Angeln (Danish: Angel) is a peninsula on the Baltic coast of Jutland, in the Bay of Kiel. It forms part of Southern Schleswig, the northernmost region of Germany. The peninsula is bounded on the north by the Flensburg Firth, which separates it from Sundeved and the island of Als in Denmark, and on the south by the Schlei, which separates it from Schwansen. The landscape is hilly, dotted with numerous lakes. The largest towns are Flensburg, Schleswig and Kappeln.
Angeln is notable for being the putative home of the Angles, a Germanic tribe that migrated to Great Britain during the Age of Migrations and founded the kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia. The Angles would ultimately give their name to England.
Glücksburg Castle in Glücksburg and Gottorf Castle in Schleswig were the original seats of two historically important dynasties, the House of Glücksburg and the House of Holstein-Gottorp.
The place-name is first attested in Widsith, an Old English poem dating to the 6th or 7th century. It has been linked to the Germanic roots *angulaz ("hook") and *angw- ("narrow"), and may have originated as a name for the Schlei. It is unclear whether the ancient Angeln corresponded to the region now denoted by the name or whether it was of greater extent.[1]
Angeln is one of four peninsulas lining the Baltic coast of Schleswig-Holstein, along with Schwansen, Danish Wahld and Wagrien. As part of the Schleswig-Holstein Morainic Uplands (Ger. Schleswig-Holsteinisches Moränenhügelland), formed during the Weichselian glaciation, these peninsulas are hilly and dotted with several glacial lakes.
The Angeln lakes are subdivided into the North Angeln Lake Group (Ger. Nordangeliter Seengruppe) and the South Angeln Lake Group (Südangeliter Seengruppe). The River Treene, with its main headstreams, Bondenau and Kielstau, rises in Angeln before flowing westwards to join the Eider, the historic border between the Danish and German realms.
The northernmost part of Angeln is the peninsula, which projects into the Flensburg Firth. The western part of the peninsula is known as ("light Angeln") because of its relatively light and sandy soil. This region represents a transition zone between the Angeln Uplands to the east and the Schleswig Geest to the west. The Schleswig Geest in turn merges into the tidal marshes of North Frisia.
Apart from Flensburg, which is an independent town, the Angeln peninsula belongs to the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, Germany's northeasternmost district. This comparatively rural district had approximately 200,025 inhabitants in 2018.
The largest North Angeln lakes are:
The largest South Angeln lakes are:
The chain of hills running across Angeln between Husby and Kappeln constitutes the drainage divide between the Baltic and North Seas. East of it, small streams mostly called Auen flow towards the Baltic. West of it, most streams flow towards the Treene and later the Eider and hence into the North Sea.
The Treene is the longest tributary of the Eider, and its two headstreams and rise in and flow through Angeln. The sources of the Bondenau are in Mohrkirch and in Sörup-Sörupholz. At Mittelangeln-Bondebrück, the joins the Bondenau. The Kielstau rises in Sörup-Schwensby, passes through the Winderatter See, and flows into the Bondenau at Großsolt, just before the Bondenau enters the Treßsee. Upon leaving the lake, the river takes on the name Treene, and leaves Angeln to the west. It enters the Eider at Friedrichstadt, which in turn enters its extensive estuary, the, at Tönning.
The largest river system that flows entirely in Angeln from its sources to its mouth is the system of the Füsinger Au. This river is called Loiter Au in its upper course, and is formed by the confluence of the Boholzer Au (which is called in its upper course), and the (which is also called Mühlenau, and whose longest tributary is the Flaruper Au). The Füsinger Au flows into the Schlei at Winningmay (municipality of Schaalby), east of Schleswig.
There are 10 officially designated nature reserves (Naturschutzgebiete) in Angeln:
There is also one nature park, . The nature reserve lies just southwest of Angeln. It stretches along the Danevirke and around the Viking settlement of Hedeby, which constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Angeln is served by the Neumünster–Flensburg Railway, part of the Jutland Line, and the Kiel–Flensburg Railway. There is also a heritage railway, the, which runs between Süderbrarup and Kappeln.
The Bundesautobahn 7 runs along the western edge of Angeln, connecting Schleswig and Flensburg, before merging into the Danish .
The language most spoken in Angeln is German. The peninsula is, however, also part of the language area of Danish and Low German, which is more closely related to English than German is, since it was not affected by the High German consonant shift.
Before the 9th century, Angeln was inhabited by the Angles, who spoke a West Germanic dialect that would later evolve into English. A language shift to North Germanic occurred following the Angles' departure, when the peninsula was occupied by Danes. Danish became the main language of the region between the 9th and 19th centuries. In the 19th century, another language shift happened, and the predominant language changed from the North Germanic Danish to the West Germanic Low German. Low German has since been gradually superseded by a variety of Standard German with Low German traits.
The variety of Danish indigenous to Angeln was Angel Danish, a dialect of South Jutlandic (the southernmost variety of Danish spoken on the Jutland peninsula, formerly spoken as far south as Eckernförde).
Danish continues to be spoken in Angeln by a minority, but the dialects spoken nowadays are Southern Schleswig Danish dialects, which are not dialects of the previously indigenous South Jutlandic, but (Low) German-influenced dialects of Standard Danish. The cities with the largest Danish-speaking minorities are Flensburg, Schleswig and Glücksburg.
Many Angeln place-names are of Danish origin, including names ending in -by ("town"), such as Brodersby, Nieby and Husby, and names ending in -rup ("hamlet"), such as Sörup, Sterup and Tastrup.
See main article: Angles (tribe). The region was home to the Germanic Angles, some of whom, together with Saxons and Jutes, left their homeland to migrate to the island of Great Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries.
Thorsberg moor is a peat bog in the municipality of Süderbrarup. This inconspicuous body of water is an important archaeological site and a Germanic sacrificial bog from the times of the Roman Empire. In the period from the 1st century to the early 5th century, objects were sacrificed in several phases in Thorsberg Moor, presumably by members of the West Germanic tribe of the Angles. Numerous important and rich cultural and historical finds were made in the bog in the 19th century. The current name does not allow the assumption that the sanctuary was already consecrated to the god Thor at the time of the Angles. Rather, the naming is based on early medieval Danish influence, especially in the Viking Age. With the migration of most Angles to Britain came widespread discontinuity in settlement and cultural structure in Angeln. While it is possible that the early medieval Danish settlers did worship Thor, the name is more likely to be traced back to a hill with a Viking Age burial ground and finds, the Thorsberg.
The settlement density in Angeln apparently decreased dramatically in the 5th and 6th centuries; many villages fell into disrepair. A sharp decline in grain pollen suggests a desertion of former fields. Locations with heavy, clayey soils were abandoned first. Since more pollen was found at some locations of the Schleswig Geest (the region neighbouring Angeln), it is assumed that the climate had changed. Increased rainfall could explain this move to the sandy geest areas. Another reason for leaving settlements near the coast is believed to be attacks from the sea. This initially regional migration would also explain another phenomenon: it is now considered likely that between the end of the settlement period of the Angles in Angeln and their arrival in eastern and central England up to 100 years passed. The Angles would have initially moved west, to the Schleswig Geest, before leaving their home completely.
For the years 449–455, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written around 890, describes how Vortigern, a British king, invited the Angles to come and receive land in return for helping him defend his realm against marauding Picts. Those successful Angles sent word back that good land was available and that the British were "worthless". A wholesale emigration of Angles and kindred Germanic peoples followed.
The Chronicle, commissioned by Alfred the Great, drew on earlier oral traditions and on the few written fragments available. The best of these, written around 730, was by the monk Bede, whose history of English Christianity contains the following brief account of the origin and distribution of the Angles:[2]
The phrase "north of the Humber" refers to the northern kingdom of Northumbria, which included most of northern England and part of southern Scotland. Mercia was located in central England and broadly corresponds to the English Midlands.
This account can be related to the evidence of archaeology, notably the distribution of types of fibulae, or brooches, worn by both men and women in antiquity. Eastern and northern Britain were settled by groups wearing cruciform brooches, of the style in fashion at the time in coastal Scandinavia, Denmark, and Schleswig-Holstein south to the lower Elbe and east to the Oder, as well as a pocket in coastal Friesland.
After the Angles departed from Angeln, by the 8th century the region was occupied by Danes. This is reflected in the large number of place names ending in -by (meaning "town") in the region today. In the 10th century, the chronicler Æthelweard reported that the most important town in Angeln was Hedeby.
The unofficial coat of arms of Angeln was designed by Hans Nicolai Andreas Jensen and appeared for the first time in 1847. It consists of nine fields, all but one of which represent the historic Danish hundreds (Danish: herreder, German: Harden) of Angeln:
In the original draft of the coat of arms, the hundred of Husby was symbolically represented by two crossed arrows with a heart in front of them. From 1906 at the latest, the stylized house corresponding to the old hundred seal appeared instead. The original version of the coat of arms can therefore still be found occasionally. The, which only partially lay in Angeln, is not represented in the arms.
Two unofficial flags are in use, one showing the colours of Schleswig-Holstein and the other showing the Nordic cross from the flag of Denmark.