Göhl is a municipality in the district of

Ostholstein Ostholstein (; ) is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by (from the southwest and clockwise) the districts of Stormarn, Segeberg and Plön, the Baltic Sea and the city of Lübeck. Geographically, the district covers the vas ...

, in

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 ...

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 ...

Geography

Göhl lies around three kilometers east of

Oldenburg in Holstein Oldenburg in Holstein () is a German town at the southwestern shore of the Baltic Sea. The nearest city is Lübeck. The town belongs to the (historical) region of Holstein, today in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Oldenburg was the chi ...

on the Wagrian peninsular. The municipality is part of the collective municipality of Oldenburg-Land and the district of

. The southern border of Göhl runs along the Oldenburger Graben through the marshy lands of the former Gruber sea. Göhl borders the municipalities of

Heringsdorf Heringsdorf is a semi-urban municipality and a popular seaside resort on Usedom Island in Western Pomerania, Germany. It is also known by the name Kaiserbad ('). The municipality was formed in January 2005 out of the former municipalities of H ...

to the northeast,

Gremersdorf Gremersdorf is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. This municipality is next to the Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, F ...

to the northwest,

to the west, and across the Oldenburger Graben, Riepsdorf to the south. Göhl is connected to Oldenburg in Holstein, the nearest city, via the road ''Göhler Chaussee'', which allows connectivity of the municipality to the ''

Bundesautobahn 1 is an autobahn in Germany. It runs from Heiligenhafen in Schleswig-Holstein to Saarbrücken, a distance of , but is incomplete between Cologne and Trier. B 207 continues north from Heiligenhafen to Puttgarden, at the end of the island of Fe ...

''. The

Lübeck–Puttgarden railway The Lübeck–Puttgarden railway is part of the international Vogelfluglinie (Bird Flight Line) between Germany and Denmark and connects Lübeck with Puttgarden on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Until t ...

runs through the municipality but does not stop for passenger transport. However, a small decommissioned train station still exists in Göhl. The municipality consists of the settlements Antoinettenhof, Christianstal, Gaarz, Gaarzerfelde, Gaarzermühle, Göhl, Giebelberg, Kremsdorf, Lütjendorf, Neuschwelbek, Plügge, Quals, and Schwelbek.

History

The Oldenburger Graben, which now forms the southern border of Göhl, used to be part of a

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

before and during the times of

Slavic Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slav ...

settlement in the area, its connection to the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

would later be severed through natural processes however, leaving behind several marshy inland seas, the biggest of which being the Gruber sea directly south of what is today the municipality of Göhl. Due to the marshy waters of the inland seas no longer being traversable and lacking any sea access, local farmers considered the draining of the seas to avoid future flood damage and expand their farmland in the early 20th century. The first pumps to drain the seas were commissioned in 1926, and state support was attained through first

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

, and later

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

agricultural policy Agricultural policy describes a set of laws relating to domestic agriculture and imports of foreign agricultural products. Governments usually implement agricultural policies with the goal of achieving a specific outcome in the domestic agricultu ...

. Göhl was first mentioned under the name Gola, a Slavic word meaning heather, in 1317. The areas which today make up Göhl have been part of the ''Gut Schwelbek zu Putlos'' since the start of the 15th century. During this time, Göhl was known by multiple names, including Ghoele and Ghole. On 15 November 1910, at the time ''Gutsbezirk Schwelbek'', which encompassed the village of Göhl, was transformed into the municipality of Goel. This new municipality grew with the addition of first the ''Gutsbezirk Kremsdorf'' in 1928, and then the municipality of Plügge in 1939. The spelling of Goel was standardized to the modern version of Göhl in 1937. The ''Kreis Oldenburger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'' (KOE) rail company commissioned the Oldenburg - Heiligenhafen railway line, which ran trains through the Göhl station, in 1898. During 1976 however, all passenger transport was ceased, which left the train station decommissioned to this day. A

commercial area Commercial area, commercial district or commercial zone in a city is an area, district, or neighborhoods primarily composed of commerce, commercial buildings, such as a strip mall, business parks, office parks, downtown, central business distric ...

of 2.5 ha was created in the north of the settlement of Göhl in 1995. The current coat of arms and flag were adopted in June 2010.

Demographics

As of December 31, 2021, Göhl has a population of 1,118 with 560 (50.1%) being male, and 558 (49.9%) being female. The median age was 45.4 as of 2021. Göhl had the highest percentage of under 18 years olds in

at 24% (293) as of 2003. This population has since shrunken to 17.3% (193) in 2021 however.

Citizenship

In the 2022 census, 1,071 people (97.6%) in Göhl possessed only German citizenship, 1,046 of which (95.4% of the population) were born in Germany. Residents of other citizenship in the 2022 census were: 11 (1%)

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

, 5 (0.5%) Ukrainian, 4 (0.4%)

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

, and 6 (0.5%) of other unspecified nationality.

Religion

In the 2022 census, 613 people (55.9%) were members of the

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (, EKD), also known as the Protestant Church in Germany, is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed Protestantism, Reformed, and united and uniting churches, United Protestantism in Ger ...

, with 58 (5.3%) belonging to the

Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, and 425 (38.8%) being either

irreligious Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, rationa ...

or belonging to another confession. The only church in the municipality is the

evangelical-lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

Marco chapel (''Marco-Kapelle'') opposite of the kindergarten in the settlement of Göhl.

Politics

The current

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Göhl is Thomas Bauer (BGG), who had been the

deputy mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor and assistant mayor) is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many local governments. Duties and functions Many elected deputy mayors are members of the loca ...

from 1998 to 2006, he has since continuously been reelected as the mayor of Göhl.

Elections

The most recent election in Göhl were the 2023 Schleswig-Holstein municipal elections, where the BGG was reelected as the strongest faction despite losing one seat. The

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

last participated in the 2013 election. ! colspan=2, Candidate ! Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=#63B8FF, , align=left, Thomas Bauer , align=left, Bürgergemeinschaft Gemeinde Göhl (BGG) , 1,791 , 59.0 , 11 , 7 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Mechthild Friederichsen , align=left,

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 ...

(CDU) , 1,170 , 38.5 , 8.5 , 4 , 1 , - , bgcolor=#DCDCDC, , align=left, Udo Tornow , align=left,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

, 77 , 2.5 , New , 0 , ±0 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 3,038 ! 99.4 ! 0.5 ! ! , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 18 ! 0.6% ! 0.5 ! ! , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 597 ! 62.3 ! 6.1 ! ! , - , colspan=8, Source
Statistical Office of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein

Historical seat distribution

List of mayors

* since 2006: Thomas Bauer (BGG) * 1990-2006: Johann Höper (BGG)

Coat of Arms and Flag

The coat of arms and flag of Göhl were created by

Henning Höppner Henning is a surname, as well as a given name. Etymology of the surname The surname originated in East Prussia. It is derived from "Henneke", which is a diminutive of Johannes. The Low German suffix ''-ing'' means "son of". The name is indigenou ...

, who had created multiple insignia in

Wagria WagriaArnold, Benjamin (1991). ''Princes and territories in medieval Germany'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, p. 156. . (, ''Waierland'' or ''Wagerland'') is the northeastern part of Holstein in the German state of Schleswig- ...

. It was registered with the state of Schleswig-Holstein in 2010. The heather plant in the center is in reference to the origin of the municipality's name, stemming from the Slavic word "Gola" ("heather"). The bottom sections of the shield represent the green land, and the Oldenburger Graben which forms the southern border of the municipality.

Blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
: "Shield Or a heather plant Vert with three branches and 22 blossoms Gules, in base two bars of Vert and Azure parted by a barrulet Argent, all three countersunk in centre."

The flag of Göhl is a

heraldic flag In heraldry and vexillology, a heraldic flag is a flag containing coat of arms, coats of arms, heraldic badges, or other devices used for personal identification. Heraldic flags include banners, standards, pennons and their variants, gonfalons, ...

, and shares the same design as the coat of arms.

Culture and associations

The local sports association, SV Göhl, was founded in 1970 and has around 500 members. The

German Red Cross The German Red Cross (GRC) ( ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. During the Nazi era, the German Red Cross was under the control of the Nazi Party and played a role in supporting the regime's policies, including the exclusion ...

in Göhl acts as not only a medical service focusing on senior care, but also a cultural association; organizing, among other things, flea markets, game nights, and trips. In the southernmost settlement of Göhl, Gut Gaarz, is a historic estate under family ownership that was built in 1690 and currently acts as a family resort as well as farm.

Education

Göhl is home to a

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

called ''Grundschule Göhl'' and a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

References

External links

Web presence of the municipality
on the website of the Oldenburg-Land collective municipality (in German)
Grundschule Göhl
(in German)

(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gohl Municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein Ostholstein