Vinkt massacre
The Vinkt massacre was a war crime which occurred in the Belgian villages of Vinkt and Meighem, near Ghent, between 26–28 May 1940 during the Battle of the Lys. During the massacre, between 86 and 140 civilians were deliberately killed by German Wehrmacht troops from the 337th Infantry Regiment as retaliation for the Belgian army's resistance in the village; as the German Army continued to advance west, pushing back both the British Expeditionary Force and the Belgian army, the village of Vinkt became an important target, as it lay both on the road south from Gent to Lille, astride the Schipdonk Canal that blocked the German advance to the west. However, on May 25, both sides knew the outcome of the Battle for France: the French army had collapsed and the Belgian army had been reduced to prolonging the war for the sole purpose of protecting the British retreat; the bridge over the Schipdonk Canal was being guarded by the 1st Belgian Division of Chasseurs Ardennais. Coincidentally, this division turned out to be one of the most motivated in the Belgian army.
The Belgian command decided not to destroy but to guard the bridge, so as to help as many British stragglers as possible on their way west, as many Belgian refugees as possible on their way south: more than one million Belgians had become refugees. News of what happened at Vinkt would cause an additional one million to flee south or west. By the middle of June, according to Red Cross figures, 30% of the Belgian population had left the country. Arriving near the bridge on May 25, the German 225th Division, consisting of badly trained soldiers from Itzehoe in the North of the Hamburg area, found it impossible to cross, they took 140 civilians hostage and used them as human shields. As the Chasseurs ardennais managed to continue to harass the German positions with great precision, crossing remained impossible, a grenade exploded among the hostages, killing 27. On this Sunday, the Germans took hostages both at the Meigem and Vinkt church, at various farms in the neighbourhood; some hostages were killed on the spot, but the most horrible event happened at Meigem church, where an explosion killed 27 hostages.
Adolf Hitler, on German radio, demanded Belgium's unconditional surrender. Belgian King Leopold III announced to his government that he would use his authority as Commander-in-Chief to lay down arms. Meanwhile, the Chasseurs ardennais, unaware of these developments, were still holding and defending the bridge against vastly superior odds. For unclear reasons, the 225th Division now started to execute their hostages, taking new ones, executing them on the spot. Refugees were taken out at random from the endless columns on the trek south and executed immediately. One priest managed being buried under two dead colleagues, he was one of four such victims. Leopold III and the Belgian army capitulated in the early morning; this did not stop the carnage in Vinkt. Nine hostages were shot after the capitulation; the last five victims had to dig their own graves beforehand. Most sources claim 86 being the total number of executed victims; the divergence stems from the fact that other historians include the victims in front of the bridge and those 27 killed by the explosion at the church in Meigem.
Whereas the exploded grenade on May 25 was certainly German, the explosion at the church has been attributed to Belgian artillery. However, there remains a controversy over the church explosion, as some victims claimed they saw German officers throw hand grenades into the church, all women hostages were taken out of the church just before the explosion - ensuring that all 140 victims of the incident were male. A different picture was painted by the priest who managed to escape on May 27: he claimed to have seen dead women and children babies. Since no corpses of women or children were found, this would imply, if true, that the scene was cleaned up, the real death toll of the executions is much higher than the 86 or 140 claimed. However, most Belgian historians believe that any additional refugee victims the priest saw, were killed in crossfire, not intentionally; the Vinkt massacre shares some strange similarities with the massacre at Nemmersdorf in East Prussia, where there are similar accusations of embellishment and manipulation after the fact and an attempt was made to include refugees killed in crossfire before a bridge among those executed.
As news of the carnage spread, German press sources denied it or excused it, claiming that Belgian civilians had dressed up as soldiers. Although British newspapers knew the exact story, they refused to press the point - because this had happened in Belgium, they were afraid of being accused that they were repeating the war propaganda claims they had made in 1914 with the exaggeration of "The Rape of Belgium". On the Western Front, the Vinkt massacre was not only the first major infraction of the Geneva Convention by the German army, but unique in that it was committed by an ordinary Wehrmacht unit, not by a special SS unit, not by the Waffen SS, it may be the only notable war crime of the Wehrmacht committed on the Western Front before 1944. Although ignored outside Belgium, it did not go unpunished; the German officers were tried after the war. List of massacres in Belgium Le Paradis massacre - massacre of captured British soldiers
Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air is an open-air heavy metal music festival. It takes place annually in summer in the village of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany, 80 kilometres northwest of Hamburg. W:O:A is held at the beginning of August and lasts four days; the festival was first held in 1990 as a small event with about 800 visitors and six local German bands. It is considered the biggest heavy-metal festival in the world. In 2011, the festival attracted 80,000 festival visitors and 6,000 personnel for a total of 86,000 attendees; the festival traditionally ends on the first Sunday in August, at midnight the following Monday tickets go on sale for the next year. Remarkably, all 75,000 tickets were sold out within 48 hours for 2014, 12 hours for 2015, 23 hours for 2016, despite the fact that the lineup had not been announced. Including 2019, the festival was sold out fifteen times in a row; the non-optional basic ticket price for all four days, including camping for a week, was €220 in 2018 and for 2019 as well.
In 2018, 197 bands were playing on nine stages. The international significance of the festival is shown by the attendees in recent years consisting of 30% foreigners, with up to 10% non-Europeans, from about 30–40 different countries all around the world. Many metal fans travel from half a world away to stand in cow meadows before stages set in the middle of nowhere. In 2017, an official count confirmed visitors from over 80 different nations at the festival. A lot of metalheads and hard rock bands worldwide are keen to make the journey to "The Mecca of Heavy Metal Culture", "The Holy Land", "The Cathedral of Heavy Metal", or "The Summit of Heavy Metal" at least once in their lifetime, just for the experience; the W:O:A audience and artists informally address each other as "Wacken", its own legend and another reason why the festival sells out without billing. Wacken is not about the bands, isn't it?! It is about the people; that what is about. German crowds in general tend to interact well and are outgoing during shows, which creates musical comradeship among those who enjoy this kind of crossing of emotional boundaries—crowdsurfing and moshing—with a little bit of beer intoxication by ten o'clock.
To quote some band members from 25 Years Louder Than Hell - The W:O:A documentary: It is one of the best crowds in the world, actually! People have just fun, they celebrate every note. Sometimes I think it doesn't matter, on stage, they just into that's unique worldwide. Some bands become demanding of the crowd. In 2015, there was a memorable moment during a show by Rock Meets Classic, when a too-sedate Wacken audience, who had come to listen to a classical orchestra, was berated by "chief animator" Dee Snider, of Twisted Sister, that they weren't singing loud enough and doing their part to live up to the fame of Wacken crowds. After some dry exercises with "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock", Snider adjusted the sound to 120 decibels and finished with "Highway to Hell", so that the show got noticed in Kiel 70 kilometres away. A photo session by Pep Bonet, in his collection book we the republic of wacken, dealt with Wacken crowds in 180 pages and on 2 CDs. Shortly before and after the festival, German nationwide newspapers and magazines, such as Der Spiegel or Süddeutsche Zeitung, compete for the funniest pictures of the annual W:O:A event, so that the entire country has something to laugh about.
Therefore, Wacken is compared with Burning Man festival in Nevada or Fusion Festival in Lärz, but just for Hard'n Heavy fans. Although there is no dress code, in line with the metal subculture the crowd dresses in particular styles. Black is colour of first choice a T-shirt featuring a favorite band or a W:O:A T-shirt of the current or a previous year the wearer attended. Kutte with patches of favourite bands, kilts, studs and chains are popular. A special Wacken fashion is day-after the apocalypse, or medieval looks. Most of Wacken crowd are regular visitors. Many of them keep score by getting W:O:A tattoos, with stars for every year attended, or by a collection of entrance badges. A few couples were married at W:O:A, on stage in front of hundreds of metalheads who cried "their f—king eyes out" during the ceremonies. Others became engaged. For some visitors the festival is the highlight of the year, not just concerning music, but for their entire life, the place they desire to be all the time.
That's. I think, something special to Wacken, a all-day thing and people are here all-day. Hangover!? What ever. It's time to get up. It's time to rock. It's fucking raining?! We don't care. We are covered with mud?! We don't care; that is their time in a year. This their time to go. Just let it all loose. Forget all the problems and raid, it sounds properly wicked for some people, it is like a huge family party. They are all sorts of awful things going on in the world. Newspapers, you see it on the TV. All this bullshit, people going around killing people, murdering people in the name of religion or what the fucking is. I don't give a shit; because the one thing all of us stand for. This is not one nation; this is not one race. This is not one religion; these are all religions. Every race; every color. Every person; every gender, it use to be two or a few more. –
Charlemagne
Charlemagne or Charles the Great, numbered Charles I, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, Holy Roman Emperor from 800. He united much of central Europe during the Early Middle Ages, he was the first recognised emperor to rule from western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state that Charlemagne founded is called the Carolingian Empire, he was canonized by Antipope Paschal III. Charlemagne was the eldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, born before their canonical marriage, he became king in 768 following his father's death as co-ruler with his brother Carloman I. Carloman's sudden death in December 771 under unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the sole ruler of the Frankish Kingdom, he continued his father's policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He campaigned against the Saxons to his east, Christianizing them upon penalty of death and leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden.
He reached the height of his power in 800 when he was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at Rome's Old St. Peter's Basilica. Charlemagne has been called the "Father of Europe", as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the classical era of the Roman Empire and united parts of Europe that had never been under Frankish or Roman rule, his rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural and intellectual activity within the Western Church. All Holy Roman Emperors considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagne's empire, as did the French and German monarchies. However, the Eastern Orthodox Church views Charlemagne more controversially, labelling as heterodox his support of the filioque and the Pope's recognition of him as legitimate Roman Emperor rather than Irene of Athens of the Byzantine Empire; these and other machinations led to the eventual split of Rome and Constantinople in the Great Schism of 1054. Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as emperor for 14 years and as king for 46 years.
He was laid to rest in his imperial capital city of Aachen. He married at least four times and had three legitimate sons, but only his son Louis the Pious survived to succeed him. By the 6th century, the western Germanic tribe of the Franks had been Christianised, due in considerable measure to the Catholic conversion of Clovis I. Francia, ruled by the Merovingians, was the most powerful of the kingdoms that succeeded the Western Roman Empire. Following the Battle of Tertry, the Merovingians declined into powerlessness, for which they have been dubbed the rois fainéants. All government powers were exercised by their chief officer, the mayor of the palace. In 687, Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry, he became the sole governor of the entire Frankish kingdom. Pepin was the grandson of two important figures of the Austrasian Kingdom: Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen. Pepin of Herstal was succeeded by his son Charles known as Charles Martel.
After 737, Charles declined to call himself king. Charles was succeeded in 741 by his sons Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. In 743, the brothers placed Childeric III on the throne to curb separatism in the periphery, he was the last Merovingian king. Carloman resigned office in 746. Pepin brought the question of the kingship before Pope Zachary, asking whether it was logical for a king to have no royal power; the pope handed down his decision in 749, decreeing that it was better for Pepin to be called king, as he had the powers of high office as Mayor, so as not to confuse the hierarchy. He, ordered him to become the true king. In 750, Pepin was elected by an assembly of the Franks, anointed by the archbishop, raised to the office of king; the Pope ordered him into a monastery. The Merovingian dynasty was thereby replaced by the Carolingian dynasty, named after Charles Martel. In 753, Pope Stephen II fled from Italy to Francia, appealing to Pepin for assistance for the rights of St. Peter.
He was supported in this appeal by Charles' brother. In return, the pope could provide only legitimacy, he did this by again anointing and confirming Pepin, this time adding his young sons Carolus and Carloman to the royal patrimony. They thereby became heirs to the realm that covered most of western Europe. In 754, Pepin accepted the Pope's invitation to visit Italy on behalf of St. Peter's rights, dealing with the Lombards. Under the Carolingians, the Frankish kingdom spread to encompass an area including most of Western Europe. Orman portrays the Treaty of Verdun between the warring grandsons of Charlemagne as the foundation event of an independent France under its first king Charles the Bald; the middle kingdom had broken up by 890 and absorbed into the Western kingdom and the Eastern kingdom and the rest developing into smaller "buffer" nations that exist between Fr
Hamburg
Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany with a population of over 1.8 million. One of Germany's 16 federal states, it is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south; the city's metropolitan region is home to more than five million people. Hamburg lies on two of its tributaries, the River Alster and the River Bille; the official name reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a sovereign city state, before 1919 formed a civic republic headed constitutionally by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Beset by disasters such as the Great Fire of Hamburg, north Sea flood of 1962 and military conflicts including World War II bombing raids, the city has managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. Hamburg is Europe's third-largest port. Major regional broadcasting firm NDR, the printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr and the newspapers Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are based in the city.
Hamburg is the seat of Germany's oldest stock exchange and the world's oldest merchant bank, Berenberg Bank. Media, commercial and industrial firms with significant locations in the city include multinationals Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis and Unilever; the city hosts specialists in world economics and international law, including consular and diplomatic missions as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the EU-LAC Foundation, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, multipartite international political conferences and summits such as Europe and China and the G20. Both the former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Angela Merkel, German chancellor since 2005, come from Hamburg; the city is a major domestic tourist destination. It ranked 18th in the world for livability in 2016; the Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg is a major European science and education hub, with several universities and institutions. Among its most notable cultural venues are the Laeiszhalle concert halls.
It paved the way for bands including The Beatles. Hamburg is known for several theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Pauli's Reeperbahn is among the best-known European entertainment districts. Hamburg is at a sheltered natural harbour on the southern fanning-out of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the northeast, it is on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Bille. The city centre is around the Binnenalster and Außenalster, both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes; the islands of Neuwerk, Scharhörn, Nigehörn, 100 kilometres away in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are part of the city of Hamburg. The neighborhoods of Neuenfelde, Cranz and Finkenwerder are part of the Altes Land region, the largest contiguous fruit-producing region in Central Europe. Neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburg's highest elevation, the Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres AMSL. Hamburg borders the states of Lower Saxony.
Hamburg has an oceanic climate, influenced by its proximity to the coast and marine air masses that originate over the Atlantic Ocean. The location north of Germany provides extremes greater than marine climates, but in the category due to the mastery of the western standards. Nearby wetlands enjoy a maritime temperate climate; the amount of snowfall has differed a lot during the past decades: while in the late 1970s and early 1980s, at times heavy snowfall occurred, the winters of recent years have been less cold, with snowfall only on a few days per year. The warmest months are June and August, with high temperatures of 20.1 to 22.5 °C. The coldest are December and February, with low temperatures of −0.3 to 1.0 °C. Claudius Ptolemy reported the first name for the vicinity as Treva; the name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle which the Emperor Charlemagne ordered constructed in AD 808. It rose on rocky terrain in a marsh between the River Alster and the River Elbe as a defence against Slavic incursion, acquired the name Hammaburg, burg meaning castle or fort.
The origin of the Hamma term remains uncertain. In 834, Hamburg was designated as the seat of a bishopric; the first bishop, became known as the Apostle of the North. Two years Hamburg was united with Bremen as the Bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. Hamburg occupied several times. In 845, 600 Viking ships sailed up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants. In 1030, King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland burned down the city. Valdemar II of Denmark raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214; the Black Death killed at least 60% of the population in 1350. Hamburg experienced several great fires in the medieval period. In 1189, by imperial charter, Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the status of a Free Imperial City and tax-free access up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea. In 1265, an forged letter was presented to or by the Rath of Hamburg; this charter, along with Hamburg's proximity to the main trade routes of the North Sea and Baltic Sea made it a
Itzehoe station
Itzehoe station is a railway station in the town of Itzehoe in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is located on the Marsh Railway, electrified from Elmshorn up to this point, it is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 station. The first Itzehoe station was located on the southern side of the Stör on land used by a cement factory. During the extension of the Marsh Railway to Heide in 1878, the second station was built in the town, including the current station building. At that time, Brückenstrasse crossed the line over a wooden bridge at the northern end of the station. During the extension of the line through the town to Wilster four level crossings were built, which were abolished in 1931 with the realignment along the current route. With the opening of the new line to Wrist in 1889, these crossings had become more inconvenient. A workshop was built at the northern exit from the station during the building of the branch line; the contact wire for the electrification of the line reached Itzehoe on 29 May 1998.
But the use of electric rollingstock was only introduced after the intervention of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, which had funded the electrification. Regionalbahn services of Schleswig-Holstein from Hamburg-Altona and Pinneberg via Elmshorn begin and end In Itzehoe; the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn service from Hamburg-Altona to Westerland via Husum makes a stop in Itzehoe, as does the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn service to Heide. Deutsche Bahn Intercity trains stop in Itzehoe and connect the city directly to Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Göttingen and Dresden or in the opposite direction to Westerland. Itzehoe station has four platform tracks; the track next to the station building is used by Regionalbahn services. NOB and IC trains to Westerland stop on track 3. NOB services to Hamburg-Altona and IC trains to Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Göttingen and Dresden stop on track 4. Track 5 is the starting point for NOB services to Heide. In addition to these tracks, there are sidings for freight trains. Due to the electrification, most intercity trains coming from the south from Itzehoe are electrically-hauled.
At the station, the electric locomotive is swapped for a diesel locomotive for the remaining leg to Westerland. In the opposite direction, the procedure is reversed; the Itzehoe-Wrist railway operated until 27 September 1975. Peter Fischer. Steinburger Jahrbuch. Pp. 123–144. Heinz Longerich. Steinburger Jahrbuch. Pp. 145–150. "Bahnhof Itzehoe". Retrieved 8 June 2014. "Informationen zum Bahnhof Itzehoe". Retrieved 8 June 2014. "Der Bahnhof Itzehoe, Ein Halt der Nord-Ostsee-Bahn". Retrieved 8 June 2014
School
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools; the names for these schools vary by country but include primary school for young children and secondary school for teenagers who have completed primary education. An institution where higher education is taught, is called a university college or university, but these higher education institutions are not compulsory. In addition to these core schools, students in a given country may attend schools before and after primary and secondary education. Kindergarten or pre-school provide some schooling to young children. University, vocational school, college or seminary may be available after secondary school. A school may be dedicated to one particular field, such as a school of economics or a school of dance. Alternative schools may provide nontraditional curriculum and methods.
There are non-government schools, called private schools. Private schools may be required. Other private schools can be religious, such as Christian schools, hawzas and others. Schools for adults include institutions of corporate training, military education and training and business schools. In home schooling and online schools and learning take place outside a traditional school building. Schools are organized in several different organizational models, including departmental, small learning communities, academies and schools-within-a-school; the word school derives from Greek σχολή meaning "leisure" and "that in which leisure is employed", but "a group to whom lectures were given, school". The concept of grouping students together in a centralized location for learning has existed since Classical antiquity. Formal schools have existed at least since ancient Greece, ancient Rome ancient India, ancient China; the Byzantine Empire had an established schooling system beginning at the primary level.
According to Traditions and Encounters, the founding of the primary education system began in 425 AD and "... military personnel had at least a primary education...". The sometimes efficient and large government of the Empire meant that educated citizens were a must. Although Byzantium lost much of the grandeur of Roman culture and extravagance in the process of surviving, the Empire emphasized efficiency in its war manuals; the Byzantine education system continued until the empire's collapse in 1453 AD. In Western Europe a considerable number of cathedral schools were founded during the Early Middle Ages in order to teach future clergy and administrators, with the oldest still existing, continuously operated, cathedral schools being The King's School, King's School, Rochester, St Peter's School and Thetford Grammar School. Beginning in the 5th century CE monastic schools were established throughout Western Europe, teaching both religious and secular subjects. Islam was another culture. Emphasis was put on knowledge, which required a systematic way of teaching and spreading knowledge, purpose-built structures.
At first, mosques combined both religious performance and learning activities, but by the 9th century, the madrassa was introduced, a school, built independently from the mosque, such as al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 CE. They were the first to make the Madrassa system a public domain under the control of the Caliph. Under the Ottomans, the towns of Bursa and Edirne became the main centers of learning; the Ottoman system of Külliye, a building complex containing a mosque, a hospital and public kitchen and dining areas, revolutionized the education system, making learning accessible to a wider public through its free meals, health care and sometimes free accommodation. In Europe, universities emerged during the 12th century. During the Middle Ages and much of the Early Modern period, the main purpose of schools was to teach the Latin language; this led to the term grammar school, which in the United States informally refers to a primary school, but in the United Kingdom means a school that selects entrants based on ability or aptitude.
Following this, the school curriculum has broadened to include literacy in the vernacular language as well as technical, artistic and practical subjects. Obligatory school attendance became common in parts of Europe during the 18th century. In Denmark-Norway, this was introduced as early as in 1739-1741, the primary end being to increase the literacy of the almue, i.e. the "regular people". Many of the earlier public schools in the United States and elsewhere were one-room schools where a single teacher taught seven grades of boys and girls in the same classroom. Beginning in the 1920s, one-room schools were consolidated into multiple classroom facilities with transportation provided by kid hacks and school buses; the use of the term school varies by country, as do the names of the various levels of education within the country
Marsh Railway
The Marsh Railway is a main line in the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany that links the stations of Elmshorn in the south and Westerland on the island of Sylt in the north. It is part of a 237 kilometre long through route from Hamburg-Altona to Westerland and is listed in the Deutsche Bahn timetables as Kursbuchstrecke 130; the first part of it is one of the oldest lines in Germany. The Marsh Railway, as its name suggests runs through marshlands. There are some sections of the line that run through the higher-lying geest; the line crosses the Kiel Canal on the 42 metre-high Hochdonn High Bridge. The bridge’s total length is 2,218 meters and its main span over the channel is 143 metres-long. There is a bascule bridge north of Husum station. Between Klanxbüll and Morsum stations the line runs across the Hindenburgdamm through the North Frisian mudflats; the first section of the current Marsh Railway was built by the Glückstadt-Elmshorn Railway Company shortly after the opening of the Altona–Kiel line on 18 September 1844.
The company opened a line from Elmshorn to Glückstadt port station on 20 July 1845. Twelve years on 15 October 1857, the line was realigned in Glückstadt and extended to the edge of the Stör river in Itzehoe. In 1878, a swing bridge was built across the Stör—which was replaced in 1910 during the duplication of the line by two bascule bridges—and the line was extended to the Heide station of the Neumünster–Heide–Karolinenkoog line, which opened on 22 August 1877. On 1 January 1879 the Glückstadt-Elmshorn Railway Company became the Holstein Marsh Railway Company. In 1888, this company was acquired by the Schleswig-Holstein Marsh Railway Company. On 1 July 1890, the company was acquired by the Prussian government and it became part of the Prussian State Railways. In 1886 construction began on an extension and on 1 September 1886 the line was opened via Lunden and a bridge over the Eider near Friedrichstadt to Husum, where it connected with the Flensburg–Husum–Tönning line; the line was extended further north to Bredstedt on 17 October 1887 and to Niebüll on 15 November 1887.
The line was subsequently extended further north to Tønder, connecting to branch lines to Tinglev and Højer Sluse, the port for a ferry connection to Sylt. The line was extended to Bredebro, Scherrebek and Bramming, where it connected with the Danish rail network. In 1920 northern Schleswig became part of Denmark, the border was established between Niebüll and Tonder; this meant that traffic to Sylt had to cross the German-Danish border twice, although the Danish authorities allowed sealed transit trains to operate, avoiding customs inspections of passengers. The operation of transit trains and the Hoyer–Sylt ferry ended with the inauguration of the Hindenburg causeway in 1927; the Marsh Railway ran from Wilster directly to St. Michaelisdonn. During the construction of the Kiel Canal, a swing bridge was built on the line at Taterpfahl near St. Margarethen. During the widening of the canal in 1920, a new high bridge was bridge was built on the geest at Hochdonn on a 5.8 km long bypass route. It was initially planned for the line to be built directly from Itzehoe to Meldorf, but because of protests from Wilster and Sankt Michaelisdonn, the line was rerouted on a devious route to include these towns.
The old track was rebuilt to run from Wilster to Brunsbüttelkoog and on the north side to Brunsbüttel Nord. Significant changes took place on 1 June 1927 with the opening of Hindenburg causeway, prepared in 1922 by prolonging the line from Niebüll to Klanxbüll to enable material transports. Deutsche Reichsbahn opened a new station at Westerland together with the connecting part of the line; the Sylt Island Railway lost its traffic between Munkmarsch and Westerland, because the ferry service between Hoyer and Sylt had been closed. The Island Railway built a station next to the Reichsbahn station, with a simple reception building. After World War II many express trains ran to Westerland in the summer season. Most trains ran beyond Hamburg towards Cologne and the Ruhr, some went to southern Germany. Daily service operated as interzonal trains from Berlin, which were augmented in the summer at weekends by a second pair of trains; until the 1970s, these services were hauled by class 01.10 locomotives.
These were replaced by class 218 diesels. A significant improvement of services on the Marsh line occurred with the timetable of summer 1978. Regular interval Intercity trains were introduced between Cologne and Hamburg, with some first and second class carriages running beyond Hamburg to Westerland. A year IC connections from Westerland to Frankfurt am Main and Munich were added; the 1991 there was a complete transformation of the passenger transport services on the Marsh line and in Schleswig–Holstein. New two-hourly express trains were introduced that ran between Hamburg and Heide making fewer stops than IC trains; these trains were aimed at offering travel times of less than two and a half hours from Hamburg to North Sea resorts, such as Büsum via Heide, Dagebüll via Niebüll and Sankt Peter-Ording via Husum. Hourly local trains were introduced. Trains were added during peak hours from Pinneberg to Itzehoe. Bock, Hans. Die Marschbahn von Altona nach Westerland. Heide: Boyens. ISBN 3-8042-0458-9.
Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein/Altonaer Museum. Schienen zum Fortschritt. 150 Jahre Eisenbahn in Schleswig-Holstei
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Itzehoe". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 87.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
