A local history contribution
By: Peter Wiepert, Bisdorf/Fehmarn
English translation by: E. Bügge-Wood

Lemkenhafen is now a fishing- and laborer’s village on the island Fehmarn in northern Germany, but at one time, until after 1510 it was a town with Hanseatic law "Lübsche Recht", having their own mayor,‘Bürgermeister’ and council, with their own city seal, (a lamb stepping to the left, with a Holstein nettle leaf. A copy of the seal is stored in the museum in Neustadt, Holstein.

It can still be found on some of the old documents, for instance, in the year of 1466, during a debate of the sworn-in council men, in the city of Lübeck, where it is stated: ‘+ sigillum + consulum + de lemmeken-havene’; in the center one can see the above mentioned lamb and on each side of the nettle sign, two figures looking like two fish. Furthermore the seal can be seen in an old document from the high court in Lübeck, of the year 1487. Two farmers from Fehmarn, (Jakob Wilder from Gollendorf, Fehmarn and Claus Thomas from Wenkendorf/Fehmarn), were to have appeared in an inheritance case with ‘eneme gescholdenen ordel’, which interprets as follows: "The spoken judgement decides, that a mother is closer to being entitled than a sister of the deceased father.

In the middle-aged city must have been a chapel. In the "Acta Pontiffeum Danica [volume V. page 421", is mentioned, in a papal bull (on a deed) of the Roman Pope "Julius II, on October 11, 1505" a chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the land district of Fehmarn of the Bistum of Odense, (capella b. Marie virginis vulgariter Tarlemepenkenen (?) In terra Imbrie et Ottoni ensis diocesi) losing the service and incomes due to the death of the Vicar Bernhard Deveo, as he was replaced by a "Hermann van der Hopen", a clergy in the Lübeck diocese. The deciphering of naming of "Tarlemepenkenen" in the Latin document is later always translated by chronologists as Lemkenhafen.

In the Inner Sea of Lemkenhafen there is still a certain place called the "Church Stone" ‘Kirkensteen’, where up to the year of 1930 several large boulders were stacked, which resembled an old stone wall or an old stone foundation. At this place were many human skeletons recovered, in 1839, 1868, 1881, and 1906. People thought that here at one time was a churchyard with a burial place for the middle aged city of Lemkenhafen.

In the "Gollendorfer" bay, used to be called "Wiek", - toward the harbor of "Orth" lies in the middle of the Baltic Sea, a ruined stone-henge grave, called "The proud Havmann, or Haumann". About the year 1900, several large stones then still formed a circle; later they were washed away from the current of the sea; partially also used as "broken stones" for construction of the harbor.

An old legend tells of the fisher men, who were fishing at night, when suddenly they sailed into the stone circle and at times someone could look into a grave. Wherein there were no caskets, but the dead laid on stone platters and stone settings, around them laid their arms, drinking vessels and beakers. When they had seen the dead, they were not to tell anyone about what they had seen, otherwise bad luck would befall them. Whoever spoke of it, was later pulled into the oceans current and could not return. A suicidal person sailed into that area and prayed loudly, then his boat sank and he drowned. On land, several fishermen saw the ordeal and reported to have seen a thick stream of fog coming from the proud "Havmann’s" grave. - -

In the old village song from the 16. Century they sing about Lemkenhafen as follows:

"To Lemmekenhavn, to Lemmekenhavn
dar førn se blanke Swerde!" (Low German)
"Translated: Toward, Lemkenhafen, Lemkenhafen,
there they keep shining swords."

This rhyme goes back to the middle ages, when Lemkenhafen was a busy commercial district, many seafarers as well as shippers made their home here, who carried swords, knifes and spears as defense weapons, once in a while they would carry a sword for decoration, as was fashionable during the 14^th to the 17^th century.

When you take an overview of the old Fehmarn court convictions and disputes, you can easily detect how very capable the seafarers were from Lemkenhafen, when it came to a quarrel. They didn’t like to loose a battle, or being stepped on.

In the earlier centuries shippers, shipbuilders, grain merchants, also well situated grand farmers ‘Großbauern’, often owned graineries or storage sheds in different harbors of Lemkenhafen, Suelsdorfer Orth (now called Orth), which were called "DINNS". The word Dinn is now lost in the vocabulary of the island, only known to a very few old Fehmarn citizens.

They were mostly three to four panels wide, the same in length and were "framework buildings" ‘Fachwerkständergebäude’, with walls out of clay and were supported by steaks, "fagots [woodwen logs] and poles, or also bricks made out of clay and strong oaken supports, the floors were made of thick floor boards; The upper floors were being supported by heavy carriers, called ‘Hövständern’.

While the house- and barn-panels were mostly 7 to 8 foot wide and without the attic up to 12 foot long; the panels in the "Dinns" were mostly smaller, 5 - 6 foot long and wide, about 14 - 17 meter, and they rarely had attics.

The flooring and the rafters therefore were placed closer together than what they usually were in other buildings. But that wasn’t always the rule. The tip in the roof was mostly covered with a tile called: "Winnschen Pann" of older tradition. At times it would be covered with reed or straw. The clay walls were whitewashed with lime, which was mostly done in the summer, with some added seawater. The beams were tarred with Swedish vegetable tar, also the interior walls. The floorings, mostly short before the harvest, were sealed; it was done with a ‘Miegersapps’ this was made with a glue-like combination of potters-clay, dissolved lime, rendered fish fat and human urine, this would get hard as stone.

On the front of the building, were props as support of the roof and a small simple addition, with a trap door, in Low German called: ‘dat Hötken’, one could compare it to "the later French" frontespiece. From this upper roof addition came a horizontal piece of balcony with a hoist or a draw-beam, where sacks or bales could be hoisted from the nearby wagons.

At the rear of the building, for boats lying in the pier, was also a trap-door up- and down-stairs, called the "Hell- and Heaven- trap-door". Long wooden slides, called ‘Schnurren’, were used to transport the loads from the bins into the boats. If a sack got stuck, a "Dinner" [a laborer working in the Dinn] would push the sack with a long stick, having a hook on the end, called the ‘Schnurrnstaaken’ in Low German.

The boat- and shipping people from Lemkenhafen belonged to a special guild [association], which shipped the grain and other goods. The sailboats that laid for anchor in the pier, (couldn’t reach the bulwark, because of the low water level); were loaded and unloaded from the trap- doors of the storage "Dinn" via slides and lifts.

The shippers and the farmers, who owned partnership in single boats, called ‘Partenschluckers in Low German’, stored their goods there, which had been purchased on the island in the fall or winter, (or also harvested on their own farm - when hired hands thrashed the grain by hand [with a flail]). - That way they could speculate and wait until the prices would be higher in the spring. When the Baltic Sea became free of ice in the spring, they would load the first sailing ships with grain, grits and barley, while the price was higher than a few month later (but this could backfire and the opposite could happen), as it was for instance in the year of 1807, when wheat, in the month of June, raised 2 Marks higher than in the month of February, per Fehmarnsch ton, [that was 220 pound]. At such instance the merchants had the advantage and also the risk of disadvantage by speculating price changes. When the farmer’s grain was delivered short before the boats were to leave, the delivery was often late. The merchant and shipper "Joachim Rahlff", mainly because of such a situation, ran into a crisis around 1814/1815, while many a grand farmer ‘Großbauer’ had purchased grain [to speculate price changes], especially the chamberlain and judge, as representative of the land, he had acquired rather advantageously. The Fehmarn citizens, at that time had to carry quite a load of war debt. It fell very hard on the single farmer. The wealthy farmer was in hopes, that with all the grain they had purchased in advance and the debts of the none-paying smaller farmers, would bring great wealth to the rich.

The merchant Rahlff from Lemkenhafen, who had many sales contracts to fill in other ports, could not load his ships as quickly as foreseen. Different farmers had received higher prices from other speculators than that, what was agreed on by Mr. Rahlff previously? The farmers did not deliver because they didn’t have it to deliver.

This "grain speculation" caused a lot of bad blood on the island Fehmarn. The chamberlains and judges, who had stored the so-called "war-grain" in government storage and were very much united, because they were to gain the most. The chosen (sworn in) people of the community had agreed, because they were afraid to confront the ruling representatives of the island.

Even a few relatives of the "grain speculators" were named to accompany the large grain transport from Fehmarn to Kiel; when a very correct judge of a "church district" spoke out and ordered a community meeting. He quickly called several land elders together and requested, with many to-dos, a new meeting. This resulted in a loss for the chamberlains and the judges. It was requested that: "The war-debts, being paid off in grain, would be canceled. In the following days the "covered-up plan for grain delivery by the villages" was greatly publicized. Then it came to a genuine old-time meeting ‘Urversammlung’, where the whole community took part ‘Meinheyt des Landes FEMERN’. Here all the land- and house-owners, who were registered and had the right to vote, took part. Such meetings were only held twice after the year of 1800.

The merchant and shipper Joachim Rahlff was afterwards bombarded with grain deliveries, now he was pressed to purchase all the grain that had been earlier bought up by the speculators. Since he was an upright and diplomatic buyer, (although his costumers had not treated him with such great respect), he kept his word. Other companies made him responsible and he could get into an embarrassing situation.

I want to return to the subject "Dinns". To air out the grain sufficiently, there were air holes at the top edge of the outer walls and in the attic, often with a wooden trap, inside mostly with iron screens secured. These air holes were called "Mumpsen".

In some "Dinns" there were cellars, or a special separate room, where valuable keepsakes were stored for a short period. Often just one night. Among these were porcelain, household items, jewelry, material which had been purchased by captains in foreign ports like Copenhagen, London, Lisbon, Mitow, Stockholm etc. These articles (often not lawfully taken through the toll and mostly luxuries) were picked up next day by the shippers, farmers, also their relatives and friends.

In October 1801 the "Dinner" named "Priess", from the Suelsdorfer Ohrde was caught, when he stole some "Turkish Groffgrün" (silk) and two packages of "Kirsey", (a special double woven wool material from England), out of the "Dinn" owned by "Lafrentz".

The "Dinn-rooms", where money or luxuries were stored were always secured with special sticks or iron locks.

In a single instance like for instance a sworn in locksmith could only open the Mackeprang "Dinn" which were complicated combinations of several locks.

One of the second last Lemkenhafen "Dinns", which was built in around 1580 on the Johnsen’s property, has fallen apart in 1959. The owner at that time took the lower part of the old building and used it in the construction of a new barn. The roof was changed.

Around 1775 there were still nine "Dinns" in Lemkenhafen that belonged to three landowners, not living on the island anymore. The very typical age-old

"Saehn’s Dinn" at the harbor site, which is still called the "Saehn’s bulwark", it was torn down around 1901. At that time, in a foundation hole, several coins were found there from out of the previous centuries. Three were from the 15^th century.

In the other villages on the island Fehmarn were no "Dinns", only on the large farm-estates they had "Korndarren" to prepare the brewer’s malt, which was often dried on the upper floors or next to the junk-room called the ‘Klüterkamer’, in a real small farm house, mostly connected to the farmer’s built-in oven. In the city of Burg some salespeople owned small storage rooms, in the country they called them "hanseatic storage" ‘de lübschen Böns’ in Low German. These were mostly longer and narrower than the regular "Dinns", and had loading doors with hoisting apparatus.

The sailboats leaving Lemkenhafen transported mostly grits and barley to the Nordic countries, like Bergen, Trondhjem in Norway or Haparanda at the golf of Bothnia; in these cities I found documents relating to the island of Fehmarn, where sailboats had been unloaded and loaded there. In 1768, 49584 tons of barley from Fehmarn had been unloaded, in 1776 even 62536 tons were unloaded, the biggest load had come from Lemkenhafen’s barley- and grits-mill, owned by J. Rahlff. In 1787 was probably one of the greatest production. This mill is now declared a monument, renovated by order of the land government of Schleswig-Holstein and given as a gift to the Museum society of Fehmarn. It is one of the last of the Holland sail windmills in Germany.

The tradition of the windmill is dying out on the island Fehmarn as well as every where else. And the last wind-miller, the old "Wiek" in Burg, will have to give up his profession, because no grain is being delivered anymore. Then it is all over with the different settings in the wings. The miller had to pay much attention to the changing winds. The mills with the wooden shingles or even the "Griesgrau" covered with thatch. Griesgrau is what they mostly called the mill and the old folks would teach the children a riddle, which would go like this:

"You old, old grisly grey
standing out all night in the dew
You have no flesh and have no blood
and you do all the folks so good.
You old, old grisley grey
staying out all night in the dew.
What is that?---------------The Mill!
People used to think the mills were living creatures.

They did so much good and worked always for the people. They gave each mill it’s individual name like: "grau Jochen", "speedy Laura", "Raddel moth", "Juchen Hans". Rahlff’s mill in Lemkenhafen was in 1848 still called "Jachen Flünk" by the older people there, really after the old owner, Mr. Rahlff, who was flying around every where, like the wings of the mill.

With the "Low German" rocking song it is also gone. Because there are no mills left and many of the little children can’t speak "Low German" anymore. And they don’t even know this old rhyme:

Hop hop, - to the mill, - Madde on the Filly!
Garthe on the Holstein cow, riding toward the mill now.
One measure wheat, the miller will be pouring.
He’ll pour it all right in the romp,
The mill says then: - Pum pum perum pump.

 Here’s the original "Low German":

"Hü hop na Möhlen, Madde (Matthäus) op de Föhlen!
Garthe op de Buntekoh, so riedt se bei na Möhlen to.
Een Schepel Weeten, de schall de Möller geeten.
Möller gütt em in de Rump, seggt de Möl: Pum Pum Pe rum pump!"

The grain merchant and shipper Joachim Rahlff, who was born 1756 in Gammendorf/Fehmarn, built the mill in Lemkenhafen in 1787 and he died 1830. He also built the estate "Neuhof" before that. You can still see the date it was built on the "Tögbrett" under the head of the mill called the "Waterhüschen", that is the covered trap under the roof of the mill.

Those were marvelous days on the land of Fehmarn, for here was so much wheat and barley ground into grits and other cereal and shipped out. In Bergen, Norway they used to say: "Femersk Gröt smaker söd, og er dajlig Föde," (old Norwegian). The grits from Fehmarn tastes sweet and is a very nourishing meal. They often paid 1 - 2 pennies more per pound for the grain from Fehmarn than they did the other grain. In the spring of 1804 eight sailboats, belonging to the shipper Rahlff, sailed out loaded with grain going toward Norway. One shipper from Neujellingsdorf by the name of "Serk" could make such a profit in the year of 1804, from just two ship loads of grits, delivered by Mr. Rahlff’s boats in Lemkenhafen, going to Norway; that he decided to build himself a home near Bergen and lived there. Some of his descendants are still living there.

A shipper by the name of "Meislahn" from Burg/Fehmarn reported in an old document, that he was present when the Lemkenhafen grits mill was running in October 1787 for the first time; the owner Joachim Rahlff and his young wife, she was a Thomsen from Mummendorf. They stood at the deck of the mill, called the "Zwickstell"- when the lady poured the hired people and the mill carpenters some "Schnaps". As it was traditional, the lady threw the bottle against one of the wings with the words and wishes" "Go with the good wind!" The men standing by, would whistle loudly through their teeth, this was supposed to bring "good luck", in old fashioned miller’s tradition, not only for the mill but also for all the people that would work there later.

Good luck was in store for the whole Rahlff families and also with the mill as well as the milling business up to the year of 1900. The first 100 years the mill was always a goldmine.

When Joachim Rahlff died in 1830 and his son Juergen inherited the mill, 5 to 6 miller journeymen, in German: ‘Müllersgesellen’ and several other hired hands were kept very busy milling the large heaps of barley that had been delivered by the farmers. As soon as the Baltic Sea was ice-free, they had to start loading the sailboats.

In the beginning only grits and barley was milled, it was done in 4 shelling tracks. When this process slowed down in 1840/50 one track was done away with and in 1863/64 the other 3 shelling tracks were done away with and mill stones ‘Rumpen’ were installed. One can still see in the mill, under the stone floor, the old layers of posts, where the old shelling tracks stood. The miller Serk removed the last grits track.

The thick oak posts and beams were imported from Pomerania, the poplar wood for the amble "Pass", (this had to be softwood), was imported from Svendborg, on the island of Fuehnen. Mr. Rahlff used his own ships to transport the material for the mill to Fehmarn. The hangings of the mill would be finished with shingles ‘Schingelplatten’ in German, these were replaced in the year 1834, after a strong northwest wind had torn a hole in the roof of the mill and damaged most of the trimming. The shingles were purchased in Rostock also some white beech-wood, for replacing the teeth in the large cogwheels. These reports are out of old mill-books and ship manuals.

The mill became the basic foundation of the Rahlff grain- and wood sales enterprise in Lemkenhafen; it kept expanding as the years went by. The many varieties of lumber was purchased in Finland or East Prussia; smaller portions were purchased in Svendborg, Lübeck and Rostock, as previously mentioned. Gradually a few sailboats were built or bought, - More granaries and wooden storage sheds were erected.

North west of Lemkenhafen Joachim Rahlff had in 1780 bought up several grazing pastures in the Lemkenhafen neighborhood and called it‘Lemkenhafener Gemeinschaft’ like a co-operation. Here he built a large home and two large thatch-roof barns, this estate he called "Neuhof".

He made a written agreement with the villagers in the community that "he and his heirs" would at all times, furnish a reproductive bull, for farmers who kept cows.

This promise lasted till 1959, when several disagreements arose, because the owner of "Neuhof" was not in the cattle business anymore. This had to be settled in court. The cattle business has been substantially reduced in Lemkenhafen, but the farmers that still keep cattle want to adhere to the privilege promised them, namely a reproductive bull.

Joachim Rahlff and his wife were otherwise mighty lucky. Their 12 children prospered, several went to Denmark and became respectable and successful people.

Many descendants are still living there. From the A to the O, for the Rahlff kin the mill was always the provider. It never rested, had to turn night and day, summer and winter, almost without rest.

When the journeymen had set too much sail cloth during a storm, something would fly from the top. Once a wing of the mill broke. There were always replacement parts for wings and the mill head, on hand to repair the mill. And money to replace four wings at all times, placed in a grey bag with steel rims, kept in one corner of the office, in a box called the ‘schloetenkist in Low German’, for safe keeping.

That money was only to be used for purchasing new wings for the mill. Still in the year of 1890 did the owner "Hans Joachim Ulrich Rahlff" just like his forefather, and kept money aside for the wings; which was counted and returned into the same bag. If the wings or the headpieces broke, they were immediately replaced; the owners would not ever tolerate that the mill was not in operation. The laborers in the granaries and the lumber-storage helpers had to help with the repair. One night a mill wing had to be replaced, and 10 to 12 helpers had to come in, with their wives (to hold the lanterns), so the mill journeymen and the carpenters could see, to repair the mill.

The original owner, Juergen Rahlff, born 1778 and died in 1860 was still being recalled in 1900 in Lemkenhafen. One person told this story of him: "When he was dying he raised up once more and asked, is the mill running or stopping, he sent one of the servants to check it out, when he returned and said: ’Yes Sir, the mill is running’, then the old Rahlff turned around and died in peace."

During his lifetime the mill operated so well, that he told his brother in Copenhagen: (who at one time was interested in buying it) "The mill? - is never to be bought. Each time the wheels turn, the mill earns me a shilling." - - -

In the year 1868 one of the journeymen had bad luck and three of the mill’s wings broke off and drifted away. In fear of his superior, it prompted him to leave his job, and he left the island. When Mr. Rahlff heard of this, he never got upset but sent a messenger into the village, to report to some families with these words: "The mill broke down, come in for repair, right now!" - The next afternoon all was in order again but the helpers in the mill had to work that much harder to make up for the work lost on that Sunday, but they also earned extra pay for it.

In 1875 a boy from the village was very lucky, he had entered a forbidden area near the mill and one of the wings grabbed him and tossed him into the air, then threw him on the ground. Two jaw teeth were knocked out; he had several bloody scratches in the face that was all.

I still have to tell you this story about the miller journeyman Christian [Krischan in Low German] Sander, who worked in the mill in Lemkenhafen for many years. He was a mean contemporary [one of his kind at that time], ‘schlimmer Zeitgenosse’ in German; who could do a lot more than just making wind [telling windy tales].

He could come up with some powerful tales, people said of him: "When he talks about the mill, the wings start turning in the wind". And "Krischan" told this to all the people, who were easily scared and anxious to hear personal adventures with the most upper master, Mr. devil ‘meister Urian’.

"One night, when I was all alone in the mill and milled the grain. Suddenly, way up in the head of the mill I heard crackling, rapping and screaming noise, I thought the mill was coming apart. As quickly as I could I crawled up as high as I could in the mill, to inspect what was wrong. - And what did I see? - There, sitting between the cog-wheels, was the living Satan, turning, along with the wheel as fast as he could, his hair flying in the wind, making a lot of dust. Before I could even turn around he had touched me with his tail right in the face, that I fell and turned over several times, with such speed, that I myself didn’t know how I got to the most upper floor in the mill. I must have laid there for some time, being totally out of my mind.

As I returned to my senses, there stood, from the village, old Uncle Ted ‘Oemer Taes’, low German, above me - he didn’t say a word. (They say in the village, that he can calm the devil and his mean strikes). The mill stood still, uncle Ted helped me up and slowly dragged me over the stony floor downstairs; he pressed a mouse into my hand and whispered in my ear: "This you through into the trunk, when you start the mill again. But you should really wait another hour, or this magic won’t work!" Then he went out of the door into the dark night. -

I did exactly as he had told me and waited another hour. Then I turned on the mill and threw the mouse into the trunk. When I poured the first sack of grain, the mill made very unusual noise like a jelling and a whistling, a howling and bussing, that my hair stood up on end, and all through the mill there was a strange draft, like a wind blowing that I had to hold unto the post so the wind wouldn’t pull me out of the mill. This lasted only a short while, when the mill was back to run in his old tradition. Next morning I went back to see what happened there in the mill, but I couldn’t see a thing, only, - that the tail of the devil got caught in the cogwheels. So I just took it home to use it as a brush to white-wash, ‘Widdelquast i. Low German’, it covers three times more of an area than a plain brush. Well, and that’s the way it was, said "Krischan", as he pulled on his pipe till it crackled and popped. While he was telling his tale he never changed an expression on his face and looked just as serious as he could. He told his stories, as if he had just lived it, a night ago. "Krischan" was always lucky to catch people’s attention and it made his day when he could scare the living daylights out of people. He told his spooky stories ‘Speukelgeschichten in Low German’, - to raise his own spirits, afterwards, when he had successfully scared people [mostly women and children], he would have a grin of satisfaction on his face, like a butter licker in the cream cellar.

Lemkenhafen was through the centuries a special commercial place for Fehmarn. In the year of 1680 several shippers from there, received a grant of 15 ships from Denmark, each carrying 20 loads. One load of grain amounted to ca. 24 tons, 1 load of lime ca. 12 tons, 1 Fehmarn ton was 220 Pound, German pound.

Many sailboats on Fehmarn were built in Lübeck or Neustadt, some in Svendborg on the island Fuenen. In 1714 the shippers "Claus Roge" and "Hans Thiele" from Lemkenhafen, had their ships: "Sankt Nikolaus", "Die Hoffnung", - Claus Koess, his giant ship "The flying Jakob" built in Neustadt.

As the farmers and property owners from the villages had their house- and farm-brands, so did the shippers have their own ship-brands, ‘Marken’ in German, ‘Karr-Teeken’ in low German; which were like the ‘Hausmarken’ and carved into the beams of the ships.

In a document in Rostock, of 1587 it reads: "Is ok Hans Stuiken uth de lemmekinhauen uppe vemeren by Uns in de sloete gequamen, hefft drunkhaftige wyse Unseren schipper Remebolden dyne schepe marke voruneret, dar op gespygen unde gelestert, dath eynem erliken schipper nicht tho gunnen unde tho vorantwerden is." [This is old Low German], translated it says: "Even if "Hans Stuiken" from Lemkenhafen of the island Fehmarn has gotten into prison in our town, as he did in a drunken manner insult our honest shipper "Remebolden" and dishonored his "SHIP-BRAND", like spitting and cursing on it, this is no way for an honest shipper to behave."

In the year of 1771 a ship owner from Fehmarn bought two farms on the island of 39 and 45 ‘Droemsaat’ (old Fehmarn land measure), it is about the same as a hektar is today. He bought them bothe at the same time and laid "cash money" on the table. Times were especially good in those days; when a sea fairer could allow himself such land purchases. The moneybags and "gold in ingots" which the shipper used for his land buys were kept a few days in one of the Lemkenhafen "Dinn". The owner of the "Dinn" gave out a receipt for the transaction, which the shipper would sign and also stamp it with his own ship’s brand, as was customary in those days. Another Dinner had to be present and sign as witness.

To transport the bags of money and the gold in ingots, (the 10^th of December was the audit date for all businesses on the island), the shipper had to hire a farmer’s wagon with 4-team horses. That time of year the roads were in such bad condition, and the money transport got stuck in the mud. In the village of Sartjendorf, another farmer had to pull them out. 100 years later there was still a saying in Landkirchen and vicinity about "how the people had got stuck in the mud with all their wealth."

For his daughter the same shipper ordered three costly and precious silk dresses, decorated in ‘Puentersternen’, (in many colored pearls and finest gold brocade), which had been bought in Copenhagen. The father had been bragging to his friends that his daughter was going to dress up just like the Danish princesses. Special seamstresses working for the royal family in Denmark made the dresses.

The shipper put on a wedding for his son in the spring of 1772, like none before on the island Fehmarn. He got in conflict with the "luxury law" called ‘Prunk-Schatt’. He had to pay a rather high sum for the infringement to the government for breaking the law.

Another shipper had a new ship built in 1774, although he had just purchased one in 1771, since something wasn’t to his liking on the rigging "Takelage", he gave it to his son-in-law as a wedding gift. And had the new one built for him. This same shipowner and builder also owned granaries in Lübeck and Trondhjem, Denmark, where barley and grits from Fehmarn was stored, to speculate for higher prices. In the central church-district this shipper was a creditor to at least 10 farmers, also to several ‘Guts-Tagelöhner’ {hourly hireling on an estate] and laborers.

When ships from Lemkenhafen entered the harbors in Mecklenburg, people in the restaurants would say: "here comes a rich grits- and grain shipper from Fehmarn!" And in Copenhagen the people would say in gesture: "Copenhagen, Fredrikshavn and Lemkenhafen sail to make great fortune,"

The year 1800 was especially good for the shippers and seafarers. After a rather cold winter the sewing of the summer seed didn’t get done until the first part of June, and the harvest wasn’t done until the end of October. The price of grain raised up to 15 Marks and 8 Schillings; grain had to be imported, in pursuit of this the seafarers were kept very busy. Many of the homes were renovated; as well as nice things could be purchased in foreign countries. The grain dealer Mr. Rahlff was a man who planned ahead; he had put a new outside plank installed, which was a very modern addition and improvement to the mill.

Seafaring and fishing was for the people, old and young and living here, always their A and their O. The old seafarers used to say: " In our village everything smells like fish and tastes like salt water!" If anybody tried to ridicule them, they would say: "He needs a good baptism in fish-water!" Some 100 years ago, they say, when Hannes Detlev from Lemkenhafen was a full-fledged sailor going into harbor joint in Hamburg and was insulted by two highly tempered Spanish sailors, (they called them roving "Kakkadores"), he got into a corner, with his back to the wall, showing his balled fists and yelled at them: "Vun Liev! Uller dot!", which means: "Get off my back or you’ll be dead!"

In Lemkenhafen all knew his loud, roaring voice and his hard fists like washboards. Anyway, the two Spaniolas soon left. And nothing came of it. The old shipper’s lingo from Lemkenhafen was known to keep enemies away. An old saying goes like this: "A loud yell keeps attackers away."

This was the case, when in the year 1743 a ship carpenter "Aake Tjerning", from Marstall on the island Aeroe, came to Lemkenhafen and wanted to build a shipyard there. The ship-yard owners from Lübeck and Neustadt in Holstein, as well as the magistrate in Burg/Fehmarn were not agreeable with this plan, he was ridiculed and thwarted with defeat, even though the shippers from the western and the middle church-districts supported the ship-builder from Marstal. -

The meetings were at times held at the "shipper-house" in Burg, that is when three men from Lemkenhafen, chosen to represent the town, came into a disagreement with the members of magistrate in Burg. It got to be a stormy confrontation. The men from Lemkenhafen voiced a very strong opinion. When nobody paid attention to them, they hit with the fist on the table and screamed: "One more word out of you and I’ll through you out the window!" The chairman [the chamberlain of the middle church district] had no choice but to close the meeting. (This is a true excerpt from the shippers logbook of Landkirchen, 1740 - 50.

The shipping- and fishing-village Lemkenhafen has sent many an ambitious young man into all corners of the world, men, who were adventurous and not afraid to stand their man, endured all obstacles life ever handed them. But not only seafarers, also other ambitious people were born on this island, like for instance the US bank president "Ferdinand Wilhelm Lafrenz", who in the new land "God’s own acres", achieving to become a "Low German Poet" Ferdinand Wilhelm Lafrenz, (3.25.1859/58?), was raised by his uncle in Gollendorf/Fehmarn and grew up there herding the cows and the sheep on the farm. In 1873 he emigrated to the U.S., first he lived in Chicago, where he worked as a bank assistant, went to the "Bryan Stratton" school, where he later became an instructor in commerce. In his free time he worked for newspapers, publishing in the High- and Low-German language. In 1881 he published his collection of "Low-German poetry" and called it "Nordic Sounds",‘Nordische Klänge’, it was received with assenting approval. It was the first poetry book in "Low German", published in America. On Nov.4.1881 the great Low German poet "Claus Groth" gave his warm-hearted compliments to the new American poet with these words: "May your book be as pleasant as neighbor "Lafrenz", [she lived next door to "Groth" in Landkirchen/Fehmarn], - on a spring day, as fresh as grass milk, and sweet as grass butter, with a summer air and home-land flair." Lafrenz wrote in his "Nordic Sounds" about his memories of Fehmarn in poetic rhymes as well as cheery verses and short stories. Later he published a few more booklets in the English language. From Chicago he moved with his family to the state of Utah, he became a lawyer and later president of the "Surety-Co in NY" - he became a rich man, died in Long Island. - He visited his home island twice, once in 1932, afterward I have corresponded with him in the low German language for years. When the Matthäus Wiepert home in Niendorf was torn down in 1919, F. W. Lafrentz purchased a few beams and planks with carvings, it reminded him of his home in Fehmarn, he had it erected as decoration in his garden on Long Island.

Another man, well respected in shipping circles, born Aug.9.1818 as the son of the shipper Joachim Kross and his wife Anna Gertrude, nee Schau, died on June 19.1910 in Burg/Fehmarn.

He gave an account of his collection in oceanography, titled: "The voyages of a German seafarer around the 19^th century" in German: ‘Die Fahrten eines deutschen Seemanns um die Mitte des 19ten Jahrhunderts’ his interesting account of his life on sail-ships, and what it meant to be sailing into all the important lands of the world. Mainly "Captain Kross" wrote about his adventures sailing along the Chinese coast. When he settled down in his homeland, much of his scientific advice was highly appreciated among the seafarers on the island Fehmarn.

Captain Wilken from Lemkenhafen, who was born there in about 1804 must also be remembered as a great seafaring adventurer, he was in all the far-away places of the world. Among others in Cape Town, where he was involved in beating up on two English shippers, till they couldn’t even walk. Which resulted in him never being able to show up in South African and other English harbors. He then ended up in the vicinity of the icy waters near Iceland and Scotland; he became familiar with it as good as, of course the "Baltic Sea".

When he in, his olden days, took part in the Lemkenhafen shippers-fair, [of which I will report more later], and the old sea bears started chanting (called shipperstank), they started singing about the "north pole shipper", who was named Captain Wilken. When he was in a good mood and his arthritis didn’t give him too much pain, he sang along:

"Captain Wilken, said he, - this is wild, said he!
Sailing round, said he, - the North Pole, said he!
Sailed fine, said he - with wale and brine, said he.
His boat dead, said he - without a hat, said he.
With his boat gone - said he, without a hat.

Captain Wilken never wore a hat, when the chanting was done; he sat very comfortable in his armchair and drank his hot "grog" [with little water]. The hostess knew how to brew the rum for three of her costumes, it had to be hot with very little water, she called those guys her "breast-babes", because captain Wilken raved often saying: "Kids, lets drink tit!". He was always spending a free drink when the North Pole song was over, he usually called out: "Another round and send my bill!."

When his adversary, captain Spangenberg from Burg was there, the conversation went like this: "Tell me, captain Wilken, how did it go with the North Pole?" Wilken answered very enthusiastic and had a very honest expression on his face: "They buried him there like a scratching post for oxen in the meadow. He was in our way, I steered right into him, spit in my fists and told my men: "Get ready, and we went with full force into the iceberg. And then?" - -"What happened then?", asked captain Spangenberg? With a very sober face he said: "We went right into the iceberg, toward the North Pole."- "What happened? The whole shipping industry fell apart, the whole earth trembled and the ice pressed into us, all the way into the cabins, that’s when I screamed all I could for the cook, and ordered him to bring as a grog. Well, he did that and he did it much faster than what is done in this here joint. That’s when we made a toast with the iceberg, which started melting right away."- "What, really melting?", asked Spangenberger; all the others, who had already heard the story before, smiled; but couldn’t keep from laughing out loud. But the men that hadn’t heard the end of the story were listening intently, staring at his lips, wondering how it would end. Captain Wilken took another big sip of his grog, and got rather angry and said: "Yes, yes the ice really melted, you dummy!"- "What else? - But when it was all molten, we just beat a post into the North Pole and put a wooden shield up and wrote on it," "What did you write on it," asked captain Spangenberg with an expression of expectancy on his face. - Captain Wilken wiped his mouth and got ready for the next answer: "There where the iceberg tried to squeeze us in, we wrote down....." "What did you write down," asked captain Spangenberg again? "We took chalk and wrote, here is where captain Spangenberg once stood, and went down with all his dumb questions and big talk. - Prost (a toast!" That’s when all the people started to laugh about captain Wilken’s yarn spinning. The host filled the glasses once more and all had a royal good time when the lying started all over again, till the wooden beams bent. In one corner of the joint stood a beam that was so crooked and they say it was straight at one time, but bent because of all the lies told, they called this beam the "liars beam", ‘Loegenbalken’ in low German.

The old seafarers all knew each other and they knew exactly how far they could go by teasing each other. Nobody held anything against anybody, once they were sitting in the village inn, spinning their yarn and bragging about their adventures. On their way home, most of them would reach for a thick wad of chewing tobacco from there coat- or vest-pocket. Captain Wilken’s chew was not much thinner; a friend that knew him when he was younger told this to me. When he started to talk, he also told the tragic story about the shipper "Maass", who in 1842 didn’t return from the sea. He was an ancestor of the merchant family "Ettler" in Burg. He had no enthusiasm for working in the garden. When he was home in the fall or winter, his better halve would torment him to spade up the garden. The shipper would start, after much nagging but he would get rather impatient. As soon as she had turned her back, he would drop the spade and walk to the harbor or into the village. Afterward they had a big quarrel. The wife would keep on nagging until he started with a mighty mean disposition, digging in the garden again. This kind of work made him very mad but his wife didn’t realize it. He never finished spading up the garden, but always returned in good shape from his trips at sea. She was a bit superstitious and let him get away with it, when he didn’t finish the job. After several years she had forgotten all about it and she started to complain again and forced him to dig up the garden. Shipper Maas really got tired of it and that winter he dug up the whole garden. - The bad fortune was probably luring around the corner and the captain Maas didn’t return from that voyage, with his ship "Fehmarn", he and all the crew never returned. After that, his wife always walked around the village telling her neighbors: "If he only hadn’t dug up the whole garden, he would still be alive." - -

Until the year 1872 the shippers and captains with their families celebrated the shippers fair annually, on the 2nd of February in the Lemkenhafen village inn, where it was always a lively affair. On this one day all the deck hands, the sailors, the cooks as well as the shipmates were hired, for it would soon be time for the ships to start their first voyage of the year. At the fair they served "Labskaus" the famous sailor’s meal, it consisted of thick barley grits with cut up heart- lung- and stomach-parts from beef or pork, it was a bit sour and more or less strongly spiced. After the meal they started singing and dancing. - And as stated in an old document, there was a lot of drinking going on. Many old sea chanties surfaced. Among others this song called "Moses’ deckboy", or the cook who didn’t like being hit in the belly, and if someone did, he would cook the same food for 8 days for the crew, called the "jews sauce", this was a watered down sauce made out of flour with an abundant amount of salt. Often they would dance an old fisher’s dance it told about sailing and went like this:

"Shipper!- Going sailing? - Take me along with you!
Hoppsassa! Valleri vallera! - Hoppsassa! Juchei!
Have a pair of new wooden shoes -
and I like you very much!
Shipper going sailing? - Come, sail once with me!
Shipper going sailing? The wind’s just right this way.
We’ll sail along the rotter-potter-butter and
through the blackberry street.
There we dance so nice, there we dance so fine,
Ja, Ja, Hoppsassa! Valleri vallera! - Hoppsassa!Juchei!
My gal she has a good soft nose and a red sweet mouth has she.
And if I’m sweet, and a good shipper man,
I’ll dance with you round and round!
And the wind will blow and the rooster will crow
and my gal she’ll dance all night.
And when a cat with the bone, runs through the sewer.
I’ll buy her a golden ring.
Hoppsassa, valleri vallera, - Hoppsassa Juchhei!
Back and fro with my sweet - this way that way, once along the blackberry street.
Dance ringel row - so dance we two

While drinking, the sailors with their partners, ‘Partenschlucker’ (farmers, part owners or investors, benefitting from the shipping- business), entertained each others with an old drinking-game called: ‘Schürn un Klöven’ (Low German). Two partners drank from one glass, if the glass was full (mostly brandy, gin, or spirits), the older one would ask his drinking companion, who sat across from him: "bottoms up or halve down", in Low German: ‘Schürn uller Klöven’? If he answered "bottoms up", his partner would drink all the brandy and wiped the bottom clean with his thumb.

If the partner answered with "halve down" ‘Kloeven’, both drank halve. When the glass was empty, the first drinker turned it upside down and let the last drops drip out, it was called ‘drüppeln’, then it was the other partners turn and he had to buy a drink.

In the year 1860 they had a very eventful shipper’s fair in Lemkenhafen. One of the shippers had just butchered a hog; the sausages hung all in a row in his kitchen. Someone in the neighborhood had spied the butchering and told about it at the fair. A few of the shipper’s friends went over there with a long well hook, ‘Sothaken’ low German, and lowered the sausages through the drainpipe ‘Götlock’, low German, out of the kitchen. Then they gave them to the cook at the inn to prepare it for the feast, and served at the fair. This feast was introduced by the shipper "Saß" from Landkirchen" with a humor filled and elaborate speech. All the guests enjoyed the festive meal and especially the shipper and his wife, who had butchered, "for they exclaimed, it to be such a noble gift from a benefactor." The speaker adding, that displaying such enormous brotherly love was to be commanded.

When the couple came home, they very quickly realized what had happened to them at the shipper’s fair that evening. They swallowed their pride and made nothing of it, although some nosey neighbors had followed them home, to see their reaction. But the couple did as if nothing was wrong.

Later, this whole matter was cleared up, when several of the shippers were present at another feast,- were accidentally gathering at a place in Riga, when they were all heavily drinking, the sausage feast came up in conversation. The affected damaged shipper did even now consider this incident as humor. Seldom did anybody see their captain as drunk as he was this night, his shipper brothers had to transport him into his berth ‘Koje’ where he was constantly jabbering about "The devoured sausages". But also one of the pilots could not find his berth, he crawled by mistake into the ‘Kabeelgat’, the ship’s hole where the ropes were kept, got into a fight with the ship’s cat, who had just given birth to new kittens a few days ago. She mewed and spit at him, scratching his face and nose bloody when he was lost in the cat’s nest.

These incidents were so often brought up again, even until 1895 in the Fehmarn shipper circles, and laughed about, when the shippers met in the ‘Schifferstube’, now called "Kaiserhof" in Burg, while drinking their "Grog" and overhauling the last secrets of the lower deck incidents.

Now there are no more shippers in ‘Haven’, as they mostly called Lemkenhafen on Fehmarn. Among the shippers who were on the long voyages, "Max Johannsen"

was another old timer, who sailed from San Francisco into the Bering Straights with the whalers, using the old fashioned method, by shooting a harpoon. He told about it, but he knew a lot more than what he ever talked about. When he sailed with his buddy "Karl Ehler" from Burg, who was whaling behind Novaja Semlja and also in the Siberian Arctic Ocean. He has also been on his last voyage and singing, behind the grey cloud-cover, his old sea chantey:

"Blow boys, blow for Californio!
There’s plenty of gold, so I am told,
on the banks of Sacramento - mento!"

Yes, the shipper fairs in Lemkenhafen had it in them and used to twist people around as well as cheating them. Even the "Low German Poet Klaus Groth" stopped there in 1850, with the old shipper "Sass" from Landkirchen, for just a little drink. He was a man who was curious about everything that went on. Here he even got the idea for his famous ‘Quickborn’ poems, when he stopped once in Lemkenhafen to purchase some fish for his friend’s household "the Mr. Leonhard Selle, who was the organist in the church in Landkirchen. When the poet spotted a beautiful young shipper’s daughter, Anna J...., sitting in front of her parent’s house, knitting long stockings, we used to call them "long rabbits", in German: ‘lange Hasen’, Klaus Groth addressed her, but she was rather cold and ignored his ascertaining. She was probably sure of her good looks, had many other admirers and didn’t need to be friendly to unknown men.

Her secret lover was at sea, her parents and the rest of the family didn’t even know about that.

Klaus Groth was taken with her natural beauty and talked at noon, during dinner to Leonard Selle about her. And during the following night, upstairs in his attic room, he wrote the famous Low German poem:

"Schön Anna stünn vör Straatendör -
De Fischer güngn vörbi. -
Schön Anna knüttst Du blaue Strümp? -
De blauen Strümp, de knüttst Du/ woll för mi?"

Translated:
"Sweet Anna stood at her street-door -
The fisher passing by, -
Sweet Anna, knitting bluish socks? -
The blue socks,- you’re knitting, surely are for me?"
Four weeks passing by when the poet gave the poem
to the beautiful fisher’s daughter in Lemkenhafen.

She didn’t know how to reply and gave a very short, almost unfriendly answer; when the poet was disappointed. But Anna J. was too young to comprehend such an honored attention; this was not a familiar gesture on the island. But she accepted the poem. Not until later did she understand that the skinny pale man, who was the strange man, living in the house of the organist, had done her a great honor. From then on she kept it and saved his verses for a long time.

There was already in the Middle Ages, along our coast an old believe that young girls, who bathed mornings in cold ocean water and then rubbed cod-roe fat on their body, would soon develop a glowing complexion and look more beautiful. This may not always have been the case, but when one thinks about it, in Lemkenhafen the ladies there are often good-looking. In the year 1776 a Danish conference-council "Oelgaard", in one of his private letters to his brother (which I was given permission to read in 1922, by his family in Copenhagen), stated that he was surprised how beautiful and dainty the young ladies were in Lemkenhafen. When the beautifully dressed shipper’s daughters from Lemkenhafen (around 1830/40) went to a market in Burg, they were addressed by the professional skilled men and also the business men, as "Demoiselle", as this was proper in those days of the sophisticated classes, on the large estates and in the cities. They enjoyed hearing it and were proud, even walked a bit snootier through the market streets. She was right when the beautiful "Liene" from the Captain Street in Lemkenhafen told a rich farmer’s son from the country, when he offered her a ride home in his buggy one evening. She would say real snippy: "A ride home in your buggy, no thanks, I let somebody sail me home." And it came true, she had attracted a good-looking shipbuilder’s son from the mainland in Heiligenhafen, Holstein,- he picked her up in the wee hours of the morning at the Burgstaaken harbor, called the "Hundegat" in low German, with his fast sailing ship and they sailed toward Lemkenhafen. Later he sailed her all the way from Flensburg into the harbor of matrimony.-

A Prussian corporal wrote to his parents in Soldin, Brandenburg in the year 1864, when the captain von Mellenthin conquered the island with his company, that the girls in Lemkenhafen, where he was stationed at that time, were the most beautiful on the island Fehmarn and it may be possible that he would fall in love with one of the gorgeous shipper’s daughters. He wrote many charming verses, where he described the charm and beauty of the girls from Lemkenhafen. His rhymes were proof that even the military drilled soldiers from Prussia could elaborate in such a romantic style.

The main branch of income for the Lemkenhafen population, beside seafaring used to be fishing, mostly cod, clip-fish, horn-fish and eel. Clip-fish were dried in the sun, this procedure is no longer practiced and the know how is lost in this region, but is still practiced in Iceland. Around Fehmarn the boys took part in what they called ‘Bütt perrn’, low German for flounder stumping [killing]. With a one m long wooden stick that had a nail driven into the end, which had a flat point, - the boys would stick the flounders when lying on the sandy bottom of the sea with this nail, then kill them with their feet. At times it worked but sometimes the fish got away.

The people from Lemkenhafen knew how to catch sea birds and wild ducks. They still practiced this in the 18^th century, in the Middle Ages it was called ‘Iesgliepen’ in low German, when different types of birds were exhausted from their long flight, landed on the ice, which was still very thin in spots. People had a lead ball fastened to a long rope and used it like a slingshot to kill the wild birds and ducks. To get them off the ice was dangerous, at times the ice was still thin in spots. They used long sticks or ropes. They also used wooden sleds, usually two and helped each other. Every winter there were accidents on the ice. Once in 1719 two fisher broke into the ice and the wife of the land manager ‘Landvogt Peter Witt’ [she was a nee "Köß" from Blieschendorf], rescued them and she died later of a bad case of pneumonia as after affects.

Long time ago the people in Lemkenhafen practiced ‘Fischerstechen’, an old game from the Middle Ages, when the fisher would use long stakes, tied dried sea weeds or flax to the end of it and tried to knock each other out of their boats. People would come and watch these battles, like a show of strength, and entertained each other.

In the year 1796 so many herrings were caught that the fisher and the farmers came with wagon and carts to bring in the catch.

In an old document from Lemkenhafen it is written that in 1799 "Peter Martens" caught an eel so large, like nobody on the island had ever seen before. After 1787, when the grits mill had been built, and Rahlff’s grain trade, as well as lumber business had more and more enlarged, many fisher and other people found employment loading and unloading the ships, it was called ‘ein- und aus-bötern’. This shipping business was already a good work place besides farming in the Lemkenhafen area, even before the mill was built. Until 1804 these people had formed a guild and the people met on Sundays in the old framework building, which is still standing and belongs to the fisher "Zachrist".

This meeting was conducted by a "head- or elderman", who spoke the shipper’s-prayer or sermon, this would consist of reading a fitting chapter of the bible and followed by prayers. A few times of the year the pastor from Landkirchen came to their meeting and conducted the sermon. After the ceremony the concerns of the shippers were discussed, bargained, agreed and settled.

The boats house had two rooms. The one room was used for their meetings and in the other room they celebrated their success. Most of the shippers had their special nick names like for instance: "Jonas Jöll", "Eel-sticker Pol", "David on the oak", "Blink-Eye", "Jürn Bütt", "Täs bad weather", they all knew who they were when anyone spoke of them, and they even answered to those names when they were so addressed.

When the shippers and their guests were celebrating and they tried to forget their sorrow and strife, they would sing sea chanteys in their base voices like this:

1.) "Fisherman in his old hat - mother slopping in her ‘Tüffeln’ [wooden shoes].
Kids a bunch, some small some fat, haven’t got much to ‘müffeln’ [to eat].
Fisherman, rudi rudi ralla la, doesn’t like to worry.
If I get nothing in my nets, ha, ha- maybe I will to-morrow.

2.) "When girls are still sleeping, I clean my nets,
Sun gives me a cheery mood, when with the fish I wrestle.
Fisherman rudi rudi ralla la, doesn’t like to worry,
If I get nothing in my nets, ha,- maybe I’ll to-morrow.

They would drum with their fingers on the table to beat out a rhythm to their song. At the end the elder-man would call out: "Fisch un Bütt - grot un lütt", just like the fisher women would call on the streets when they were trying to advertise and sell their fish. This was mostly accompanied with hot grog but very little water in it.

The building material [the wood] was tied together and floating to the beach where horses would pull the wood from the water to shore and dragged it to the woodsheds so it was close to the sawmill. There were several buildings where the wood was stored. After 1910 these buildings were torn down. One of these storage buildings was re-erected on the farm of "Rudolf Becker" in Lemkenhafen. Most people on the island thought only to do business with Rahlff and his son in Lemkenhafen, there they would get the best building material.

In Lemkenhafen has never been a ‘Dingstein’ or a prehistoric "thinkstone" in the open, which means that the city was ruled by "hanseatic" law from Lübeck and not ruled, like in primeval settlements on the rest of the island, but rather a younger harbor development.

In the "Waldemarschen Erdbuch" of 1231/32 with a list of the old villages on Fehmarn, Lemkenhafen is not mentioned yet. One must accept the hypothesis that the place was once the harbor of the very old village Lemkendorf, the ship’s wharf of the western church-district, in competition with the shipyard in Burgtiefe.

In the beginning of our previous century one spoke of it still as our harbor ‘Haven’ in low German, when Lemkenhafen was meant and ‘de Achterto-haven’, when Burgtiefe was talked about. And in Lemkendorf they used to say then: ‘He wahnt opn Haven-Enn’, he lives on the end of the harbor, when they really meant Lemkenhafen.

Lemkenhafen was later, when it didn’t have their own city rule any more (in about 1510), the only village besides Burg on the island, that didn’t have to furnish the three men to serve in the ‘Kreis schlaan’ [rope off] or help encircle the area from the public during the executions on the "gallow’s hill" ‘Galgenberg’, east of Petersdorf, for the community of Fehmarn.

Old legends have it, that at one time there was land lying in the Lemkenhafen bay and those three villages sank into the bay. People have guessed, that the two still visible islands ‘grot un runn Warder’ (large and round isle), as well as other small islets in that area called ‘Büllten’, are left-over lands of the sunken villages.

Long time ago the so-called Petersdorfer Weg west of Teschendorf led over the Lemkenhafen Warder toward ‘Deepenhusen’, west of the harbor Orth, - where until 1875 the sailboats were anchored in the winter. These legends are not by no means documented and cannot be authenticated. We know of no periods or dates when the storm-floods and other disasters in nature tore away land areas. In the’ Waldemarschen Erdbuch of 1232/32’ (old history book), three more villages are mentioned in the list of villages of Fehmarn that are not known to us today, they are "Utaes-Thorpe", "Dargan-Thorpe" and "Ratemaers-Thorpe", but we cannot prove that they were located in the Lemkenhafen area.

In the oozy bottom [muddy sediment], of the bay, several prehistoric finds, like flint hammer, arrow heads, scrapers etc. have been made in 1860/68 and in 1899. In the year of 1885 two school children found an arm-bracelet of bronze, between the large and round islet, heavily stained with verdigris. And in 1889, near the village, part of an old primitive wooden shovel or dipper was found. Some people have found foundations of stone and bricks, also plough furrows and partially deteriorated, withered wooden posts, which can be described as ancient human settlements. But nothing is documented of this kind and it could also be possible that some items did spill by unloading ships. In the last 20 years a few soil samples were taken in the "Inn-land Sea" area of Lemkenhafen, but revealed little results or proof, whether or not at one time there were human settlements or even villages in that area. A troop of divers with drag-apparatus were commissioned on my advice in the summer of 1959, to search the Bay area between Lemkenhafen and the islets, but only bricks and material from a newer age were found, although a few prehistoric flint and stone tools were also found.

The islets ‘Warder’ used to be considerable larger that is certain. There is a danger, that they will totally disappear if not some serious measures are taken to protect and fasten the banks. The little islet ‘Ho-Viesen’[high meadow], ‘Runnlock-Euver’[round whole-bank] and ‘Krusen-Euver’ [Kruse’s bank] (translated from the low German), are being washed away. Only a few gras-wads are proof where land was. In some places you find new land but it is of little significance. The islets "Langeland" and "Sibirien" have enlarge very little, where the many different sea birds, mainly sea gulls are nesting and brooding, this is also the case on the other islets.

Parts of the largest islet used to be utilized as arable land. Two buildings are standing there to store hay and dried sea grass. The wild ducks here are so trusting and tame, that they won’t be shied away by working people and also walk into the buildings to lay their eggs and nest there. Otherwise the islets ‘Warder’, belong to two small farmers ‘Kleinbauern’ and one in Westerbergen, they let their cattle graze and sail here with their boats to milk the cows. In 1730 lived on the large "Warder", then it was called ‘Wester Gol’, in a small hut a "firebaker", it was his job to build an emergency fire to let the ships know the direction of the wharf and the Fehmarn sound. In that very year his home was destroyed by a strong storm. The baker "Sievert" could only save his own life, while tying two boards together and fastening himself to those two boards. He drifted toward the beach of Westerbergen, also called the "yellow bank", where he was found unconscious the next morning.

In the continental war of 1813/14 ‘Kontinentalkriege’ a fortification wall was built for defense on the larger islet, furnished with two canons, which was to protect the entrance at Fehmarnsund. This was erected by the people of Lemkenhafen and can still be seen on the larger islet. We want to mention that there is a ground water well on that islet. The round islet ‘runn Warder’, has steep banks, where the soil crumbles more and more, soon there won’t be any land left.

With the tourist stream that has started not too long ago on the island, the other two islets will soon disappear, the camping places springing up every where will take away the peaceful country-like idyll, also it may scare away the few oyster-fishing birds that were attracted by this peaceful setting and came here to find their breeding grounds.

West of Lemkenhafen, in the Gollendorf bay area, on the way to Neuhof, near the dike, lies the small peninsula "Spitzenorth" (translated it means pointed area); where a member of the voluntary "Arbeitsdienst" (laborforce organized by the Nazy regime), found an old coin [badly damaged and hard to decipher] with the markings of Cxe tA t and under it a cross. On the right side of Spitzenorth a deep ditch-like indentation used to be called ‘Stöversandlock’ low German, meaning "shifting sand whole", since a great amount of sand would be deposited here, when the wind carried it on dry days.

On foggy nights people claim to have seen (and also legends tell of) houses standing here, people walking around. Fisher saw lights shining here, but when they got closer the people and the houses as well as the light disappeared.

In this bay, so tell the old folks, everything petrified with the years. They have seen a petrified dog and a petrified turtle. Such petrified objects should not be touched or even looked at [legendary tales], for they could petrify your heart by just looking at it. - -

On a meadow here in "Spitzenorth" used to grow many rare medicinal herbs, which were searched for and used.

Old women dug out the roots of the ‘Klappertopf’, and boiled them. During the slowly cooling off period, the fisher would put the fishing hooks and ‘Pilken’ into the brew, as to lure and entice the fish to bite better [another lengendary and handed down myth]. Also the marsh trefoil in German:‘Biberklee’, (in Latin: Nenyanthes trifoliata) grew here; this was used as a blood-cleansing agent, it was used to force the feverish temperature down. An old woman (N.) From Lemkenhafen brewed a "Schnaps" from this herb and sold it to the men working in the sewer (drains), when they caught a fever. It was believed that the fever shot into the bloodstream and caused the temperature to rise.

On the estate "Neuhof" lived around 1846/47 an herbal expert who helped on and off some relatives and friends to heal certain illnesses, he was a Danish major (von E.) He owned the "Feuerleinsche Landstelle" [fire-fighting brigade] in Sartjendorf and lived his retirement years on the Neuhof estate. You could see this white-haired gentleman walking over the fields, along the ‘Knicks’, (quickset hedges), the edge of a ditch, and low-lying meadows searching for medicinal herbs, it was his hobby. He knew all the herbs and the many related variations and genus of plants, he also had established an herb garden in the regular garden of Neuhof.

Schafgarbe, Lawendel, Salbei, Hirtentaeschelkraut, Gottesgnadenkraut, Thymian, Krauseminze, Baldrian etc. were bundled and dried in the sun or in a dry upstairs area; later carefully cut and rubbed and ready to prepare a tee from it. Other herbs were preserved in spirits and others kept in powder form to later make a salve of it. The Major prepared a salve for open wounds on the legs, [varicose veins] and burns that had a very good reputation. Various herbs were good for this and that. Most people would rather follow his advice than some of the old women with their sympathetic wisdom. Major "E." Used his healing herbs without any religious prayers or other old fashioned spells.

Because of his competition with the healers in the villages, they didn’t like him and called him ‘De As von Hoff’, low German meaning "The evil one from the estate". When it was reported to the major, he just laughed it off and said in his Danish: "Tak for det!", meaning thank you for that.

About the days, when Lemkenhafen was still a town, I don’t have much more to say, because documented proof now a days is scarce. On the 7^th of April in 1469 in a testimony by the chamberlain and sworn-in agent of the land community Fehmarn, stated that Henneke Johanssen (de junghe), meaning jr., from Lemmekenhauen was charged 3 Marks annually (as by testimony of Hinrik and Peter Johanssen from Avendorf, and apart from the Taxes to the King, ‘Herrenpacht’), for the free and debtless acres situated in the "Avendorf" field and boarded by bookmaster "Marquardt, who is the church master in Burg and over the vicar of the St. Nikolai Altar in the "Maria- Magdalenen-Church (at the ‘Heiligengeiststift’ [poor house] in Burg) sold for 37 ½ mark (With the stipulation to repurchase same). See "Fehmarn archives and registry, volume 3, number 15" ‘Fehmarnsche Urkunden und Regester/Band 3/Nr. 15'.

On the 16^th of September 1623 the Danish sailing ship "Björnhelm" burned out in the Lemkenhafen wharf, because of neglect by a sailor with a light. The captain "Lundgreen" rescued an already unconscious deck boy, whose hair had already been singed away, at great life threatening danger.

In the year of 1696 a sworn-in man from Lemkenhafen had to gather up information about the behavior and guilt of the land manager,‘Landvoigt Peter Witt’. This measure was considered a "Tort", translated meaning to spite a person or injuring a neighbor; and could ensue a serious and lasting hatred in the village. Once they appointed two land stewards to restore peace and order in the village. Instead they filled themselves with the free beer in the land manager’s home and offered their duty in favor of the land manager. A very courageous sworn-in citizen wrote this in the "neighborhood log-book". The sworn-in citizen ended up in jail but he protested by the ‘Scheidelgericht’, court of arbitration in Landkirchen, he also reported, that they had thrown him in a deep whole, where only rats, mice and worms could survive."

In the spring of 1699 the land manager "Peter Witte" left his horses to run freely and graze in our meadow. The Schütter [an attendant in the granery] caught the horses and we charged him 1 Mark and 6 shilling, which he refused to pay.

On the day of July 28^th 1713 the neighbors have accompanied the land manager Peter Witte and given him his last rites and have received his "Birr" [the traditional beer that was served at a funeral].

The land manager Peter Witte was born *7.NOV.1641 and died +24.JUL.1713 in Lemkenhafen, he then lived on the estate which is now called "Neufahrt". He was an ambitious and fearless shipper, later on, he also farmed and they said he never wore a hat. But the neighbors complained and said they had seen him wearing a cap. So someone had lost the bet and paid 12 shilling. It wasn’t much but in those days it would buy a pair of boots with wooden soles.

In the year 1777, 24 foot long lath from Finland cost 6 shilling a piece, 30 roofing shingles cost 1 Mark and 6 shilling, 1 ton of lime cost 4 Mark, [all the manure on the salt meadow (this was used in the kitchen stove, after it had been dried)] it cost 3 Mark.

In 1727 there was already a school in Lemkenhafen and their annual expense was 14 Mark and 4 shilling. The school keeper (a retired sailor) had many problems with the ‘Probst’ (a clerical [provost] overseer) "the sailor was accused of not knowing enough arithmetic, writing and of course his knowledge of biblical teaching was minimal." Well, what would he be able to teach the boys and girls for 16 Mark and 3 shilling a year, free shelter [in a clay workers hut with little heat], was his complaint to the chamberlain in Landkirchen and called the situation: "beastly fish", ‘Luderfische’ and "stinking problems", ‘Stinkendes Zeug’?" The sailor decided to leave and return to sea "catching shrimp". Ships wouldn’t hire him because he had a crippled leg.

The place in front of the "Johnsen’s house" used to be called ‘de Freeheit’ [low German] for "the freedom", it was right next to the "Rahlff’s granary" at the harbor called ‘opn Schill’- before "Neufahrt", "Witten Plate" this was the place that was free to "Witt", the land manager. - The "well" behind the farmer Juergen Rahlff’s garden was called the ‘Orthsot’ and a small piece of land near the ‘Kreuzweg’ "crossing" at "Neujellingsdorf- Westerbergen", called in low German: ‘an Kruetz’, at the cross. Here stood a holy figuring in the catholic days, but this is not documented anywhere.

The commercial Lemkenhafen, as already mentioned, could not ever existed without the salesman and shipper Rahlff, in the previous century the name was knows all over the harbors of northern countries, as well as in all the Baltic- and Finnish- countries, Denmark and Sweden.

Once a sailor from Fehmarn landed in Bergen, on one of Mr. Rahlff’s sailboats, there he got into a situation where he couldn’t pay his bill. The host of the inn asked, when he couldn’t pay, on what ship he was hired and where they came from. Then the sailor answered: "On the sailboat "Anna", which belongs to Rahlff from Lemkenhafen." That’s when the owner of the inn trusted the sailor to pay his bill the next day.

He knew exactly that Rahlff’s captains would not ever allow his men to owe a shilling. Whoever didn’t pay his debt would be severely punished by the captain personally, without excuse or without a concern as to how long he had been sailing with him. Also in this case, next day, the sailor was there to pay his bill, then the owner of the inn exclaimed: "I didn’t expect anything else!"

When the shippers returned from their voyage, they would report in the office, they were asked in the end: "And what else? Is everything in order and correct?" When the captain answered: "All is alright!" (Before that answer there wasn’t one glass of red wine served; but after the answer, that all was in order, Mr. Rahlff was satisfied and drank a glass of red wine with his captain and wished him): "Glad voyage!"

At all times did Juergen Rahlff and also Hans Joachim Ulrich Rahlff maintain complete honesty? The last one mentioned, when he was young and in the business, rode all the way to Bojendorf to pay a farmer two shilling which he didn’t receive when he was in the office.

The oldest and original business home of the family Juergen Rahlff stood at the place where now is the property "Neufahrt". Who moved into it in 1820/30 was surely surprised by the rich- and unusual furnishings of the different rooms, which were partly built with oak wood and with plates decorated, also expensive woodcarvings. Several rooms were decorated with fancy ceramic tile from Holland or Stockelsdorf near Lübeck, and enhanced with oil paintings of country scenery and other decorations. In the "Doens" (large hallway), the front parlor and also in the office stood round and edgy stoves, they were purchased from a company Buchwaldt in Stockelsdorf, which were here on Fehmarn gladly purchased by wealthy families. They were white or colored, 9 - 13 foot high, they had to be heated from the back side, in front they had decorated brass doors or the opening was made of porcelain, which were called ‘Röpen’. The precious cabinets, with oak wood finely decorated cabinets and consoles, were filled with expensive china from Stoeckelsdorf, Copenhagen and England, also stood on several fancy shelves, which had been imported by the forefathers of the shippers and captains of the different ships.

In the year of 1819 brought a shipper by the name of Rauert halve a load of fine porcelain and other precious items from Copenhagen, which was sold here on Fehmarn to the wealthy Fehmarn families.

In the year 1798 gave a shipper by the name of Beyer from Burg, several flour boxes, sets of china, and silverware which he had brought from Lübeck. In the hall stood a fancy clock, with the picture of an English king, which had been bought in England. This clock didn’t just show the hours but also the minutes, days of the week and also the month. On the wall of the large hall hung two oil paintings with a fancy sailboat, the other painting showed the Danish King Friedrich VI., who was very well liked in all his lands. On the richly decorated shelves with all the carvings stood silver water pitchers, - beakers and cans as well as plates of pewter, which had to be polished every week.

In a smaller room on the south side of the house hung for a long time an old oil painting on the wall, which showed the old land manager Peter Witte in his festive uniform and was dated 1796.

In the year 1884, somebody found, while digging in the garden, leftover posts and parts of a Middle Aged wall with a few burned carriers. Already in olden years there were findings made of this sort. Among others, in 1865 a decorated staircase was dug up.

An old legend tells of a secret underground path that once existed under housed that were connected with one another. In one of the houses lived once a ship builder, who owned several ships and several shippers from this village sailed these ships for him. So the wives were most of the time alone at home. Because the ship builder admired other ladies; some of these ladies were his "Elsches", Danish for lover. So the people in the village wouldn’t know about it when he visited them, using the underground path, which he had dug from his cellar. One of the shippers found out about it, when he once returned unexpectedly and surprised the shipbuilder and his wife. Then the shipper closed the wall up with him in it, he put in a lot of stones and dirt so he couldn’t get out into his own house but couldn’t get back into the shippers house either because he stood at the entrance and threatened to kill him. So the shipbuilder had to starve and suffocate in the hall. People say, that later the shipper found him dead, but never told anyone, so he closed the outlet completely and went back to sea.

Nothing else was told about the ship builder. - One day, the shipper didn’t return from his sea voyage. -The house servants of the ship builder kept looking for him and never found him. After many years, when they were doing construction work in the shippers house, they found the dead ship builder in the secret underground hall. Of course once in a while, people said, they heard a poltergeist making noises and when they talked about the starved ship builder being down there and making the spooky noise, because, he was sorely guilty of breaking the 6^th commandment therefore his soul can’t go to rest.

An old woman from the village knew of this ship builder’s agony in the legend. When the people were still fearful of this "spook", they called on her and she would bring her bible in, sit on it and burnt three bee-wax candles, - then she extinguished the flame one by one, spit three times on the ground. - After that, the people calmed down and naturally the noise under the houses would go away.

When they built a new granary nears the harbor ‘op de Schill’, in the middle of the previous century, decayed roofing with a door was dug up, but the find was never registered.

In 1864/65 several pots and pans were dug out in the garden of "Neufahrt", also some weapons out of the Middle Ages as well as a primitive lock was found. All these findings tell of an old settlement in this area, and a sign, that there once used to be a town located.

The Rahlff estate, after being dissolved in about 1915, has undergone many changes, it was a convalescent home, a camp for the national socialistic (Nazy-organization) labor camp ‘Arbeitsdienst’ in German, a school for pottery, children’s home etc. The little fisher harbor west of "Neufahrt" has no meaning anymore; it is diminishing and turning into sandy sediment. A few fisher still follow the profession. Otherwise the town that used to be booming with commerce has become a village of tranquility. Also the Rahlff family has moved away. In about 1880/90 they owned, north of the town, a prosperous brickyard. That place is still called the ‘TegelKoppel’, in low German.

In the brickyard, around 1886, worked a laborer by the name of "Kasimir Lubschek", he claimed he could do magic, and with it he entertained the people of Lemkenhafen in the evenings and on Sundays with all his ‘Hokus Pokus’, German for magic. One day the cash register in the mill had been emptied, - soon there were reports of money disappearing here and there. Then they suspected "Kasimir", the magician. A few haughty fishermen captured him on a Sunday evening, took him by his head of hair, and dunked him several times into the well. They assumed that in this manner the thief would admit his guilt. But he didn’t say one word. When they pulled him up, he was almost lifeless. Later it was discovered that he never did steal anything. He lived quite a while in Lütjenburg, a very sick man, the dunking into the well had caused him his health. The people that tortured him were very mildly punished.

In 1872 lived in Lemkenhafen a pearl-stitcher, she would stitch the pearls artistically onto headbands, cuffs and headbands, and these were at that time very fashionable on the island Fehmarn. This lady had lived with her aunt in Copenhagen, and enjoyed a good life at one time. She also had a lovely voice and specialized in singing a Danish song: ‘Den dejlige Blomst’ which means: "The pretty flower." She sang it often while working, and probably remembering better days. The people working with her, called her the "madam Blomet", they all knew that she had loved a naval officer who was fatally wounded in the war of 1848/50, she took care of him and sang that song often to him until one day he died in her arms. Her artwork was still found with many a family on the island Fehmarn, once in a while they would talk about her and named her artwork the "Blomet-Perlen". Some of her work can be seen in the museum on Fehmarn.

Another special artist in Lemkenhafen around 1870 was an elderly "Frau Liesche"; she lived ‘op de Freeheit’

She cut biblical scenes in "silhouette" in German called ‘Scheerenschnitt’. She had died the paper either brown or reddish and called one for instance "Jesus on the cross" - "The resurrection" - "Jesus and Pontius Pilate" and so on. Her daughter in law sold them while she went through the land, selling fish. In the "Heimatmuseum" museum are still two such hangings on display, they are often admired by visiting tourists.

Where art has found a quiet home, the admirers flock to admire it. Another artist living in Lemkenhafen has to be mentioned here, she retired here in 1840 from the Danish castle in Copenhagen, where she had worked as a cook, in this field she was still a master even in her old age. A specialist in baking fish. When important guests were expected at the "Rahlff" estate, "The old Ankeline" was called on and hired to cook her skillful dish called "Torksmus", Danish for cod fish moos. A dish that found favor from Hamburg all the way to Copenhagen. When Ankeline had prepared the dish in her own way, they all praised her with: "Aaaaah! What Ankeline cooks, goes into our soul!" She had to join the guests when the meal was over and join them in a toast, and they honored her with the title: "Madame".

From the Kings castle in Copenhagen came a precious ‘Schlittengeläut’, [German] for a set of sleigh-bells made out of brass, where a set of bells hung one by one in a loop. It came from the royal wagon park of the castle "Amalienborg" purchased by the Danish major "Friedrich Rahlff", in Billehave, born *1788 in Gammendorf/Fehmarn and given as a token to his brother

"Hans Rahlff" in "Neuhof" on Fehmarn. This set of sleigh bells is still owned by a farmer on the island Fehmarn, who purchased it in the year of 1915 in Lemkenhafen.

As an example of how a "Fehmarn" ‘Sippe’ German for genealogy, can spread out from a small island far beyond the borders, over the oceans into other continents and from continent to continent. I want to write down at the end of this report the genealogy of the farmer, ship builder and trader families "Rahlff" spreading out from Gammendorf/Fehmarn to Denmark and Lemkenhafen/Fehmarn. It is to be mentioned that the name Rahlff, also Raleff or Radeleff appeared on the island Fehmarn already in the 15^th century. When it was documented in a state archive in Copenhagen, Denmark, that on the 18^th of March in 1488 a marriage was announced by the chamberlain (a sworn-in official of the island "Fehmarn" and witnessed by the church provost: "Johann Kule" in Landkirchen/Fehmarn between: Hans Houweschildt and Hans Junghes (his oldest daughter). Among the witnesses "Hinrik Raleff from Gammendorf" was documented.

The direct following lineage of the Rahlffs in Lemkenhafen starts later, in the beginning of the 17^th century. With the:

1.) Olde Jörgen Rahlff in Gammendorf, birth and death not known.
1a.) His first wife Annecke birth not known, died in 1615 being struck by lightning.

2.) Jürgen Rahlff, property owner and chamberlain in Gammendorf/F. Born around 1610 there (acc. To Mannzahlregister) head of man registry.
2a.) Wife not registered. Etc. etc........>

The writing then continues with the genealogy of the Rahlff family of Lemkenhaufen. This information has been added to the database and can be requested.