Husembro

Husum (North Frisian: Hüsem), capital of the Kreis (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. [Birthplace of Jan Franz Van Husem and Home to families named Van Huss, Van Hoesen, and others].

The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey city by the sea". It is also the home of the annual international piano festival Raritäten der Klaviermusik (Rarities of Piano Music) founded in 1986. - variously used on multiple sites

Husum was first mentioned as Husembro in 1252

Abel, son of Valdemar (1218 – 29 June 1252), Duke of Schleswig, 1232 to 1252, and King of Denmark, 1250 until 1252. Died on the bridge at Husem (Husembro).

In 1250, Abel killed his brother Eric and was made king. In 1252, Abel was told that the Frisians who lived along the North Sea coastline refused to pay taxes. Raising an army, King Abel marched to the sea where he met an opposing force of Frisians organized by Sicko Sjaerdema, who gave allegiance to William of Holland.  King Abel's army was defeated at the bridge to Husem (Husembro) and it is reported that he was killed by a wheelwright named Henner.

In 1539, Husem again enters recorded history when it is mapped (inaccurately, as it is placed next to a large lake at the bottom of the Jutland Peninsula and towards the center) for the first time on the Carta Marina in the Frisian (Latin) form of Husem. Swedish map maker Olaus Magnus, initially published in 1539.

 

In 1634 a Great Flood struck the western coast of the Jutland Peninsula causing tens of thousands of deaths and making Husem a port city. This fact is revealed by mapmaker Georg Braun (1541 – 1622) who included a birds-eye view of Husem in his Civitates orbis terrarum (cities of the world).

Husem 1593, mapmaker Braun

Today the river that divides Husum is more of a tidal estuary. The port is removed a mile to the west. The city center is a tourist destination with restaurants lining the river bank watching the tide come and go.

The old bridge around which Husem grew is still there. One can sit and have a glass of wine or beer and think about the battle that took place on this old bridge more than 800 years ago.

How Husum got its name

On the Jutland Peninsula on the coast of the North Sea, once part of Nordfriesland, traditionally North Frisia, once part of Schleswig-Holstein, now the city of Husum (North Frisian: Hüsem) is German, the capital of the Kreis District.

How Husum got its name

Bestimmt!

I am speaking with a native of Holland. I tell him my wife's name is Van Huss. He says, sounds German. No, I say, she is Dutch from the German city of Husum, once part of North Frisia. He4 explains that there are several cities in Holland with variations on the word "hus".

And this is how it came to be.

Once upon a time, Holland was farmland and farmers, who got together to talk, spoke of the isolated settlements with a few houses where the cattle and wheat was brought to sell. These "houses" became the market. In time other houses were built and the tiny settlements became larger, but the farmers still refereed to the place as "hus".

Bestimmt!

We both agree that is a logical explanation of how Husum got its name, but there is more.

Husum

Before the name Husum was written down, someone built a house next to a bridge, a few miles inland from the Wadden Sea, where dry land meets the tidal flats and salt marshes. It is good land. Farmers can raise wheat and cattle, along the coast, there are countless geese and shore birds, and access to the sea and the fish that swim in the sea.

In good weather it is a good life. Theodor Storm, the 19th century author from Husum, gave the area this description:

By the grey shore and the grey sea where the fog lies heavy all year long, where the swamping seas come.

Our legendary figure thought he and his family would be safe from the storms, but he was wrong, and it must have happened many times, the storm and the sea surging over the land and then retreating back to sea.

This house was built well. It withstood the storms.

House, hus, huis, haus at Husembro

House, hus, huis, haus at Husembro

The foundation was made of stone to prevent settling and keep out the rats, but because stone was scarce, the main part of the house was built of logs or lumber milled from the trees with a thatched roof to keep out the rain during the long, chilly, windy, and mostly cloudy winters. As is still the custom in a few such houses, the barn were the precious cattle were kept was attached to the house, so as to protect the cattle but also to keep the house warm.

Along the coastline, farmers raised crops and cattle and geese. The coastline was dotted with small fishing villages that fished the North Sea for cod and other fish. And when there was a surplus of these items, the farmers and villagers took their crops and cattle and geese and fish south to the larger cities like Amsterdam where they could be traded for money and necessaries.

Our legendary house stood for many years. Locals would have referred to it as the house by the bridge. And when they spoke in their native languages, Danish, Dutch, German and Frisian, they would have said Hus, Huis, Haus, and Hus. The pastor at the church who wrote in Latin would have changed its spelling to Husem or Husum.

King Abel comes to Husembro

Let us move on now and speak of the first time that history records the name of Husum.

In 1252, it is recorded that King Abel of Denmark lead an army to the coast of the Wadden Sea to impose taxes on the stubborn and independent Frisians who farmed and fished and lived there. Near the bridge by an ancient house, an arrow struck the unlucky king and he died. His death might have been God’s revenge for it is hinted at in the historical records that Abel murdered his brother King Erik Ploughpenny to obtain the throne. History records the place as “husembro” (the house by the bridge).

Now, return again to the history books where it is written that in 1362 a disastrous storm tide, know thereafter as the "Grote Mandrenke," (Great Man Drowning) surged along the coastline, flooded Husum, and carved out an inland harbor. This event put Husum on the map. A seaport developed, businesses came, and houses grew up around the bridge and the house that once stood alone.

Norstrand and Husem

The maps that came in time named this little village and did so in the Latinized spelling, Husem or Husum, which is what it is called today.