Dithmarschen - History

History

In medieval times the marshland villages of Dithmarschen enjoyed remarkable autonomy. Neighbouring princes often tried to bring Dithmarschen under their control.

After 1180 Prince-Archbishop Siegfried ceded Dithmarschen, which was supposed to belong to his Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, to his brother Bernhard III, Duke of the younger Duchy of Saxony. In his new position of Duke of Saxony he held the Land of Hadeln, opposite of Dithmarschen on the southern bank of the river Elbe. Adolf III of Schauenburg, Count of Holstein, at enmity with the Ascanians, had de facto taken a loose possession of Dithmarschen. So it was up to Bernhard to regain the territory, but he failed, he could only force Adolf to accept his overlordship in Dithmarschen.

Prince-Archbishop Hartwig II prepared a campaign into Dithmarschen, religiously belonging to the Archdiocese of Bremen, represented by its subsidiary chapter at Hamburg Concathedral, but rejecting Bremian secular princely overlordship. He persuaded Adolf III to waive his claim to Dithmarschen in return for regular dues levied from the to be subjected Ditmarsians. In 1187 and 1188 Hartwig and his ally Maurice I, Count of Oldenburg, heading their troops, invaded Dithmarschen. The free peasants promised to pay him dues, only to mock about Hartwig, once he and his soldiers had left. The Ditmarsians gained support by Valdemar, steward of the Duchy of Schleswig and Bishop of Schleswig. Hartwig, owing dues to Adolf III and the soldiers' pay to Maurice I, was trapped and could not afford to wage a second war.

In 1192 the Bremian Chapter elected Valdemar as its new Prince-Archbishop. Valdemar welcomed his election, hoping his new position could be helpful in his dispute with Duke Valdemar of Schleswig and his elder brother Canute VI of Denmark. Before entering the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen he won the support of Dithmarschen.

In the 15th century the Ditmarsians confederated in a peasants' republic. Several times neighbouring princely rulers, accompanied by their knights and mercenaries tried to subdue the independent ministate to feudalism, however, without success. In 1319 Gerhard III was repelled in the Battle of Wöhrden. After Eric IV, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg had raided Dithmarschen, the Ditmarsians blamed his son-in-law, Albert II, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg, of complicity, who then used this as a pretext for his own unsuccessful conquest attempt in 1403, dying during the campaign from inflicted injuries. In 1468 Dithmarschen allied with Lübeck to protect their common interest as to commerce and containing the spreading feudalism in the region. Ditmarsians had established trade with Livonia and neighbouring Baltic destinations since the 15th century, based on the Hanseatic obligations and privileges since the pact with Lübeck. Both parties renewed their alliance several times and it thus lasted until Dithmarschen's final defeat and Dano-Holsatian annexation in 1559.

In 1484 Magnus of Saxe-Lauenburg, then vicegerent of the Land of Hadeln, failed to subject the free Frisian peasants in the Land of Wursten, de facto an autonomous region in a North Sea marsh at the Weser estuary under the loose overlordship of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. This foreshadowed a series of feudal attempts to subdue regions of free peasants, an alarming signal for the Ditmarsians and the free peasants in other marshes in the area.

In April 1499 Count John XIV of Oldenburg invaded the Weser and North Sea marshes of Stadland and Butjadingen, to both of which the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen claimed its overlordship, in order to subject their free peasants. Bremen's prince-archbishop Johann Rode then tried to form a war alliance to repel these and prevent further invasions, first gaining the cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Stade, which considered the areas downstream the rivers Elbe and Weser their own front yard existential for their free maritime trade connections. Rode further won the Ditmarsians for a defensive alliance in favour of Wursten, concluded on 1 May 1499.

On 1 August the allies, now also including Buxtehude, committed themselves to supply 1,300 warriors and equipment to defend Wursten and / or invade Hadeln. Already on 24 November 1498 John V and his son Magnus of Saxe-Lauenburg had allied with Henry IV the Elder of Brunswick and Lunenburg, Prince of Wolfenbüttel to conquer Wursten. Henry IV obliged to send 3,000 lansquenets, who should gain their payment by ravaging and plundering the free peasants of Wursten, once successfully subjected.

Rode then waged feud against John V of Saxe-Lauenburg on 9 September 1499. The allied forces, with the Ditmarsians invading crossing the Elbe, easily conquered the Land of Hadeln, defeating Magnus and even driving him out of Hadeln.

While the cities wanted a peaceful front yard without powerful influence of whomsoever, the Ditmarsians were more in favour of autonomy of free peasants. Hamburg and the Ditmarsians fell out with each other. On 16 September a lansquenet hired by Hamburg slayed Cordt von der Lieth, a member of Bremian ministerialis, causing the Otterndorf Strife (Otterndorfer Streit). The lansquenet rumoured a Ditmarsian had slain von der Lieth and fled. Hamburg's lansquenets then attacked the uninvolved Ditmarsians and slayed 76 men in their military camp near Otterndorf. Thus Dithmarschen cancelled its alliance with Rode, Bremen and Hamburg and the Ditmarsians returned home. Hamburg aimed at reestablishing its rule in Hadeln, as wielded between 1407 and 1481 when Saxe-Lauenburg had pawned Hadeln to Hamburg as security for a credit. The relationship between Dithmarschen and Hamburg then turned icy, Ditmarsians captured wrecked ships of Hamburg and their freight, foundered near or at the shores of Dithmarschen, according the traditional wrecking custom, which earlier Hamburg and Dithmarschen had already replaced by a reward for rescuing ships, freight and crew. The parties only reconciled in 1512.

By 20 November 1499 Magnus hired the so-called Great or Black Guard of 6,000 ruthless and violent mostly Dutch and East Frisian mercenaries, commanded by Thomas Slentz, prior operating in the County of Oldenburg. The Black Guard invaded the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, crossing through and ravaging areas in the Prince-Bishopric of Verden and the Brunswick-Lunenburgian Principality of Lunenburg-Celle, leaving behind a wake of devastation on the countryside and especially in the looted monasteries.

Finally on Christmas Eve arriving downstream the Weser in Lehe the Black Guard tried to invade Wursten, however, the free peasants there repelled their attack near Weddewarden on 26 December. So the Guard turned northeastwards, looting Neuenwalde nunnery underways, into Hadeln, repressing the joint forces of Rode and the cities – lacking support by Bremian knights and the Ditmarsians –, recapturing it for Magnus in early 1500.

Rode then converted Henry IV the Elder to his column, with Henry the Elder and his troops then hunting the Black Guard. Magnus, unable to pay the mercenaries so that they turned even the more oppressive for the local population, was like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, who could not get rid of "the spirits that he called". By mid-January 1500 King John of Denmark hired the Guard and guaranteed for its safe conduct first southeastwards via Lunenburg-Cellean Winsen upon Luhe and Hoopte, crossing the Elbe by Zollenspieker Ferry to the Hamburg-Lübeckian bi-urban condominium (Beiderstädtischer Besitz) of Bergedorf and Vierlande.

From there the Black Guard headed northwestwards again through Holstein in order to join more of King John's forces recruited in Holstein and by the Kalmar Union. These forces then invaded Dithmarschen in order to subject the free Ditmarsians. The Ditmarsians took a vow to donate a monastery in honour of the then national patron saint Mary of Nazareth if they could repel the invasion. On 17 February 1500, in the Battle of Hemmingstedt, the outnumbered Ditmarsians, led by Wulf Isebrand, defeated the invading armies and thus destroyed King John's dream of subjecting Dithmarschen.

In 1513 the Ditmarsians founded a Franciscan Friary in Lunden fulfilling their vow, however, the Hamburg concathedral chapter, holding the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, demanded its say in appointing the prebendaries. After years of dispute, the Council of the 48, the elected governing body of the farmers' republic of Ditmarsh, decided to found a Gallicanist kind of independent Catholic Church of Dithmarschen in August 1523, denying Hamburg's capitular jurisdiction in all of Dithmarschen. The chapter could not regain the jurisdiction, including its share in ecclesiastical fees and fines levied in Dithmarschen. After violently repelling the first preaching of proponents of the Reformation, slaying Henry of Zutphen in December 1524, Lutheranism nevertheless started to win over Ditmarsians. In 1533 the Council of the 48 turned the Ditmarsian Catholic Church into a Lutheran state church.

After the victory of Hemmingstedt Dithmarschen regularly sent its delegates to the Hanseatic Diets (Hansetage). In 1554 the Hanseatic Diet confirmed, that free Ditmarsian peasants doing business cannot be considered equal to merchants being burghers of free or autonomous cities, but are, nevertheless, accepted as enjoying all Hanseatic advantages. Thus Ditmarsian merchants, along with those from Teutonic Prussia, were the only beneficiaries of a quasi membership within the Hanse, although lacking the background of citizenship in an autonomous or free city.

It was not until 1559 and the Last Feud between the King of Denmark and the Ditmarsians that the free peasants were forced to give up their political and religious autonomy by the successful invasion commanded by Count Johan Rantzau from Steinburg, one of the best strategists of the time. Since then the coat of arms of Dithmarschen has shown a warrior on horseback, representing a knight of Rantzau. This knight has later been identified with Saint George, then considered to be the patron of Dithmarschen.

The conquerors – King Frederick II, Duke Adolf, and Duke John II the Elder – divided Dithmarschen into two parts: the south became a part of Holstein in personal union with Denmark while the north came into the possession of the other Duke of Holstein. From 1773 all of Holstein was united in personal union with Denmark and remained so until 1864, when, following the Second Schleswig War, the Duchies of Holstein and of Schleswig became an occupied territory of the German Confederation. Two years later, following the Austro-Prussian War, Dithmarschen became part of the Kingdom of Prussia, which annexed Holstein and Schleswig making them subsequently the Province of Schleswig-Holstein.

The Middle Ages in Dithmarschen are held to have continued into the 19th century, when the Kiel Canal was completed, fens began to be drained, and agricultural reforms took place. Within the Bundesland Schleswig-Holstein, the area remained divided into the districts of Norderdithmarschen (Northern Ditmarsh) and Süderdithmarschen (Southern Ditmarsh) before they were united in 1970 as the district of Dithmarschen.