Morsum (North Frisian: ''Muasem'') is a village 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 ...

island of

Sylt Sylt (; ; Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, with a distinctively shaped shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Fris ...

in the district 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 ...

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 ...

. Today, it is an ''Ortsteil'' of the '' Gemeinde Sylt''. Morsum is located close to the scientifically important

geotope A geotope is the geological component of the abiotic matrix present in an ecotope. Example geotopes might be an exposed outcrop of rocks, an erratic boulder, a grotto or ravine, a cave, an old stone wall marking a property boundary, and so forth. ...

and to the beginning of the

Hindenburgdamm The Hindenburgdamm or Hindenburg Dam is an 11 km (7 mile) long causeway joining the North Frisian island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein. Its coordinates are . It was opened on 1 June 1927 and is exclusively a railway corridor. Th ...

linking Sylt with the mainland.

Etymology

Morsum (North Frisian: ''Muasem'') derives from "settlement of Mar".

History

Morsum was first mentioned in a document of 1462 (''Zinsbuch'' of the ''Bistum Schleswig''). Until the 19th century, it was the most populous village on Sylt. In 1695, Morsum had 118 taxable dwellings. A school house was built in 1705. In 1927, Morsum was connected to the railway on the Niebüll-Westerland line.

Geography

Morsum is a ' located on the

Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea ( ; ; or ; ; ; ) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of low-lying Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tida ...

side of the island of Sylt. Morsum is the easternmost village on Sylt and consists of the sub-villages Abort (North Frisian: ''Abuurt''), Groß-Morsum (North Frisian: ''Gurtmuasem'', Danish: ''Store Morsum''), Klein-Morsum (North Frisian: ''Litjmuasem'', Danish: ''Lille Morsum''), Holm (North Frisian: ''Holerem'', Danish: ''Holmen''), Klampshörn (North Frisian: ''Klaampshörn''), Nösse (North Frisian: ''Nösi'', Danish: ''Næsodde''), Osterende (North Frisian: ''Uasterjen'', Danish: ''Østerende''), Schellinghörn (North Frisian: ''Skelinghör'', Danish: ''Skellinghjørne '') and Wall (North Frisian: ''Val'', Danish: ''Vold''). The total area is around 1,164 hectares. Morsum is located at the transition between higher lying

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 outw ...

and the low-lying marshes that, until the ''Nössedeich'' was constructed in 1936/37, were constantly threatened with flooding. Northeast of the village lies the ' (see below).

Demographics

Morsum has around 1,160 inhabitants (2013). The use of the local dialect,

Söl'ring Sylt Frisian, or ''Söl'ring'', is the dialect of the North Frisian language spoken on the island of Sylt in the German region of North Frisia. ''Söl'ring'' refers to the ''Söl'ring'' Frisian word for Sylt, ''Söl''. Together with the Fer ...

is still more prevalent in Morsum than in other parts of the island.

Economy

Agriculture has always been more important in Morsum than in the other villages on Sylt. Today, like elsewhere on Sylt, tourism is the dominant industry. Since 1958, Morsum has held the status of ''Luftkurort'' (climatic spa). There are many traditional Uthland-Frisian houses and a number of craftspeople and galleries have established themselves in the village.

Attractions

St. Martin

The Romanesque church is located a bit outside of the village centre on a slight elevation in the marshes. It was built in the early 13th century and thus, with St. Severin at Keitum, is one of the oldest surviving church buildings on Sylt. During the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine, or disease, whil ...

, the church was turned into a

fortified church A fortified church is a church that is built to serve a defensive role in times of war. Such church (building), churches were specially designed to incorporate military features, such as thick walls, battlements, and embrasures. Others, such as t ...

. St. Martin has no steeple or tower. The wooden

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

is separate from the church building itself, sitting in the grave yard. St. Martin features a 13th-century

baptismal font A baptismal font is an Church architecture, ecclesiastical architectural element, which serves as a receptacle for baptismal water used for baptism, as a part of Christian initiation for both rites of Infant baptism, infant and Believer's bapti ...

and a 17th-century oaken

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

. Today, St. Martin is a Protestant church.

Morsum-Kliff

Morsum-Kliff has been described as "one of the most important geological monuments in Germany". It stretches for around 1.8 kilometres along the northeastern coast and rises to a height of up to 21 metres. The Kliff is made up of various layers of soil: * gray-black ''Glimmerton'' dating back 5 to 7 million years and including fossils such as snails, mussels and crabs * reddish

Limonite Limonite () is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as , although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxide can vary qu ...

dating back 4 to 5 million years * white

Kaolin Kaolinite ( ; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina (). ...

sands deposited here 2 to 3 million years ago from Scandinavia and containing fossilised

corals Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

sea lilies Crinoids are marine invertebrates that make up the Class (biology), class Crinoidea. Crinoids that remain attached to the sea floor by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms, called feather stars or ...

and

sponges Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and ar ...

(dead for around 500 million years). These three layers were originally on top of each other but about 15,000 years ago during the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

they were compressed and folded by glacial activity, so that in places they are now horizontally next to each other. The Kliff and the nearby heath-covered area (around 43 hectares) have been a nature preserve since 1923. This prevented the planned use of the sand deposits in construction of the Hindenburgdamm. In 2006, the Kliff was declared a ' (national geotope). In the past there have been several attempts to mine the cliff. In the 1870s, Ludwig Meyn bought local properties to operate an iron mine here. He planned to use the mining waste in the construction of a causeway to the mainland. However, the soil did not contain sufficient iron ore for the scheme to be implemented. In the 1930s, the Nazi government took an interest in the local iron ore deposits, but by the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

no thorough prospection and evaluation had taken place. Another attempt was undertaken during the 1950s, when businesses were looking for a supply of rare ores such as

titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

for the resurgent German economy. Currently, the Kliff is threatened by erosion made worse by visitors or fossil hunters leaving the designated paths.

The Morsum-Kliff in painting

File: Eugen Felix Prosper Bracht Küste auf Sylt.jpg ,

Eugen Bracht Eugen Felix Prosper Bracht (3 June 1842 – 5 November 1921) was a German landscape painter. Biography Bracht was born in Morges, Waadt (near Lake Geneva in Switzerland) of German parents. His family later moved to Darmstadt, Germany, where ...

''Küste auf Sylt'' (Morsum-Kliff), oil painting, 1897 File: 1902 Wrage Morsumkliff, Sylt anagoria.JPG , Hinrich Wrage ''Morsumkliff, Sylt'', oil painting, 1902 File: 1905 Arp Küstenlandschaft auf Sylt (Morsumkliff) anagoria.JPG , Carl Arp ''Küstenlandschaft auf Sylt (Morsumkliff)''‚ oil painting, 1905 File: Morsum - 2Mark 1921a.png, The ''Morsum-Kliff'' (artist unknown) on a

Notgeld (German language, German for 'emergency money' or 'necessity money') is money issued by an institution in a time of economic or political crisis. The issuing institution is usually one without official sanction from the central government. This ...

banknote from 1921 File: Morsum Kliff 13. März 2003, Aquarell von Ingo Kühl.tif ,

Ingo Kühl Ingo Kühl (born 29 June 1953) is a German painter, sculptor and architect. Life Grown up in Bovenau near Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein as a son of a policeman, Ingo Kühl attended the Theodor Storm, Theodor-Storm-Realschule in Hanerau-Hadem ...

''Morsum Kliff'', watercolor, sketchbook, 2003

Further attractions

The area around Morsum features a large number of and other sites. In addition, the only extant burial mound on Sylt dating from the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

is located on Morsum's territory. These monuments make up the "largest burial mound site in Germany" and include the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

burial mounds A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. ...

known as ''Munkhoog'' and ''Markmannhoog''.

Government

In the ''Gebietsreform'' of 1970, Morsum became part of

Sylt-Ost Sylt-Ost (translated, East Sylt) is a former municipality on the island of Sylt, in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It used to be the administrative seat of the '' Amt Landschaft Sylt'' and a municipality into whi ...

. Prior to that, the sub-villages had been ''Ortsteile'' of the municipality Morsum. Sylt-Ost was merged on 1 January 2009 with

Rantum Rantum (; Sölring Frisian: Raantem) is a village and a former municipality on the island of Sylt in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Since 1 January 2009, it has been an ''Ortsteil'' (part) of the municipality S ...

and the town of Westerland. In separate referendums in 2008, Westerland (by a large majority) and Sylt-Ost (narrowly) agreed to the merger in May 2008. Rantum followed. In September 2008, the merger contract was signed. Morsum is now an ''Ortsteil'' of ''Gemeinde Sylt''. Since 1 May 2015, the mayor of ''Gemeinde Sylt'' has been Nikolas Häckel.

Infrastructure

Transport

Morsum has a railway station on the line between Westerland and

Niebüll Niebüll (; ; ) is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated near the North Sea coast and the border with Denmark, approx. 35 km northwest of Husum. Local districts and settlements include Deezb� ...

. However, long-distance trains and the ''Sylt Shuttle'' do not stop there. However, local services by ''

Nord-Ostsee-Bahn Nord-Ostsee-Bahn or NOB is a transport company which operates buses in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Based in Kiel, the company was established in 2000 and is owned by Transdev Germany, Transdev. The company formerly operated the Marsh Railway ...

'' stop at Morsum station. So there are direct connections to Hamburg-Altona, Husum or Niebüll for example. Morsum is where the

and its railway line connects the island of Sylt with the mainland. The K117 road connects Morsum to Keitum and Westerland. ' operates buses that provide public transport on the island.

Other

The public broadcaster NDR operates an 80-metre radio antenna (') outside of the village.

References

External links

Morsum tourist office
{{authority control Villages in Schleswig-Holstein Sylt Nordfriesland