St. Katharinen Church in Lensahn, Ostholstein. August 2009

This church was documented for the first time in the year 1249, almost 90 years after the defeat of the slawic Wagrians by the german Holsteinians, the oldest subtribe of the Saxonians. The Wagrians came to Ostholstein in the Early Middle Ages, when old germanic tribes had left this region almost completely during the Migration period. The Wagrians have been a subtribe of the Abotrites which settled with some other subtribes in Lauenburg and Mecklenburg . The little city Oldenburg, close to Lensahn, (in Slawic "Starigard") has been their capitol and for a while the capitol of the whole tribe. During the following centuries the Saxons, Danes and Wagrians fought fierce wars against each other in which for example Hamburg and Lübeck were destroyed by the Wagrians during weak periods of the central power in Germany. In the 12th century earl Adolf II. von Schauenburg and Heinrich der Löwe, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, decided to end these wars by conquering the whole region and build up new settlements and cities. These fights ended in the sixties of the 12th century and with the end of the Wagrian Kingdom and independence. The name "Lensahn" means "Place in the Solitude". Rests of the Wagrians retreated from their old villages and the little city of Oldenburg to this region where big forests and moors anticipated a settlement before. These new settlers built up the village "Klein Lensahn", but dutch, holsteinian and westphalian settlers followed and founded the village "Groß Lensahn" which was the origin of the Lensahn of our times. "Klein Lensahn" still exists with the name "Altdorf", a single farm close to the village. The slawic population was partly killed in the bitter fights and the rest was assimilated in the next 200 years. So today only the names of many villages and cities remind us of these former population.

Beautiful church and super-commentary on it.Many greetings................Patrik.

Hallo Patrik,

thanks a lot for your nice comment! I'm happy you like it. :-) By the way: I was baptized in that church and confirmed. I'm from that little village originally. :-)

Cheers, Mathias

very good shot and very good details

I like it

Majid

Salam Majid,

thanks a lot for your nice comment! :-)

Kind regards from Munich, Mathias

Excellent Image,superb composition

Regards

Thank you very much Zeev! I'm really happy you like it!

Best wishes to you in Israel (?), Mathias