A visit to the North Frisian Islands 1887

"Sufficeth them the simple plan, That they should take who have the power And they should keep who can."

Frisians and North Frisia

The Romans were the first in history to comment upon the Frisii as an identifiable group. They were migrating Germanic tribes who lived in the coastal regions and the outlying islands and islets, on terps, hillocks like those described below by Queen Victoria's diplomat, John Ward. These hillocks had the advantage of protecting them from marauding armies, but the greater disadvantage of being at the mercy of storms and the sea.

Frisian is generally the area along the North Sea, encompassing mainly the coastlines of the Netherlands and Germany. North Frisian was that part of the coastline on the Jutland Peninsula. The people were an amalgam of Dutch, Danish and German. I find it interesting, that the NOrth Frisian dialect, now spoken by about 10,000 people, is considered the 'kissing cousin' of the English language.

At the conclusion of the Second Schleswig War in 1864, the province of Schleswig along with the North Frisian islands, once Danish became Prussian.

Experiences of a Diplomatist, Being Recollections of Germany, (1840-1870), by John Ward, C.B., her Majesty's Minister Resident to the Hanse-towns.

August 8. A visit to Husum and dined. Thence by steamer through the North-Frisian islands to Fohr and Sylt. We reached the point of Norse on Sylt at 10 pm, and after a rough drive in the bright moonlight arrived at our lodgings on the west side of the island at Westerland about midnight.

August 9. Surveyed the island which consists of heath and sand without any trees. Nothing exists between us and the English county of Durham except sea. Rye, barley, and oats are grown here but no wheat. The houses are built small here and all alike. The peasantry are all well off. In winter a great deal of wool is knit into stockings for export to Germany.

August 12. The inroads of the sea on the Frisian islands is very remarkable. Three hundred years ago the land area was double... There is an old geographical description by Caspar Danckwerth, burgomeister of Husum. August 13. To Keitem, the capital of the island on the east coast to visit a sort of museum of curiosities... The island of Nordstrand, we were told, before the Flood of 1634, contained 40,000 demaths of land and now only 6,000. The islands loss was the coastlines gain, with the marshy districts of Tondern, Eiderstedt, etc, adding some 30,000 demaths.

August 15. The islands are collectively called the North Frisian Utland (Outland) and the sea the Wattenmeer. Watten, meaning tracts of sand and mud emerging at low tide. In the midst of the water are Hallige, islets of land covered by tall grass washed every day by the tide and inhabited by a few families who live on hillocks of raised turf, supported by piles of wood driven into the wet soil.

August 18, Sunday. Drove to List at the north point of the island. The road along the shore line contained so many sea fowl. At Vogel-koje wild ducks are decoyed and kept for sale... List was a Danish enclave with a church and a school of eleven children being "Danized". The Danish schoolmaster was replaced by a German when the enclaves were ceded by Denmark to Austria and Prussia in 1864...  

Experiences of a Diplomatist, Being Recollections of Germany, Founded on ...