Frisia is a cross-border cultural region in Northwestern Europe. Stretching along the

Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea ( nl, Waddenzee ; german: Wattenmeer; nds, Wattensee or ; da, Vadehavet; fy, Waadsee, longname=yes; frr, di Heef) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern conti ...

, it encompasses the north of the Netherlands and parts of northwestern Germany. The region is traditionally inhabited by the

Frisians The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group native to the coastal regions of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, ...

, a West Germanic ethnic group.

Etymology

The contemporary name for the region stems from the Latin word Frisii; an ethnonym used for a group of tribes in modern-day Northwestern Germany, possibly being a loanword of Proto-Germanic *frisaz, meaning "curly, crisp", presumably referring to the hair of the tribesmen. In some areas, the local translation of "Frisia" is used to refer to another subregion. On the North Frisian islands, for instance, "Frisia" and "Frisians" refer to (the inhabitants of) mainland North Frisia. In Saterland Frisian, the term ''Fräislound'' specifically refers to

Ostfriesland East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...

. During the French occupation of the Netherlands, the name for the Frisian

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

was . In English, both "Frisia" and "Friesland" may be interchangeably used to refer to the region.

Subdivisions

Frisia is commonly divided into three sections: * West Frisia in the Netherlands roughly corresponds to the province of Friesland (''Fryslân''). In a broader sense, it also includes West Friesland in northern

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

and the Ommelanden in the province of

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

, though the West Frisian language is only spoken in Friesland proper. Dialects with strong West Frisian

substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (locomotion), the surface over which an organism lo ...

s, including

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

and Low Franconian, are also spoken in West Frisia. In the province of Groningen, people speak Gronings, a

Low Saxon Low Saxon, also known as West Low German ( nds, Nedersassisch, Nedersaksies; nl, Nedersaksisch) are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of th ...

dialect with a strong Frisian substrate. Rural Groningen originally belonged to the Frisian lands "east of the Lauwers" and is therefore more closely linked to East Frisia than to the west. In West Friesland, West Frisian Dutch – a Hollandic dialect with strong Frisian influences – is spoken. *

East Frisia East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...

in Lower Saxony, Germany roughly corresponds to the historical regions of

( Aurich,

Leer Leer may refer to: * Leer, Lower Saxony, town in Germany ** Leer (district), containing the town in Lower Saxony, Germany ** Leer (Ostfriesland) railway station * Leer, South Sudan, town in South Sudan ** Leer County, an administrative division of ...

, Wittmund and

Emden Emden () is an independent city and seaport in Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia and, in 2011, had a total population of 51,528. History The exact founding date of E ...

) and

Oldenburger Friesland The Oldenburg or Oldenburger is a warmblood horse from the north-western corner of Lower Saxony, what was formerly the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. The breed was built on a mare base of all-purpose farm and carriage horses, today called the Alt-O ...

( Friesland and Wilhelmshaven), and the municipality of Saterland. In a broader sense, it also includes the Butjadingen peninsula (former

Rüstringen Rüstringen or Rustringen was an old Frisian gau, which lies between the modern district Friesland and the Weser river in modern Lower Saxony. Nowadays, only a small part of the original territory remains, namely the Butjadingen peninsula. The lar ...

) and Land Wursten. Usually, only the people from East Frisia proper () refer to themselves as East Frisians. The German name ''Ostfriesland'' distinguishes the historical region from ''Ost-Friesland'', which refers to East Frisia as a whole. * North Frisia in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany roughly corresponds to the district of

Nordfriesland Nordfriesland (; da, Nordfrisland; frr, Nordfraschlönj ), also known as North Frisia, is the northernmost district of Germany, part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. It includes almost all of traditional North Frisia (with the exception o ...

and the archipelago of Heligoland. It includes the North Frisian Islands, where varieties of the

North Frisian language North Frisian (''nordfriisk'') is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages. The language comprises 10 dialects which are thems ...

are spoken. It stretches from the

Eider River The Eider (german: Die Eider; da, Ejderen; Latin: ''Egdor'' or ''Eidora'') is the longest river in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The river starts near Bordesholm and reaches the southwestern outskirts of Kiel on the shores of the Balt ...

in the south to the border of Denmark in the north. Until the Second Schleswig War in 1864, the region belonged to the Danish

Duchy of Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ( ...

History

Roman era

The people, later to be known as Frisii, began settling in Frisia in the 6th century BC. According to Pliny the Elder, in Roman times, the Frisians (or rather their close neighbours, the Chauci) lived on terps, man-made hills. According to other sources, the Frisians lived along a broader expanse of the North Sea (or "Frisian Sea") coast. At this time, Frisia comprised the present-day provinces of Friesland,

and parts of

South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...

Early Middle Ages

Frisian presence during the Early Middle Ages has been documented from North-Western Flanders up to the Weser River Estuary. According to archaeological evidence, these Frisians were not the Frisians of Roman times, but the descendants of Anglo-Saxon immigrants from the German Bight, arriving during the Great Migration. By the 8th century, ethnic Frisians also started to colonize the coastal areas North of the Eider River under Danish rule. The nascent Frisian languages were spoken all along the southern North Sea coast. Today, the whole region is sometimes referred to as Greater Frisia (). Distant authors seem to have made little distinction between Frisians and Saxons. The Byzantine Procopius described three peoples living in Great Britain: Angles, Frisians and Britons, and the Danish author of '' Knútsdrápa'' celebrating the 11th-century

Canute the Great Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway ...

used "Frisians" as a synonym of "English". The historian and sociologist George Homans has made a case for Frisian cultural domination in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

since the 5th century, pointing to distinct land-holdings arrangements in carucates (these forming vills assembled in leets), partible inheritance patterns of common lands held in by kin, resistance to manorialism and other social institutions. Some East Anglian sources called the mainland inhabitants Warnii, rather than Frisians. During the 7th and 8th centuries, Frankish chronologies mention the northern Low Countries as the kingdom of the Frisians. According to Medieval legends, this kingdom comprised the coastal provinces of the Netherlands, from the Scheldt River to the Weser River and further East. Archaeological research does not confirm this idea, as the petty kingdoms appear to have been rather small and short-lived. The earliest Frisian records name four social classes, the ('' nobiles'' in Latin documents) and , who together made up the "Free Frisians" who might bring suit at court, and the ''laten'' or ''liten'' with the

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

s, who were absorbed into the ''laten'' during the Early Middle Ages, as slavery was not so much formally abolished, as evaporated. The ''laten'' were tenants of lands they did not own and might be tied to it in the manner of

serf Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...

s, but in later times might buy their freedom. The basic land-holding unit for assessment of taxes and military contributions was - according to Homans - the ''ploegg'' (cf. "plow") or ''teen'' (cf. tithing, cf. " hundred"), which, however, also passed under other local names. The ''teen'' was pledged to supply ten men for the ''heer'', or army. ''Ploegg'' or ''teen'' formed a unit of which the members were collectively responsible for the performance of any of the men. The ''ploegg'' or East Frisian ''rott'' was a compact holding that originated with a single lineage or kinship, whose men in early times went to war under their chief, and devolved in medieval times into a union of neighbors rather than kith and kin. Several, often three, ''ploeggs'' were grouped into a ''burar'', whose members controlled and adjudicated the uses of pasturage (but not tillage) which the ''ploeggs'' held in common, and came to be in charge of roads, ditches and dikes. Twelve ''ploeggs'' made up a "long" hundred, responsible for supplying a hundred armed men, four of which made a ''go'' (cf. '' Gau''). Homans' ideas, which were largely based on studies now considered to be outdated, have not been followed up by Continental scholars. The 7th-century Frisian Realm (650–734) under the kings

Aldegisel Aldegisel, Aldegisl, Aldgillis, Aldgisl, Aldgils or Eadgils (fl. c. 678) was the ruler of Frisia (as king or duke) in the late seventh century contemporarily with Dagobert II and a very obscure figure. All that is known of him is in relation to t ...

and Redbad, had its centre of power in the city of Utrecht. Its ancient customary law was drawn up as the '' Lex Frisionum'' in the late eighth century. Its end came in 734 at the

Battle of the Boarn The Battle of the Boarn ( fry, Slach oan de Boarn nl, Slag aan de Boorne) was an eighth century battle between the Franks and the Frisians near the mouth of the river Boarn in what is now the Dutch province of Friesland. Battle In 734 a Fran ...

, when the Frisians were defeated by the Franks, who then conquered the western part up to the Lauwers. Frankish troops conquered the area east of the Lauwers in 785, after Charlemagne defeated the Saxon leader Widukind. The Carolingians laid Frisia under the rule of ''grewan'', a title that has been loosely related to count in its early sense of "governor" rather than " feudal overlord". During the 7th to 10th centuries, Frisian merchants and skippers played an important part in the international luxury trade, establishing commercial districts in distant cities as Sigtuna, Hedeby, Ribe, York, London, Duisburg, Cologne, Mainz, and Worms. Establishing this Frisian Trading Empire played a big role during the late middle ages. While interpersonal violence was on the rise almost everywhere else in Europe,

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other g ...

and especially Frisia managed to maintain low violence levels. This can be traced back to the well-developed society and established

rule of law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

, which were results of extensive trade. The Frisian coastal areas were partly occupied by

Danish Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

in the 840s, until these were expelled between 885 and 920. Recently, it has been suggested that the Vikings did not conquer Frisia, but settled peacefully in certain districts (such as the islands of Walcheren and Wieringen), where they built simple forts and cooperated and traded with the native Frisians. One of their leaders was Rorik of Dorestad.

Upstalsboom League

During the 12th century Frisian noblemen and the city of

founded the Upstalsboom League under the slogan of " Frisian freedom" to counter feudalizing tendencies. The league consisted of modern Friesland,

, Harlingerland, Jever and

. The Frisian districts in West Friesland West of the Zuiderzee did not participate, neither did the districts North of the

along the Danish North Sea coast ( Schleswig-Holstein). The former were occupied by the count of Holland in 1289, and the latter were governed by the Duke of Schleswig and the king of Denmark. The same holds true for the district of Land Wursten East of the Weser River. The Upstalsboom League was revived in the early 14th century, but it collapsed after 1337. By then, the non-Frisian city of Groningen took the lead of the independent coastal districts.

15th century

The 15th century saw the demise of Frisian republicanism. In

, a leading nobleman from the Cirksena-family managed to defeat his competitors with the help of the Hanseatic League. In 1464 he acquired the title of count of East Frisia. The

king of Denmark The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional political system, institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes Denmark proper and the autonomous administrative division, autonomous territories of the Faroe ...

was successful in subduing the coastal districts North of the Eider River. The Dutch provinces of Friesland and

remained independent until 1498. By then Friesland was conquered by Duke Albert of Saxony-Meissen. The city of

, which had started to dominate the surrounding rural districts, surrendered to count Edzard of East Frisia in 1506. The city conveyed its remaining privileges to the Habsburg Empire in 1536. The district of Butjadingen (formerly Rüstringen) was occupied by the Count of Oldenburg in 1514, the Land Wursten by the Prince-bishop of Bremen in 1525.

Modern age

In the early 16th century, the pirate and freedom fighter Pier Gerlofs Donia (Grutte Pier) challenged Saxon authority in Friesland during a prolonged guerrilla war, backed by the Duke of Guelders. He had several successes and was feared by Hollandic authorities, but he died as a farmer in 1520. According to the legend he was seven feet tall. A statue of Grutte Pier by was erected in Kimswert in 1985. In the 1560s many Frisans joined the revolt led by William of Orange against the Habsburg monarchy. In 1577 the province of Friesland became part of the nascent Dutch Republic, as its representatives signed the Union of Utrecht. The city of Groningen was conquered by the Dutch in 1594. Since then, membership of the Dutch Republic was perceived as a guarantee for the preservation of civil liberties. Actual power, however, was usurped by the landowning gentry. Protests against aristocratic rule led to a democratic movement in the 1780s.

Frisian territories

*When West Friesland was conquered by the County of Holland in 1289, this was the end of a series of wars between the county of Holland and Friesland that started at the end of the 11th century. The Dutch conquest occurred immediately after the disastrous

St. Lucia's flood North Holland, 1st-10th century St. Lucia's flood (Sint-Luciavloed) was a storm tide that affected the Netherlands and Northern Germany on 13/14 December 1287 ( OS), St. Lucia Day and the day after, killing approximately 50,000 to 80,000 peo ...

in which many Frisians in the area were killed. After the conquest the district of West Friesland, which also comprised the islands of Wieringen, Texel, and Vlieland, had its own seats in the Estates of Holland and West Friesland. When the province of Holland was split up in the constitutional reform of 1840, West-Friesland became a part of

. The name of West Friesland has also been used by an intercommunal administrative board (''samenwerkingsregio'') and a water board. * Friesland became an independent member of the Dutch Republic in 1581. It is now a Dutch province, in 1996 renamed as ''Fryslân''. *The islands of

Terschelling Terschelling (; fry, Skylge; Terschelling dialect: ''Schylge'') is a municipality and an island in the northern Netherlands, one of the West Frisian Islands. It is situated between the islands of Vlieland and Ameland. Wadden Islanders are k ...

, Ameland, and

Schiermonnikoog Schiermonnikoog (; fry, ) is an island, a municipality and national park in the Northern Netherlands. Schiermonnikoog is one of the West Frisian Islands, and is part of the province of Friesland. It is situated between the islands of Ameland a ...

were independent seignories, which were integrated into the province of Friesland during the 19th and 20th centuries. *

, formerly ''Stad en Lande'' (the city of Groningen and its surroundings), became an independent member of the Dutch Republic in 1594. Now it is a Dutch province. As a rule, its inhabitants do not consider their province as a part of Frisia, though the area has many cultural ties with neighbouring East Frisia. *

was an independent county since 1464, later a principality within the Holy Roman Empire until 1744. By then, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia. After a period of Dutch and French rule, it became part of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814, which was annexed by Prussia in 1866. Now it consists of several districts within the federal state of Lower Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany. * Harlingerland was a seignory, inherited by the count of

in 1600. * Jever was a seignory, annexed by the County of Oldenburg in 1573 and, after a prolonged period of Saxony-Anhalt, Russian, Dutch and French rule, reunited with Oldenburg in 1814. It is now part of the district of Friesland within the federal state of Lower Saxony. * Kniphausen was a seignory, split off from the County of Oldenburg in 1667 and reunited with its surroundings in 1854 (effectively in 1813). * Saterland was a tiny Frisian district under the Prince-bishop of Münster, in 1814 assigned to the Kingdom of Hannover. * Butjadingen was a coastal republic, a remnant of the largely submerged district of

. It was conquered by the Count of Oldenburg in 1514. After a period of Danish rule, it became part of the Duchy of Oldenburg in 1774, which remained a more or less independent state within the German Empire until 1918. Butjadingen is now part of the district of Wesermarsch within the federal state of Lower Saxony. * Land Wursten was a coastal republic, conquered by the Prince-bishop of Bremen in 1525. It became part of the Duchy of Bremen-Verden. The latter was, after a period of

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

rule, integrated into the Kingdom of Hanover in 1715. It is now part of the district of Cuxhaven within the federal state of Lower Saxony. * North Frisia originally corresponded to the Uthlande in the

Kingdom of Denmark The Danish Realm ( da, Danmarks Rige; fo, Danmarkar Ríki; kl, Danmarkip Naalagaaffik), officially the Kingdom of Denmark (; ; ), is a sovereign state located in Northern Europe and Northern North America. It consists of Denmark, metropolitan ...

. Later, North Frisia became a part of the Danish

(or Southern Jutland, ''Sønderjylland'') and of the royal enclaves (''Kongerigske enklaver'') of the

. The duchy was conquered by Prussia in 1864. Now it forms a district within the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Helgoland is part of the district of Pinneberg. North Frisia was never a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Contemporary regionalism

During the late 19th and early 20th century, "Frisian freedom" became the slogan of a regionalist movement in Friesland, demanding equal rights for the Frisian language and culture within the Netherlands. The West Frisian language and its urban dialects are spoken by the majority of the inhabitants. In East Frisia, the idea of "Frisian freedom" became entangled with regional sentiments as well, though the East Frisian language had been replaced by

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

dialects as early as the 15th century. In Groningen, on the other hand, Frisian sentiments faded away at the end of the 16th century. In North Frisia, regional sentiments concentrate around the surviving North Frisian dialects, which are spoken by a sizeable minority of the population, though Lower German is far more widespread.

Regional political parties

Languages

A half-million Frisians in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands speak West Frisian. Several thousand people in Nordfriesland and Heligoland in Germany speak a collection of North Frisian dialects. A small number of Saterland Frisian language speakers live in four villages in Lower Saxony, in the Saterland region of Cloppenburg county, just beyond the boundaries of traditional

. Many Frisians speak

dialects which have a Frisian substratum known as Friso-Saxon, especially in East Frisia, where the local dialects are called Ōstfräisk ("East Frisian") or Ōstfräisk Plat ( East Frisian Low Saxon). In the provinces of Friesland and Groningen, and in North Frisia, there are also areas where Friso-Saxon dialects are predominantly spoken, such as Gronings. In West Frisia, there are West Frisian-influenced dialects of Dutch such as West Frisian Dutch and

Stadsfries Stadsfries () or Town Frisian ( fy, Stedsk, link=no, ) is a set of dialects spoken in certain cities in the province of Friesland in the northern Netherlands, namely Leeuwarden, Sneek, Bolsward, Franeker, Dokkum, Harlingen, Stavoren, and to so ...

Maps

File:Europe location FRS.png, Location of Frisia (dark orange) in Europe File:Frisians.png, Historical settlement areas of the Frisians, and areas where a Frisian language is spoken File:Ost-Friesland.svg, The Frisian territories in Lower Saxony (East Frisia) File:AreasSettlementSchleswig-HolsteinText.png, Frisian colonisation (yellow) of southwestern Jutland during the Viking Age File:KreisRegionNordfriesland.png, Difference between the historical region and present-day district of Nordfriesland

Flag

While the subdivisions of Frisia have their own regional flags, Frisia as a whole has not historically had a flag of its own. In September 2006, a flag for a united Frisia – known as the "Interfrisian Flag" – was designed by the Groep fan Auwerk. This separatist group supports the unification of Frisia as an independent country. The design was inspired by the Nordic Cross flag. The four '' pompeblêden'' (water lily leaves) represent the contemporary variety of the Frisian regions – North, South, West and East. The design was not accepted by the Interfrisian Council.Press release from the Interfrisian Council
/ref> Instead, the council adopted the idea of an Interfrisian flag and created a design of its own, containing elements of the flags of the council's three sections. Neither of the two flags is widely used.

Notes

References

;Bibliography * Thomas Steensen: 'Die Friesen. Menschen am Meer', Wachholtz Verlag, Kiel/Hamburg 2020, ((ISBN 978-3-529-05047-3)). * Albert Bantelmann, Rolf Kuschert, Albert Panten, Thomas Steensen: ''Geschichte Nordfrieslands''. 2., durchges. u. aktualisierte Aufl., Westholst. Verlagsanstalt Boyens, Heide in Holstein 1996 (= Nordfriisk Instituut, Nr. 136), . * Thomas Steensen: ''Geschichte Nordfrieslands von 1918 bis in die Gegenwart''. Neuausg., Nordfriisk Instituut, Bräist/Bredstedt 2006 (= Geschichte Nordfrieslands, Teil 5; Nordfriisk Instituut, Nr. 190), . * Stefan Kröger - ''Das Ostfriesland-Lexikon. Ein unterhaltsames Nachschlagewerk'', Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2006 * ''Ostfriesland im Schutze des Deiches. Beiträge zur Kultur- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des ostfriesischen Küstenlandes'', hrsg. im Auftrag der Niederemsischen Deichacht, 12 Bände, Selbstverlag, Pewsum u. a. 1969 * Onno Klopp -, ''Geschichte Ostfrieslands'', 3 Bde., Hannover 1854–1858 * Hajo van Lengen - ''Ostfriesland, Kultur und Landschaft'', Ruhrspiegel-Verlag, Essen 1978 * Hajo van Lengen (Hrsg.) - ''Die Friesische Freiheit des Mittelalters – Leben und Legende'', Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft 2003, * Franz Kurowski - ''Das Volk am Meer – Die dramatische Geschichte der Friesen'', Türmer-Verlag 1984, * Karl Cramer - ''Die Geschichte Ostfrieslands. Ein Überblick'', Isensee - Oldenburg * Hermann Homann - ''Ostfriesland – Inseln, Watt und Küstenland'', F. Coppenrath Verlag, Münster * Manfred Scheuch - ''Historischer Atlas Deutschland'', * Karl-Ernst Behre / Hajo van Lengen - ''Ostfriesland. Geschichte und Gestalt einer Kulturlandschaft'', Aurich 1995, * Tielke, Martin (ed.) - ''Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland'', Ostfries. Landschaftliche Verlag- u. Vertriebsges. Aurich, vol. 1 (1993), vol. 2 (1997), vol. 3 (2001)

External links

* at Eurominority.eu * of the Interfrisian Council * {{URL, https://www.groepfanauwerk.com/, Website of the Groep fan Auwerk Divided regions Historical regions Historical regions in the Netherlands Historical regions in Germany