Hohwacht () is a municipality in the district of Plön, in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It lies within the region of

Wagria WagriaArnold, Benjamin (1991). ''Princes and territories in medieval Germany'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, p. 156. . (german: Wagrien, ''Waierland'' or ''Wagerland'') is the northeastern part of Holstein in the German state ...

and its subordinate parishes are Hohwacht, Haßberg, Neudorf, Niedermühle and Schmiedendorf. The village was first mentioned in 1557 as ''Hohenwacht''.

Location

Hohwacht lies on the western shore of the

Hohwacht Bay Hohwacht Bay (german: Hohwachter Bucht) is a wide bay in the state of Schleswig-Holstein on Germany's Baltic Sea coastline. It is named after the village and seaside resort of Hohwacht. The nearest large town is Oldenburg in Holstein, about 5 kilo ...

. The nearest large town is

Oldenburg in Holstein Oldenburg in Holstein () is a town at the southwestern shore of the Baltic Sea. The nearest city is Lübeck. The town belongs to the (historical) region of Holstein, today in the state Schleswig-Holstein of Germany. Oldenburg was the chief tow ...

History

Hohwacht lost its original importance as a port at the end of the 19th century as a result of the newly built railway from

Malente Malente is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is about 5 km northwest of Eutin and 35 km north of Lübeck. The historian Sigrid Jahns Sigrid Jahns (''née'' Langer) (born on 26 October 1 ...

Lütjenburg Lütjenburg ( Low German: ''Lüttenborg'') is a town of the district of Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located approximately northeast of Plön, and east of Kiel. History left, Lütjenburg in 1895 Lütjenburg was founded in the 12t ...

. But the railway also brought the first holidaymakers from the cities, especially to Haßberg, where the first resort was built, although it was closed again at the behest of the Neudorf estate. Immediately after the First World War Hohwacht became a destination for artists around the painter,

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Karl Schmidt until 1905; 1 December 1884 – 10 August 1976) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke. Life and work Schmidt-Rottluff was born in ...

, and his biographer, Rosa Schapire, as well as

Bernhard Hoetger Bernhard Hoetger (4 May 1874 in Dortmund – 18 July 1949 in Interlaken) was a German sculptor, painter and handicrafts artist of the Expressionist movement. Life Hoetger was the son of a Dortmund blacksmith, he studied sculpture in Detmold from ...

Curt Stoermer Curt Stoermer (born Kurt Karl August Störmer, 26 April 189129 January 1976) was a German painter, a representative of the Worpswede branch of expressionist art. Biography Born in Hagen in 1891, Stoermer was influenced in his youth by the openin ...

and

Heinrich Vogeler Heinrich Vogeler (December 12, 1872 – June 14, 1942) was a German painter, designer, and architect, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Early life He was born in Bremen, and studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1 ...

. Schmidt-Rottluff used Hohwacht as his holiday home, mainly out of loyalty; Hohwacht was not an artist's village. Towards the end of World War II a satellite concentration camp was located in the village centre. Here, 200 concentration camp prisoners and 300 forced labourers from 12 countries manufactured control parts for the

V-2 The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...

rocket under SS supervision. In 1976, passenger trains were withdrawn on the railway. In 1986 Hohwacht was awarded the status of a ''Baltic health resort''. One attraction is the beach huts in the village, amongst the dunes, which have been preserved in their original state unlike anywhere else in Germany.

Coat of arms

Emblazonment A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its w ...

: ''In silver beneath a row of four red horseshoes with their points downwards, a blue hill, raised in the centre and gently flattened on each sides, on which is a single-masted, sail-less silver vessel in the form of a historic seal." Municipal Coats-of-Arms Register of Schleswig-Holstein/ref>

Neudorf Estate

The Neudorf Estate used to ship its grain from Alt-Hohwacht ("Old Hohwacht"). The manor house and several buildings of the estate are owned by the Buchwaldt family and have been preserved and classified as cultural monuments.

Economy

Originally Hohwacht was dominated by agriculture and fishing, now with its qualification as a seaside health resort, tourism is the main source of income.

References

External links

''Hochwachter Bucht'' (Hohwacht Bay) tourist page
{{Authority control Plön (district) Populated coastal places in Germany (Baltic Sea)