Osterby () is a municipality in the district of

Rendsburg-Eckernförde Rendsburg-Eckernförde (; ) is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by (from the east and clockwise) the city of Kiel, the district of Plön, the city of Neumünster, the districts of Segeberg, Steinburg, Dithmarschen and S ...

, in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is mostly rural.

Location and transport

Osterby is located on the Osterbek stream, about west of

Eckernförde Eckernförde (; , sometimes also ; , sometimes also ) is a city located in the of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. Situated on the coast of the Baltic Sea, approximately 30 km north-west of Kiel, it has a populat ...

in the Hüttener Berge hills, south of

Hummelfeld Hummelfeld () is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Se ...

Fleckeby Fleckeby () is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea ...

and

Windeby Windeby () is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea ...

and north of Hütten,

Damendorf Damendorf () is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea ...

and

Groß Wittensee Groß Wittensee is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North S ...

Bundesstraße 203 The Bundesstraße 203 is a German federal road or ''Bundesstraße'' and the west–east link between Büsum, Heide, Rendsburg, Eckernförde and Kappeln in the central part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Route The B 203 begins in Büsum ...

from

Rendsburg Rendsburg (, also ''Rensborg'', , also ''Rensborg'') is a town on the Eider (river), River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the central part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) of Rendsburg-Eckernfoerde, Rends ...

to Eckernförde passes to the southeast and

Bundesstraße 76 The Bundesstraße 76 is a German federal road or ''Bundesstraße'' and the northeast–southwest link between (formerly Flensburg), Schleswig, Kiel and Lübeck in the eastern part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Route The B 76 used to begi ...

from Eckernförde to

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

to the north.

History

The first recorded mention of Osterby is on 7 October 1528 as ''Osterbuj''.Osterby
Amt Hüttener Berge It was a Jutish settlement (Danish ''by'') on the eastern edge of a forest that lay between the

Eider The eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The down feathers of eider ducks and some other ducks and geese are used to fill pillows and qu ...

and the

Schlei The Schlei (; or e.g. in: Adolph Frederik Bergsøe: ''Den danske stats statistik'', Kjøbenhavn 1844, p. 156) is a narrow inlet of the Baltic Sea in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. It stretches for approximately 20 miles (32 kilometer ...

. In the Middle Ages, the forest and bog land between the two rivers formed a natural barrier between the Danes and the

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

, until the Saxons advancing from the south mixed with the Jutes around 1550. From an early period, the inhabitants of Osterby cleared forest and bog land to add to their holdings, as shown by old farm names such as ''Holzkoppel'', ''Haselhorst'', ''Moorwiese'' and ''Wolfsbrook''. The village was hotly contested in the

First Schleswig War The First Schleswig War (), also known as the Schleswig-Holstein uprising () and the Three Years' War (), was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig–Holstein question: who should control the Du ...

in 1848, commemorated in a stone erected to mark the 50th anniversary in 1898, which bears the inscription ''Up ewig ungedeelt''. Until 1950, Osterby was an entirely agricultural village, with craftsmen and shops serving the residents. In the last 25 years it has added some new residential development and become a bedroom community for Eckernförde.

Governance

There are 11 seats on the council; since the 2013 election, five have been held by the CDU and three each by the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

and the KWG

Free Voters Free Voters (, FW) is a political party in Germany. It originates as an umbrella organisation of several Free Voters Associations (), associations of people which participate in an election without having the status of a registered party. These a ...

association.

Coat of arms

The

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

on the coat of arms of Osterby includes a silver bar of waves representing the Osterbek, with a golden sun above it and a

Suebian knot The Suebian knot () is a historical male hairstyle ascribed to the tribe of the Germanic Suebi. The knot is attested by Tacitus in his 1st century AD work ''Germania'', found on contemporary depictions of Germanic peoples, their art, and bog bod ...

in silver beneath, representing Osterby Man, a

bog body A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BC and the Second World War. Fi ...

skull found southeast of the village in 1948.Gemeinde Osterby, Kreis Rendsburg-Eckernförde
, Kommunale Wappenrolle, State of Schleswig-Holstein State Archives , retrieved 5 November 2013.

Commerce and education

Osterby has several farms, an inn and a shop. There are two kindergartens. Further schooling and other businesses are located in Eckernförde.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Osterby, Rendsburg-Eckernforde Municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein Rendsburg-Eckernförde