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.

Who's who in Husum

Who’s Who in Husum: 

Husum, formerly part of Friesland, homeland of the Frisians and a mixture of Angles and Saxons and Dutch, later the Duchy of Schleswig, sometimes Danish and this and that, and now a seaport in northern Germany.

Husum, Google earth, North Sea

Abel, Duke of Schleswig and King of Denmark

He was the son of Valdemar II and brother to Eric IV. In 1250, Eric was murdered while a guest at Duke Abel's residence at Schleswig. Abel took his Eric’s throne after swearing an oath he had nothing to do with the death.

Abel ruled for a year and a half. Hearing that the peasants in Frisia, led by Sicko Sjaerdema, refused to pay the tax levy, he led a punitive expedition and was killed by a wheelwright named Henner on Husum Bridge.

People said, "Abel af navn, Kain af gavn" Abel by name, Cain by claim.

Jan Franz Van Husum

Jan was born in 1608. We may assume that for most of his life, he simply went by the name of Jan, or if further clarification was necessary, Jan, son of Franz. Jancalled himself as a seafaring man. We do not know for certain what fish he caught, but we can guess. As early as 1610, there  were reports of whales off the coast of Spitsbergen. Russians, Basque, French, English, and Dutch ships all vied for the trade. English and Dutch ships were often made up of North Frisians, who were known for their skills at sea.

The whale they hunted for was the bowhead whale, one that yielded large quantities of oil and baleen.

But this is idle thought, what we do know is this.

In 1634, a devastating flood, known as the second Grote Mandränke struck the Frisian coast, destroying the island of Nordstrand and much of Husum. After the flood, Jan would depart for Amsterdam. We know that he married his wife Volkjie there. She too was caught up in the devastaition of the flood, as she lived on the island of Nordstrand with her parents and sister.

Once married, Jan and Volkjie sailed for America.

Theodor Storm

 
Theodor Storm, a 19th century writer who called Husum, “the grey town by the sea.”

Die Stadt (1851)

Am grauen Strand, am grauen Meer Und seitab liegt die Stadt; Der Nebel drückt die Dächer schwer, Und durch die Stille braust das Meer, Eintönig um die Stadt.

On the grey sand, on the grey sea, Besides which lies the city, Press the mists heavy on the roofs, And in the stillness the sea roars, With one sound around tow.

Husum

It is from the town of Husum that the family names Van Huss, Vanhooser, Van Hoesen come.

Jan Franz Van Husum is the first known Van Huss to take the name. He was born in 1608, survived a great flood in 1634, married Volkje Jurriaens von Nordstrand in 1639, and set sail for America the same year. The couple would settle at Fort Orange, on the Hudson River, part of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands.

Husum, from Wikipedia

Today, Husum (North Frisian: Hüsem) is a port city, located in Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Located along the North Frisian coast, the town, through the centuries has belonged to different nations and principalities, including Denmark, Germany, Schleswig, and Schleswig-Holstein. The peninsula on which Husum sits is called Jutland. In 1608, the city was part of the Duchy of Holstein.

Detail of Blaeu's map of the Duchy of Holstein, 1645 (Wikipedia)

Origin of the name "Husum"

The name of the town Husum is first mentioned in history in 1252, for it was at Husumbro (Husum bro, literally, the "bridge between houses") that King Abel of Denmark met his death on the bridge in Husum trying to subdue a revolt by Frisian peasants who refused to pay their taxes. While the geography of the region has changed over the centuries, the bridge would likely have been over the Husumer Au, an inlet which separates the two halves of Husum.

The name "Husum" itself is made up of "Hus" and "um". Hus means "house," (German and Danish; in Dutch "huis", but pronounced the same). The most likely explanation for the addition of "um" is that it is a Latin ending denoting a singular grammatical number. The prefix "van" means "from." Thus, we have "Jan Franz from the city of Husum".

The larger region around the city of Husum is known as Eiderstedt, and the settlement of Husum ended the trade route along the western coast of the Jutland peninsula where cattle was driven south to Dutch and German markets. The name Eiderstedt, "city of the eider duck" suggests that ducks and geese were also raised in the area for southern markets.

Husum Seaport

Detail of Carta Marina, Husum highlighted

Ortelius map of 1572, Husum highlighted

[Both maps from Wikipedia. Carta Marina, created by Olaus Magnus, 16th century, is the earliest map of Denmark and the Jutland peninsula. Abraham Ortelius, who is Flemish, spells the name of the town "Huysen," Johannes Janssonius, a Dutch cartographer uses a similar spelling. Willem Blaeu, another Dutch cartographer, spells the city "Hussum".]

The two maps above reveal that Husum was not always a seaport. That it became one is an accident of nature. In 1362, a flood of biblical proportions, called the Big Man-Drowning (Burchardi Flood or Grote Mandrenke) devastated the area and brought the sea closer to the town of Husum. It also created the island of Nordstrand where Jan's wife Volkje hailed from. Another flood in the year 1634 would again sweep over Husum and Nordstrand affecting the lives of both Jan and Volkje.

Van Hoesen

Van Hoesen, "from the city of Hoesen" is another variation in the spelling of the family name. It is but a slight change in the spelling of "Huysen" found in Ortelius' map. Once in New Netherlands, Jan Franz Van Husum changed the spelling of his name to Van Hoesen. Interestingly, his eldest son was baptized in 1640 in the Dutch Reformed Church as "Van Huysen," using Ortelius' spelling. Early Records of the City and County of Albany: Deeds. 1678-1704.

Husum - Die Stadt

Husum

The best descriptions of Husum and North Friesland can be found in the writings of Theodor Sturm, 1817 - 1888. Sturm was a native of Husum and his many stories, poems, and novellas take place in North Friesland. He writes of the greyness of the weather, the austere beauty of its expansive mudflats, barren pastures, and treeless plains, and finally the menacing sea which is always a threat to existence.

The World of Theodor Storm is an excellent resource for his life and works, as well as a good description of Husum and the North Friesland coast. Die Stadt by Storm describes his feelings to the town of Husum where he grew up.

Die Stadt

Am grauen Strand, am grauen Meer
Und seitab liegt die Stadt;
Der Nebel drückt die Dächer schwer,
Und durch die Stille braust das Meer
Eintönig um die Stadt.

By the grey Shore, on the grey Sea
At the seaside lies the Town;
The Fog presses upon the roofs heavily,
And through the quiet roars the Sea
Its steady beat upon the Town.

Es rauscht kein Wald, es schlägt im Mai
Kein Vogel ohn Unterlaß;
Die Wandergans mit hartem Schrei
Nur fliegt in Herbstesnacht vorbei,
Am Strande weht das Gras.

No forest stirs, in May
Each bird chatters incessantly
The wandering goose with its harsh Cry
Flies off only in the autumn night,
While on Shore the blades of grass wave goodby.

Doch hängt mein ganzes Herz an dir,
Du graue Stadt am Meer;
Der Jugend Zauber für und für
Ruht lächelnd doch auf dir, auf dir,
Du graue Stadt am Meer.

On that and you all my heart doth lie,
The grey Town on the Sea;
Of the Magic of Youth by and by
Rests smiling yet, on you, on you,
The grey Town by the Sea.

My translation of Theodor Storm's The Town.