Sankt Peter-Ording (North Frisian St. Peter-Urdem) is a municipality in the district of North Friesland in Schleswig-Holstein. It is the only German seaside resort to have its own sulfur spring and is therefore known as the “North Sea Health and Sulfur Bath”. According to the number of overnight stays, Sankt Peter-Ording is the leading seaside resort in Schleswig-Holstein.
Geographical location
Sankt Peter-Ording is located in the
southwest of the Eiderstedt peninsula in Schleswig-Holstein. Part of the
district is located in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park.
congregational structure
The municipality of Sankt Peter-Ording
has four districts - Böhl, Bad, Dorf (south) and Ording. In the official
list of places to live in Schleswig-Holstein 1987, Wittendün is also
mentioned as a district and Brösum as a village. It is a street village
on the western edge of the Tümlau Bay.
The extensive beach is characteristic of Sankt Peter-Ording. It
extends to a length of up to twelve kilometers and (at low tide) to a
width of up to two kilometers in the west of the town. Its size is
historically due to two sandbanks landing near the coast, the Hitz- and
Hochsichtsand, on the mainland. These were among the so-called outer
sands of the North Frisian Wadden Sea that still exist today. This is
followed by a belt of dunes in front of the districts of Bad and Ording.
Another belt of dunes stretches inland from the district of Böhl to the
area between Bad and Ording. From 1826 it was subsequently forested over
large stretches to slow down the sand drift. It is also home to the
parish's highest natural elevation, Maleens Knoll, at 16.6 meters above
sea level.
A salt marsh landscape has developed in front of the
dike from the southern end of the town to behind the pier. Since it is
neither grazed nor provided with groups, it has a special ecological
importance. In contrast to other salt marshes on the North Sea coast,
there are numerous small pools and puddles here. In the part closer to
land, they are only flooded by salt water occasionally and not even
every year, so that amphibians such as common frogs, moor frogs and
common toads have settled here - today unusually close to the North Sea
- and natterjack toads breed regularly.
The tidal range is up to
three meters locally.
Landward, the natural surface is
characterized by west-east former beach ridges and marshland in between.
As is typical for coastal regions, Sankt Peter-Ording also has a
maritime climate with mild winters and cool summers. Wind speeds of 7 to
10 are not uncommon.
The island's climate, particularly the dune
and beach air, that of the salt marsh and that of the forest, contains
valuable aerosols, including sodium chloride and iodine. In addition,
the low allergen content ensures clean air.
These special
properties and the climatic interactions are used for thalassotherapy.
A stay in Sankt Peter-Ording should strengthen the metabolism and
the cardiovascular system and stimulate the body's own cortisone
production.
Sankt Peter-Ording consists of several formerly separate districts.
The name of the village of St. Peter first comes from a document from
1373. The place was previously called Ulstrup. The name of St. Peter's
Church was later used as a place name because Ulstrup had lost a lot of
land due to silting. It is documented that the Frisians and Vikings
already settled in this area. Süderhöft/Böhl gave up its independence
after the storm surge of 1553 and was merged with Sankt Peter. The
current district of Ording is mentioned as "Urden" in 1445 in a polemic.
Ording and Sankt Peter united ecclesiastically as early as 1863,
while the municipal amalgamation to Sankt Peter-Ording only took place
on January 1, 1967. On April 26, 1970, the community became part of the
new district of North Friesland. Until then, it had belonged to what was
then the Eiderstedt district.
Due to the constant sand flight,
only a few professional fishing could be established in Sankt
Peter-Ording, since no harbor could be created due to the drifts. Even
agriculture, from which the population mainly lived before the tourism
boom, often did not produce enough, as the lands often silted up, became
salty due to flooding or were completely lost in storm surges. Ording
lost 400 demats, about 200 hectares.
Because of these conditions,
the number of poor in the population was large. So-called Hitzlöper
looked for amber on the sandbanks and in the tidal creeks, stocked up on
crabs, mussels and flatfish, and collected flotsam. Valuable items were
often embezzled from the beach bailiff because of the required taxes.
Stranded ships also fell victim to beachcombing.
In particular,
the shifting dunes used to be a problem for the residents. The people of
Ording had to give up their church twice, after decades of regularly
digging out their way to church services. The planting of the dunes
began in 1826 on the instructions of the Danish king, who ruled over the
Duchy of Schleswig until 1864. The river Eider formed the border at that
time. After the Austro-Prussian War from 1867, the districts of Sankt
Peter and Ording belonged to the Prussian province of
Schleswig-Holstein.
In 1872 the first paying overnight guests
were registered in Ording. The founding date of today's seaside resort
is the year 1877, when the first hotel was built in the dunes of today's
Bad district. In 1913 the first sanatorium was built. Half a century
later, more rehabilitation facilities were built after a strong iodine
brine source was found in 1953 and state recognition as a North Sea spa
and sulfur bath was granted in 1958.
The first of the
characteristic stilt houses on the beach was built in 1911 and was
called "Giftbude" because there was wat gift ("something there"). Among
connoisseurs, this meant in particular cognac. The transport connections
were also gradually improved. In 1926 the first pier was built between
the district of Bad and the offshore sandbank; In 1932 it was connected
to the railway line to Husum. A better road connection was made possible
in 1973 by the construction of the Eider barrage.
St.
Peter-Ording was the location of several film and television
productions, including Jan Delay - Somehow, somewhere, someday, Scooter
- One (Always Hardcore), Against the Wind, The Hunt for the Amber Room
and Now or Never. In 2011, outdoor shots for the film Rubbeldiekatz
(directed by Detlev Buck) were shot in the district of Bad an der
Seebrücke; around 200 extras were used.