Nordstrand, Germany
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the peninsula and municipality in Germany. To read about the borough in Oslo, Norway, see Nordstrand, NorwayNordstrand, NorwayNordstrand is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway.The borough is located in the southern part of the city and is the second most populated district of Oslo with over 40,000 inhabitants...
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Nordstrand (North Frisian
North Frisian language
North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages.-Classification:...
Noordströön) is a peninsula and former island in North Frisia
North Frisia
North Frisia or Northern Friesland is the northernmost portion of Frisia, located primarily in Germany between the rivers Eider and Wiedau/Vidå. It includes a number of islands, e.g., Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, Nordstrand, and Heligoland.-History:...
on 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 of 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 part of the Nordfriesland
Nordfriesland
Nordfriesland, English "Northern Friesland" or "North Frisia", is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It includes almost all of traditional North Frisia along with adjacent areas to the east and south and is bounded by the districts of Schleswig-Flensburg and Dithmarschen, the North Sea and...
district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
. Its area is 50 km², and its population is 2,300. Nordstrand has two municipalities, Nordstrand and smaller Elisabeth-Sophien-Koog
Elisabeth-Sophien-Koog
Elisabeth-Sophien-Koog is a municipality in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It occupies a small part in the northwest of Nordstrand peninsula....
, which are part of the Amt Nordsee-Treene
Nordsee-Treene
Nordsee-Treene is an Amt in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Its seat is in Mildstedt. It was formed on 1 January 2008 from the former Ämter Friedrichstadt , Hattstedt, Nordstrand and Treene.The Amt Nordsee-Treene consists of the following municipalities:...
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In medieval times Nordstrand was a part of the larger island of Strand
Strand (island)
Strand was an island on the west coast of Nordfriesland in modern Germany. It was formed by a stormflood in 1362 where many villages and towns, Rungholt among them, were lost and Südfall island was as well separated from the mainland. Strand island was later split by the Burchardi flood of 1634...
which was torn into pieces in a disastrous storm tide
Storm tide
A storm tide is a tide with a high flood period caused by a storm. Storm tides can be a severe danger to the coast and the people living along the coast. The water level can rise to more than 5 meters above the normal tide....
in 1634
Burchardi flood
The Burchardi Flood was a storm tide that struck the North Sea coast of North Frisia and Dithmarschen on the night between 11 and 12 October 1634. Overrunning dikes, it shattered the coastline and caused thousands of deaths and catastrophic material damage...
. Other remnants of Strand are Pellworm
Pellworm
Pellworm is one of the North Frisian Islands on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Its area is 37 km², and its population is roughly 1,200....
and the Hallig
Hallig
The Halligen are ten small German islands without protective dikes in the North Frisian Islands on Schleswig-Holstein's Wadden Sea-North Sea coast in the district of Nordfriesland....
en islets.
Nordstrand is accessible by road over a causeway
Causeway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
which connects to the mainland and was built in 1936. In 1987, the polder
Polder
A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices...
Beltringharder Koog was completed, turning the former island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
into a peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
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Nordstrand is the origin of a locally famous alcoholic beverage, the Pharisäer ("Pharisee"), which the islanders developed in 1872 to be able to drink alcohol in the presence of local pastor Georg Bleyer, who preached abstinence. It is made from strong hot coffee, sugar, dark rum (4 cl of 54 %vol) and whipped cream
Whipped cream
Whipped cream is cream that has been beaten by a mixer, whisk, or fork until it is light and fluffy. Whipped cream is often sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla, in which case it may be called Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly ....
(to prevent the alcohol from evaporating, so that it could not be smelled). The pastor got the only cup without rum, but one day the cups got mixed up. When he discovered the deceit he exclaimed "Ihr Pharisäer!" ("You Pharisees!", connoting: "hypocrites"). Hence the name.
A curious issue is the name of a small village: It is called England.
The original Nordstrand island (before the flood of 1634) is thought to be the ancestral homeland for the North American surname "van Nostrand" (including variants: vanNostrand, vanNordstrandt, vanOstrand). Two brothers emigrated from here to what is present day New York, USA in 1637 and 1638 after the flood.
One of the three granite panels of the Canadian van Nostrand monument, located in York Mill's Cemetery, Toronto (St. Johns, York Mills, Anglican Church, 19 Don Ridge Dr., North York, Toronto, Ontario) points to Nordstrand Island.
External links
- Dutch hydraulic engineer Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater
- Character and development of the cultural landscape of Nordstrand
- Dutch history of Nordstrand In search of the Dutch family Indervelde, founders of the modern island of Nordstrand.
Pieter Karstense van Nortstrant was born abt 1605 on the island of Norstrand. Coupled with the name of his father, Carsten or Kersten, and the fact that his children were baptized in the Lutheran Church in Amsterdam, it would seem that a German, Frisian or Danish origin is probable. It is uncertain when Pieter Carstensen came to Amsterdam, possibly as a child with his father, though no record of the latter has been found there.
The sons of Pieter Pietersen Ostrander, (son of Pieter Karstense van Nortstrant), were called Van Norstrande or Van Nostrande, while Van Ostrande was used in other baptisms and eventually adopted the surname Oostrander and then the spelling as it is today Ostrander.