. In 2012 the state of Lower Saxony nominated the ''
Rundling A ''Rundling'' is a form of circular village, now found only in Northern Germany, typical of settlements in the Germanic-Slav contact zone in the Early Medieval period. The ''Rundling'' was a relatively common village form created by German law ...
'' villages in Hanoverian Wendland for the German
shortlist A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...
of candidates for future
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s. Subsequent decisions that will determine the success of this bid take place in 2013 at the conference of education ministers (''
Kultusministerkonferenz The ''Kultusministerkonferenz'' (literally ''conference of ministers of education'') is the assembly of ministers of education of the German states. The body is not part of the federal government, and its directives do not immediately become eff ...
'') and no earlier than 2017 by UNESCO.


Etymology

Wendland is not an ancient regional name. The term was first used around 1700, when a priest from Wustrow wrote about the language, habits, customs and manners of the Polabian inhabitants of this area. He viewed the people in the Dannenberg districts as
Wends Wends ( ang, Winedas ; non, Vindar; german: Wenden , ; da, vendere; sv, vender; pl, Wendowie, cz, Wendové) is a historical name for Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It refers not to a homogeneous people, but to various peopl ...
, an old German word for
Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
, and so named the region the Wendland. Over the course of time the name stuck. The term Vendland was used for the regions east of
Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...
, however, by the Scandinavian peoples since at least before the turn of the 10th Century. One recorded historic instance is when King
Olaf I of Norway Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken (Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of N ...
in 982 married
Queen Geira Geira (ca. 965 – 985) was a Wendish princess and the eldest daughter of Burislav Burislav, Burisleif, Burysław (died 1008) is the name of a legendary Wendish king from Scandinavian sagas who is said to rule over Wendland. He is said to ...
, a daughter of King
Burizleif Burislav, Burisleif, Burysław (died 1008) is the name of a legendary Wendish king from Scandinavian sagas who is said to rule over Wendland. He is said to be father of Gunhild, Astrid and Geira. There are three possible hypotheses over his id ...
of Vendland.


Landscape

Geographically the western Wendland is also the eastern edge of the
Lüneburg Heath Lüneburg Heath (german: Lüneburger Heide) is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen a ...
, its appearance shaped during the
Saale glaciation The Saale glaciation or Saale Glaciation, sometimes referred to as the Saalian glaciation, Saale cold period (german: Saale-Kaltzeit), Saale complex (''Saale-Komplex'') or Saale glacial stage (''Saale-Glazial'', colloquially also the ''Saale-Eiszei ...
. Here the countryside is dominated by the ridge of the
Drawehn The Drawehn is a partly wooded and partly agricultural region of hills in the northeastern part of the German state of Lower Saxony, lying between the districts of Lüneburg and Uelzen in the west and Lüchow-Dannenberg in the east. It is named af ...
, which is a gravelly, east Hanoverian
terminal moraine A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge ...
. It is thus a sandy
geest Geest is a type of landform, slightly raised above the surrounding countryside, that occurs on the plains of Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark. It is a landscape of sandy and gravelly soils formed as a glacial outwash plai ...
terrain, afforested with pines. With infertile soils and a scarcity of water as a result of the porous soil it was always historically a hostile environment for settlers. The largest part of the Hanoverian Wendland, however, lies in the
glacial meltwater valley An ''urstromtal'' (plural: ''Urstromtäler'') is a type of broad glacial valley, for example, in northern Central Europe, that appeared during the ice ages, or individual glacial periods of an ice age, at the edge of the Scandinavian ice sheet and ...
(''
Urstromtal An ''urstromtal'' (plural: ''Urstromtäler'') is a type of broad glacial valley, for example, in northern Central Europe, that appeared during the ice ages, or individual glacial periods of an ice age, at the edge of the Scandinavian ice sheet and ...
'') of the
River Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) 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 Repu ...
. A distinction here needs to be made between the actual flood plain of the Elbe in the north and the Lüchow Depression. The latter is a lower terrace, crossed by numerous streams - the largest being the
Jeetzel The river Jeetzel, which begins in the Altmark under the name Jeetze,Hans-Joachim Uhlemann and Martin Eckoldt, ''Kleine Nebenflüsse der Elbe oberhalb des Tidegebietes'', published in Hans-Georg Braun's 1988 ''Flüsse und Kanäle''. flows from Sa ...
– canals and ditches. Low hills are formed by small, island-like
ground moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...
s like Öring, Lemgow, Langendorfer Geestinsel and Höhbeck. In the east the Gartow Forest stands on a large plain of
wind-borne sand Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erode, transport, and deposit materials ...
(see also:
Wendland and Altmark Wendland and Altmark (german: Wendland und Altmark), named after the German regions of Wendland and Altmark, is the name of a natural regional major landscape unit group in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, North Germany. In the Handbook of Natural Re ...
).


Culture and history

The Wendland was heavily influenced by the Polabian Slav culture. In the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, and in places up to the Early Modern Period the Wendland was inhabited by Western
Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
, called
Wends Wends ( ang, Winedas ; non, Vindar; german: Wenden , ; da, vendere; sv, vender; pl, Wendowie, cz, Wendové) is a historical name for Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It refers not to a homogeneous people, but to various peopl ...
in German. As a result there are numerous place names that have Slavic origins, as well as circular villages of the ''
Rundling A ''Rundling'' is a form of circular village, now found only in Northern Germany, typical of settlements in the Germanic-Slav contact zone in the Early Medieval period. The ''Rundling'' was a relatively common village form created by German law ...
'' type that emerged during times of German-Slav conflict in the Medieval period. The Slavic language of the Wendlanders, the Draveno-Polabian, died out by 1756. Previously, the Wendland was the westernmost point of the Slavic language region. Until the ''Wende'' ("great change") in 1989/90, the Wendland was a border zone that extended like a salient into
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
. Beginning in the late 1970s, it was known for protests against the atomic waste storage facility at
Gorleben Gorleben is a small municipality ('' Gemeinde'') in the Gartow region of the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in the far north-east of Lower Saxony, Germany, a region also known as the Wendland. Gorleben was first recorded as a town by the rulers of D ...
, and for the so-called
Free Republic of Wendland The Free Republic of Wendland (from German ''Republik Freies Wendland'') was a protest camp established in Gorleben, West Germany, on 3 May 1980 to protest against the establishment of a nuclear waste dump there. On 4 June 1980, the police moved i ...
of 1980 – a protest camp later cleared by police. Since 1989, a cultural festival, the ''Kulturelle Landpartie'', has taken place in the Wendland annually between
Ascension Day The Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, also called Ascension Day, Ascension Thursday, or sometimes Holy Thursday, commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. It is one of the ecumenical (i.e., shared b ...
and
Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the Ne ...
.


Types of settlement

In Hanoverian Wendland, a distinctive type of historic circular village, known as the ''
Rundling A ''Rundling'' is a form of circular village, now found only in Northern Germany, typical of settlements in the Germanic-Slav contact zone in the Early Medieval period. The ''Rundling'' was a relatively common village form created by German law ...
'', is common even today. Almost all ''Rundlinge'' still bear village names of Slavic origin. This type of settlement occurred in regions from 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 ...
to the Ore Mountains, but has only survived in its original form in any numbers in the Wendland due to the relative isolation of the region since the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
and its distance from the main trading routes. Over 100 villages in the area still preserve the characteristic appearance of a ''Rundling''. But similar villages called by other names such as Runddorf or Platzdorf or Rundangerdorf occur in significant numbers in neighbouring
Altmark :''See German tanker Altmark for the ship named after Altmark and Stary Targ for the Polish village named Altmark in German.'' The (English: Old MarchHansard, ''The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time ...'', Volume 32. 1 F ...
as well as the eastern parts of the counties of
Lüneburg Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also calle ...
,
Uelzen Uelzen (; officially the ''Hanseatic Town of Uelzen'', German: ''Hansestadt Uelzen'', , Low German ''Ülz’n'') is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a ...
,
Gifhorn Gifhorn () is a town and capital of the district of Gifhorn in the east of Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of about 42,000 and is mainly influenced by the small distance to the more industrial and commercially important cities nearby, ...
and in the south on the Vorsfelder Werder (
Rühen Rühen is a municipality in the Gifhorn (district), district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The Municipality Rühen includes the villages of Brechtorf, Eischott and Rühen. History Between 1945 and 1990 Rühen served as West German inner G ...
, Wendschott, Brackstedt, Velstove) and some parts of
Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...
. However, unlike those in the Hanoverian Wendland, they have been greatly modified. It has been put forward that the unusually good preservation state of the ''Rundlings'' in the Hanoverian Wendland is largely due to their relatively isolated situation and the low economic prosperity of the region. But socio-cultural reasons appear to have also played an important role.


Shortlisting for World Heritage status

The ''
Rundling A ''Rundling'' is a form of circular village, now found only in Northern Germany, typical of settlements in the Germanic-Slav contact zone in the Early Medieval period. The ''Rundling'' was a relatively common village form created by German law ...
'' villages of the Hanoverian Wendland were nominated in 2012 by the state of Lower Saxony as a
cultural landscape Cultural landscape is a term used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies, to describe a symbiosis of human activity and environment. As defined by the World Heritage Committee, it is the "cultural properties hatrepresent the co ...
for the German shortlist of candidates for future
UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s. On 18 June 2012, the Lower Saxon Ministry of Science and Culture (''Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur'') announced its decision following a selection process that had started in 2011. The conference of cultural ministers (''
Kultusministerkonferenz The ''Kultusministerkonferenz'' (literally ''conference of ministers of education'') is the assembly of ministers of education of the German states. The body is not part of the federal government, and its directives do not immediately become eff ...
'') decided in 2014 that the villages would not be among the 10 objects selected from the 32 candidates. They were rolled forward into the next cycle of entries in the years 2017–2019, but the initiative failed again.''Die runden Dörfer des Wendlands''
bei ndr.de vom 23. Januar 2019 The original bid was based on 15 ''Rundling'' villages chosen to represent a selection of highly distinctive
high medieval The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD 1500 ...
colonisation settlements in the county of Lüchow-Dannenberg. Since then the bid has been modified to encompass the landscape between the villages, and 19 villages have been provisionally chosen to represent the best of the Rundlingslandschaft. The uniqueness of these circular villages stems from their combination of a distinctive ground plan, a high density of Low German hall houses with their
gable end A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s facing a central green as well as the fact that their houses represent a regionally specific variation of this type of farmhouse. The state of Lower Saxony hopes that the bid will prove successful because these circular villages are among the most unrepresented categories of
cultural landscape Cultural landscape is a term used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies, to describe a symbiosis of human activity and environment. As defined by the World Heritage Committee, it is the "cultural properties hatrepresent the co ...
s and farming architecture in the UNESCO's world heritage list.


Literature

* ''Wendland-Lexikon.'' ed.: Wolfgang Jürries und Berndt Wachter, Köhring, Lüchow, 2008, Vol. 1: A-K, 2nd ed., 424 pp., Ill., Kt, ; Vol. 2: L-Z., 640 pp., Ill., graph. Darst., Kt., * Ingeborg Harms: ''Das Wendland.'' in: ''Deutsche Landschaften.'' S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 2003. * A. Danneberg, T. Danneberg, B. Eisermann, A. Krüger, B. Sturm: ''750 Jahre Trebel, 1251–2001.'' Köhring, Lüchow, 2001. * Burghard Kulow: ''Damals im Wendland.'' edition limosa, Clenze, 2008.


External links

*
Damals im Wendland

Twelve museums in der Elbe Valley and Wendland

Wendland photo archives


References

{{coord, 52.9665, N, 11.1503, E, source:wikidata, display=title Regions of Germany