Bad Zwischenahn is a village and a municipality in the low-lying Ammerland

Ammerland

Ammerland is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the city of Oldenburg and the districts of Oldenburg, Cloppenburg, Leer, Friesland and Wesermarsch.- History :...

 district, in Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated on the lake Zwischenahner Meer

Zwischenahner Meer

Zwischenahner Meer is a lake in Ammerland, Lower Saxony, Germany. At an elevation of ca. 5 m, its surface area is 5.5 km².- External links :...

, approx. 15 km northwest of Oldenburg

Oldenburg

Oldenburg is an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 160,279 which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig...

, and about 70 km south of the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 coast.

History

During World War II it was the home base of the largest Luftwaffe airbase in northern Germany, with Jagdgeschwader 400

Jagdgeschwader 400

Jagdgeschwader 400 was a Luftwaffe fighter-wing of World War II. JG 400 was formed on 1 February 1944 in Brandis with Stab only for the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket fighter, as the only military aviation unit of any size in history, to actively use rocket-powered combat aircraft in wartime.Major...

 operating the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet rocket fighter from the base, which was heavily bombed. Following the War, the airbase was converted to a golf course.

Economy

The main economic activities of Bad Zwischenahn were and are based on tree nurseries, the food industry (sausage and ham production), and resort community services for the well to do urban population of Oldenburg and Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

. The lake is used for boating, bathing and recreation, with some eel fishing still undertaken.

One of the premier sites for tourists is a windmill originally built in 1811 in Westerstede

Westerstede

Westerstede is the capital of the Ammerland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 25 km northwest of Oldenburg.-External links:*...

. It is part of a historical museum farm consisting of 14 houses and auxiliary buildings that were moved to their today's location from 1909 to 2004. One of the buildings is called the Spieker and shelters a restaurant of the same name, integrating into the centuries-old architecture.

Local traditions

Local smoked eels are a delicacy, particularly when served with a locally produced schnapps called Ammerländer Löffeltrunk. There is a specific local tradition (also called Ammerländer Löffeltrunk) to drink it from a tin spoon along with a special drinking cheer, each line alternatly spoken by the host and the guests:

Original (Low German Low German Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands... )	German German language German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union.... translation	English translation
Ik seh Di!	Ich sehe Dich!	I see you!
Dat freit mi!	Das freut mich!	That makes me glad!
Ik sup Di to!	Ich trinke Dir zu!	I drink to you!
Dat do!	Tu das!	Do that!
Prost!	Prost!	Cheers!
Ik heb Di tosopen!	Ich habe Dir zugetrunken!	I've drunk to you!
Hest den Rechten dropen!	Du hast den Richtigen getroffen!	You met the right one!
So hebt wi dat immer doh'n!	So haben wir das immer getan!	That's how we always did!
So schall dat ok wieter goh'n!	So soll das auch weiter gehen!	That's how it shall go on!

Beside drinking, the Ammerländer Löffeltrunk is also used to clean one's hands after eating the smoked eel.

As in the rest of Ammerland, local parks witness the tradition of placing into water-filled ditches of logs cut on the birth of a baby daughter. The logs are allowed to cure under water, and are then hauled out and used to make the furniture for the young woman when she marries.