The original Harlebucht (blue) with the Golden Line. The dates on the smaller divisions indicate the year that each was diked and drained to become farmland.
The Harlebucht or Harle Bay was originally a bay approximately 15 kilometers wide that reached about 10 kilometers inland north of
Wittmund
Wittmund is a town and capital of the district of Wittmund, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Geography
Wittmund is a town of 21,000 inhabitants located in Germany's historic coastal district of East Frisia, between the towns of Aurich and Jever. The ...
in today's
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 ...
. (A more appropriate translation of ''bucht'' here might be
Bight
The word is derived from Old English ''byht'' (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”). In modern English, bight may refer to:
* Bight (geography), recess of a coast, bay, or other curved feature
* Bight (knot), a curved section, slack part, or loo ...
; the German word can mean either.)
The water encroachments into the hinterland in the
Grote Mandrenke
Saint Marcellus's flood or (Low Saxon: ; da, Den Store Manddrukning, 'Great Drowning of Men') was an intense extratropical cyclone, coinciding with a new moon, which swept across the British Isles, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and Denmark ...
(Second Marcellus Flood) in 1362, which reached as far as the
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 outwash plai ...
near
Jever
Jever () is the capital of the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony, Germany. The name Jever is usually associated with a major brand of beer, Jever Pilsener, which is produced there. The city is also a popular holiday resort. Jever was granted c ...
, gave rise to side bays and greatly enlarged the Harlebucht. Around 1550 began a period of building dikes and polders, draining the Harlebucht and turning it into farmland.
Piece by piece, fertile farmland was created from what had been marsh and bay, until in 1894 the Elisabethgroden section was completed.
References
History of East Frisia
{{LowerSaxony-geo-stub
