The Harlingerland is a strip of land on the North Sea coast of East Frisia. While today the whole of the district of Wittmund is usually described as Harlingerland, historically it specifically refers to the northern part of the present district, which formed the old Frisian state of this name, in particular, the regions around Esens and Wittmund. The region around Friedeburg still belonged at that time to the Frisian state of Östringen.
The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than 970 kilometres (600 mi) long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, with an area of 570,000 square kilometres (220,000 sq mi).
East Frisia or Eastern Friesland is a coastal region in the northwest of the German federal state of Lower Saxony. It is the middle section of Frisia between West Frisia in the Netherlands and North Frisia in Schleswig-Holstein.
Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea in what today is mostly a large part of the Netherlands, including modern Friesland and smaller parts of northern Germany. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people that speaks Frisian languages, which together with English and Scots form the Anglo-Frisian language group.
The local dialect for many folk in the Harlingerland is East Frisian Low Saxon (or East Frisian platt) but with a Harlinger variation somewhat different from the rest of East Frisia. The old Frisian language continued to be spoken in the Harlingerland much longer than in most other East Frisian regions. Wittmund produces the local paper of the Harlingerland, the Anzeiger für Harlingerland.
East Frisian Low German or East Frisian Low Saxon is one of the Northern Low Saxon dialects, a West Low German dialect spoken in the East Frisian peninsula of northwestern Lower Saxony. It is used quite frequently in everyday speech there. About half of the East Frisian population in the coastal region uses Plattdüütsk. A number of individuals, despite not being active speakers of Low Saxon, are able to understand it to some extent. However, both active and passive language skills are in a state of decrease.
Saterland Frisian, also known as Sater Frisian or Saterlandic (Seeltersk), is the last living dialect of the East Frisian language. It is closely related to the other Frisian languages: North Frisian, spoken in Germany as well, and West Frisian, which is spoken in a part of the Netherlands.
The Harlingerland is named for the Harlebucht, or Harle Bay, which has by now been almost completely filled in by farmland, through a series of dike-building projects spanning the last several centuries, commencing in 1545 and extending into the 20th century. The Harlebucht used to extend inland to the east of Werdum, north of Wittmund and Jever. Harlesiel, Harlingersiel, and Neuharlingersiel all take their name from the same source.
The Harlebucht or Harle Bay was originally a bay approximately 15 kilometers wide that reached about 10 kilometers inland north of Wittmund in today’s East Frisia.
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The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group indigenous to the coastal parts of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia. The Frisian languages are still spoken by more than 500,000 people; West Frisian is officially recognised in the Netherlands, and North Frisian and Saterland Frisian are recognised as regional languages in Germany.
Aurich is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the North Sea, the districts of Wittmund and Leer, and the city of Emden.
Wittmund is a Landkreis (district) in the northwestern part of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in East Frisia, on the North Sea coast. Neighboring districts are Friesland, Leer and Aurich.
Friesland is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Wesermarsch, Ammerland, Leer and Wittmund, and by the North Sea. The city of Wilhelmshaven is enclosed by—but not part of—the district.
Leer is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the city of Emden, the districts of Aurich, Wittmund, Friesland, Ammerland, Cloppenburg and Emsland, and by the Netherlands.
Wittmund is a town and capital of the district of Wittmund, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Balthasar Oomkens von Esens was an East Frisian nobleman who died during the siege of his castle in Esens by the Bremen army. He was described by his partisans as the last true Frisian freedom fighter, although some decried his seemingly insatiable appetite for violence.
Hero Oomkens von Esens was a Frisian nobleman, the Earl of Harlingerland. He inherited the title upon the death of his father, Sibet Attena von Esens, in 1473.
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.
The County of East-Frisia was a county in the region of East Frisia in the northwest of the present-day German state of Lower Saxony.
Ulrich I of East Frisia, first count of East Frisia, was a son of the chieftain Enno Edzardisna of Norden and Greetsiel, and Gela of Manslagt.
A Gulf house, also called a Gulf farmhouse (Gulfhof) or East Frisian house (Ostfriesenhaus), is a type of farmhouse that emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries in North Germany. It is timber-framed and built using post-and-beam construction. Initially Gulf houses appeared in the marshes, but later spread to the Frisian geest. They were distributed across the North Sea coastal regions from West Flanders through the Netherlands, East Frisia and Oldenburg as far as Schleswig-Holstein. This spread was interrupted by the Elbe-Weser Triangle which developed a type of Low German house instead, better known as the Low Saxon house.
The Brokmerland is a landscape and an historic territory, located in western East Frisia, which covers the area in and around the present-day communities of Brookmerland and Südbrookmerland. The Brokmerland borders in the east on the Harlingerland and in the north on the Norderland. The historic Brokmerland is usually written with only one "o". Occasionally one also finds the spelling "Broekmerland", while today's communities have chosen to spell the name with a double "o".
The history of East Frisia developed rather independently from the rest of Germany because the region was relatively isolated for centuries by large stretches of bog to the south, while at the same time its people were oriented towards the sea. Thus in East Frisia in the Middle Ages there was little feudalism, instead a system of fellowship under the so-called Friesian Freedom emerged. It was not until 1464, that the House of Cirksena was enfeoffed with the Imperial County of East Frisia. Nevertheless absolutism had been, and continued to be, unknown in East Frisia. In the two centuries after about 1500, the influence of the Netherlands is discernable - politically, economically and culturally. In 1744, the county lost its independence within the Holy Roman Empire and became part of Prussia. Following the Vienna Congress of 1815, it was transferred to the Kingdom of Hanover, in 1866 it went back to Prussia and, from 1946, it has been part of the German state of Lower Saxony.
North Frisians are the inhabitants of the district of Nordfriesland in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Used in a narrower sense, the term also refers to an ethnic sub-group of the Frisians from the region of North Frisia, which lies primarily on the German North Sea coast, and on the island of Heligoland.
The East Frisian Peninsula refers to the North Sea coastal region of Germany between the bays of Dollart and Jade. It is distinct from East Frisia (Ostfriesland) which is a historic and cultural region that forms the western and central sections of the peninsula.
The Treaty of Berum was a treaty concluded on 28 January 1600 at Berum Castle between the Count Enno III of East Frisia and the County of Rietberg, which regulated the sale of the Harlingerland to East Frisia.
The Saxon feud was a confrontation between the East Frisian Count Edzard I and George, Duke of Saxony in the years 1514-1517. The war took place predominantly on East Frisian soil and destroyed large parts of the region.
