in the middle
Status: October 19, 2021 3:28 p.m.
The rise in sea level is increasingly threatening the Halligen in the North Frisian Wadden Sea. A new terp is therefore being built on Langeneß. It will be taller than the old ones and will get something that has been missing since 2013: a supermarket.
Andreas Borchers jumps out of his white van with the name of a well-known grocery store emblazoned on it. Borchers supplies the Hallig and its 119 residents with everyday goods. There are 18 inhabited terps – as the storm surge-proof, artificial hills are called – on Langeneß, today 14 of them are on his delivery note.
The time window is tight. The ferry back to the mainland takes three hours and 15 minutes: “After seven years it has become everyday life. But it’s still fun to have a chat with people. That’s nice, despite the sometimes stressful stories in between when you have a lot Has goods or a trailer with you. “
Andreas Borchers regularly drives to Hallig in his delivery van.
Image: Lukas Knauer
Borchers lived with his family on Langeness for three years and knows the people here. But he meets many of his customers for the first time – such as René and Nicole Veith. You come from southern Hesse and are vacationing on Langeneß for the first time.
“It is of course very good for us as tourists that we have a delivery service and that you don’t always have to lug everything with you when you go on holiday and that you have a certain selection of fresh things,” they say. A local supermarket would of course be even better because you can go shopping directly if you want.
93,000 cubic meters of sand for new “climate yard”
Hallig Mayor Heike Hinrichsen is sitting in her office on Ketelswarft less than a kilometer away, bending over a large paper plan. There has been no merchant on Langeness since 2013. Since then, the Hallig has lacked a place to be together, says the mayor: “I know the times when we still had a local merchant. When the goods arrived on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the whole of Langeneß was represented.”
# in the middle: New terps for Hallig Langeneß
Lukas Knauer, NDR, daily topics 10:15 p.m., October 19, 2021
The wish for a new Hallig merchant could soon become a reality. Because at the end of September the work on Treuberg Warft was completed. The so-called “Klimawarft” is a pilot project of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. More than 93,000 cubic meters of sand were brought in to fortify the 3,300 square meter area in such a way that it can withstand climate change.
The big gray hill is almost six meters high, and thus about two meters higher than the other terps on Langeness. In addition to a supermarket, permanent apartments, a community center and a small hospital are to be built on Treuberg.
To protect the houses from storm surges, the Halligen hills were piled up – so-called terps.
Image: Lukas Knauer
Dump landfill with explosive costs
Reinforcing the hill has already cost nine million euros. The state of Schleswig-Holstein will take over 95 percent of this. The construction of the building will probably swallow up that much again. And the work is being delayed: the excavators are not expected to start rolling again until spring 2023.
On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the autumn and winter storms have now begun, and on the other hand, the architects would have to adjust their design for the “superstructure” again, says the mayor. “In some cases it was planned to put a roof inside the development, and the community representatives feared that it could be damaged by the wind and would have to be repaired at great expense over and over again.”
Hallig Mayor Hinrichsen would like a place of togetherness on the new terp.
Image: Lukas Knauer
“Brave from the state of Schleswig-Holstein”
Storms, storm surges, extreme weather – the people on Langeness know that. There are 17 more terps on the Hallig. They too have to be paved because of climate change. But because they are inhabited, they cannot simply be increased. Other solutions are needed here.
Virginia Karau runs the “Kookenstuv” café on Ketelswarft: “I think the state of Schleswig-Holstein is very brave to take so much money into their hands and build a completely new terp, considering that climate change is in full swing It’s going, “she says. “Who knows how long we can live here – I find that all the more optimistic.”
It is 3:10 p.m. – the ferry will return to the mainland in five minutes. Hallig supplier Borchers is standing at the jetty with his white delivery van. He’ll be back in three days with the next grocery delivery. How long will it go on like this? Borchers remains relaxed: “You don’t even know how long the work on Treuberg will take. Two years, three years? Wait and have some tea. We’ll see what happens.”