The Gillingsee (county Buetow)

Count Christian von Krockow
 on the Buetow and Lauenburg land.

(With the permission of the author of "The Journey to Pomerania", Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart, 1987)

Translated by Leslie Riggle +, Kansas/USA

 

Diese Seite in Deutsch: Was für ein Land!
Po polsku: Coz to za kraina !

© Heinz Radde
1998-2019
Impressum

 

What a Land!

". . . then to Rummelsburg and Buetow. What a land he now saw: no longer flat, rather always uneven, sometimes almost hilly. And the further to the east, the more so. The Baltic Highlands, nearly all the eastern Pomeranian rivers make their way from here to the north or to the south. And there are hundreds of lakes, large and small, with uneven shorelines between heather and wetlands, between field and forest. Some people call it the Pomeranian Switzerland.

But that is empty talk. Why pretend and hide behind others, as though this was only second rate, worth only a brief glance? This land is not narrow and really not steep, not grandiose or overpowering - and certainly not quaint. It does not boast and does not pretend. Perhaps one should say it is reserved. Quiet and introspective, it is thoughtful and firm. Further north toward Lauenburg is "The Little Blue Land". This name fits better here than a 'Pomeranian Switzerland'.

Overhead buzzards circle, one sees the hawk, the falcon, the red kite. There are flocks of wild ducks. He who sees the red dawn in the morning as often as the twilight in the evening, sees the wild boar and the red deer. Besides there are swarms of red forest ants. Sometimes their fortresses tower as high as a man. Some say that if a man sits beside one naked it will ease his rheumatism. But that should first be attempted with one little finger.

But there are no swarms of people. There are about forty of them to the square kilometer, in County Rummelsburg only thirty-three including the county seat. One can wander for hours - or perhaps even better ride horseback - without meeting anyone, except perhaps a shepherd with his flock or a forester. Yes, what a land!"