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Sylt: How a photo with Hindenburg changed the life of Karin Lauritzen, 97

2022-07-07T13:12:00.925Z


A railway line has connected Sylt with the mainland since 1927. At the opening, a small child presented Reich President Hindenburg with a bouquet of flowers. Today Karin Lauritzen is 97, this moment changed her life.


It actually seemed like a crazy idea at the end of the 19th century: to build a railway embankment eleven kilometers long through the middle of the Wadden Sea.

There has never been an attempt like this before.

Nobody knew how to build something that could withstand the force of the tides and storm surges in the long term.

It took decades from the initial planning to implementation, but in the end the building succeeded against all odds.

Trains have been running from the mainland to Sylt for 95 years, crossing the Hindenburgdamm, named after Paul von Hindenburg.

The Reich President at the time opened the railway connection on June 1, 1927.

A touching photo bears witness to this big day: a little girl in her mother's arms hands Hindenburg a bouquet of flowers at the window of the first train.

The then two-year-old child was called Karin – today Karin Lauritzen is 97 years old, and the life of the flower girl at Morsum station has a lot in common with the history of Hindenburgdamm and the North Frisian island.

The direct connection to the mainland has promoted tourism for almost a hundred years.

Sylt has long been one of the favorite holiday islands of Germans.

Most recently, the nine-euro ticket brought a surge in new guests, entire wedding parties travel over the dam and punks as well, after all, Die Ärzte had already wished for West-ter-laaaaaaand back.

But at the beginning of the 20th century, many residents of Sylt were still struggling with the purpose of a railway embankment.

Even then, more and more holidaymakers came to the seaside resort of Westerland on the west side.

They enjoyed the North Sea air, strolled along the beach and stayed in chic hotels and guesthouses.

The arrival and departure, however, was not very relaxing, the crossing by ship difficult, long, depending on the tide.

And sometimes impossible in the winter months when ice floes blocked the way.

Pastor Johler liked everything that was new

After the border was shifted as part of the Treaty of Versailles, the town of Tondern belonged to Denmark from 1920.

From there the ferries drove to Sylt, tourists and Sylt farmers who exported goods now needed a visa.

It was the highest rail for a dam.

A few years earlier, a newspaper article about the daring project in the Wadden Sea lured Pastor Hans Johler, the father of the future flower girl, to the island.

Curiosity drove him throughout his life, says his grandson Ekkehard Lauritzen, who documents the family history and that of the dam construction just as meticulously as his grandfather once did.

Whether one of the first radios or a motorcycle, Hans Johler tried everything that was new.

This set the pastor apart from most locals - and later even pushed him and his family off the island.

But Johler had no idea of ​​this when he took over the pastorate of the small community of Morsum in the east of the island.

The First World War paused the preparations for the building.

Johler married, the eldest son was born.

And the Morsumers avoided contact, they were suspicious - because the pastor's family came from the mainland and also because of Johler's fascination with the building project.

Some locals hoped for big deals.

But many worried: about the people who would come to their island with such a railway line.

And about the children of the farmers, until then important workers on the farms;

they could move to the mainland because of the railway embankment and continue to go to school there.

One thing was clear: if this railway embankment were to succeed, it would change Sylt irrevocably.

The skeptical islanders trusted in their rough North Sea.

That would still prevent the dam.

And they were almost right about that.

The tides seemed invincible

Starting in 1923, more than 1000 workers built the dam from the North Frisian Klanxbüll to Morsum.

Standing ankle-deep in the mudflats, they braved wind and water and tried to make progress, bit by bit, with wooden poles, sand, rocks and bran.

It seemed like a hopeless fight against nature.

The tides seemed invincible, with every high tide the returning masses of water gnawed away at the just completed section of the dam.

Soon a single storm surge swept away four months' work.

The engineers and workers had to start all over again, with sheet piling, wash basins and protective structures.

Enlarge image

De Tog kummt: To this day, the dam is exclusively for trains

Photo: Carsten Rehder / dpa

Hans Johler was a regular guest on Europe's largest construction site, an enthusiastic observer.

And he realized that the workers need assistance.

He also became a dam construction pastor.

Johler visited the barracks where workers lived under difficult conditions, held readings there and founded a choir.

He was the chaplain after their long shifts on the mud flats and buried dam builders who lost their lives.

For many Morsumers, his commitment was almost a betrayal.

As a pastor, Johler was supposed to represent the interests of the locals.

But he wanted to reconcile both sides.

He shouldn't be able to do it anymore.

Mossrose for the feast day

When their daughter Karin was born in early 1925, Hans and Elwine Johler chose engineers of the dam to be their godparents.

Coincidentally, the baptism also took place on a historic day: April 26, 1925, when Paul von Hindenburg was elected President of the Reich.

Two years later, Hans Johler had an idea: The dam was about to open, the President of the Reich had announced his presence.

Why not ask Hindenburg if he wanted to be godfather to daughter Karin, albeit belatedly?

After all, Johler was the dam construction pastor, and on June 1st the maiden voyage would be via the embankment and Morsum to Westerland.

A stop in Morsum would be possible, godchild Karin could give flowers.

And maybe Johler could show the Morsumers that he wasn't that wrong with his dam euphoria.

Pastor Johler sat down at the typewriter, wrote a letter directly to Berlin and avoided the official route through the district administrator.

Surprisingly, the answer was in the mailbox seven days later: The Reich President could take over the sponsorship, even if this would not result in any obligations on his part.

He was ready to stop in Morsum and hand over flowers.

And so it happened on June 1, a cloudy Wednesday: Elwine Johler lifted two-year-old Karin in a white, crocheted dress to the window of the saloon car, from which Hindenburg was looking out.

At home, mother and daughter had practiced handing over the flowers: the girl shouldn't let the bouquet fall beforehand and should open her little hands at the right moment.

Nothing should go wrong if the Reich President made an unscheduled stop in Morsum.

Are such small hands

When handing it over, Karin simply opened both hands wide and stayed like that for a few seconds.

The photo of it made it across the Atlantic into an American newspaper, where Morsum emigrants discovered it later, recognized Karin's mother and sent the copy to the vicarage.

"A small bouquet of moss roses to suit my little child's hand," says Karin Lauritzen, née Johler, today and laughs.

She is now 97 years old and cannot remember the event herself, she was too small for that.

But from what her parents said and from the famous photo that hung over her child's bed for a long time, Karin Lauritzen knows how to tell about it.

The Reich President ignored the protocol, waved to the dam construction pastor and said: "God protect you for your difficult office" - which the district administrator did not like at all: the pastor should stay in the background.

And upon arrival in Westerland, the dam was named after Hindenburg.

Today, adherence to it is controversial.

There have long been discussions about the name: Hindenburg, monarchist and propagator of the "stab in the back" legend after the First World War, became President of the Weimar Republic, but is also considered one of its gravediggers and the stirrup holder for Adolf Hitler, for whom he paved the way to power .

When Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor on January 30, 1933, democracy was gone.

»Dad would have been really happy«

The Morsumer and the pastor's family remained a difficult relationship.

At the end of 1927, the Johlers left the island, some islanders had made sure of that.

It was a difficult farewell for Karin.

But not forever.

After the Second World War she came back to Sylt, married a Morsumer and lived there for decades.

Today Karin Lauritzen lives in Hamburg and returned to the island 95 years after the famous photo for a moving documentary (Thursday at 8:15 p.m. on NDR).

In it she tells the story of her family, which is so closely linked to that of the dam.

Even if her voice has weakened and an actress speaks her sentences, Karin Lauritzen's words are clear and strong.

Last Saturday, 200 people gathered in a cinema in Westerland for the film premiere on Sylt.

When they found out that the flower girl from back then had also come, everyone in the audience stood up and applauded.

An overwhelming moment for Karin Lauritzen.

It was wonderful to see the pictures of her parents on the big screen: "Dad would have been really happy that after all this time a film is still being made about him," she says - a late memorial.

Karin Lauritzen's last journey should eventually go over the dam and end in Morsum.

The construction project once thought impossible, it will likely far outlive her and her family.

What does the flower girl wish for from the Sylt railway embankment?

"That it always stays nice and dry," says Karin Lauritzen with a laugh.

"And not sink."

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-07-07

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